Electronic Mail at CAL

This page outlines the steps you'll need to get started with email at CAL

Looking to open a CAL email account?

Please download the PDF file from here. Fill out the pdf for (electronically) and email the file to help@…. The account information is for universal access to the Linux network which included logging onto shell and utility servers, CAL Linux workstations and email accounts.

Recommended Email Handling Software

• Thunderbird
• Evolution
• Pine (text based, will continue to be available)

WebMail

Web browser based email will be available via the following ​link. Webmail allows wasy access to email and therefore lacks some of the options available on an email client.

Which email program should you use?

If you know how to use a Web browser, Webmail is the easiest. Pine has a lot of features, but it's a Unix program so it doesn't have "windows" in the personal computer sense.

IMAP

An IMAP server will be used to access your email.

IMAP is advantageous in that it provides options to not automatically download attachments. (That means no more downloading worms or viruses; although Mimedefang makes that a bit less dangerous.) And it works in conjunction with the webmail.

SMTP Servers

Our outgoing email SMTP server will use SSL authentication. The CAL SMTP server is: smtp.astro.Columbia.edu

Protecting your password with SSL. When your email program connects to the server to download email, it has to send your user name and password to identify you to the server. SSL, Secure Sockets Layer, allows you to send your password to the sever encrypted, so no one can steal your password as it is going to the server. (Otherwise it is sent as plain text and is very easy to sniff if someone wants to.)

The general requirements are the following:

• SMTP or Outgoing mail server: smtp.astro.Columbia.edu
• Leave the port at 25.
• Turn on authorization for the SMTP connection.
• Turn on secure connection or SSL for the SMTP connection.
• Specify the username/pass for authentication.

Managing Your Incoming Mail -- Email Quotas

It is important to keep in mind that you have a limited amount of space on your CAL email account to store email. As mail addressed to your account comes in, it is placed in your Inbox mailbox, and it will stay there indefinitely, until you move it to your personal computer or delete it. When the total amount of email you have in your Inbox exceeds your account's Inbox allotment, new incoming email will be bounced. (Returned to its sender.) Each account has a reasonably large allotment, but if you get a a few -- or even one -- email messages with large attachments, your Inbox can fill up pretty quickly.

You will receive a series of automated messages as the size of your Inbox approaches your Inbox quota.

For the current email quotas for ACCC email servers and instructions on how to find out how big your inbox is, see the Web page: Email Space Limits for ACCC Servers. The ACCC email quota tool allows you to check how much email you have on the server, or download or delete entire mailboxes.

Email - Quota Tool -- Using the Email Quota Tool and Managing Your Email Account

Email Aliases, What email account do you want to use?

Looking Up Email Addresses: LDAP