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This page provides basic information on using email within the CSE environment.
What Is My Mail Address?
Your mail address is <username>@cs.washington.edu
This is the address you should give to people who want to send
mail to you.
Where Is My Mail Actually Delivered?
Your mail address provides a consistent ``handle'' for people to send
you mail. When incoming mail arrives for you, it is actually
delivered to one of a set of machines in the department called mail
servers or maildrops. You will need the name of your
maildrop to read your mail. A network mail client is the
recommended way to access your mail. (It may be the only way,
since you do not necessarily have login access to your maildrop.)
The name of your maildrop is:
<username>.mail.cs.washington.edu. This is a
logical maildrop name that points to the physical maildrop
where your mail is delivered. Logical names make it easy to configure
your mail client, and make it relatively easy to move your physical
maildrop for load balancing, etc. Therefore, we recommend that you
use your logical maildrop name to access your mail.
To determine where your mail (or anyone else's for that matter) is
delivered, whether your logical maildrop address will work properly
in configuring your mail client, and exactly how your mail is routed,
click the mailbox.
How Do I Read My Mail?
You run a mail client, which accesses your mail server
to read and process your mail. You just need to choose a mail client
(and possibly a mail server), and then configure your mail client.
But first, we have three specific recommendations:
- Keep your mail on the mail server, as opposed to
downloading it off the server and onto your local machine. (This
way, the mail client just gets a copy of each message as you
read it, and the original stays on the server, where it is backed up,
and where you can access it from more than one location.)
- Be sure your password is transmitted in encrypted form, not in
cleartext from your mail client to the server.
- Use the IMAP protocol. POP3 is also fine; but do NOT use
the older POP or POP2 protocols, since they do not allow mail to be
kept on the server.
Our default mail server is an IMAP Mail Server, which also provides
POP3 service.
Look here for more information
about choosing a mail client (and possibly a mail server), and for some
configuration tips.
The easy route: On CSE Unix hosts, Pine is configured to
automatically use your logical maildrop address, so in most cases you
can just start using it with no further ado. If you have trouble,
make sure your logical maildrop address is the same as the mail server
you want to use.
For information about using Pine, check out the Pine
Tutorial. You can run Pine locally on any CSE Unix machine.
What about Filtering?
Mail filtering can be useful for screening out (junk) mail you don't
want to ever see, or for pre-sorting mail into folders before you read
it. It can also be used to return a message to senders under certain
circumstances; for instance, a message can be automatically returned
to senders if you will not be reading your mail for an extended period
of time. The method you use to filter your incoming mail depends to
some degree on how you read your mail. To find out more, click
here.
We operate a spam-filtering service called SpamBuster that can be configured to
either quarantine email identified as spam or just mark it so that you
can easily filter it yourself.
Extremely effective!
Important Mail Addresses and Mailing Lists
The most useful email address in the department is support@cs --
it is the best place to seek help for general problems or
questions.
There are also specific mailing lists for getting in
touch with various classes of people such as
faculty,
students, and
staff.
Mailing lists are managed with the Mailman system. Information on
how to setup and manage a mailing list, and all other lists in the
deparment be found here.
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