Introduction to Email at NC State

Attention: Please note the important changes regarding your email address.

• Rules, regulations and ethical Issues
• Email services at NC State
• Your Unity email address
• Email protocol requirement (IMAP)
• Storage space (email quota)
• Setting up your email
  • Webmail
  • Other email programs you can use
  • Quick setup for experienced users
• Spam, viruses and other email-borne threats
  • Set up a spam filter
• Email management
• Mobile email

Rules, regulations and ethical issues
Be sure to read NC State's email rules and regulations as well as the pages on legal and ethical issues and email etiquette.

Email services at NC State
Check out the email services that NC State offers in addition to basic email, including aliases and forwarding.

Your Unity email address
You can use either of these two formats for your Unity address:

unityid@unity.ncsu.edu
unityid@ncsu.edu

where unityid is your Unity ID; e.g. , jddoe@unity.ncsu.edu, jddoe@ncsu.edu.

This is the only email address to which official communication from the University will be sent. For more details see Your Unity Email Address. To find the address of someone on campus, see the NC State campus directory online.

Email protocol requirement (IMAP)
Any program that you choose for your campus email address must be able to use the IMAP protocol, which stores your messages on the IMAP server at the University until you delete them. For additional details, including FAQ and troubleshooting, see IMAP at NC State.

Storage space (email quota)
Your email storage space on the IMAP server is one part of the file storage space (disk quota) that you receive as a Unity account holder. See the page on personal file storage space to learn how much you have and how to re-allocate it to provide more for email. If you've used all your assigned space, you can rent more for email (see the page on Quota Allocation).
NOTE: Keep in mind that messages stored in your Trash folder are still counted as your email quota until you purge them from the system. To ensure that you don't exceed your quota, empty your Trash folder regularly. If you happen to go over quota and find that you can't delete any messages, see the procedure for resolving this situation.

Setting up your email
NOTE: You do not need to configure the email software in Unity Labs.

• Webmail
  Webmail, the primary email program used at NC State, is automatically set up for all Unity accounts created during or after Fall 2000. With Webmail you can access your email from anywhere on the Internet, provided you have a compatible Web browser. For example, you can read a message from a computer lab workstation on campus and then read it again, if you wish, from your personal computer at home or in a residence hall.
  • To get started with Webmail or to learn more about it, see the Webmail Tutorial.
  • To log in to your email, go to http://webmail.ncsu.edu.
    
    
• Other email programs you can use
  If all you want to use is Webmail, you do not need to set up any other email software. Some browsers have their own internal email readers, and there are email programs such as Thunderbird that you can use in addition to Webmail if you prefer. Be sure that the one you want to use will work with the IMAP protocol. To get started with one of these, see ResNet's Email Setup guide for your particular operating system and email program.
  
  
• Quick setup for experienced users
  If you are already familiar with setting up your email software and need only the host names required for accessing Unity resources, the following table provides them.
  
  

Spam, viruses and other email-borne threats
Email now carries an increasing variety of spam, viruses and other threats such as phishing attempts. Make sure that you stay informed and protect yourself from them.

Email management
For some helpful tips, see the page on organizing and using email effectively.

Mobile email
For information about email on mobile devices, see http://www.ncsu.edu/mobile/.

Last updated on May 21, 2008 by cawalker