Methods of Access

There are three possible ways to access you email: Webmail, POP and IMAP. All three of these methods can be used at the same time and you can switch back and further between them if you so choose.

POP3

POP was designed to support "offline" mail processing. In the offline paradigm, mail is delivered to a (usually shared) server, and a personal computer user periodically invokes a mail "client" program that connects to the server and downloads all of the pending mail to the user's own machine. Thereafter, all mail processing is local to the client machine. Think of the offline access mode as a kind of store-and-forward service, intended to move mail (on demand) from the mail server (drop point) to a single destination machine, usually a PC or Mac. Once delivered to the PC or Mac, the messages are then deleted from the mail server. Although the limitations of offline access have triggered interest in using POP in online mode, POP simply doesn't have some of the functionality needed for high-quality online (or disconnected) operation. Indeed, POP's "pseudo online" mode of operation, wherein client programs leave mail on the server, often depends on pervasive availability of a remote file system protocol in order for the mail client to access or update saved-message folders or message state information such as status flags.

POP is the older standard for downloading mail and our mail server supports it. It should be noted that if mail is download and removed from the server it will not be present when checked again using IMAP or Webmail.

When configuring you email client on your computer to check your email on the server you need to use the following settings:

username: <full_email_address@including_domain>
password: <as given>
hostname: <domain>

Note that the username used to access your email is your full email address as given to you by the administrator.

IMAP

IMAP can also do offline processing, but its special strength is in online and disconnected operation. In online mode, mail is again delivered to a shared server, but the mail client does not copy it all at once and then delete it from the server. It's more of an interactive client-server model, where the client can ask the server for headers, or the bodies of specified messages, or to search for messages meeting certain criteria. Messages in the mail repository can be marked with various status flags (e.g. "deleted" or "answered") and they stay in the repository until explicitly removed by the user --which may not be until a later session. In short: IMAP is designed to permit manipulation of remote mailboxes as if they were local. Depending on the IMAP client implementation and the mail architecture desired by the system manager, the user may save messages directly on the client machine, or save them on the server, or be given the choice of doing either.

IMAP is a more flexible mail protocol in that is allows the user to maintain their email on the server. This means that a user who uses IMAP to look at their email from their mail client may then use the Webmail tool to access that same email when they are not at their computer.

When configuring you email client on your computer to check your email on the server you need to use the following settings:

username: <full_email_address@including_domain>
password: <as given>
hostname: <domain>

Note that the username used to access your email is your full email address as given to you by the administrator.
If prompted for a root directory name use INBOX.

Webmail (Squirrelmail)

More information is given on Squirrelmai later in the guide.{main}