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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 a Unix ICS account automatically has an ICS e-mail account too. E-mail is read, sent, and managed by connecting to a computer or computers designated for those purposes. 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/readers are supported at ICS?
The suggested clients are Thunderbird and Pine. Documentation on the pine e-mail readers is available via a UNIX man page.

Under the ICS Unix environment these readers is available via a module. For example, to use Pine, first run the command module load pine to load the pine 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: pop.ics.uci.edu.
The IMAP server: imap.ics.uci.edu.

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:

Use the VPN software provided by NACS.

Or

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

Or

Use port forwarding in SSH via PuTTY or SecureCRT.

To use the VPN software follow the instructions on the NACS website.

To use SSH port forwarding for:

  • Putty

    In Putty you select Category -> Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels and look at the Port Forwarding panel. In Port Forwarding see the lower half where it says "Add new forwarded port" and the port number on the client side where you are running Putty (the Local Port in SecureCRT) enter "25". In the Destination field you need to use the combined hostname:port syntax. Enter "smtp.ics.uci.edu:25" to get your putty clients port 25 (smtp) to connect to port 25 on the remote host smtp.ics.uci.edu then click on Add. Go to Category -> Session to save the setup. 

      Source Port = 25 
  Destination = smtp.ics.uci.edu:25
  Local = checked
    Restart your session.

  • SecureCRT

    In SecureCRT you select Options -> Session Options -> Port Forwarding. Then fill in the following: 

      Name = smtp
  Local Port = 25
  Check the destination host is different from ssh server
  Remote Hostname = smtp.ics.uci.edu
    Notice the Remote Port number is filled in to match the local port given. Restart your session.

    Important Note: For both SSH applications you now set your email client to send mail to localhost on the standard port 25.

    • Q: How do I forward my e-mail elsewhere?
    There are several ways to forward your e-mail:
    • 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 nomatter 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.