IMAP Mail Client Setup

From CSEE Documentation

Overview

The CSEE mail servers use a secure connection for incoming and outgoing mail; so you will need to customize your mail client in order to read and send e-mail on your CSEE account. This page explains how to configure your e-mail client for the CSEE Mail Services. This page will discuss Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, and MS Outlook Express. If you use a different client, please refer to your client's documentation. You will need to set up your client for the following services:

Service Server name Port
Secure IMAP imap.cs.umbc.edu 993
Secure POP imap.cs.umbc.edu 995
Secure SMTP smtp.cs.umbc.edu 25


Note: For Thunderbird and Microsoft Outlook, the same installation steps can be followed for both IMAP and POP server types. Outlook Express, however, must be configured to use POP. (see below) Update 10/5/2010: Port 25 may no longer work for off-campus connections from the Verizon network. The work-around is to port 587 for SMTP instead.

Thunderbird (Windows/MacOS/Linux)

  1. If you have no email accounts configured the 'New Account' dialog will automatically open.
    If you already have accounts in Thunderbird and are simply adding CSEE mail to Thunderbird open the 'New Account' dialog by clicking on the 3 horizontal bars (menu button) and select 'Preferences' -> 'Account Settings...' then 'Account Options' -> 'Add Mail Account'
  2. Fill in your name, csee email address (username@cs.umbc.edu) and your password. Thunderbird will attempt to automatically detect the proper settings. This will probably not work, this is ok. We will manually fill in the correct settings.
Server Hostname Port SSL Authentication
IMAP imap.cs.umbc.edu 993 SSL/TLS Normal Password
SMTP smtp.cs.umbc.edu 25 STARTLS Normal Password
  1. If the 'Done' box becomes grayed out, click in one of the 'Authentication' boxes and select 'Normal Password' again. This should re-enable the button.
  2. At this point email should be all setup, to check for new email click the "Get Mail" button.

Microsoft Outlook

Set up a new Account

If you're starting up Outlook for the first time, you'll see a new e-mail account wizard pop up. Otherwise, create a new e-mail account by selecting E-mail Accounts from the Tools menu.

Click Add a new e-mail account and then click Next.


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Under Server Type, select IMAP to use IMAP for your incoming mail or POP3 to use POP. Other server types are not supported by CSEE.

Click Next to continue.


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Under User Information, enter your full name for Your Name and your CSEE e-mail address for E-mail address.

Under Server Information, enter "imap.cs.umbc.edu" for Incoming mail server (IMAP/POP) (use this address for both POP and IMAP) and enter "smtp.cs.umbc.edu" for Outgoing mail server (SMTP).

Under Logon Information, enter your login name for User Name and your login password for Password.

Click on More Settings.


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Click the Outgoing Server tab.

Check the box that says My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.

Make sure Use same settings as my incoming mail server is selected.


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Click the Advanced tab.

Under Server Port Numbers, for both Incoming Server (IMAP/POP) and Outgoing Server (SMTP), check the boxes that says The server requires an encrypted connection (SSL).

If you're using IMAP, make sure the Incoming Server port number is set to 993. If you're using POP, make sure it's set to 995.

Make sure the Outgoing Server port number is set to 25.

Click OK to close the More Settings dialog, and then click Next.

You are now configured to use CSEE mail services!


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Alpine

Alpine should work out of the box. However, the default access method uses direct access to your mail spool in /var/mail. This means that running multiple copies of Alpine (even on multiple systems) will not work. If you anticipate doing this a lot, you may wish to configure Alpine to use IMAP to access your mail. This change will require that you have to type your password to access your mail. This configuration is not recommended for general use.

With that said, to configure Alpine to use IMAP, edit the line beginning with inbox-path= in ~/.pinerc:

inbox-path={imap.cs.umbc.edu/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX

Alpine can also support the UMBC LDAP server to search for names and email addresses. This support can be added by editing the line beginning with ldap-servers= in ~/.pinerc (this is all one line):

ldap-servers=directory.umbc.edu "/base=dc=umbc,dc=edu/impl=0/rhs=0/ref=0/nosub=0/type=/srch=/time=/size=/cust=/nick=/matr=/catr=/satr=/gatr="