Configuring Outlook 2007

I have a client's PC here. Here's some background: her laptop has died, the motherboard is toast and repairing an 8 year old laptop is not really cost effective. So I built her a new mini-desktop, and all attempts to get an exact clone of the laptop drive to work in the new mini-desktop PC were unsuccessful (yes, I tried a repair OS install of XP Home, it didn't work). So I performed a clean install of WinXP Home SP3. I installed all her software (QuickBooks, Office 2007, etc). I have migrated all the data from the laptop drive to the new PC. However, I'm having a nightmare of a time getting Outlook to connect to the POP3 and SMTP servers. My client has her own business, and naturally, her own web site for the business. Let's say the web site is "www.mywebsite.com". Her email address is "myemail@mywebsite.com". When setting up the POP/SMTP info for Outlook, would I use pop.mywebsite.com and smtp.mywebsite.com, or would I use the name of the web site hosting company, for example pop.websitehost.com. My client is very noobish, and hadn't messed with setting up Outlook since she first did it 8 years ago on her laptop, so she is not too helpful in this area. I've been to the hosting company's web site, and there was little-to-no helpful info available there.

THANKS!

 

Thanks for the quick response!

Yes. The drive is healthy, all the data is intact, and the HD in the new build is a completely different brand new 1tb SATA drive. The laptop drive is a 60gb IDE, and I have already connected it via USB to the new build and have copied over all the Word and Excel docs, I'm working on the QuickBooks transfer also. The only problem I'm having is with the Outlook setup.

So, you're saying that simply copying the PST file from the old drive to the appropriate location on the new drive will restore ALL the account settings? This includes the POP/SMTP, password, etc? I have tried using the "Import Internet Mail Account Settings" and it immediately errors out to "No internet accounts were found to import" and it never offers a chance to point to a location. I suppose I could manually copy everything from %user%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook on the old drive to the same location on the new drive, but will that have the effect as importing? Will manually copying the data set up the POP/SMTP?

 

:banghead I wish there was an emoticon with a gun to his head..... I just found out the reason I'm having such a problem here is that my client does NOT use Outlook. She uses Outlook Express. I've struggled the better part of 3 hours trying to get Outlook working, and it won't work 'cuz she doesn't even use it. I'm going to shoot myself.

 

Did you get her outlook express to setup? i used to have my whole team on express and moved them to outlook with very little change to the setup.

We have a similar setup with my email being something like handy@website.com. POP/SMTP connection, the host gave us the server names to use, they are mail.hostsconfig.com for both directions.

Our new store is with the same host, started after the host changed their name at mail1.newhostname.com for incoming and outgoing.

 

Well, setting up email accounts in Outlook is similar to setting them up in Outlook Express. The POP and SMTP server code would be the same. Actually, adding email accounts to Outlook 2007 is easier than previous versions of Outlook. Outlook will ask for the email address and password and then automatically search for the correct POP and SMTP settings. This may not work with all mail servers but I think I'd always try this approach first. Then, if it does not work, add the account by manually going through the setup screens.

Transferring email messages from the old hard drive to a new one is, of course, another matter.

 

Yeah - I got OE setup OK. She came to the shop to check out her new build, and I explained I was having problems with setting up Outlook, I launched it, she looked at it and said "well, that is NOT Outlook", and I said "uhhh.... yeah, it is Outlook, look at the title bar up there in the blue", and she said "it's not the Outlook I use" and I said "it's the Outlook from the Office 2007 disc you gave me to install.... are you sure that you're not using Outlook Express and just regular Outlook" and she said "I use Outlook!" and she starts getting mad at me. So, just for fun (yeah, fun), I launched Outlook Express, and she exclaims "THAT'S the Outlook that I use, the express version". :banghead *gun to temple* Once that fiasco was straightened out, and once I contacted her email provider (yeah, her ISP, phone service, and email are each provided by different companies; something I have never run in to before) for the POP and SMTP servers, everything worked out as far as her email goes.

However, her QuickBooks is a whole different nightmare... she has her company files set up on a shared drive on the office network, and when I explained that she would have to "re-cofigure" QuickBooks and "set up the shared drive" on the new build, she actually started to cry. At that point, I volunteered my services (for free) to deliver the PC and get it set up on the office network, but I also told her that I'm not a QuickBooks expert (I have never, not once, used QuickBooks or Quicken, ever, for anything), so she's on her own with getting it set up.

Yikes.

(thanks for your help though!)