Webmail Guide
October 7, 2008: Changes to email and webmail. (Learn moreHide content)
IT Services has purchased a new email server and web-based email product from Zimbra. Beginning this summer and continuing into the fall, email accounts are being moved from the old Cyrus servers to the new Zimbra servers.
The only change that you will see is a new, improved webmail product; your desktop email program will continue to work as it does today. You will be notified before your mailbox is scheduled to be moved and after it has been moved onto the new server.
All students have migrated to the new servers, and faculty and staff mailboxes will continue to move over the next several months. If you have any questions or concerns, please submit a HelpSU request.
Overview
The Stanford Webmail service provides Web-based access to your Stanford email. With Webmail, you can check your email from any computer with an Internet connection—from office or home, from across campus, or from across the globe. The Webmail service uses a combination of open source and open standard technologies based on the Apache Web Server and the IMP Webmail Client.
If you are new to Webmail, there is a basic features page available.
Webmail is a full-featured email client
Many people think of Webmail as just a convenient way to access their @stanford email account when away from their main computer. While it certainly is that, Webmail is also a full-featured email client that allows you to do many of the things you can do with a stand-alone email program: save your sent messages, create other mailboxes, or setup a filter to handle spam.
The documents provided here will help you configure Webmail to use these features:
- Saving Sent Messages
Configure Webmail to save messages you've sent into a "Sent" mailbox.
- Creating Folders
Setup additional mailboxes you can use to store messages.
- Setting Up a Spam Filter
Configure Webmail to automatically handle messages marked as spam by the spam tagging system.
- Using a Trash Mailbox
Webmail's default behavior for handling how messages are deleted can be confusing. This document describes how you can set Webmail to move messages you delete into a trash mailbox. It also notes how to place an "Empty Trash" icon on your Webmail menu.
Using Webmail in conjunction with other email programs
Webmail is an IMAP email client, meaning it stores all of your mail on the mail server. Many users at Stanford have their email program (Eudora, Outlook, etc.) configured to download mail to their desktop using POP, which means that while they can access the messages in Webmail's Inbox, they won't be able to access other mailboxes they create in Webmail from their POP email program.
For occasional use this may be fine, but if you want your email program to access the same set of mailboxes that Webmail does, you may want to consider switching to IMAP. See the IMAP Email site for more information and the Email Configuration page for instructions.
