GoogleApps@UIC: Using Gmail

What is Gmail? How do I read my GoogleApps@UIC Gmail?

Gmail is the Google-powered email service. The service offers multiple Gigabytes of storage for each account.

Most people access Gmail on the Web; go to: gapps.uic.edu

Gmail Tips and Features

What is the email address for my GoogleApps@UIC account?

This is a bit complicated.

Everyone at UIC has a UIC email address of the form: netid@uic.edu
For Ada Byron, whose student netid is abryon1, this is: abyron1@uic.edu
This is an important email address, because all official UIC email will be sent to it. But it is just an email address; there isn't an email account to go with it. At some point or other, you will have to select an actual email account to receive and manage your netid@uic.edu email.

Will your netid@uic.edu email go to your Google Apps at UIC account?

• Yes, probably, if this is your first ACCC account.
• Yes, certainly, if you have changed the forwarding of your netid@uic.edu to your GoogleApps@UIC account, then email sent to your netid@uic.edu will be delivered to your GoogleApps@UIC account. Ada Byron has her student account set up this way.
• Otherwise, no.
  
  
• Not sure which applies to you? Want to change where your netid@uic.edu email goes? Use Change netid@uic.edu email forwarding address to check and/or to change the forwarding to any of your accounts, on-campus or off-campus, including your GoogleApps@UIC account.

Your GoogleApps@UIC account also has its own email address. This email address will always work for your GoogleApps@UIC email: your netid@gmail.uic.edu
(If your netid@uic.edu email is being forwarded to your GoogleApps account, this is what the Change netid@uic.edu email forwarding address Web page will say your forwarding address is.)

Thus the GoogleApps@UIC Gmail email addresses of Ada Byron, a student whose netid is abyron1, are

• abyron1@gmail.uic.edu
• and, because it is set up that way, it is also abyron1@uic.edu

I want my netid@uic.edu email to go to GoogleApps@UIC. Will I have to change something to do this?

If you open your the GoogleApps at UIC account at the same time as you activate your UIC netid and select your ACCC Common password, then your netid@uic.edu email will automatically be sent to your new GoogleApps@UIC account. (There are rare exceptions to this. You will know if you are one of them.)

If your netid@uic.edu address is already set up to forward somewhere else (regardless of whether it is an ACCC or outside email account) when you create your GoogleApps@UIC account, then that forwarding will not be changed when you create your Gapps@UIC account. In this case, is up to you to decide whether you want to continue to send your netid@uic.edu your new GoogleApps@UIC account or not.

Use Change netid@uic.edu email forwarding address to check and/or change the forwarding to any of your accounts, on-campus or off-campus, including your GoogleApps@UIC account.

NOTE: If you were using an ACCC mail.uic.edu account before you switched your netid@uic.edu forwarding to Google, you will still be able to access your old email via mail.uic.edu after you switch.

I currently have my netid@uic.edu email sent to whatever@wherever.blah. What happens to my existing forwarding when I open my GoogleApps@UIC account?

If you already have forwarding of your netid@uic.edu email alias address set to any email address, it will not be changed. In this case, you want your email to go to your GoogleApps@UIC email account, you will need to change the forwarding yourself.

If you want your netid@uic.edu email to go both to your GoogleApps@UIC email account and to an outside account (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail), you can configure Gmail to forward the email that you receive there to do that. You do this in your Gmail account settings.

You can use the Change the Email routing of your netid Web tool to change the email address that your netid@uic.edu email is sent any time you want to. It does not have to be sent to your GoogleApps@UIC account.

What happens to my UIC Phonebook Entry after I start using Gmail?

Nothing; it will still list your netid@uic.edu email alias, regardless of where that email is being sent. Set your netid@uic.edu email address to deliver email to your preferred email address and email from UIC people will get to you. If you want people to use your netid@gmail.uic.edu directly or to use some other email address for personal email, tell them to.

What is the email quota for GoogleApps@UIC? What will happen if I get near that quota?

The current email quota in Google Apps is 7.6 GB. That's a lot. But if you go over it, Google will start bouncing (refusing to receive delivery of) your new incoming email.

Note that email in your Trash and Sent mailboxes do apply to your GoogleApps@UIC quota. Email that has been in your Trash mailbox for 30 days will be automatically permanently deleted, but you can also permanently delete email yourself, by moving it to your Trash mailbox and then deleting it from there.

Google's Your storage limit has details on email quotas and how to permanently delete messages. (Including how to delete all the email in your Trash mailbox.)

If you have older email that does not have to be at your fingertips at all times, you could download it to your (principal) personal computer for storage and delete it from GoogleApps@UIC.

How can I tell how much storage I am using now?

Your current total space used for electronic mail and email attachments is given at the bottom of all gmail.uic.edu email Web pages, for example:

You are currently using 9 MB (0 %) of your 7564 MB.

What Name and Email address will my Gmail be sent from?

What is the default "Sent From" name in my GoogleApps@UIC email? Can I change it?

The default From: name (not email address) is your name as it is in the UIC account records. You can change it if you wish.

1. In the gmail.uic.edu page, click on Settings in the upper right.
2. In the mail settings, click the Accounts tab.
3. Click edit info to the right in the Send mail as: box, and add and select your modified name.

Note that this just changes name used in the From: field when you send email from GoogleApps@UIC; nothing else.

What is the default From email address? Can I send email that appears to be from my other email account using my gmail.uic.edu account?

By default, the From: email address of your GoogleApps@UIC account is your netid@uic.edu. (Regardless of whether you have your netid@uic.edu actually sent to Gmail.) You can change your From: email address if you wish, or authorize GoogleApps@UIC to send email on behalf of other email addresses that you own.

1. In the gmail.uic.edu page, click on Settings in the upper right.
2. In the mail settings, click the Accounts tab.
3. Use the Add another email address you own to start the process.

Note that this allows you to send email from the gmail.uic.edu Web page using the other account's From: address. You will have to prove to Google that you own the account before it will let you do this.

Can I receive email from my other accounts within my gmail.uic.edu account?

Yes, Gmail's Mail Fetcher can be set up to actually read email from your other accounts, but note that the Gmail Mail Fetcher uses POP.

1. In the gmail.uic.edu page, click on Settings in the upper right.
2. In the mail settings, click the Accounts tab.
3. Use the Add a mail account you own to start the process.

Get mail from other accounts has more information on using the Mail Fetcher. See also See GoogleApps@UIC Email Transfer Guide.

Can I read my GoogleApps@UIC Email using other Email Programs? My Smartphone?

Yes, you can set up GoogleApps@UIC Gmail in exactly the same manner as you would any other Google Gmail account. But you must change your ACCC Common password before you can do this.

See GoogleApps@UIC: Doing GoogleApps Email with POP or IMAP for instructions.

Of course, you can always access GoogleApps@UIC via the Web.

I have email/contacts in my other email account; can I move them to my GoogleApps account?

Can I transfer information from my current ACCC email account to my GoogleApps@UIC email account?

Yes, using the GoogleApps Email Migration Web tool. See GoogleApps@UIC Email Transfer Guide for details.

Can I transfer information from my Hotmail/Gmail/Yahoo, etc. account to my GoogleApps@UIC email account?

To transfer information from one account to another, you can either manually forward individual messages to your GoogleApps@UIC Gmail account or perform a bulk merge. (Or transfer messages, if you have both accounts open via IMAP in the same email program.)

Or you can use Google's Mail Fetcher service, if the traffic is not excessive.

See GoogleApps@UIC Email Transfer Guide for more complete information.

Can I import contacts I already have into my gmail.uic.edu account?

Yes, Gmail can import contacts that are written out in a "Comma Separated Values" file, CSV. See Google's contact import help for details. I have exported comma separated files from Thunderbird and Entourage (Microsoft's Mac email application) and imported the files into my GoogleApps@UIC account with no problems.

How do I find other UIC email addresses?

Use the UIC Online Phonebook to find other UIC addresses, and as you send messages from your gmail.uic.edu account, the addresses are automatically added to your address book.

How do I setup vacation messages/auto-forwarding for my GoogleApps@UIC email account?

You can create a vacation response in Gmail that will automatically reply to anyone who emails you.

Forwarding capabilities are also available in Gmail; you set it in your account's settings.

NOTE: GoogleApps@UIC email users can not use ACCC Mail Tools to do this.

How do I report junk email or account abuse?

Use the Report Spam button to let Google know if you received junk email or a spoofed message.

If you think that your gmail.uic.edu mail account has been compromised, contact security@uic.edu. Please include the header of the suspicious message and the entire message text.

See the Federal Trade Commission's spam page for lots of information on spam and phishing and how to recognize and avoid it.

Is GoogleApps@UIC Gmail compatible with UIC Listserv lists?

Yes. You should receive all listserv messages in your new gmail.uic.edu account as long as you are subscribed to the listserv from:

• your netid@uic.edu address (assuming that your netid@uic.edu is being sent to your Gmail account)
• or your netid@gmail.uic.edu address

NOTE: Some UIC listservs may be "closed". They may either receive and send email only to addresses with host names that end with "uic.edu", or they may receive and send email only to email address in their subscription list.

If you are subscribed to a listserv list with your netid@uic.edu address or if the listserv is limited to uic.edu return addresses, you will not have any problems sending email from your GoogleApps@UIC account, because the UIC gmail email accounts use your netid@uic.edu email address as their return address by default.

However, receiving email that is sent to your netid@uic.edu at GoogleApps@UIC is not automatic, as mentioned above. See What is the email address for my GoogleApps@UIC account?.

When you need to send a message to a listserv or reply such a list, be sure to select your the proper From address from the dropdown list in the "From" field before sending any email to the listserv. Also make sure that you have selected the "Reply from the same address the message was sent to" option.

How can I find out if a listserv I'm subscribed to is open or closed?

Receiving email from a list at your GoogleApps@UIC account is no guarantee that you can send email to the list from that address.

There are many customization options for listserv lists, so each listserv list is unique. Because of this uniqueness, you will need to send a test message to individual listservs to check if they are open or closed.

If the message that you send is sent back to you with an error message, you can probably assume that the list is "closed" and you will need to use your netid@uic.edu nickname when sending a message to that list.

Of if you send an email message to a list that you belong to, which is one that you normally get copies of your posts from, then that list is also probably "closed" and you will need to use your netid@uic.edu nickname when sending a message to that list.

But it is possible to not receive a copy of your posts even if they were accepted by the listserv This is an option on your subscription to the list -- NOACK. You can check your subscription to that listserv online at the Listserv Online Tool.

If you suspect that your listserv messages are not being delivered, contact the listserv's owner.

Listserv Email Discussion Lists has more information at using Listserv lists.

You can check your UIC Listserv subscriptions online at the Listserv Online Tool.

Where can I find additional help and information?

The Google Help Center is a great resource for all questions and is updated often. The Google Apps Help Forum also hosts current conversations about known issues.

2011-3-21 ACCC Consultants