Frequently Asked Questions - Email
1. How do I use the web interface for email?
You may check your email from any computer on the Internet that has a web browser. There is nothing else to install or set up. Use the web browser to visit www.cune.org and click the link to Check Email. Enter your username (e.g., John.Doe) and password. Don't forget the period separating your first and last name. After logging in, there are many items to explore, but you may want to start with Mail. Simply click on a word in the menu at the top of the screen to use that feature. Click Logout when you are done.
2. May I choose the sections displayed on the initial email page?
Yes. Click Preferences at the top of the page, and then click the Main tab if it is not selected. Click on an item in the Selected box, and then click << to move it to the Unselected box. That removes the section from the main page. Do the opposite to display a section on the main page. You may also change the number of new messages that are displayed on the opening page.
3. Is there protection against junk email and viruses?
Strict anti-spam and anti-virus measures are in place. This should dramatically reduce the amount of spam you receive and reduce the risk of an email virus to nearly zero. Even though the risk of an email virus is extremely low, you should still use up to date virus checking software on your personal computer. You should also be cautious about signing up for offers on the Internet, because your address may be shared or sold to others. It is generally recommended to not send a "please remove me" request to an address in a questionable message. Sending a message only confirms an active address for a spammer.
4. May I change the name used for my email address?
Yes, within certain limits. You may request that a common form of your first name be used for your email address (e.g., your name is Jonathan.Doe but everyone knows you as Jon.Doe). You may request a change to your last name because of marriage. Send a message from your account to email@cune.org and request that your name be changed. Email sent to the old address will still be delivered to your mailbox to give you time to notify family and friends. Email that you send will use your new address.
Nicknames (e.g., "Spike") and titles or rank (e.g., Dr., Professor, Pastor, Sister, Captain, etc.) may not be included in the email address. However, they may be used in the real name information. Click Mail in the menu at the top of the screen and click Prefs (not Preferences). Enter your name and related information in the Your Real Name box. Then click the Update Preferences button at the bottom of the screen to save the changes.
5. May I use my own program to send/receive email?
Yes, you may use a program such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, Eudora and others to send and receive email using your account on www.cune.org. Please consult your program documentation to determine how to configure it. Assume that the account name is John.Doe. The following information may be required at some point in the configuration.
| Email address: | John.Doe@cune.org |
| Protocol: | IMAP (not POP3) |
| Incoming mail server: | www.cune.org |
| Outgoing (SMTP) server: | www.cune.org |
By default, most programs check for new email every 30 minutes. If you change the interval, it should be at least 5 minutes or longer. Computers that check email more frequently degrade the performance for everyone and may be blocked from accessing the server.
6. Why is email returned to the sender?
There are a number of reasons why email might be returned. The most common situations will be described here.
Wrong Address
A frequent reason for a returned
message is that the sender mistyped the email address. For example, it is
easy to confuse cune.org with cune.edu or to forget the period separating the
first and last name. A solution is for you to send a
message to that person and ask them to reply to your message. Since a
reply automatically fills the To: box with your address, your address should be
correct. An example error message is
550 <JohnDoe@cune.org>: User unknown in virtual mailbox table
Full Mailbox
A message will be returned to the sender if your mailbox is full. While
the space for storing email on www.cune.org is much larger than most other email
providers, messages can quickly add up, especially if you are on an active
mailing list and/or if messages contain pictures or other large
attachments. The solution is for you to remove old messages to make room
for new messages. See the questions "How do I delete old mail?"
and "How do I manage folders?" for more information. An example
error message is
maildir over quota
Message Too Large
At the time of this writing, there is a maximum size of 10MB per incoming
message. If you need to send a message that is larger than that, look at
the Email section of this FAQ for questions about attachment size for
ideas of getting your information to the recipient. An example error
message is
552 Message size exceeds fixed limit
Dangerous Attachment
A message might be returned to the sender, because it contains a potentially
dangerous attachment. For further information, check the Email section of
this FAQ for questions related to attachment names. An example error
message is
554 Attachment name "play.exe" may not end with ".exe"
Restricted Address
Spammers and computers infected by email viruses forge the sender address of
an email message. Some addresses like GetRichQuick@hotmail.com, for
example, are forged
so frequently that Concordia email servers will not accept such email unless it
is sent directly from hotmail.com servers. If you are the sender and are
seeing such a message, go to the web site of your email provider and send your
message from there. An example error message is
554 Email from yahoo.com must be sent from yahoo.com servers
Sender Address Verification
It is common for a spammer to use a fictitious or temporary email address. A message will be
returned if the remote server does not verify that the sender's address
exists and is working. If there is a problem, such as there is no such
account or the mailbox is
full (common signs of spammers), the email is not accepted. If the
mailbox is full, the
solution is for the sender to delete old messages. If the account cannot
be confirmed, the solution is for the sender to contact
their ISP or system administrator and request that the servers be configured to confirm the existence of
the sender's email account. Assume that email arrives from someone@example.com,
and the remote server mail.example.com is asked to verify the sender.
Example error messages are
554 <someone@example.com>: Sender address rejected:
undeliverable address:
host mail.example.com[12.34.56.78] said:
550 Account is
over quota
554 <someone@example.com>: Sender address rejected:
undeliverable address:
host mail.example.com[12.34.56.78] said:
551 not our customer
554 <someone@example.com>: Sender address rejected: undeliverable address:
host mail.example.com[12.34.56.78] said:
501 bogus mail from (in reply to MAIL FROM command)
554 <someone@example.com>: Sender address rejected:
undeliverable address:
connect to mail.example.com[12.34.56.78]: Connection refused
Realtime Black List (RBL)
A message might be returned if the computer attempting to deliver the
message is on one of several Realtime Black Lists (RBLs) maintained by
various sites on the Internet. An RBL lists computers
that send spam (junk email), computers that are misconfigured or computers that
use residential/dynamic
connections to the Internet. Example error messages are
554 Service unavailable;
Client host [12.34.56.78] blocked using blackholes.easynet.nl;
Blacklisted by easynet.nl DNSBL - http://blackholes.easynet.nl/errors.html
554 Service unavailable;
Client host [12.34.56.78] blocked using dynablock.easynet.nl;
Dynamic/Residential IP range listed by easynet.nl
DynaBlock - http://dynablock.easynet.nl/errors.html
554 Service unavailable;
Sender address [someone@example.com] blocked using dsn.rfc-ignorant.org;
Not supporting null originator (DSN)
If you have a residential or dynamic (i.e., non-static IP address) connection to the Internet, the solution is to configure your email server to forward outgoing email to your ISP's email servers for delivery.
For other RBLs, your ISP or system administrator should correct the problem with their email servers and then visit the RBL web site given in the error message to request removal and retesting of the servers. Concordia University has no association with the sites that maintain RBLs except to consult the lists. Your ISP or system administrator will need to contact the RBL site directly. As soon as the server is removed from the RBL, email will automatically be accepted at Concordia University, again. You do not need to contact us.
Noncompliant Server
A message may be returned if the computer delivering the message does not follow
the protocol for sending and receiving email (typical of an infected computer or
open proxy). For example, you might see
an error message about the HELO name your email server is providing. The
solution is for your ISP or email administrator to configure the server as
described in the specifications for the email protocol. Example error messages are
554 HELO name [98.76.54.32] is not a fully qualified name
554 HELO name [192.168.1.254] is a bogus address
554 HELO name [12.34.56.89] does not match client address 12.34.56.78
Action To Take
The error message returned to you contains the
description of the error condition. If you do not understand the error,
contact your ISP or system administrator for assistance. In almost all cases,
they are the only ones who can correct the problem. Some software (e.g.,
early versions of Microsoft products) removes the original error message and inserts a more
"user friendly" but useless error message like "Unknown
user", regardless of the actual cause of the problem. Contact your
ISP or system administrator about upgrading or configuring the software to leave the
original error message intact.
Further Questions
If you have questions, you may send email to "postmaster (-at-) cune
(-dot-) edu"
(with the proper symbols). Plain text email sent to that address should always be
accepted, even if the message would normally be blocked due to anti-spam
measures. Please do not send attachments. If your questions are about a returned message, include a copy
of the error message with complete email headers. If that information is
not available, include a description of the problem, the date on which it
occurred and, if different from your message, the email address of the sender.
Ideally, the problem should have occurred in the last 24 hours or, at the most, within the
last 3 days. Investigating older messages may not be productive if the problem
was transient.
7. Why do I see the error "Mail from cune.org must be sent from cune.org servers"?
I am sending a message from a web siteThe From: address in the message should be the address at www.FunCards.com used to send the message. For example, it could be something like From: Deliveries@FunCards.com or From: NewCard@FunCards.com. Instead, such sites often forge the From: address, using your email address.
Forging the From: address is a tactic commonly used by computer viruses and spammers to evade safeguards and to trick you into opening the message, because it looks like it was sent by a friend. If a message arrives from the Internet that claims to have been sent from someone at Concordia, the message is not accepted, and it will have the error shown above.
The solution is for these sites to send email with a proper From: address. An alternative is to copy the URL for the web page yourself and paste it into email that you send to your friend from your account. If you sent email through a web site and received an error message, you might have another option. If the error message contains an attachment with the original content, open the attachment and simply forward it to your friend yourself.
On a side note, be careful about entering your email address at web sites that offer this "free" service. Your address might be sold or shared with others, or you may receive "offers" from this site later.
I'm using a program on my computer to access emailIf your software is correctly configured, the error message above may indicate that your computer is not authorized to send email. To correct this problem, check for new email before sending email. That's it. If you happen to send email without checking first, your message may be placed in the outgoing mailbox. Simply check for new email and then select the menu option in your program that synchronizes or sends waiting email.
Why do you have to check before sending? When your computer checks for new email, it (transparently) logs in with your username and password. This identifies you and authorizes your computer to send email as well as read it. Until you have identified yourself, our severs will not deliver email for you. Most software is configured by default to check for new email every 30 minutes when it is running. That will automatically refresh the authorization every 30 minutes. When you close your email program, the authorization expires.
8. Why do I see the error "'abc@xyz.com' is not a valid Concordia address"?
This may happen when using a program such as Outlook Express or Netscape Mail instead of the web interface. The error message indicates that the program you are using is trying to send email with a From: address that is not your official Concordia email address. This is a configuration problem with your program. Consult the documentation and then configure your program to use your cune.org email address as described elsewhere in this FAQ.
9. Why do I see the error "Attachment name 'funnystuff.exe' may not end with '.exe'"?
There are two general kinds of attachments. They are program attachments and document attachments. Document attachments include pictures and word processing documents. The danger from a document attachment is relatively low. A program attachment, on the other hand, is the primary method email viruses use to infect your computer. There is hardly ever any need for a person to receive a program attachment. Therefore, email with a program attachment is rejected with an error message like the one above. Names of program attachments that are unacceptable end with ".bat", ".com", ".eml", ".exe", ".url" and ".vbs", among others.
If only the text of the attachment is important, copy the text and paste it into your message. In the rare situation that you need to send a program attachment, we suggest that you first compress the file (e.g., with a ZIP program) and then add the compressed file to the message as an attachment. This produces a document attachment. The recipient would save and uncompress the attachment to obtain the original file. Note that delivery may be delayed up to a full day for compressed attachments containing programs. They will first be placed in quarantine for period of time, scanned for viruses and then delivered if nothing harmful is found.
10. How do I delete old email?
Go to www.cune.org, click Check Email and login. Then click Mail at the top of the page. Before deleting email, you may want to print a message for future reference or save an attachment, such as a picture, on your computer.
To the left of the page you will see all of your mail folders listed under MailBox. The current folder is displayed in the Folders: box above that. There are two ways to delete a message. If you can tell which messages to delete by the subject, check the box on the far right for each of those messages. Then click the Delete Selected button at the bottom of the page. If the messages remain but have a trash can icon next to them, you will need to click Empty Trash, as well. If you are not able to tell from the subject, click the subject to the view the entire message. Then either click Delete at the top of the page to delete that message or click Back to INBOX to view the list of messages, again.
Go through the same process with each of the folders to delete old messages. You may select a folder from the left by either clicking its name under INBOX or by selecting the name from the Folders: box and then clicking Go. If you do not see a folder that you know is there, read the section "How do I manage folders?" Note that, by default, a copy of each message you send is placed in the sent-mail folder, and a large number of messages can collect over time.
Initially, the Trash folder is configured to keep your deleted messages for up to 7 days. This is a safety feature so that if you change your mind, you can go to the Trash folder and move the message to another folder. Messages in your Trash folder count against your mailbox size, because the messages take up space. If you are near your mailbox quota and you just deleted a large number of messages, you should go to the Trash folder and delete messages yourself instead of waiting for them to be automatically removed.
11. How do I manage folders?
After logging in, click Mail at the top of the page. Then click Folder Management at the top of the page. You may add a folder, delete a folder and rename a folder. Limit folder names to letters, digits, dashes and spaces. You may move folders between the unsubscribed and subscribed list by clicking the name to select it and the clicking the arrows. You will usually want all of your folders to be subscribed. Subscribed folders are listed to the left on the Mail page, permitting you to click the folder name to see the messages in that folder or to move messages to and from that folder. Unsubscribing a folder hides the name from the list of folder names on the Mail page.
To see the number of messages in a folder and the amount of space being used, click Folder Management and then click Folder Overview at the top of the page. You may click a folder name on the left to go directly to that folder to do further work.
12. How do I automatically forward my email to another address?
People are encouraged to forward their other email accounts to cune.org, because the address is more professional-looking, the size limit of the mailbox is probably much larger and features like virus scanning and spam blocking are included. If you prefer to read your email elsewhere, however, follow these steps. Login, click Mail at the top of the page, click Prefs (not Preferences) and enter your destination address (e.g., jdoe@example.com) in the Forward Address: textbox. Be careful to type the correct forwarding address. Otherwise, email could be lost. Then click the Update Preferences button at the bottom of the page. All incoming email will now be forwarded to the new address. If you would like a copy of the message to remain on cune.org and a copy to be sent to another address, enter both addresses separated by a comma (e.g. "John.Doe@cune.org, jdoe@example.com" without the quotes). To test that forwarding is working correctly, send yourself a message and check that it arrived at the intended destination.
13. How large can an attachment be?
The maximum size of an attachment is listed on the web page when composing a message. The maximum size of the complete message may not exceed 10MB at the time this information is being written. If your attachment is larger than that, you are using the wrong tool for the job. Most mailboxes at other sites are only a couple of MB total. Don't be rude. Sending a large attachment could fill someone's mailbox and prevent them from receiving additional email.
Some alternatives are
14. Why can't others open my word processing attachment?
There are several possibilities why someone can't open a word processing attachment that you sent. The solution may require some investigation and experimentation on your part.
The most common reason why someone can't open your attachment is because each of you is using a word processor from a different company. When you save a document normally, it is saved in a special format designed by that company. That format may not be readable by any other program. For all practical purposes, it's like you typing in Russian and the other person can only read French. Even if the other person could open the document, the contents would look like nonsense.
Fortunately, many word processors today already recognize a variety of document types. If you received the attachment, save the attachment to the desktop, open the word processor, go to the File menu, select Open..., navigate to the document and see if the word processor will open and correctly display the document. If it does, there is nothing else that you need to do. Otherwise, read on.
A simple solution is to avoid the attachment altogether by copying the contents of the document and pasting it directly into email. However, that does not preserve formatting (e.g., boldface, underline, margins, etc.). You might also want to send the information as a separate document because it is easier to handle.
Before you send an attachment to someone, you should first agree on a common format that works for both of you. Then, save your document in that format before you send it. Consult the documentation and online help for your software to determine how to do that. In general, you would open the document, go to the File menu and select Save As... A dialog box will appear where you can change the name of the document as well as select the format or type for the document.
If the formatting of your document is not important, choose "plain text" or "text only" as the type of the document. Plain text is the common denominator. Every word processor and text editor will be able to display a plain text document. If formatting is important, a common document type recognized by many word processors is Rich Text Format. Beyond that, you will need to write down the list of available document types and compare that with the list of formats available in the other person's word processor.
Sending attachments between Windows and Macintosh computers presents an additional challenge. Besides the different word processors, document names are important. Document names on Macintosh computers are allowed to have special characters that Windows will not recognize. To avoid problems, limit document names to letters and digits.
Windows document names require an extension, but Macintosh computers do not. An extension is a period and 3 letters at the end of the name that indicate the type of the document. In the name FinalPaper.doc, for example, the ".doc" is the extension, and it indicates a Microsoft Word document. If a person on a Macintosh created a Microsoft Word document, for example, but did not add the expected extension to the name, the person on the Windows computer would save the attachment to the desktop, right click the document, select Rename and add ".doc" to the end of the name. Be sure to use the appropriate extension that matches the document's true type. Simply adding ".doc" to all of your attachments will not work if they are not Microsoft Word documents.
If you only need to view an attachment and not change it, you may be able to download a document viewer. For example, Microsoft offers free document viewers for Microsoft Word and some of its other products at its web site. After downloading the viewer, you will be able to open the document and see it as the other person created it.
Finally, there are two additional options to consider. The first option is to save your documents as web pages and post them on your web site. Many word processors have an option to do just that. Check the documentation for your word processor. The second option is to purchase Adobe Acrobat (or use one of the free options such as www.primopdf.com) to save your document as a PDF. Others may download the free Adobe Reader to view the PDF.