If Outlook 2003 was not able to send or receive the account setup test email, make sure that your email account's incoming and outgoing mail server names are spelled correctly, as well as your email account's user name and password.
Another reason for which Outlook 2003 fails the email account test is the increasingly common requirement by email providers that authentication take place before an email is sent out. To set up authentication between your Outlook 2003 email account and the mail server (for outgoing emails), please see the Outgoing Server Settings below.
The Outgoing Server Settings determine how Outlook 2003 will "talk" to the email server when trying to send out emails: more specifically, whether emails are sent with or without first validating your user information ("credentials").
In some cases, and even more often in the past, this extra layer of security was not required by your email provider, and no user authentication took place before Outlook could send emails out.
However, with mail servers increasingly being used as relay for junk mail, more Internet Service Providers (ISP) and email providers mandate outgoing authentication.
To customize your email accounts in Outlook 2003, go to Tools > Options.
Select the Mail Setup tab from the Options dialog, and click E-mail Accounts.
Select the email account and click Next.
