Support Start > Email > Setting Up An Email Program > Microsoft Outlook > Microsoft Outlook 2007 Manual Setup > SSL / TLS Encryption for Outlook 2007

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With Microsoft Outlook 2007, it's possible to use secure SSL connections for added security. Doing so ensures that if another person somehow has the ability to eavesdrop on your Internet connections, that person won't be able to view your password or the contents of your email.

This page assumes that you have already followed the basic instructions to set up Outlook 2007.

Before you continue, you should enter your email address (the address you want to set up in Microsoft Outlook) in the box above. Entering your email address makes sure that the instructions below are correct.

1. Start the Microsoft Outlook program.

You can use the Start menu to start Outlook. When it opens, click Tools, then Account Settings from the menu bar.

2. Select the account to change.

Highlight your email account, then click Change to open the settings window. (Do not click Repair.)

3. The "Change E-mail Account" window opens.

The screen should look something like this:

4. Open the Advanced settings tab.

Click the More Settings button, then choose the Advanced tab.

In the Advanced tab:

• First, check the box marked This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)
• Make sure that the Incoming server (POP3) port number is 995
• In the Use the following type of encrypted connection list, choose TLS
• Make sure that the Outgoing server (SMTP) port number is 587

5. Click OK to close the "Internet E-mail Settings" window.

After you close the Internet E-mail Settings window, the Change E-mail Account screen will still be visible.

6. Test the settings.

Click Test Account Settings. Outlook should tell you that "all tests completed successfully". Close the Test Account Settings window.

7. Finish the setup.

Click Next, then Finish.

Outlook setup for secure SSL connections is complete

You're finished! Try sending yourself a test email message to make sure it works.

(For advanced users: you can check that your messages are actually being encrypted by viewing the headers of the test message and looking for text that says something similar to "using TLSv1" in one of the "Received" lines.)

Troubleshooting secure SSL connection problems

We've occasionally heard reports of computers where normal Outlook email works properly, but secure SSL connections do not work. This appears to be a problem with Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Windows on those computers (two possible causes are mentioned in Microsoft Knowledge Base articles 315049 and 304008).

If you have trouble after turning on secure SSL connections, try turning it off again to see if that solves the problem:

• Open the Advanced settings screen, using the instructions above
• First, uncheck the box marked This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)
• Make sure that the Incoming server (POP3) port number reverts to 110
• In the Use the following type of encrypted connection list, choose None

If this fixes the problem, then either Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Windows is not working correctly on your computer. It may be possible to solve the problem by deleting the email account completely in Outlook and creating a new one — but if that doesn't help, there isn't much you can do, unfortunately, short of reinstalling Outlook or Windows.