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Settings and Options for Popular Email Clients    General Parameter Settings for Email   Email Account Information username@mines.edu - This information is typically configured in the preferences, options or tools section of most email clients. It may be called identity, email address, account information or something similar.     Outgoing or SMTP mail server smtp.mines.edu - This setting is for those who are on campus, in campus housing, using the CSM VPN or CSM modem pool to connect to Mines. Note:  If you are connecting to Mines from a non-CSM ISP (like AT&T, AOL, Comcast or other ISP) and are having trouble sending email to non@mines.edu email addresses, please see this FAQ. Incoming Mail Server imap.mines.edu (recommended) for those who IMAP email.   pop.mines.edu for those who POP email.   Mail server username and password The CSM mail cluster requires that you authenticate (provide valid username and password credentials) each time you send or retrieve email.  Most email clients allow you to store this information in your configuration so that you are not constantly being asked to provide it.  This information is typically stored in the server setup information area of your email client.     Email client programs like Mozilla Thunderbird and Microsoft Outlook help you use your local computer to retrieve, read and process email that has been stored in your centralized CSM mailbox file on the email server or servers.   There are three basic ways that email in this mailbox file can be accessed: By using CSM Webmail from any computer that has a web browser and internet connection.   This method requires no configuration except that required to connect the local computer to the internet.  This method does not offer a way to store your login credentials, so you will need to provide them when prompted.   By using secure software to log on to the cluster and use a server-based mail client program like Pine or Elm.   This method requires no configuration except that required for the secure software.  This method does not offer a way to store your login credentials, so you will need to provide them when prompted.   By using an email client program that is installed locally to a single computer, utilizing either IMAP or POP protocol:   A POP-configured email client will retrieve your email from the server and copy/move it to a space on the local computer hard drive.   An IMAP-configured email client will access your email, but it will be stored and managed on the server instead of a local computer hard drive. To use CSM central email services from email client programs other than CSM Webmail, that email client must be configured correctly (per the parameters detailed above) in order to: Identify your correct email address Communicate with the proper CSM email server or servers Authenticate your access with a username and password Retrieve (read) email Send email     Managing your disk usage, or quota, on the email server: Storing large e-mail files on the server consumes more than a fair share of the campus email resources.  They are unwieldy, they will slow down CSM Webmail or an email client because of the time they take to load and they use valuable disk space on the cluster.  The table below shows some of the most common large file types and their associated file extensions.  Image files gif, jpg, bmp, xpm, etc. IMAP email clients manage email on the server.  Set options to clean up your mailbox when you exit; look for "purge" or "expunge deleted mail."   Most POP email clients have a setting which allows you to leave email on the server after you POP it.  Some have a setting which determines how many days, if any, POPped email will remain on the server.  If you POP email from the server to a single computer, configure your setting to remove your messages from the server after you retrieve them.  This will keep your server mailbox clean and prevent it from exceeding quota.   If you access your email from more than one computer, you should us an IMAP client or develop a strategy for managing your email so that it is available and you can find your archives or messages from multiple locations: One example:  You POP your email from the server to a personal computer like a laptop or home system, but also access email from a workroom and from lab computers like the ones in the Computer Commons.  Presuming the personal computer is your primary system for receiving email, you would configure that to delete messages from the server after you have retrieved them.  You would configure your workroom computer to leave messages on the server after you POP them and you would use CSM Webmail in the Computer Commons because you cannot install or configure software there. Audio files mp3, mp4, wav, etc. Video files mpg, avi Executable programs exe Spreadsheet and database files xml, xls, mdb Power Point presentations ppt Adobe Acrobat Reader files pdf Compressed files zip, tar, rar, gz, Z Word processor files doc, wp A second example: Your main access to your email Pine via a login session to Imagine from various campus computers, but you want to POP email to your personal computer.  A configuration strategy for this scenario would be that the POP client on your personal computer is configured to leave mail on the server and you delete them manually in Pine after you've POPped them to your personal system. If you have a CSM email account and a non-Mines email account you may be able to utilize the "profile" feature in your email client.  This feature will allow you to retrieve email from multiple accounts without having to change settings to access each account separately. Whatever your strategy for managing email, it must include a plan to delete your email from the server.  Not only will this conserve server hard drive space, it will speed up your access to email on the server, no matter what email client application you use.  Poor management of your server inbox and disk usage, on the other hand, can cause erratic email client behavior and make it difficult to find information you may be looking for.       Checking Mail Frequency:   If you set your email client to check automatically for new mail, AC&N recommends you set a period frequency of no less than once every 15 minutes.  If you access your email via a dial-in connection, manually retrieve email when you connect.   Multiple POP/IMAP sessions and automatic check intervals of less than 10 minutes are not permitted.  They can cause serious problems, like the following scenario: Presume your POP interval is set at a high frequency, perhaps 5 minutes.  It is possible, if you have a lot of messages or a single large attachment in your server mailbox, that a new POP session will start before the previous one completes.  This can result in lost messages, duplicate messages, locked or corrupted mailboxes and other strange behavior. A longer POP interval setting does not preclude you from checking email manually, it just lengthens the interval between automatic checks for new mail.       Time Out Settings:   A time out interval describes the amount of time an email client program will wait, when a session is slow or not responding, before disconnecting a session.  Sometimes the default setting for a given email client is inappropriately small; a minimal time setting of 2 minutes is adequate.   Note:  Make sure this interval setting is less than the automatic email check interval described in the preceding section.       Other Problems:   If you are trying to send email from a computer connected to the campus network and the server is "refusing to relay" your email, then it is likely that your system does not have a registered IP Address.  If you are not able to successfully complete the form under the Network Registration link, please submit a request for help via the Mines Help Center.       Important Note:   If you are connecting to Mines from a non-CSM Internet Service Provider (like AT&T, AOL, Comcast or other ISP) and are having trouble sending email to non@mines.edu email addresses, please see this FAQ. The main campus email server is configured so that spammers cannot "relay" their junk mail through CSM resources.  This should not be an issue when sending email from a computer connected to the campus network, but it does affect users who send email from a computer connected to the internet by a non-CSM ISP; if you want to send email through your Mines account, you will need to connect to the CSM VPN or configure the "outgoing email server" option in your email client to point to your ISP's smtp server.  It should not point to smtp.mines.edu, in this instance, but to something like smtp.isp.com or smtp.isp.net.  Contact your ISP for the exact character set.     Questions or comments -- open a ticket at the Mines Help Center. Monday, 07-Apr-2008 08:40:09 MDT