Converting from a forwarder to POP3

Short version:

Important: there is a quota, currently defaulting to 50 megabytes. If you accumulate too much email on the exmsft.com server email sent to you will bounce.

Please understand I can provide only limited support helping you configure your POP3 access. This is something you’ve likely had to do in the past for other email accounts, so it’s nothing new. Besides, you used to work for Microsoft – I’m sure you can figure this out. 🙂

Recommended: Using Gmail to access exmsft.com email

My recommended approach to accessing your exmsft.com POP3 email account is to use a Gmail account. (Other email accounts – such as Outlook.com – may work, but I can confirm Gmail works, since it’s what I do.) This is perhaps the best spam filtering option out there, and it’s free.

You will need a Gmail account if you don’t already have one.

Configure Gmail to fetch exmsft.com email using Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Check mail from other accounts (using POP3). Do not leave messages on server.

Configure Gmail to “send as” your exmsft.com address if you want to. Gmail will offer it as part of the process of setting up the POP3 fetch, above, or you can add it manually in Settings -> Accounts and Import -> Send mail as.

Once configured this will automatically place all your email into your Gmail account, and you can then access that Gmail account however you like (web, mobile, desktop and so on). If you go all-in, you can send and receive using your @exmsft.com email address.

If you’d like more details on the process, the article How do I route my email through Gmail? out on Ask Leo! may help.

Using aPOP3 client to access exmsft.com email

You may, of course, use any POP3 email client of your choice. Outlook., Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail … whatever you like. You’ll be relying on those program’s spam filters to filter out your spam.

Do not allow email to accumulate on exmsft.com. That means:

  • Do not select “leave messages on server”
  • Download email frequently enough that it doesn’t accumulate