Access Web-Based E-Mail From Outlook 2000

If you want to check your web-based e-mail accounts from inside Outlook, you may have to do this without knowing the POP3 and SMTP server addresses. This is the case with Hotmail and other services that do not offer POP3 mail access.

The next best thing is to set up a sub-folder under your Personal folder or Outlook Today folder that, when clicked, will present the logon page for that particular service. The following is an example for setting up a Hotmail folder.

+ Start Outlook 2000 and make sure the folder list is in view. Click View|Folder List.

+ Select either the Personal folder or Outlook Today folder, which ever one is your top level folder.

+ Create a new folder by clicking File|New|Folder... Name the folder Hotmail or something meaningful to you.

+ Select the new folder, right-click on it, and select properties..

+ Click on Home Page tab. In the address field type the URL for the logon page. In this case: www.hotmail.com. Place a check in the check box "Show home page by default for this folder" Click OK

Now, whenever you select this folder, the Hotmail logon page will be displayed in the main window of Outlook. When you login, all your e-mail activities for Hotmail will take place inside this window. You do not have the flexibility of moving e-mails around to different folders but you can forward them to your regular e-mail address and perform those activities.