CISE :: Help : Mail : Gmail

CISE Help & Resources

Gmail

Gmail is a free e-mail service provided by Google, with a web-based mail client, whose quick, robust, and intuitive interface makes it a popular choice among webmail users. As of February 2008, Gmail offers each user over 6 gigabytes of free storage, with just over 3 megabytes added each day. Gmail also supports advanced mail labeling and filtering, spam control, contact management, instant messaging, and a growing list of other useful features. For more information, see Google's Gmail page, or Wikipedia's Gmail article.

Accessing Your CISE Mail Through Gmail

Currently, Gmail does not support direct IMAP access to another mail server, so it cannot be used to manipulate the actual contents of your CISE mail directory, like SquirrelMail does. However, with some minor setup, you can use Gmail to send and receive from your CISE email address. The following steps will guide you through the process.

Obtain a Gmail account: Visit gmail.com, and click Create an account. Follow the instructions to create your gmail account. You can choose any username you would like.
Modify your new Gmail account: Once your new account is activated, you must configure it to send mail as username@cise.ufl.edu.
- Return to gmail.com, and sign in to your account.
- Click Settings in the top-right corner of the page.
- Under the Accounts tab, click Add another email address.
- Enter your name and your full CISE email address in the resulting popup window, and follow the instructions to add that address. This step ensures that you will be able to send mail through Gmail with your CISE email address listed as the sender.
Forward your CISE mail to your Gmail account: There are two ways to accomplish this: Fetching and Forwarding. Refer to the following two sections for information and instructions.

Fetching Your Mail

You can use Gmail's Mail Fetcher to automatically transfer your incoming mail from the CISE mail server to your Gmail inbox. This option requires less initial setup and provides easier modifcation because it is handled entirely through your Gmail account settings.

The downside to this option is that your incoming mail delivery may be delayed. This is due to the fact that Mail Fetcher retrieves new mail by periodically polling the CISE server to see if new mail has arrived.

To use this method, follow Google's online instructions: Setting up Mail Fetcher with the following options:

POP Server: use mail.cise.ufl.edu
Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server: checked
Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail: checked

Forwarding Your Mail

By using this option, you are essentially telling the CISE mail server to forward all incoming email to your Gmail address. This means that each incoming email will be available in Gmail as it arrives, rather than batched together at intervals with the previous option.

The downside to this method is that you will not be abe to transfer your old mail to Gmail. This can be overcome by using a hybrid approach: by first setting up Gmail to fetch your old mail, and then disabling Mail Fetcher and using the forwarding method described below.

To use forwarding, follow the instructions below:

Using Windows:
1. Click Start, and then click Run to bring up Download and place it.
2. In Open, type: notepad H:\.forward and click OK.
3. If a warning box appears, click Yes to create a new file.
4. In Notepad on a single line, type your gmail email address:
```
foobar@gmail.com
```
5. If you would like to leave copies of your incoming emails on your CISE account, add a comma followed by your CISE email address:
```
foobar@gmail.com, USER@cise.ufl.edu
```
6. Save and close Notepad.
Using Linux:
1. Open or create the .forward file in your home directory with the editor of your choice.
2. In your editor on a single line, type your gmail address:
```
foobar@gmail.com
```
3. If you would like to leave copies of your incoming emails on your CISE account, add a comma followed by your CISE email address:
```
foobar@gmail.com, USER@cise.ufl.edu
```
4. Save and close the file

Sending mail through Gmail

If you chose to use gmail to send mail as your CISE user, make sure to follow the server settings at: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/help/email/#send

Important Considerations

If you choose to leave copies of incomming email on your CISE account, you are still responsible for maintaining your quotas. Deleting an item in Gmail does not delete the duplicate item in your CISE account.
Email sent from Gmail will not be stored in your CISE account.
Gmail-specific information, such as read/unread flags, labels, and stars, will not be visible from your CISE account.

Computer and Information Science and Engineering

University of Florida