So, I spent a couple hours this morning setting up a local POP3/IMAP mail server on my windows 7 (OK, actually Windows 8 Preview but the process is the same).

Install HMailServer

Download and install the latest from http://www.hmailserver.com/index.php?page=download (I used V5.4)

Add an entry in your c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts for your local mail server (127.0.0.1  mail.local)

In hMailServer admin, add a domain called mail.local and make sure it is enabled

Add some test accounts to hMailServer

In settings, make sure to enable SMTP,POP3 and IMAP

On Advanced, put in your default domain

In advanced smtp make sure to bind to 127.0.0.1

In Advanced / IP Ranges Put in just your localhost range

Disable auto-ban in Advanced

Install Mozilla Thunderbird Email Client

You need a local client to test with. You can use outlook, or in my case, I used Mozilla’s Thunderbird Email Client.  You can download it from http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/.

Simply install and go into account setup and put in your test email (in my case, test2@mail.local, server mail.local)

By default, it puts .mail.local into the domain names.  Simply get rid of the leading period for both smtp and pop3 as follows. Push re-test and you will show successful.

You can now send and receive mail locally in your mozilla thunderbird email client (or any other email client you install locally)

That’s it!  You’ve setup your own mail server that only listens on your localhost port.  You may need to disable your firewall for local connections.  I’m not sure if that is necessary.

If you are using an IMAP client and you want to set certain folders to be synchronized when you are offline, you need to simply do the following while you are running outlook.

First, Press Ctrl-Alt-S (you’ll get the screen below)

Then, Press the Edit button (second from top left)

From there, you can choose which of your IMAP account you want to set (see the button bar on the left)

Now, you simply choose the bottom radio button which says “Use the custom behavior defined below” and you can decide which folder will get synchronized.  For example, I synchronize my inbox and my starred folders as well as a few common others ones.

This should make it easier to run outlook in offline mode.

Hope this helps.

Firs