FAQ - Email: Using Your Email-Only Account on Mailserv

Table of Contents Mailserv Frequently Asked Questions Who can get mailserv accounts? How do I open a mailserv account? What does a mailserv account give me? What doesn't a mailserv account give me that a "UNIX account" on tigger or icarus does? I already have an account on tigger or icarus. May I also have an account on mailserv? How do I move my email from my ACCC UNIX account to my new mailserv account? Can I use pine on tigger or icarus to read my mailserv email? How? How do I change my password on mailserv? How much email can I keep on mailserv? (In other words, what's my email quota?) How do I tell how much space I'm using on mailserv? I deleted an email message that I shouldn't have. Is there any way to get it back? I have a mailbox that I want to move from mailserv to my personal computer. How can I do that? I have a mailbox that I want to move from tigger to mailserv. How can I do that? I don't see my question here. Where else can I look?

Question 1.1 Who can get mailserv accounts?

• Any member of the UIC community who needs an email account.

Question 1.2 How do I open a mailserv account?

• You first need a netid. If you don't have one, please go to the Getting a UIC Netid page to read about what it is and how you can get it.

• Once you have your netid, go to the Move to Mailserv Page. If you already have an icarus or tigger account, click the proper link at the top of the page. If you don't have either, it doesn't matter which link you click; the move to mailserv utility will open your mailserv account either way.

• If you didn't already have an ACCC account, you will neet to fill in the information required and you will need your i-card for this step.

• If you already have an icarus or tigger account, this utility will allow you to copy your existing mailbox to mailserv if you wish.

• In any case, the move to mailserv utility will take you through all the steps you need to set up your mailserv email account.

Question 1.3 What does a mailserv account give me?

• Email inbox and room for up to 100M (it can go up to as much as 200M for short periods of time) of email stored on the server.

• POP or IMAP access to your email, which is to say that you must use a remote email system, such as Eudora or WebMail, to take care of your mailserv mail.

• An ACCC account and password that you can use to login to the dialin lines, bluestem applications such as NESSIE, and in the ACCC PC labs.
• And mailserv supports SSL protection for incoming email and for your password; tigger and icarus do not.

Question 1.4 What doesn't a mailserv account give me that a "UNIX account" on tigger or icarus does?

• Space for a personal Web page.

• A "UNIX shell" account that you can use for computing-type applications, such as programming and database applications.

• pine, a login and use email program. The only real advantage to having access to pine is that you can telnet to your UNIX account when you're on the road, login, and use pine to do your email. That used to be a significant advantage, but now it's much easier to use any convenient Web browser to go to the WebMail page at https://webmail.uic.edu/src/login.php and do your email from anywhere that way.

• However, you can use pine from tigger or icarus to read your email on mailserv. The move to mailserv utility will set this up for you if you want.

Question 1.5 I already have an account on tigger or icarus. May I also have an account on mailserv?

• Yes. Moving to mailserv.uic.edu Email-Only Server explains how and has links to the Web utility.

Question 1.6 How do I move my email from my ACCC UNIX account to my new mailserv account?

• This used to be complicated, but now we have a Web utility that does this all for you.
• See Moving to mailserv.uic.edu Email-Only Server. It has a link to the utility and it explains what it does.

Question 1.7 Can I use pine on tigger or icarus to read my mailserv email? How?

• Yes, you can.
• For instructions, see Fixing Mailserv quota problems with pine.
• Note that these instructions apply to other email accounts as well.
• But if you use the Move-to-Mailserv utility, it will set pine up to read your mailserv email for your automatically if you tell it to.

Question 1.8 How do I change my password on mailserv?

• Go to the ACCC Password Change Utility page. The April/May/June 1999 issue of the A3C Connection has an article that explains how to use it.

Question 1.9 How much email can I keep on mailserv? (In other words, what's my email quota?)

• The email quota policy page explains this briefly.
• For more detailed information on disk quotas on mailserv and on how to take care of mailserv quota problems, including step-by-step instructions on how to delete email using Eudora, pine, and WebMail, see Managing Your Mailserv Email Account.

Question 1.10 How do I tell how much space I'm using on mailserv?

• You will receive an automated email message as you approach and reach your quotas. The warning message will include links to Managing Your Mailserv Email Account, which contains step-by-step instructions on how to fix your quota problem.
• Or you can check yourself and recieve up-to-the-minute information using the Email Diagnostics and Quota page. The Mailtool services for mailserv include a complete breakdown of you disk space usage.
• WebMail now has a Folder Size button that displays a table listing the total size of each of your email mailboxes and has a Size column that you can sort by in the Message Lists. So, while it would be something of a pain to find out how much you're actually using, WebMail now is a good way to find mailboxes and email messages that need to be pruned.

Question 1.11 I deleted an email message that I shouldn't have. Is there any way to get it back?

• Most email programs have options that allow you to undelete email messages that you have just deleted; see the documentation for your email program for instructions.
• If the message in question was in your ACCC UNIX Inbox or another IMAP email folder -- an email folder that's stored on the ACCC email server rather than on your personal computer -- and has been there at least overnight, it might be in the backup copy of of that email mailbox on the server.
• Send an email message explaining exactly what message/mailbox you want back and where it was (in your Inbox or another IMAP folder on mailserv) to consult@uic.edu; we might be able to get it back for you.
• Please note: We only keep the overnight backups for a short time. If you find an important message -- one that we can get back for you! -- is missing, begin working on getting it back right away!

Question 1.12 I have a mailbox that I want to move from mailserv to my personal computer. How can I do that?

• The easiest way to download a complete mailbox to your PC or Mac is to use the download and delete tools on the Email Diagnostics and Quota Tool page.
• For more information, see Downloading or Deleting Entire Mailboxes with the ACCC Email Tools Quota, Download, and Delete Page .

Question 1.13 I have a mailbox that I want to move from tigger to mailserv. How can I do that?

• The Switch to Mailserv Web utility allows you to copy tigger or icarus mailboxes to mailserv as part of the process of moving your email to mailserv.
• While Eudora will allow you to use drag-and-drop to move an entire email mailbox around on the the machine that it lives on (say, from one Eudora "folder" to another), it won't allow you drop any mailbox on a different machine. But you can create a new copy of the mailbox on the machine that you want to move the mailbox to, and then move the messages in it a few at a time. (You can drag-and-drop individual messages or a group of messages from a mailbox to any other mailbox, regardless of its location.)

Question 1.14 I don't see my question here. Where else can I look?

• See the general email FAQ.

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