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E-mail help »

Overview

E-mail is a method of communication that allows computer users to send messages to other users electronically. Every person with an ICS UNIX account automatically has an ICS e-mail account too. E-mail messages are tranmitted by use of several protocols, POP, IMAP, and SMTP. The protocols POP and IMAP are used to retrieve and read messages, the protocol SMTP is used to send messages.

Contents

Links

Q: What's my E-mail Address?

Your e-mail address is yourloginname@ics.uci.edu.
Q: What e-mail clients are supported at ICS?
The supported e-mail client is Thunderbird
Under the ICS Unix environment Thunderbird is available via a module.
Instructions for seting up the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client are here.

Q: What's the name of the incoming e-mail servers?

The POP server: poplb.ics.uci.edu.
The IMAP server: imaplb.ics.uci.edu.

Note: SSL is required from off campus

More information is available in the document
IMAP Frequently Asked Questions.

Q: What's the name of the outgoing e-mail SMTP server?
The SMTP server: smtp.ics.uci.edu.

This server is only available from on campus of via the VPN If you connect to the Internet through an Internet Service Provider, then you should use your service provider's SMTP server or be sure to follow the directions in the next section "How do I access ICS e-mail services from off campus?"

Q: What's the difference between IMAP and POP?
The differences between IMAP and POP are explained here.
Q: How do I access ICS/UCI e-mail services from off campus?
If the ISP you are connecting through provides an SMTP server, we recommend that you configure your e-mail client to use that server. If you do not wish to configure your e-mail client to use the ISP's SMTP server, you still have more options:

Connect to the campus VPN, then continue to use SMTP.ics.uci.edu.

Or

Use NACS SMTP server with authentication. Click here for more information.

Q: How do I forward my e-mail elsewhere?
There are several ways to forward your e-mail
Please only use one of the following:
  • mailboss will allow you to specify an email address to forward or copy your mail to.
  • Create a .forward file with the e-mail address you would like your ICS e-mail forwarded to.
  • Or use procmail. See this page for information on using procmail.
  • Send an e-mail to helpdesk@ics.uci.edu with your ICS e-mail address and the address that you would like your e-mail forwarded to.
Q: How do I send automatic replies when I'm away?
There are two ways to enable automatic replies: you can set it up yourself by using mailboss.

Have ICS Support set it up simply send an email to support with the following information: the dates that you will be out of the office, and the message you would like the automatic reply to send.

Q: How do I filter out SPAM?
You can filter out SPAM in a variety of ways. The easist is to use the MailBoss applicatoin. This application will allow you to set a specific SPAM scores to filter to another folder or trash. You can also specify a whitelist of addresses to allow through no matter what the score.

Other ways are to set up filtering via rules in a client such as Mozilla Thunderbird. You can read the manual or visit NACS' HowTo Filter Mail page for more information.