Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University
Why shouldn't I send an email to a group of people by cut-and-pasting a list of their addresses into my email client's 'To' field?
All the recipients will see the entire list. This is inelegant, and a security flaw. You should send the email to yourself, with the list of addresses pasted into your email client's 'BCC' field. That way your recipients will not see the entire list of people you are addressing.
Can I read my ANU email outside the ANU, at home, for example, or when I'm travelling?
Yes. The easiest way is with ANUMail, but it's not hard to configure an email client, such as ThunderBird or Outlook.
ANUMail
Open a web browser and connect to: http://anumail.anu.edu.au/ You will be invited to enter your ANU username and ANU password. Your ANU username is your employee or affiliate number, which has the form u1234567 or a1234567. Your ANU password is the password you use for email, web cache, and HORUS access.
Configuring an email client
The relevant settings are:
- Username: this has the form
u1234567ora1234567(your ANU 'u' or 'a' number) - Password: your ANU password, which you use for HORUS, webcache, and your ANU email
- Mail Host (your incoming mail server):
anumail.anu.edu.au - Server Type: IMAP (don't use the alternative, POP)
Your outgoing mail server, for sending mail, is the name of your internet service provider's smtp server. This will depend on your ISP. BigPond's is, for example: mail.bigpond.com. Ask your ISP.
I hear that ANUMail uses IMAP. What's that?
When I send you an email it goes to your account on the the ANU mailserver, called anumail.anu.edu.au. You then have two different ways of reading it. The POP method, probably the most widely used, downloads the mail to your own machine for you to read there. With IMAP your mail is not automatically removed from the server when you read it. It stays on the server and can read the same mail again sitting at a different computer. Your mailboxes will look the same at the ANU and off-campus.
How do I delete an IMAP message?
In two stages. First mark the messages for deletion, then purge the marked messages.
- Click on the message in the message list.
- On the Toolbar click the delete button, or press the delete key.
- From the 'Edit' menu, select 'Purge Deleted Messages'.
How can I save an IMAP message onto my local machine?
I got a message saying that pophost had timed out the connection. What's wrong?
Pophost, also known as 'anumail', is the University machine that delivers your email. The timeout message means that it is either out to lunch completely or running slow. There's nothing wrong with your machine and there's nothing you can do. Try again later.
What can I do about spam?
Your email address is a public mailbox into which just about anyone can drop just about anything. Spam is the stuff you don't want. It's hard to block because it is very difficult to separate legitimate email from unsolicited junk.
Members of the Faculty who believe that they may be able to configure their email client to filter the rubbish before it reaches their Inbox should read the FAQ at: http://doi.anu.edu.au/sds/SpamFAQ.asp and the Outlook how-to at: http://its.anu.edu.au/email/outlook.html
Set your filtering rules carefully or you may lose mail you really want to see..
I received a bounced-mail message, but I hadn't sent the mail. What's going on?
Email addresses are frequently harvested and used by spammers. Do not assume that an email from 'John.Smith@somewhere.com' has come from John Smith, and do not expect that people receiving an email that bears your address as sender can be confident that it has been sent by you.
Unless you are sure that the mail really is from the purported sender trash it. It's junk.
Why can't I send mail from the ANU off campus?
For security reasons, if you're off campus, you won't be able to send mail from the outgoing ANU mail server smtphost.anu.edu.au
Incoming mail, which you collect with your 'a' or 'u' number from the ANU server anumail.anu.edu.au, is OK; outgoing mail should be sent via your ISP mail host. If you use BigPond, for example, your outgoing (smtp) mail server is mail.bigpond.com
This doesn't apply to mail sent and received via the ANU web mail interface. If you open:
you should be able to send and receive mail there.