FAQ - Email: Using WebMail

Table of Contents WebMail Frequently Asked Questions I can't login to webmail, I keep getting ERROR: Unknown user or password incorrect Is it OK to use WebMail and another email program at the same time? What does Fix INBOX do? I sent an message with WebMail, but got an error message about not being able to save it in my sent-mail mailbox. Was it sent? What happened? I tried to send a message with WebMail, but got an error message: "Transaction Failed." Was it sent? What happened? Beware of the DELETE button! Where are all my folders? Not usually a question anymore. Addressbook problems? Problems getting timed out. I typed a long message, and I accidentally closed the window without sending it. Am I sunk? People say they aren't getting the attachments I sent them with Webmail. Help! Internet Explorer 7 Does Not Work Correctly with UIC Webmail

Question 1.1 I can't login to webmail, I keep getting ERROR: Unknown user or password incorrect

• Are you sure you have a UIC email account?

• An email account is not the same as an email address, if you have email from yournetid@uic.edu delivered to somewhere other than the UIC servers, tigger, icarus or mailserv, you cannot use Webmail. Please use whatever means you'd normally use to read that delivery email address.

• If you want to setup an email account visit here
  http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/home/ACCTS.html and click on Accounts - Open an ACCC Account
  then go here
  http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/home/EMAIL.html and click on Email - Change netid@uic.edu email forwarding address
  to redirect your netid@UIC.edu email address to your new account.

  Note: Students can use either the icarus or mailserv systems, icarus is the student shell and Web server. Mailserv is dedicated purely to email and assigns more space per person, so you are better off using mailserv for email.

• Still can't login?

Question 1.2 Is it OK to use WebMail and another email program at the same time?

• That depends on what you mean by the same time.

• If you mean, Can I have WebMail and Eudora open at the same time? Then no, please don't. It will cause various problems, the most common of which is that your mailboxes will be read-only in one or the other programs. On a related note, please be sure to log out of your account when you are done using WebMail. (There is a Sign Out link in the upper right corner of the screen.)

• If you mean, Can I use WebMail to read my email when I'm at home and, say, Eudora when I'm on campus? Then yes, you can.

• There used to be a caveat, which does not apply anymore: since WebMail uses IMAP, if you're going to use Eudora (or Netscape or Outlook) with WebMail, you should have Eudora (or Netscape or Outlook) set up to use IMAP rather than POP. The reason that this doesn't apply anymore is that the ACCC has upgraded the POP servers on mailserv, icarus, and tigger, and the new POP servers are compatible with the IMAP servers on the same machines.

• The ACCC still recommends that people use IMAP, for other reasons, such as the ability to see your email from multiple locations. Eudora Email for Macs and Windows has instructions on how to set up and use Eudora with IMAP. While the specific instructions in the page won't be useful if you want to convert Netscape or Outlook to use IMAP, it does have all the information that you'll need to set them up to use IMAP.

Question 1.3 What does Fix INBOX do?

• There is an option in webmail called Thread View, you may have noticed it in the grey box, under the drop down folder selection, that normally reads INBOX. It's an innocent enough looking link, but it performs a very powerful function

• Thread sorting is where messages with the same Subject line are grouped together forming a thread. Normally the original message, and all subsequent replies form the thread.

• However occasionally someone clicks it by accident and thinks suddenly they have lost all their messages. Even less frequently, if someone with an extrememly large mailbox clicks it, then logs out. Next time they attempt to login, the server times out trying to sort all their messages into a thread. In these rare cases, the user has no way to switch off the thread view, as the right pane does not display, only the left pane is present. So in order to service these users, we have added an Unthread option to the left pane, it only works on the INBOX, and it returns it to the default sort state.

• Those legitimate users of thread sorting, feel free to just ignore it. We have to have it, and we can't switch it off for you, we need it for those that enable thread sorting by accident.

Question 1.4 I sent an message with WebMail, but got an error message about not being able to save it in my sent-mail mailbox. Was it sent? What happened?

• Yes, your message was sent. But it wasn't saved in your sent-mail mailbox.
• Your disk quota is full.
• If your email account is on tigger or icarus, your "personal disk space" is separate from your Inbox email quota and can fill up separately. The other mailboxes you keep on the server -- including your WebMail deleted and sent-mail mailboxes -- apply to your disk quota.
• If your email account is on mailserv, your disk space quota and email quota are the same, but going over quota will still have the same effect.
• Check your quotas with Email Quota Tool, which reports both email and disk quotas.
• If you are over disk quota, try purging the messages in your deleted folder. (The deleted folder is automatically emptied when you logout and when you login, but on tigger and icarus you can fill up your disk space while deleting email. This wouldn't happen on mailserv.)
• If that doesn't do it, try again with your sent-mail folder, which can get very large after a while.
• If your email account is on tigger or icarus, you should also check your other stored files, including your personal Web pages, because they contribute to your personal disk space also.
• There is more information and instructions on how to tell WebMail not to move deleted email messages into the deleted folder -- which will allow you to delete messages even if you are over quota -- in these Web pages:
  • How to Fix tigger and icarus Quota Problems with Webmail
  • How to Fix mailserv Quota Problems with Webmail

Question 1.5 I tried to send a message with WebMail, but got an error message: "Transaction Failed." Was it sent? What happened?

• No, it was not sent.
• There is increasing problem with spammers stealing passwords and then using UIC Webmail accounts to send spam. The message you are trying to send has two charateristics of that spam:
  • Being sent from off the UIC campus.
  • Being addressed to 200 or more people.


• We apologize for the inconvenience, and we recognize that there may be legitimate reasons for you to send this message.


• There are several alternatives that you can consider.
  • You could send your bulk messages while you are on the UIC campus; spammers don't normally come to campus to do their dirty work.
  • You could use VPN software while you are off-campus to be virtually on-campus. For more information, see ACCC Virtual Private Network.
  • You could split up messages sent from off-campus into batches with than 200 recipients.
  • You can consider using a Listserv list or another kind of mass communication for your messages. For more information, go to http://www.accc.uic.edu and click on the violet EMAIL button. You may also find our Announce system valuable; see the "UIC Announce" on the same page.
  
  
• If you have questions, send a note to us at consult@uic.edu.

Question 1.6 Beware of the DELETE button!

• In the production version of the new SquirrelMail Webmail, we are going back to something that works almost like deletion worked in the old Webmail: When you delete something, it goes into your deleted mailbox.

• You can undelete messages using the copy of the message in the deleted mailbox, but only during the Webmail session that you deleted the message in.

• By default, Webmail deletes all messages in your deleted mailbox when you log out.

• If you set your Trash Folder to [Do not use Trash], then any messages that you delete will be completely deleted when you delete them. There will be no chance to undelete them.

• This is also the case when you are over your disk quota. If you are over your disk quota, you don't have disk space to save a copy of your deleted message in your deleted folder, so WebMail will delete it without saving a copy and without telling you it has not done so.

• WebMail will automatically begin saving copies of your deleted email again as soon as there is disk space for it.

Question 1.7 Where are all my folders? Not usually a question anymore.

• It used to be that you had to "subscribe" to your folders in order for them to appear in your folder list.
  
  
• Because the vast majority of WebMail users want to have all the mailboxes in their mail directory subscribed in WebMail, we now have a plugin that subscribes to them for you.
  
  
• The side effect of this plugin is that you can't unsububscribe to any folders in your mail directory anymore -- it would just be automatically resubscribed the next time you logged back in. If you want to get rid of a mailbox in your mail directory, you'll have to delete it. Sorry.
  
  
• There is one instance where Webmail might not find a directory, however. Webmail only looks for mail folders in the "mail" directory, whereas other email client programs like Eudora/Outlook might store them in your home directory. We recommend that you use Eudora/Outlook to move all your folders from your home directory to your mail directory. That way will always be able to access and manipulate your folders no matter which email program you use.
• If you have tried subscribing to your folders and that doesn't work, send a note to systems@uic.edu and tell us what your IMAP prefix is set to.

Question 1.8 Addressbook problems?

• Where is my old addressbook?

  If you had an addressbook on the old Webmail, we transferred it to the new Webmail.

• Can I transfer my Webmail addressbook to and from other email programs?

  See our Addressbook Conversion Tool.

• I can't compose messages to people in my addressbook.

  Make sure that you use the ADDRESSES button just below the SUBJECT, do NOT use the ADDRESSES link at the top of the page in this case.

• The problem with the wandering Use Addresses button when you have long lists in your addressbook has been fixed in the production version.

Question 1.9 Problems getting timed out.

• Timeout Issues / Webmail is Slow / Webmail Freezes on Login

• Your INBOX may be too large

  With the new enlarged quotas available for email, especially on mailserv, some people are letting their INBOX get a little out of hand. Each mailfolder, including your INBOX, is stored as a single file on the server. Each time the server has to read a message, or delete a message, or read the subjects of the messages, the entire file has to be loaded into memory and scanned.

  Messages with large attachments are usually the root cause of the problem. Either delete messages with large attachments after you have downloaded the attachment, or create separate folders to store these large messages in.

  Sort your INBOX by size to see if there are any large messages that you can delete, and click Folder Size to see whether you have any other large mailboxes.

  You will be amazed at the difference in speed you will see if you trim down your mailboxes. You can have thousands of messages in your INBOX, without trouble, but add one message with a large attachment and suddenly your email system crawls.

• Our general rule of thumb is, keep each mailfolder under 25MB.

  If your INBOX is under 25MB and you are still having problems, open a problem ticket by sending an email to systems@uic.edu.

Question 1.10 I typed a long message, and I accidentally closed the window without sending it. Am I sunk?

• No, your message was saved to be sent by you later. Simply login again and click on COMPOSE. Webmail will then ask you if you want to continue the interrupted message.

  Caveat 1) Since the message is saved in a cookie, the size is limited by how large a cookie the browser will hold, which may vary from browser to browser. In Netscape, for example, it only holds about 2000 characters.

  Caveat 2) Since the message is saved in a cookie, this will only work if you login again FROM THE SAME COMPUTER you used to type in the message in the first place.

  Caveat 3) The cookie also has a time limit of an hour, after which it expires and will be removed.

• Thus you need to retrieve your message as soon as possible from the same computer. If you want to save it to send later, use the SAVE DRAFT button.

Question 1.11 People say they aren't getting the attachments I sent them with Webmail. Help!

• Eudora for Windows does have a problem receiving some of the attachments sent by Squirrel Webmail, but this is not really a Squirrel Webmail problem.

• It is a Eudora for Windows problem, because all the other email programs we tried, including Eudora for Macs, handled them without difficulty. In Eudora for Windows' defense, the browser probably set a inappropriate MIME type, but how bad could it be if the other email programs, including Eudora for Macs, could handle it?

• In Eudora for Windows, these messages sometimes look like they have attachments; they always are way bigger than they should be if they didn't have an attachment.

• The solution for this problem is for the recipient to open these messages in Webmail.

• Note this isn't just a Webmail problem; this appears to be a general Web email problem. Someone reported a similar problem with a gmail message.

Question 1.12 Internet Explorer 7 Does Not Work Correctly with UIC Webmail

• Any version of Internet Explorer 7 prior to beta version 3 does not work reliably with WebMail. There have been reports of various problems with Internet Explorer 7 using UIC Webmail, mainly related to users logging in and being told they need to login again.

• This appears to be fixed in Internet Explorer Beta 3.
• The ACCC recommends that you do not use Internet Explorer in general; use Firefox instead.

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