Email service - What everyone needs to know

What is the name of the server that stores my email?

This should be referred to as mail?.whoi.edu where ? is replaced by the first letter of your email username. For example, if your account username is ascientist, the server you use is maila.whoi.edu, also known as your "Incoming mail server".

What is the name of my Outgoing (SMTP) mail server?

Everyone will use outbox.whoi.edu when located on WHOInet.Smart security practice dictates that only hosts with a .whoi.edu address be allowed to send outgoing email via our SMTP server. So, when you are visiting other institutions, or away from the office and using a commercial ISP (Internet Service Provider) such as AOL or Earthlink, you must send your non-WHOI bound email through the SMTP server provided by the ISP or host institution.

What else should I be aware of?

In your email preferences, under the category of Copies and Folders there are entries indicating the location for your Template, Sent mail, and Draft folder. If you wish to keep these folders on your assigned email server, these will need to point to your mail?.whoi.edu server (where ? is the first letter of your email account).

What mail clients can I use?

CIS has verified that Netscape Messenger, Outlook Express, and Eudora work with the new email system. Any email client that supports IMAP version 4 should work.

Can I have multiple mail folders and sub-folders?

Yes, we encourage you to keep your saved email messages in folders and sub-folders!

All folders are now subfolders of your Inbox. Under other mail systems, any folders that you use to store messages on the server appear at the same indentation in the list as your Inbox. With our system, you will see a + (plus sign) to the left of the Inbox folder. When you click on the +, all of your other folders will appear. Also, please note, the left frame of your Messenger window may need to be expanded to show all of your subfolders.

Special characters not allowed

There are some characters which are not allowed in the folder names by our email system. These characters are
(   )   [   ]   {   }   *   .   \   #   "   /   <   >   !   ?   $   ;   `   '   |

Acceptable characters are:
a thru z   A thru Z   0 thru 9   blank space   _   -   +   ~   @   &   =   :

Alphabetical list of ALL folders

If you are using Netscape Messenger as your mail client, you may notice that any folders whose names begin with a capital letter (for example: Drafts, Sent, Templates and Trash) are displayed in their proper alphabetical order with our server, rather than at the top of the list.

How do I make new folders?

When you want to create a new folder on the mail server, it must be created under Inbox. Windows and Unix users of Messenger right click on Inbox (Mac users, Command click) and a menu appears allowing you to create a "New Subfolder..." .

What if I have multiple email accounts?

Each email account is configured on an email server based on the initial letter of the account name. So, that if your accounts begin with different letters, you will need to enter the corresponding server name (mail?.whoi.edu based on that first letter) in your client's settings that refer to each account.

What if I have multiple computers?

Each computer that you use will need to have the preferences settings for Incoming mail server and Outgoing mail server configured. Don't forget your laptop and your home computer if they access your WHOI email.