Topics
Email Address
Email Alias and X500id Changes
Email Account Specifics
Checking Email
Forwarding Email to Another Account
Autoreply Email Message Set Up
Multiple Inbox Checking
Handling Unwanted Email
Keeping Email After Leaving the U
Email Address
The email address for your School of Mathematics computer account is:
username@math.umn.edu
Replace username with the username of your account.
Account email in the math.umn.edu is delivered to the corresponding UMN X.500 account.
For example, johndoe@math.umn.edu forwarding to doex1234@umn.edu.
New graduate students email won't activate until orientation, but Math accounts can be created based on the pending x500id names.
The email activation may relate to the student account being flagged as "matriculated" (aka enrolled) in the UofMN PeopleSoft database.
The email service is run by OIT's Internet Services group, see the Internet Accounts page for more details.
Email Alias and X500id Changes
Adding an Email Alias
An alias for a UMN internet id can be set
if you are on the UMN payroll and are a grad student, faculty, instructor or staff.
Contact ADCS Email Account Administration for adding an email alias.
When the alias is in place, your math user id can be changed to match the UMN internet id alias.
For example, if John Doe has the UMN internet id doex1234 would have
doex1234@umn.edu, doex1234@math.umn.edu
After contacting ADCS and setting up an alias from johndoe to doex1234, the following email addresses would be valid...
johndoe@umn.edu, johndoe@math.umn.edu, doex1234@umn.edu
X500id Changes
Some people at the U can also change their x500id to be something 3-8 characters based off their name.
For more details, see the ADCS page on x500 changes.
You'll need to contact Email Account Administration to change the x500id, and then Math Systems Staff to change your Math account.
Both stages ask you to refrain from using the account while the account is being changed.
Email and Account Specifics
UMN Internet ID (email/directory/X.500 username or user ID): doex1234
E-mail Addresses:
doex1234@umn.edu, doex1234@math.umn.edu
and with an alias set up johndoe@umn.edu, johndoe@math.umn.edu
Mail Servers:
Incoming (POP Authenticated): pops://doex1234@doex1234.email.umn.edu:995
Incoming (IMAP Authenticated): imaps://doex1234@doex1234.email.umn.edu:993/mail
Outgoing (SMTP Authenticated): smtps://doex1234@smtp.umn.edu:587
IMAP Server Directory: mail
Setting the IMAP server directory is important so that desktop mail software and UMN WebMail can see the same mail folders.
ADCS has instructions for setting up MS Windows email clients and Macintosh email clients.
Checking Email
To check your email use the thunderbird & command at your shell prompt, or browse the Applications menu to find the entry for Thunderbird. The menu entry can be dragged to the panel for launching later.
A partial list of available email clients...
- Evolution the Gnome desktop's email client
- KMail the KDE desktop's email client
- MacOS:Mail a graphical client included with Mac OS X
- SeaMonkey a Mac/Unix/Win email client derived from Netscape:Mail
- Fetchmail puts mail in /var/spool/mail for clients that don't support POP/IMAP
- Mutt a text only client
- Alpine a friendly text only client (formerly known Pine)
- Thunderbird a Mac/Unix/Win email client derived from Mozilla:Mail
- GopherMail a web based email client offered for all U of MN X500 accounts
If you have problems, or are traveling, try the web browser based GopherMail.
Alpine (aka Pine)
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WebMail
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Thunderbird
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Forwarding Email to Another Account
Email for accounts in the math.umn.edu domain are forwarded to the corresponding UMN X.500 account.
If you want your University email to be forwarded somewhere, visit the
Internet Options for X.500 accounts
If your account is closing, and you want your email to be forwarded somewhere else, the X.500 will allow forwarding changes for a period of time, depending on the type of account.
Autoreply Email Message Set Up
To set up email with an autoreply message while away on vacation, visit the 'Set E-mail Forwarding and Autoreply' section of the UMN dirtools site.
Autoreply and Forwarding Setup Page
Multiple Inbox Checking
To add another email account to alpine, edit your ~/.pinerc under the line folder-collections= you can setup the following
folder-collections=foobar_inbox{foobar.email.umn.edu/ssl/user=foobar}inbox
With Webmail, logout of one email box and log in with the other.
The University of Minnesota web mail client will only access UMN email accounts.
With Thunderbird, go to the menu "Tools > Account Settings...".
When the "Account Settings" window appears, click on the Add Account... button.
The Account Wizard should appear and ask for details about the new account.
The Internet Services group is also starting to offer shared folders between different email accounts.
Handling Unwanted Email
Spam
Spam is unwanted email you didn't ask for, and in small numbers spam messages can be deleted by hand in email clients.
Large volumes can be dealt with by tuning spam controls for an account at the mail server and setting up filters in your email software.
- Visit the Internet Acount Options page for you central University of Minnesota account at http://www.umn.edu/dirtools/
- In the "Managing Your Email" section, click on "Incoming Email Controls".
- If you want to turn on spam scanning, enable the email control labeled "Scan email with SpamAssassin".
Reporting Spam
Spam can also be reported to local computer staff, the ISP the spam came from or the FTC.
Email message headers include the chain of email servers the message was sent though and are important for finding the spam source.
Include the message headers, forwarding the message doesn't include the header.
View the message headers (or the email source), copy the whole source and paste it in the email report.
See OIT's About Spam page for more on reporting spam.
Phishing Scams
A phishing scam is a spam variation that requests personal information or asks you to click on a link to provide information.
These fraudualent emails are becoming more common, and may appear to come from a familiar person or company.
Information scams often ask for include usernames, passwords, social security numbers, birthdays and mother's maiden names.
Phishing scams targeting the University of Minnesota should be reported to OIT Security and Assurance at abuse@umn.edu.
Also contact adm@math.umn.edu if the scam targets the School of Mathematics.
Other phishing scams can be reported to spam@uce.gov, the Federal Trade Commission's spam database used to prosecute those who send misleading or illegal commercial email, and reportphishing@antiphishing.org, the Anti-Phishing Working Group consortium.
See OIT's About Phishing Scams page or the federal government's OnGuard Online Phishing page for more information.
Rules of Thumb for Email
- Never provide sensitive information over email.
- Be skeptical of links in email, unless expecting someone to send you a link.
- Sites may look familiar but actually be a mock up for password theft.
- Do not enter any personal information at a suspicious site.
Don't click on links in suspiciouse email. If not reporting it, delete the email.
Keeping Email After Leaving the U
Email accounts are kept open for staff or faculty who retire from the U and are kept open for other cases.
Visitors or staff who leave in other situations have three weeks to receive mail, and through the next calendar year to forward email to another address.
Forwards can be set up in Directory Tools for UMN Internect Accounts.
Student accounts are kept open for three semesters to five years, depending if the account is accessed.
Graduates of the University can keep their email open.
For more details, see the ADCS pages Account Information for Terminating Staff and Faculty,
Account Information for Graduating Students, and
the UMAA page on Alumni Association email benefits information.
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