IU email systems
Following is an overview of the existing email systems at Indiana University. Each campus allocates email accounts slightly differently; for availability, see Email at each IU campus.
On this page:
- Email for students
- Cyrus mail system
- Integrated departmental messaging: Microsoft Exchange
- More options
- When you graduate
Email for students
IU students have two options for email and other online communication services: Imail (powered by Microsoft) and Umail (powered by Google).
For more, see Imail and Umail.
Graduate student academic appointees, see As a graduate SAA in COAS, what do I need to know about email at IU?
Cyrus mail system
The Cyrus mail system provides straightforward email. For more, see IU's Cyrus mail
Depending on the arrangements at your campus, you may be able to reach your mail in one or more of the following ways:
-
IU Webmail lets you read and send Cyrus mail directly
from any web browser on or off campus, with no special
configuration necessary. For details, see IU Webmail
- You may also be able to configure an IMAP mail client, such as Thunderbird or Windows Live Mail, to retrieve mail from the Cyrus mail system; see Reading your Cyrus mail.
Note: The options above are simply different clients with which to read your email. They are independent of your mailbox. To change between them, you do not have to set up special forwarding for your mail. Regardless of the client you use, incoming mail will be delivered to your account on the Cyrus mail system.
Integrated departmental messaging: Microsoft Exchange
If you need integrated messaging features such as a shared departmental calendar, an Exchange account may be appropriate. Exchange accounts are available for staff and faculty at all IU campuses, and for sponsored students at IU Bloomington and IUPUI. For more, see Exchange accounts
You may access your Exchange account as follows:
- If you usually read mail from a desktop computer connected to the
campus network, you can use Outlook with an Exchange
account to manage your mail, calendar, meeting arrangements, resource
reservations, contacts, tasks, and to-do lists. See Setting up Outlook 2010 or 2007 to read your IU Exchange mail
or Setting up Outlook 2003 to read your IU Exchange mail
Note: In Outlook 2003 or earlier, or with a connection to Indiana University via an outside Internet service provider (ISP) with handheld synchronization software, you must establish a VPN connection before connecting to your Exchange mailbox. See VPN at IU and At IU, using an outside ISP, why can't I connect to my Exchange account with Outlook or BlackBerry Desktop Manager?
- You can read your Exchange mail using a BlackBerry
wireless personal digital assistant (PDA) by subscribing to the
BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) Redirector service from
UITS. For details, see BlackBerry Enterprise Server Redirector accounts.
- You can reach your Exchange mail from anywhere by using the Outlook Web App (OWA) site at: https://www.exchange.iu.edu/
- To configure an IMAP client program, such as Outlook Express, Entourage, or Thunderbird, to retrieve mail from the Exchange server, see Reading your Exchange email.
More options
- Some departments offer their own mail servers for their
members. Contact your department's computing support provider for
details.
- If you maintain your own Unix or Linux
workstation and would like to receive your mail there, the
Support Center can help with configuration information,
including customized
sendmaildistributions.
- You can use a non-IU mail provider, such as Hotmail, Gmail, or another third-party Internet service provider (ISP). However, if you choose this option, it is unlikely that UITS or your department will be able to provide much help if you run into problems. Also, you are still responsible for reading email sent to your IU account; see Information about official communications from the university to students
Whichever option you choose, be sure to set your preferred address so that your email will be directed to the right system. For more, see Registering your preferred address
When you graduate
For information about lifelong IU email addresses available to all IU alumni, see What happens to your student computing accounts when you leave IU, graduate, transfer to another campus, or study abroad?
