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Email Help

Facts about WebMail (IMP) and Pine on Omega

Student accounts reside on Omega (omega.med.yale.edu). Omega is a unix machine which offers Pine as the email package. For students who would prefer a web interface to Pine, the email package is WebMail.

For students who have Netscape Messenger or Eudora installed on their personal machine (ie., laptop or home computer), Omega can be accessed via IMAP or POP. [When you're at the Medical School, you can still access mail on the public machines via Pine or WebMail.]

Both Pine and WebMail offer the same basic features:

  • Sending mail
  • Receiving mail
  • Folders (for message storage)
  • Printing messages
  • Reply/Reply to all/Forward
  • Address Books

.

Some ways they differ:
  • Pine requires telnet to be installed; WebMail requires a web browser.
  • Pine is text-based; WebMail is a graphic, point and click environment.

Things to consider:

  • Because Pine is a text-based package, some of the commands are arcane.
  • Attachments are particularly difficult in Pine.
  • Attachments are relatively easy in WebMail.
  • Attachments are really easy with Netscape Messenger or Eudora.
  • Switching between the two packages is relatively easy; all messages and folders appear in either place, if you use IMAP.
  • Address books are problematic. It stays with whatever package it was created in.
  • WebMail 'contacts' (aka address book) is a less robust product at this point. You can't create group lists.

NetIDs

Your email username is your NetID. You create your own password by activating your NetID.

To activate your NetID:     https://secure.its.yale.edu/NetidManager/activatenetid/index.html
To find your NetID:         https://veritas.its.yale.edu/findnetid/index.html
To change your NetID Password:     https://secure.its.yale.edu/NetidManager/changepasswd/index.html

Your Email Address

Your email address: netid@omega.med.yale.edu
Your friendly address: firstname.lastname@yale.edu

To find your friendly address, point your browser to: http://www.yale.edu/cgi-bin/ph
Type in your name. The 'email-to' line contains your friendly address.

WebMail Omega

Point your browser to:    http://webmail.med.yale.edu

Login/Passwords:

  • Login: <your NetID>
  • Password: <whatever you chose>
Printing:
  • Use the print button within WebMail.
WebMail Personal Information:

One of the most useful preferences for you to set up is your PERSONAL INFORMATION.  This helps the recipients of your email identify who you are by your friendly address.

  • Logon to your webmail account.
  • From the icon bar at the top of the screen, click on Options.
  • From the Your Information column, click on Personal Information.
  • From the Personal Information screen, click on Edit Your Identities.
  • When you are finished, click on Change.

Here’s an example of how you might fill in the form:

WebMail Identity input screen.

 

Pine on Omega

A Kerberized telnet or SSH (Secure Shell) program is required to connect to omega.  This software is already installed on all of the Medical Library's PCs; it is not yet available on the Macintoshes.  You can download SSH to your own computer from Yale's software library by visiting http://www.yale.edu/software.

SSH address:    omega.med.yale.edu

Login/Passwords:

  • Login: <your NetID>
  • Password: <whatever you chose>

Printing:

  • From Main Menu
  • Type S for Setup
  • Type P for Print
  • Type 1 for attached to ansi
  • Press return
  • Confirms: "attached to ansi; configuration saved"

Netscape, Eudora

Login/Passwords:
  • Login: <your NetID>
  • Password: <whatever you chose>

 

 

Regardless of what mail software you use, make sure the settings reflect the following information:

Mail Server: omega.med.yale.edu
SMTP server: You must use the SMTP server provided by your ISP or the Yale VPN
Server Configuration: Check IMAP or POP
IMAP Mailbox Location Prefix: ~/Mail/
SSL or TLS: make sure this is checked