How do I read email at SEAS?

Recommended Mailers

How Do I Read Email at SEAS?

At Penn Engineering, users have several email programs to choose from. CETS recommends the following combination: use Thunderbird under IMAP configuration when reading mail from home, work, or your laptop, and use Webmail when reading mail elsewhere. CETS recommends picking one client and sticking with it, as using more than one at a time can result in lost mail. Never use more than one client simultaneously, as inbox corruption and mail loss can result. The rest of this article contains more detailed information about the several email clients SEAS supports.

Graphical Clients

Graphical clients are available on all lab systems and for free download from Penn Computing.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a free, easy to use email client from Mozilla. Follow the directions to configure Thunderbird to read your SEAS email.

Apple Mail

Mail is a graphical email client for Mac OS X. With either Mac OS 10.2.x Jaguar or Mac OS 10.3.x Panther, Mail is already installed in the Applications folder on your hard drive, and an alias for the application has been placed in dock. Follow the directions to configure Apple Mail to read your SEAS email.

Netscape and Mozilla Mail

Note: Netscape Messenger and Mozilla Mail are identical. Therefore, all of the following comments apply to both programs, but for simplicity will be referred to as "Netscape".

Netscape Messenger (found under Netscape's Communicator menu) is an email program built in to the Netscape web browser. The software is free and easy to use with good graphical features such as enabling a user to point and click their way through messages, easily send and read attachments, and click on links contained within messages. Netscape is the best mailer to use when you choose to store your preferences and your email on the computer, such as on your personal computer or the CETS lab computers.

Follow the directions on how to configure Mozilla or Netscape to read your SEAS mail.

How to use Netscape or Mozilla Mail in one of the CETS Windows Labs:

With Netscape, your preferences and email are stored on the SEAS server, so they travel with you to any CETS Windows Lab computer.

Go to "Edit" >> "Mail and Newsgroups Account Settings"

Click on "Server Settings" on the left sife of the Account Settings dialog box.

Server name should be: USERNAME.mail.seas.upenn.edu (where USERNAME is your SEAS username)

Ensure "Use secure connection (SSL)" is checked.

Under "Mail server type", select IMAP.

Click the "Advanced" button. Your IMAP server directory should be set to: ~/Mail/. Ensure the two check boxes underneath the IMAP server directory are unchecked.

Next, select "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" on the left sife of the Account Settings dialog box.

Outgoing server name should be: smtp.seas.upenn.edu

Make sure your username is entered correctly. Make sure "Use secure connection (SSL)" is set to Always.

Go to "Edit" >> "Preferences". Click on "Privacy & Security" in the left hand category list. Then click on "Images". Check the box for "Do not load remote images in Mail & Newsgroup messages." Click "OK".

Eudora

Note: CETS is phasing out its support of Eudora. If you are trying to decide which software to use, we recommend Thunderbird. If you are currently using Eudora, we recommend you move to Thunderbird; please contact CETS for help with the move.

To configure Eudora to read your SEAS email, follow the directions. If you use Eudora on Windows, there is an automatic configuration program available that will set up or update your Eudora email configuration settings.

Microsoft Outlook

Outlook 2003 is the only version of Outlook that is suppported at the University. See instructions for setting up Outlook 2003.

Webmail

Webmail lets you read mail through a web browser, such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, but it does not store anything on the computer. It has limited features, but it is very convenient. Webmail enables SEAS users to log onto a web site to retrieve and send messages.

You can use this site from any web-browser which has support for JavaScript and cookies. The below site redirects to a secure site, so the traffic (including your username, your password, and your email) between your web browser and the web server is encrypted to prevent "sniffing" of your password.

The Webmail URL: http://webmail.seas.upenn.edu

At this site, you will be prompted for your SEAS username and password. You will have access to your incoming mailbox and any mail folders that would be available to you from a text-based mail reader such as Mutt or a regular IMAP client such as Netscape. Be sure to exit from Netscape (not just close the window) when you are done.

For more information about Webmail, see Is there a web-based mail reader available on Eniac?

Text-Based Clients

The clients in this section require you to log into Eniac's Unix shell. For information on logging in, please see How Do I Log Into Eniac?

Mutt

Mutt is the fastest, easiest to access, most secure mail program. It is highly customizable and can be used successfully with other mail programs. Mutt is free and available to anyone with a SEAS account. It is the recommended non-graphical mail program, especially for users who may occassionally read mail from public locations. When reading mail in public locations (computer labs, libraries, etc.), other mail programs such as Netscape Mail require clearing out configuration settings before leaving the machine or users risk having their messages accessed by strangers. When logging into your eniac account to read mail and in general, be sure to use SecureCRT or SSH (not telnet) to connect to eniac. Don't forget to logout of your account when you are done.

To start Mutt, enter

mutt

at the Eniac command prompt.

Follow the directions to configure Mutt to read your SEAS email. For additional documentation on using Mutt, see: http://www.mutt.org

Pine

Pine is not widely used, but provided for those who already know how to use it. Pine is less customizable than Mutt but is more user-friendly with its menu-driven format and clear instructions at every screen.

To start Pine, enter

pine

at the Eniac command prompt.

Follow the directions to configure Pine to read your SEAS email. For documentation on using Pine, see: http://www.washington.edu/pine/tutorial.4

ELM

ELM is not recommended because users who use both ELM and other programs to read mail run a high risk of losing messages. Users who are familiar with Elm should use Mutt instead, as it incorporates all of the familar keystrokes from Elm and has an extrememly low learning curve for former Elm users.

Other Mail Clients

If your mail client is not listed above, you can the general mail settings to setup your client.