How to Find Incoming Mail Server

To receive mail in an email reader such as Outlook, Thunderbird, or an email client on your phone, you need to collect incoming mail server information, including the incoming mail server address, software port, and computer protocol type. server (POP3 or IMAP). It sounds difficult, but actually everything is available and very easy to find once you know where they hide.

Table of Contents

With email provided by your internet service provider

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Go to the website of your internet service provider (ISP). This is the website of the company that provides your internet connection and email service. Note that this method is only for people using email provided by their carrier and does not work for web-based email services (like Hotmail or Gmail).

For example, if you use an email address provided by Comcast Xfinity (e.g. name_you@comcast.net), go to http://www.xfinity.com. Centurylink users will go to http://www.centurylink.com.
It is possible that your carrier does not provide an email address to the user. This is usually clearly stated on their website.

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Click on the “Help” or “Support” link. These links are usually placed in a conspicuous place on most carriers’ websites.

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Find “email”. Type email in the search box and press ↵ Enter . Look for a link that says something similar to “Set up email software” among the returned results.

If there is no generic “email software” link, click one of the more specific links, such as “Setting up Outlook” or “Setting up Mac Mail” ). Every file that supports email setup instructions includes incoming mail server information.
Xfinity users can click on the “Internet” link, then on “Email and Web Browsing”. In the search results, click “Using Email Client Programs with Comcast Email”.

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Decide whether to use POP3 or IMAP. ^{[1] X Research Source} Maybe your carrier has both options, POP3 and IMAP. If you check your mail on multiple devices (such as phones and computers), use IMAP. If you only check mail on one computer or one phone, you should use POP3.

Although almost all carriers provide the POP3 protocol, many of them do not support IMAP. For example, Centurylink only supports POP3 protocol for home users.
If your goal is to receive mail sent to your carrier-provided email address using a web-based email client like Gmail or Outlook, use POP3. Most carriers limit mailbox space at some point, and POP3 keeps your mailbox free by deleting duplicates on your carrier’s servers.

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Enter the port and mail server address into your email reader. Most carriers use the standard POP3 port (110) for incoming mail. If your carrier supports secure POP, the port is usually 995. For carriers that support secure IMAP, the port is usually 993.

For example, Comcast Xfinity’s POP3 server is mail.comcast.net , and its port is 110. If your mail software supports it, you can also use the secure POP protocol by switching to port 995 ^{. 2] X Research Source}
Comcast Xfinity also offers IMAP in both regular and secure forms. The server is imap.comcast.net and the port is 143 (or 993 in the case of secure IMAP).

In Gmail

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Choose between POP and IMAP. ^{[3] X Gmail Research Source} supports both POP and IMAP. Thanks to that, you can check Gmail on other applications.

IMAP is recommended with Gmail, because you can check email on gmail.com, and also on mail client.
You can use POP, but understand that once your mail reader shows you messages from Gmail, you won’t be able to log into Gmail from your browser to read and reply to it.

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Enable POP or IMAP in Gmail. Sign in to Gmail (in a web browser) and open the Settings menu. Click the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” link and then select “Enable IMAP” or “Enable POP”, depending on your needs. Click “Save Changes” when done.

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Type the incoming mail server name and port into your email software. The IMAP server is imap.gmail.com and the port is 993. The POP server is pop.gmail.com and the port is 995.

The username and password for the mail setup is the same username and password you still use to sign in to Gmail.
Gmail only offers secure POP and IMAP.

On Hotmail/Outlook, Yahoo! Mail or iCloud Mail

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Choose between POP3 and SMTP. ^{[4] X Hotmail} /Outlook and Yahoo! Mail both have POP3 and IMAP incoming mail servers. iCloud only supports IMAP.

Select POP3 if you only have to check email in one place (such as a desktop or phone app).
Use IMAP if you want to read emails in multiple applications (or both want to read emails on an email client and use its web version (such as http://www.hotmail.com) to read and reply) .

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Configure POP3 settings for Hotmail/Outlook. Users of IMAP, iCloud, and Yahoo! Mail can skip this step. If you want to use POP3, log into Hotmail/Outlook on the web, click the Options gear, and then select “Options” from the menu. Go to “Managing your account” and click “Connect devices and apps with POP”. Select “Enable” under POP and press “Save”.

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Type the port and the incoming mail server address into your mail reader. ^{[5] X Research Resources} For your safety, both Outlook, iCloud and Yahoo! use only secure POP3 and IMAP connections.

Hotmail/Outlook POP3: pop-mail.outlook.com port 995
Hotmail/Outlook IMAP: imap-mail.outlook.com port 993
Yahoo! POP3: pop.mail.yahoo.com port 995
Yahoo! IMAP: imap.mail.yahoo.com port 993
iCloud IMAP: imap.mail.me.com port 993

With personal domain name

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Go to your webhosting service’s website. If you have your own domain name hosted on a webhosting provider’s server, visit their website using your browser.

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Click on the “Help” or “Support” link. You can easily find your service provider’s incoming mail server location on their support page.

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Search with the keyword phrase “incoming mail server” (incoming mail server). ^{[6] X Research Source} Find results that say something similar to “Setting up your email software” and click on it: It will include incoming mail server setup and Go.

If using Hostgator or Bluehost (as well as most other webhosting providers), your incoming mail server is mail.yourdomain.com (replace “your_domain.com” with your domain name). The POP3 port is 110 and the IMAP port is 143.
To use secure POP or IMAP protocols on Hostgator, you need the hostname that runs your site. Login to Hostgator and run Cpanel. Find the server name next to the “Server Name” section on the left side of the screen. If the hostname is gator4054 , your secure incoming mail server will be gator4054.hostgator.com . For secure POP protocol, use port 995. Secure IMAP uses port 933.
Bluehost uses mail.your_domain.com for secure POP and IMAP. For secure POP, use port 995. Secure IMAP use port 993.

Check your incoming mail server

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Self test mail. Once you’ve entered the gateway and incoming mail server address, send a test message to your email address. If your email reader has a “Test Account Settings” button like in Outlook, instead of doing it like this guide, you can simply click it.

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Check your email. Wait a while after sending the email yourself and check the incoming mail.

If you use Gmail to receive IMAP or POP messages from another service, it will arrive more slowly because Gmail only checks messages from other services about once an hour. To speed things up, open Gmail settings and click “Accounts and Import”, scroll down to POP3 or IMAP settings and select “Check mail now”.
If you’re having trouble sending mail, there’s probably something wrong with your outgoing (SMTP) server setup. Verify the SMTP port and address by going back to where the incoming mail server is located and checking against what you entered in the email client.
- Gmail’s SMTP address is smtp.gmail.com , port 587 (or 465 for secure connections).
- Hotmail/Outlook SMTP address is smtp.live.com , port 25. No private secure port.
- Yahoo’s SMTP address is smtp.mail.yahoo.com , port 465 or 587 (both secure).
- iCloud’s SMTP address is smtp.mail.me.com , port 587. There is no separate secure port.

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Find help. If you get an error when you try to send or receive an email, searching for the error online can help. There are many causes for you to get the error, such as a misconfiguration of the domain name or an authentication problem. If you’re having problems with your carrier or personal domain, call tech support or find any error messages you receive on your service provider’s website.

Advice

If you use an instant email or cloud email receiving device or service, chances are your incoming mail server is IMAP.
Contact your carrier or webhosting provider if you’re having trouble connecting to their mail servers.

Steps