Accessing my University E-mail via OS X Mail

February 28, 2005 1:56 AM

I'm setting up my Mac OS X Mail for the first time and while I've figured out how to check my AOL mail through it, I can't figure out the logistics of how to use it to view my College E-mail address. How do I go about finding all this "Incoming Mail Server" and "Outgoing Mail Server" stuff out that I need to set up a mailbox in Mail? More inside.

I check my college e-mail online via Microsoft Outlook Express. I don't own Outlook, but this seems to be the default for how all students have to check their mail. Not sure if that matters, but from what (precious little) I understand, Outlook is a program similar to Mail. I think?

posted by StopMakingSense to computers & internet (10 comments total)

I would guess your college would have instructions somewhere on its website for setting up your mail, but if not, you can follow these instructions:

First, get the information you need from Outlook Express. I think you can select Accounts from under the Tools menu in the menu bar. Then click on the Mail tab, then select your school account and click on Properties. On the Servers tab, you should see something in the incoming mail (POP3) box. That is your incoming mail server. You should also see something in the Outgoing mail (SMTP) box. That is your outgoing mail server.

Second, go to Mac OS X Mail and click the Mail menu at the top of the screen. Then click Preferences. Click on Accounts. Click on Add Account. Fill in the appropriate information (including the mail server names you got from Outlook Express). That should do it.

If you still run into problems, it might be because your school requires something additional, such as authentication. If so, post what school you go to and I (or someone else) can probably find what the school requires.
posted by EatenByAGrue at 2:26 AM on February 28, 2005

Or you can just ask the school directly. Unless your school is quite small, there is an Information Technology office. Which should be able to tell you the correct settings or else where they're published on the website. It's a very common question.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 6:01 AM on February 28, 2005

Your outgoing mail server doesn't have to be your college one. Usually it should be your ISP's, eg smtp.isp.com, since the one your college provides may only allow users within their network to use it. Of course if your internet access is from your college dorm, the point is moot.
posted by cillit bang at 7:35 AM on February 28, 2005

I *think* you are describing an issue I had the first time I set up Mail. If you want to check/use multiple addresses you have to list them, separated by commas, in the Address field of the account you have set up for yourself. Once you do this the application will not only check those addresses for mail, but will automatically give you the option of selecting which email to use when sending an out-going mail.
posted by terrapin at 7:46 AM on February 28, 2005

Just google "[name of your college] mail settings".
posted by ori at 9:22 AM on February 28, 2005

Could you tell me how to check my AOL email using the Mail.app? I used to be able to do this with Claris Emailer, and I was under the impression that AOL had slammed that door shut.
posted by astruc at 9:36 AM on February 28, 2005

I think it sounds like you're using Outlook web access to check your mail, rather than the outlook express program itself? As far as I know there is no Outlook Express for OSX, so... My wife uses this program, it just means the mail is hosted on a Microsoft Exchange server. That also means it will be accessible via any web browser. The interface looks like Outlook, but you aren't actually running Outlook.

For local downloading you should be able to use any mail client you wish, including Mac Mail. I doubt that the college would give you web-only mail. They might, but it doesn't seem likely.

When you set it up, I think you'll want to set it as an IMAP rather than POP3 (if you have the option) to make sure your messages will still be available online.

If you give people some idea of what college you are talking about here, it might help us figure out what settings you need.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:30 AM on February 28, 2005

Yeah, caution live frogs is right, it's Outlook Web Access that we're hooked up to here. I got to SUNY Purchase if it's of any use, which is small (about 5000 people) and I'm hooked into the Campus Network as my ISP. As far as I can tell, no website exists that list our mail settings.

My problem is really just (as far as I can tell) that I don't know whether I should configure the account for IMAP or Exchange and I'm not sure what my incoming/outgoing mail servers are.

I could probably contact the tech office, I was just curious as to whether there was a universal rule in play here or whether this sort of thing (incoming/outgoing mail servers) was specific enough that there's no real way to know unless someone tells you.

Astruc, I just set the account type to IMAP, incoming mail server as imap.aol.com and then outgoing mail server as smtp.aol.com. Seems to be working fine thus far.
posted by StopMakingSense at 10:57 AM on February 28, 2005

It works! I'll be damned. Thank you so much!
posted by astruc at 11:26 AM on February 28, 2005

My guess is that it will be IMAP of some sort. I was going through your school page and it looks like ResNet or the CIS Helpdesk will be the best resource to contact about this.
posted by moxyberry at 12:21 PM on February 28, 2005