How to Set Up SBC Global Email

Your SBC Global email inbox.

SBC Global is a broadband DSL Internet service, which was acquired by AT&T in 2005. Even though the domain @sbcglobal.com is no longer offered by the parent company, legacy users who established email accounts prior to mergers with both AT&T and Yahoo! are still supported by AT&T. Fortunately, configuring your email client to work properly with your SBC Global email address is no harder than configuring it to work with virtually any other email provider. SBC Global email can be configured on any computer, regardless of platform, using any mail client that supports POP and SMTP servers.

Things You'll Need

• SBC Global email account
• Email client (Outlook, Entourage, Apple Mail, Netscape, Thunderbird, Eudora)

Instructions

1. 

   Confirm that your computer is connected to the Internet by launching a Web browser. It's far easier to configure an email client when you can test it by sending and receiving mail in real time. Apple's Mail is particularly fussy when it comes to setting it up off-line, so make sure your connection is live before doing anything else.

2. 

   Confirm that you know what your email address and password are. You won't be able to use your account if you don't know the password. If you have forgotten it, you can have it reset by contacting AT&T (see Resources below).

3. 

   Launch your email client to configure it properly. While every email package has different ways to configure it as well as add, delete or edit accounts, the information that you enter is the same universally. The information that you need to enter is the POP (incoming) mail server, the SMTP (outgoing) mail server, your user name and password and any advanced settings, which relates to authentication and other security features of the email server.

4. 

   Select "New" or "Add Email Account" in your mail client. If you are on a Windows computer, open Outlook and select "Accounts..." from under the "Tools" menu. Mac users can launch Apple Mail and a wizard will prompt you through the steps. For any other software packages, consult the documentation to learn how to add a new email account.

5. 

   Enter the following in your email client:
   Account Name: This is the name that you give your email account. It won't be seen by anybody else but you, so you can enter your email address, or call it something that differentiates it from any other email accounts if you use more than one account.
   Name: This is where you enter your name, or the name that you want recipients to see. This is what will be displayed in the recipient's inbox.
   Account ID: This is part of the login information SBC Global needs to access your account. In this case, it's your email address without the @sbcglobal.net at the end.
   Password: This is the password for your email account. Note that it is case sensitive.
   POP Server: This is the name of the incoming mail server. In this case, it's pop.sbcglobal.yahoo.com.
   SMTP Server: This is the name of the outgoing mail server. In this case, it's smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com.
   Advanced Options: Check the "SMTP server requires authentication" box, and select "Use same settings as receiving mail server." Leave all the other settings at their defaults.

6. 

   Test your email by sending and receiving messages. Both should work seamlessly, and as long as you have opted to save your password within your mail program, you don't have to bother entering that every time you check your email.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're establishing the account on a handheld device, test the settings on a regular computer beforehand.

• If you want to configure the SMTP server without using authentication, enter smtp.sbcglobal.net in the SMTP field, and leave the advanced options at their default settings.

• If you have forgotten your password, have your account number (found on your AT&T statement) ready when you call tech support. The tech support number can be found on AT&T's website.

• Make sure your email password is not an obvious one.

• Don't email sensitive data when using public Wi-Fi.

Resources

• AT&T -- Home Page
• AT&T -- Help and Support