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Settings and Options for Popular Email Clients
Can't send e-mail to non-Mines addresses from off campus?
See the note below in red or this FAQ entry!Email client programs (e.g., Eudora, Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Outlook) allow you to retrieve your e-mail from an email server via your local computer. When someone sends you an e-mail message, the message is received, processed and stored in your mail file on the central mail server.
You can access your e-mail:
- by using webmail from most any web browser,
- locally by logging onto the mail server and using a server-based mail client program (e.g., "pine", "mail", or "elm"); or
- remotely by using an email client program which supports the IMAP or POP protocol. With a POP client your e-mail is copied/retrieved from the mail server to a local computer. With an IMAP client your e-mail is accessible remotely, but is stored and managed on the server. Most popular POP e-mail client programs also function as IMAP clients. Although there are advantages to using each, we recommend that you use IMAP for flexibility of access. You should use POP only if you fully understand how it works and the ramifications of where your mail will be stored and how it can be accessed.
To use CSM central email servers from client program other than webmail, you will need to set parameters in your email client to correctly
To insure that these actions happen correctly, the following parameters need to be set in your email client:
Email account information
username@mines.edu (Replace username with your username.) This information is typically configured in the preferences, options, or tools section of your email client called identity, email address, account information, or something similar.
Outgoing mail server
(may also be called SMTP server)smtp.mines.edu if you are on campus, in campus housing, dial-in through the Mines modem pools, or are using the Mines VPN. If you are connecting to Mines through a commercial ISP such as Comcast, Qwest, AOL, Earthlink, or other Internet Service Provider (ISP). See this note about non-CSM connections if you connect from off campus via a non-Mines connection.
Incoming mail server
imap.mines.edu (recommended)
pop.mines.eduThe mail server requires that you provide username and password credentials each time you try to retrieve or send email. You can usually provide this information to your email client so it doesn't ask you to enter it everytime you intitiate a transaction. This information is typically in the same area as the server setup information in your email client. Managing your email space on the server:
- Large e-mail files on the server are unwieldy. They take longer to be loaded or processed by your email client or mail program and use valuable disk space on the server.
- IMAP clients manage your mail on the server. There are options that you can set in your email client to tell IMAP how to handle deleted messages and whether your mailboxes should be "cleaned up" (expunged or purged of deleted mail) when you exit. Most POP mail client programs have a setting which allows you to leave messages on the server after retrieval (e.g. a check box labeled "Delete messages from server after retrieval"). Some POP mail client programs have an option like "Delete mail from server after X days". For information on retaining e-mail on the host server, see the information at the end of this guide.
- If you POP your e-mail from the server to only one computer, you can set your POP client to delete your messages after retrieving them. This will keep your server mailbox clean and prevent it from exceeding quota.
- You should definitely use IMAP if you access your e-mail from more than one computer. Otherwise, you will need to develop a strategy for managing your e-mail so you understand where it is and to make it available to you from multiple locations, if appropriate, when you need it.
- For example, if you POP your e-mail from the server to your home computer and also to various workroom computers on campus (e.g., the Computing Center NT computers), and your primary location for retrieving your e-mail is your home computer, then you could configure your POP client at home to delete messages from the server and configure the POP clients on the campus workroom computers to leave messages on the server. This way you would be able to see only new messages from wherever you are but will have access to all messages on your home machine.
- A second example: You mainly access your e-mail using pine via a login session to imagine from various campus computers, but you also want to POP your e-mail to your home computer. One strategy for doing this is to configure your POP client at home to leave messages on the server and delete messages manually in pine only after you've POPed them to your home computer.
- A note if you have a Mines e-mail account AND a non-Mines ISP (Internet Service Provider) e-mail account: Some client programs have a "profile" feature that will allow you to retrieve email from multiple accounts without having to change settings each time you retrieve email.
- Some types of email attachments/files tend to be large and can quickly exhaust your quota on the server are:
images:gif, jpg, bmp, xpm, etc.
audio:mp3, wav, etc.
video:mpg, avi
executable programs:exe
spread sheets/database files:xls, mdb
compressed files:zip, tar, gz, Z
word processor files:doc, wp, etc.
Whatever your strategy for managing email, AT SOME POINT YOU WILL NEED TO DELETE YOUR OLD MESSAGES FROM THE SERVER. In addition to conserving valuable space on the server, an advantage of good email management is that accessing mail through the server (no matter what application you use) will be faster and more efficient when your primary INBOX on the server is relatively small an not cluttered with unneeded messages. (Note: Poor management of your INBOX on the server and your disk usage can cause erratic email client behavior.)
Checking for mail frequency:
If you set your email client to automatically check for new mail, we recommended a frequency of no more than once per 15 minutes. If you access your email via a dial-in connection, we recommend you manually retrieve email when you connect. Multiple POP/IMAP sessions and automatic intervals of less than 10 minutes are not permitted since it can cause problems if you receive a lot of messages, large email messages or messages with large attachments, and it puts an added burden on the server. For example, if your client is configured to retrieve your email too frequently, your client program may try to start a new retrieval session while a previous session has not completed which can result in lost messages, duplicate messages, locked or corrupted mailboxes, and other strange client program behavior. Setting longer automatic intervals does not preclude you from manually checking for new mail when you are expecting a message.Time out setting:
Many email clients have a "time out" setting. This is how long the program will wait to disconnect a session when a connection is slow or not responsive. The default is usually set very small (e.g. 30 seconds) and is probably not adequate. A minimal time out setting of 2 minutes should be adequate. NOTE: Do NOT set your automatic frequency for checking for mail lower than your time out setting.Important Note for sending email via Non-CSM Connections:
Our mail server disallows relaying of mail from non-mines.edu hosts to non-mines.edu hosts through our server. If you connect to the campus network through an ISP (Internet Service Provider), this will affect you, unless you always use the VPN. If you connect through a system attached either to the Mines network or through the CSM modems, this will not affect you unless the IP address you're using is not registered. This configuration prevents spammers (sending bulk unsolicited email) from external sites from using our resources as a relay to route spam to other sites. If you are connecting through an ISP and want to send and receive email through your Mines account, you will need to configure the outgoing email server in your email client to be your ISP's server. Typically, this will be something like mail.isp.com or mail.isp.net, where isp is the name of your service provider (such as mail.attbi.com or mail.comcast.net). Contact your ISP if you don't know the name of your ISP's outgoing e-mail server. Your incoming mail server should still be imap.mines.edu (or pop.mines.edu) Your "reply-to" address can still be your Mines e-mail address.
If you have questions about this change or your configuration, please send e-mail to support@mines.edu.
Other Problems:
Send questions and comments to support@mines.edu
Wednesday, 16-Mar-2005 10:00:21 MST