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Supported Windows based mail clients »

What follows is a brief description of the ICS Support groups recommendations regarding supported Windows based mail clients. A Windows based mail client being a program run on a Microsoft Windows Operating System which gives a user the ability to send and recieve mail from their PC.

Mail Client

There are any number of mail clients available on the Windows platform. ICS Computing Support currently supports and has expertise in the following mail client:

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is the ICS Support Group's currently recommended mail client. It does not require any special user priviledge and provides resilient service. It works with both the IMAP and POP protocols. It can support multiple email accounts (such as both a user's ICS and UCInetid accounts). It can also connect to the campus' LDAP database. All support files are stored in user accessible areas and Mozilla Thunderbird is available on multiple platforms (Solaris, Macintosh, Windows, and Linux). For instructions for configuring Mozilla Thunderbird to function as a Mail Client for the ICS mail servers click here.

Protocols

The ICS department allows the following types of connections to our mail server from Windows based mail clients:

  • IMAP (recommended)
  • POP

IMAP

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a standard protocol for accessing e-mail where E-mail is received and held for the user by a local server. In this case the server name is imaplb.ics.uci.edu. You can view just the heading and the sender of the e-mail message and then decide whether to download the mail. You can also create and manipulate folders or mailboxes on the server.

It is the recommendation of the ICS support group that Windows based mail clients connect to the mail server through the IMAP protocol. It is a more robust protocol than POP and allows a user to access their mail from multiple computers while maintaining the integrity of their mail independant of their mail client. Additionally a user's mail will remain on an ICS Unix files system and will be included in the daily backups.

POP

POP is an older and less robust protocol which the ICS department is encouraging its users to move away from. This protocol typically transfers all mail to the PC's local hard drive. This means that a user will not have access to their mail from multiple computers nor will the downloaded mail be included in the daily backups.

General Configuration Information

Departmental Server List and function

  • Outgoing SMTP Server: smtp.ics.uci.edu
  • Incoming IMAP Server: imaplb.ics.uci.edu
  • Incoming POP Server: pop.ics.uci.edu

Note: SSL is required from off campus
Note smtp.ics.uci.edu is available from on campus only

These are the three servers used when setting up a mail client to retrieve departmental mail. The names are self explanatory. If the machine that is being configured is inside the department it should use the smtp.ics.uci.edu as its outgoing "smtp server". If the machine is outside the department or a home computer a local internet service provider (ISP) can provide a legitimate smtp server.

Storing Mail

Mail should be stored in "/home/username/imap". Under Mozilla Thunderbird this is called the "IMAP server directory". Directions to configure this for Thunderbird can be found here