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Configuring Entourage 2004/2008 for Mac OSX for UW Email

IT Connect > Email > UW Email > Entourage 2004 for Mac OSX

Support for Entourage is Limited

Minimal Support

This page is provided to help Entourage users properly configure Entourage for use with the UW Email (also known as UW Deskmail) email service. If you are interested in using Entourage's calendaring, notes, group folders, and filtering rules features, you should consider the UW Exchange service.

If You Are Also Using an Exchange Server

You may be using Entourage in an environment that includes a connection to an Exchange server. If you are using Entourage in this environment, you should not set up UW Internet Mail on your own. Please consult with your departmental computer support staff for help configuring Entourage.

Older Versions

Versions prior to Entourage 2004 (including Office.X) require a slightly different configuration. When configuring the SMTP settings, (step 5N) lease pay special attention to the note about that difference.

Apply the Latest Service Pack

UW Technology strongly recommends you apply the latest updates to Office before using Entourage as an IMAP client. The latest updates include important patches that enable proper behavior of Microsoft Entourage with UW email servers and directory servers. Please see Microsoft's Mactopia Downloads page for details on obtaining the latest service pack.

About Entourage

Microsoft Entourage is a personal information manager, group calendar, and email program that is included with Microsoft Office for Mac. It can be used for a wide range of functions, including IMAP-based Internet email. This page explains how to properly configure Entourage for use as an email client with UW IMAP servers.

Quick Reference For Experienced Users

If you are experienced configuring Web and email client software, just use the values in the Values Summary box below.

Use These Values to Configure Entourage 2004
When Entourage asks you for the: It is looking for the: You Enter: Advanced
Email address Your "@u." email address your_uwnetid@u.washington.edu*
Incoming server UW IMAP Server your_uwnetid.deskmail.washington.edu *   Encryption is required
User name your mail account your_uwnetid
Root folder path
 IMAP directory path mail
Outgoing mail server
 UW SMTP server smtp.washington.edu** 
 Encryption and authentication are required
LDAP settings, Server name
 UW LDAP server directory.washington.edu
LDAP settings, Search Base LDAP search root o=University of Washington, c=US


* Where "your_uwnetid" is replaced by your actual UW NetID.

**If you are using an Internet Service Provider (ISP) OTHER than the UW then you may wish to use the SMTP server configuration provided by your ISP.

Basic Configuration

Creating an Account in Entourage 2004

  1. Start Entourage.
  2. Click on the Tools menu and select Accounts.
  3. Click the triangle next to "New", and select "Mail..."
    Screenshot
  4. Enter your UW email address, and click on "Configure account manually".
    Screenshot
  5. Select IMAP and click OK.
    Screenshot
    This should bring up the "Edit Account" window:
    Screenshot
    1. Enter UW Deskmail in the box labeled "Account name"
    2. Enter Your Name in the box labeled "Name"
    3. Enter your_uwnetid@u.washington.edu in the box labeled "E-mail address"
    4. Enter your_uwnetid in the box labeled "Account ID".
    5. Enter your_uwnetid.deskmail.washington.edu in the box labeled "IMAP server".
    6. Leave the box labeled "Password" blank.
    7. Remove any check mark in the box next to "Store password in my Mac OS keychain".
    8. Enter smtp.washington.edu in the box labeled "SMTP server".
    9. Click "Click here for advanced receiving options".
      Screenshot
    10. Check the box next to "This IMAP service requires a secure connection (SSL)".
    11. Click outside the pop-up window to make it go away.
    12. Click "Click here for advanced sending options".
      Screenshot
    13. Click the check box next to "SMTP service requires secure connection (SSL)"
    14. Click the check box next to "Override default SMTP port" and enter 587 in the input box on that line.
      If you are using a version of Entourage prior to Entourage 2004, enter 465 instead of 587.
    15. Click the check box next to "SMTP server requires authentication"
    16. Confirm that "Use same settings as receiving mail server" is selected.
    17. In the input field for "Domain for unqualified addresses", enter u.washington.edu
    18. Click outside the pop-up window to make it go away.
  6. Click on the "Options" tab at the top of the "Edit Account" window.
    Screenshot
    1. In the "Server Options" section, ensure that the following boxes are checked:
      • Send commands to server simultaneously
      • Live Sync (stay connected with server)
      • Only connect to Inbox
      And ensure that the following box is not checked:
      • Check for unread messages in subscribed folders
    2. In the box labeled "Root folder", type mail.
  7. Click OK to close the "Edit Account" window.
  8. At this point you will be prompted for your UW NetID password, to allow you to log in to your newly created account. Type your password in the box labeled "Password", and click OK.
    Screenshot
  9. Close the "Accounts" window.

Account setup is done. Now, continue on to configure Entourage to behave properly with IMAP.

Configure Entourage to behave properly with IMAP

Note: This step is very important. By default, Entourage will periodically check for new mail This is not necessary in an IMAP environment, where the mail server will notify a desktop mail client as soon as a new message enters the INBOX. Checking for new mail places unnecessary load on our mail servers, which slows mail down for everyone.

Disable periodic new mail check

  1. Click on the Tools menu -> Run Schedule -> Edit Schedules
  2. Ensure that any "Send & Receive All" tasks are not enabled.
    Screenshot
  3. Close the Schedules window.

Purge Deleted Messages

Entourage in IMAP configuration can be configured either to mark messages as deleted or to move them to a "Deleted Items" folder when you delete the message. This is configured from the "Advanced" tab of the "Edit Account" window:
Screenshot

Either way you choose to delete messages, we recommend that you purge them or empty the folder they're moved to when you quit Entourage. This will prevent build-up of deleted messages, which can often consume more disk space than expected.

Additional Information

Interoperability with Alpine and Web Alpine

If you only ever use Entourage, you may safely ignore this section. If you want to maintain maximum compatibility between Entourage and Alpine or Web Alpine, however, you will need to change the locations of Entourage's "Special Folders":

  1. Click on your "UW Deskmail" folder in the folder list at the left of the main Entourage window.
  2. In the list of folders that appears to the right, either locate and subscribe to the following folders or, if they don't exist, create them by clicking on the "File" menu, then "New", then "Folder":
    • sent-mail
    • postponed-msgs
  3. Click on the "Tools" menu and choose "Accounts".
  4. Click on the "Mail" tab of the "Accounts" window, and click on your "UW Deskmail (IMAP)" account.
  5. Click on "Edit", near the top of the "Accounts" window.
  6. Click on the "Advanced" tab of the "Edit Account" window:
    Screenshot
    For each of the folders in the "Special folders" section, click on the dropdown menu at the right and select "Choose...", then select the appropriate folder from the list and click on "Choose". For sent messages choose sent-mail and for drafts choose postponed-msgs.

    If you use the UW junk mail filter, you may wish to disable Entourage's junk mail handling. Or you can use both in combination, in which case you might want to have Entourage save your junk mail in the same folder the UW's Email Delivery Manager moves it to. This folder is named junk-mail and should be automatically created for you. If it doesn't exist, create and subscribe to it according to the steps above, and choose it as Entourage's junk mail folder.
  7. Click "OK" and close the "Accounts" window.

Configuring Entourage to Use the UW Directory Service (LDAP)

  1. Start Entourage.
  2. Click the Tools menu and select "Accounts".
  3. Click on the triangle to the right of "New" and choose "Directory Service".
    Screenshot
  4. In the "LDAP server" box, type directory.washington.edu
  5. Click the "Options" tab.
    Screenshot
  6. In the "Search base" field, type: o=University of Washington, c=US
  7. Click OK
  8. Close the "Accounts" window.

Unlike Mozilla Thunderbird, Entourage will not find your recipient automatically after you enter the name (can be partial)  in the To: line in the new mail message composer window. You have to trigger search by presing the "Check Names" icon on the tool bar of the new mail message window.

UnPOPing an accidentally POPped Inbox

A common occurence for people doing their own configuration is to identify the incoming mail server as a POP server rather than IMAP. The first time they connect to their UW Email their Inbox disappears when viewed from an IMAP client.

This mysterious event occurs because the Entourage default settings for POP mail include the option to remove the messages from the server and put them in a folder on your local computer. To get those messages back to UW Email, perform the following steps:

  1. Start Entourage.
  2. Click the Tools menu and select "Accounts".
  3. Select the POP account (it will show "POP/SMTP" as its account type). Click Remove, then Yes to confirm.
  4. Create a New Account in Entourage 2004 (using IMAP, as above).
  5. Go to the Inbox that contains the messages that were downloaded from the POP setup. It should be the main inbox under "Folders on My Computer".
  6. Drag the messages you need to the IMAP account inbox (under your UW email account).
  7. When all the messages have been moved, connect to your email host (Homer/Dante) and use Pine to verify that the email has been copied to your account.
  8. You can now safely delete the messages from the Entourage local inbox.

Changing Your Password

If you have saved your email account password as part of the configuration of Microsoft Entourage, then you will need to change that stored password to match your mail account password whenever you change the password associated with your UW NetID. If you don't change this stored password, Entourage will generate a "password error" when you attempt to connect to the mail server (because it is using the old stored password ). Since regularly changing your UW NetID password is a recommended procedure, we do not advise you to store your password within Entourage.

To change the password stored in Microsoft Entourage:

  1. Start Entourage,  select "Entourage" -> "Account Settings"

  2. Window similar to the one below will open. Double click your UW e-mail account.

  3. Your account properties configuration window will look similar to the one on the image below. Replace the entry in the "Password" field (which will always be shown as  "dots")  with your new/current password. Click OK to close the window.

  4. Close all other windows left open from the earlier steps to apply the changes.
  5. Verify that the UW e-mail is accessible now.

If you need any further assistance, please contact UW Technology help at help@u.washington.edu

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