Changing Outlook 2010 RPC Port with a non standard one – ie TCP 446

By default, Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 connect through port 443 for RPC over HTTPS.  This cannot be changed inside of Outlook 2003, 2007 or 2010 and must be changed via the registry.  If you attempt to change the port number in Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007 or 2010, the following message will be displayed:

“The proxy server you have specified is invalid. Correct it and try again.”

In essence, Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 has HTTP and HTTPS hard coded to TCP ports 80 and 443.

Recently, we had a client who had set their OWA to listen on TCP Port 446.  Works fine in browsers / Smart-Devices but is a different situation for Microsoft Outlook.  Using a VPN is an “easy alternative” but is more of a nuisance if out and about all the time.

Imagine you want to move your Outlook Web Access to a different port (security reasons? Or maybe just that another application is hard coded to port 443…)

The following method is unsupported by Microsoft, please use it at your own risk.  Editing the registry is required.

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Enabling SMTP Authentication on Outlook, Apple Mail, iPhone, iPad and Thunderbird

These are instructions on how to enable SMTP Authentication on common email programs. SMTP Authentication must be enabled on your email program / application in order to send outgoing email. This is a requirement on most mail servers.

SMTP Authentication simply means your email program is providing your full email address and password when you send outgoing emails to prove who you are. Most webmail programs have SMTP Authentication enabled by default, but many desktop email programs (like Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail etc.) will disable it by default. It’s important to check if SMTP Authentication is required for every email account used or you could encounter error messages or bounce-backs with your outgoing emails. It only takes a minute to check if it’s enabled.

Please note that if you do not have SMTP Authentication enabled, this will decrease the “reputation” of your email address, and other email providers like Yahoo, Hotmail and Google Mail will be more likely to mistake your incoming emails for spam.

Please follow the relevant instructions below to verify SMTP Authentication is enabled.

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