What you will need
Before you begin, gather the following information from your DirectAdmin control panel or 0724 Hosting welcome email:
- Your full email address (e.g. you@yourdomain.co.za)
- Your email password
- Incoming mail server (IMAP): mail.yourdomain.co.za
- Outgoing mail server (SMTP): mail.yourdomain.co.za
Step 1: Open account settings
- Open Microsoft Outlook
- Click on File in the top left corner
- Click Add Account under Account Information
Step 2: Choose manual setup
Outlook will offer to auto-configure your account. For 0724 Hosting, manual configuration ensures the correct SSL settings:
- Select Manual setup or additional server types
- Click Next
- Select POP or IMAP
- Click Next
Step 3: Enter account information
Fill in the account settings form:
- Your Name: How you want to appear to email recipients
- Email Address: your full email address (you@yourdomain.co.za)
- Account Type: IMAP
- Incoming mail server: mail.yourdomain.co.za
- Outgoing mail server (SMTP): mail.yourdomain.co.za
- User Name: your full email address
- Password: your email password
Do not click Next yet — you need to configure the port settings first.
Step 4: Configure SSL and port settings
- Click More Settings at the bottom of the window
- Go to the Outgoing Server tab:
- Check My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication
- Select Use same settings as my incoming mail server
- Go to the Advanced tab:
- Incoming server (IMAP): 993
- Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL/TLS
- Outgoing server (SMTP): 465
- Use the following type of encrypted connection: SSL/TLS
- Click OK to save the settings
- Click Next to test the account settings
Step 5: Test and finish
Outlook will test your account by sending a test email and connecting to the servers. If everything is correct, you will see "Completed" next to each task. Click Close, then Finish to complete the setup.
Why use IMAP instead of POP3?
IMAP synchronises your email across all devices. When you read, delete, or move an email on one device, the change happens everywhere. POP3 downloads email to a single computer and usually removes it from the server, which causes problems if you check email from multiple devices.
If you must use POP3, set the incoming port to 995 with SSL/TLS.
Troubleshooting common issues
Test account settings failed
If Outlook cannot connect during the test:
- Verify your email address and password are correct
- Ensure you are using your full email address (including @yourdomain.co.za) as the username
- Check that the server address is mail.yourdomain.co.za, not mail.0724.co.za
- Confirm the ports are 993 for IMAP and 465 for SMTP
- Verify SSL/TLS is selected for both incoming and outgoing servers
Can receive but cannot send email
This indicates an SMTP configuration issue:
- Ensure "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication" is checked
- Verify the SMTP port is 465 with SSL/TLS
- Check that the SMTP username is your full email address
- Some ISPs block port 465; if this fails, try port 587 with STARTTLS
Outlook keeps asking for password
If Outlook repeatedly prompts for your password:
- Delete the saved password from Windows Credential Manager and re-enter it in Outlook
- Verify your password works by logging into webmail at mail.yourdomain.co.za
- Contact 0724 Hosting support to confirm your account is active
Certificate warnings
If you see an SSL certificate warning, this may be because you are connecting to a shared hosting server with a generic hostname. You can safely accept the certificate for mail servers provided by 0724 Hosting, or contact support to confirm the correct hostname.
Configuring multiple email accounts
To add additional email accounts to Outlook, go to File → Add Account and repeat the setup process. Outlook supports unlimited email accounts in a single profile.
Getting further help
If you are still experiencing issues after following this guide, contact 0724 Hosting support with details of the error message you are seeing. We can verify your account settings and assist with troubleshooting.