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 • Viruses

E-mail Basics

Access to email at the University of Virginia is available to all faculty, staff, and students. Listed here are the basic steps you need to get started with email at U.Va.

What you need:

1. An email account.
   Incoming students are provided an email account on the Central Mail Service (CMS). Faculty and staff are issued accounts on the Central Mail Service or on departmental/school administered servers. Please check with your department or school to find out if your email account should be created on their server or the Central Mail Service.
2. Network or internet access.
   Refer to ITCs network access web pages for information and instructions to configure your on-grounds or off-grounds computer for access to your accounts on the U.Va. network.
3. An email program.
   ITC recommends several email programs for accessing and reading your email, with differing levels of support. We also offer WebMail to those with Central Mail Service accounts who wish to read email wherever internet access and a web browser are available.
4. Register your account.
   Registration of your email account permits messages addressed to the abbreviated form of your email address (yourID@virginia.edu) to be delivered to the computer system on which you have an email account.
   
   There are two options for registering your email account:
   
   1. Use the web form at:
      https://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/email/register/, or
   2. Send an email request to postmaster@Virginia.edu

   If you encounter problems using the registration web form, please contact postmaster@virginia.edu for assistance.

Beyond the Basics

• E-mail Aliases.
  Personalize your email address to make it easier to recognize and remember - create an alias using the Alias Creation Web Form!
• Filtering Mail.
  Filtering email provides you with the opportunity to "pre-sort" your messages before you see them. Some people use filters to organize their messages or in an attempt to decrease the amount of spam email that they receive.
• Forwarding E-mail.
  Forwarding mail from your Central Mail Service account to another account is accomplished by logging into your account on Web Mail, clicking on the Settings Tab, selecting the link Forwarding, and then following the instructions found on that page. It is always a good idea to specify the full local address of the mailbox to which you are forwarding your messages.
  Information on forwarding your mail from a Unix mail account.
  
  
• Mailing Lists.
  Mailing lists facilitate communication by and between members of groups who share special interests or common goals by allowing the use of a single mailing list address to distribute information to your group.
• Massmail.
  Special electronic communications to larger segments of the University community require approval and must meet certain guidelines.
• Vacation Mail.
  Setting up a vacation auto-response message informs those who contact you by email while you are away that you will respond to their message when you return. Warning: Vacation auto-responses may increase the amount of spam messages you receive. For instructions, check your email client's documentation.
• Getting Help.
  Find out who to contact and how to get help with your email questions or issues.

Related Resources

The following topics will direct you to other web site resources at U.Va. that may have to do with electronic mail.

• Electronic Abuse.
  Electronic Abuse may involve any one of a variety of technology resources. This site provides information on what may constitute abuse and how to report abuse situations.
• Spam.
  Spam email (unsolicited, usually commercially-oriented) messages are annoying and can be time-consuming to delete. Learn how you can prevent and deal with spam email messages.
• Viruses.
  Don't open that attachment! Computer viruses are typically spread via email attachments. Practice safe computing by learning what you can do and what you should not do to prevent infection by a computer virus.