Choosing a mail program

If your mail is on Hermes (which will be the case for many University users), then the simplest way to read it is to use the Hermes Webmail service. This is available through any Web browser and requires no configuration. Webmail is also convenient for purposes like changing passwords or if you are away from Cambridge, but can be slow for reading and managing large amounts of mail. It cannot be used for mail on any system other than Hermes.

Alternatively you may prefer to use a Mail User Agent (MUA). There are several MUAs available to Cambridge users; most users only ever need to use one, though you can switch between MUAs freely if you wish. Thunderbird, Pine, Apple Mail, Eudora, Mulberry and Outlook are among the common MUAs. For security reasons we do not recommend or support the use of Outlook Express for mail.

The following MUAs are available on the PWF:

Macintosh: Mulberry, Apple mail, Thunderbird
Windows: Mulberry, PC Pine, Outlook, Thunderbird
Linux: Pine, Evolution, Mutt, Thunderbird

A crucial decision when selecting and configuring an MUA is whether you want to be able to read your mail (including saved messages) from a variety of systems in and outside the University, or whether you will always be using the same machine. In the former case you should use an IMAP program (e.g. Mulberry or Pine), or Hermes Webmail; in the latter you can choose between IMAP and POP. Most current MUAs can be configured to use either mode.

It is also possible to login to Hermes itself, using SSH, and run pine on the Hermes system.

You can obtain copies of various MUAs for your own use.

If you are using an MUA on a Computing Service system to read mail on Hermes, or if you are using Hermes Webmail from any system, then no special configuration is needed. However, if you are running an MUA your own machine, you will need to configure the program; general guidance is here, and full details for specific MUAs are under the various MUA pages.

Mail on systems other than Hermes

If you are keeping your mail on a system other than Hermes, for instance a Departmental Unix system, you have the same choices as above except that you do not have the option of using Hermes Webmail (some institutions have their own local Web interfaces to mail). You will need to make small changes to the MUA configuration to tell the program that your mail is on a system other than Hermes. Alternatively, from your local PC, Macintosh or other terminal you may be able to login directly to the system on which your mail is kept, and can then run a Mail User Agent (usually Pine) on that system; consult the administrators of your mail system for more information.

If you are using mail facilities provided by a commercial ISP, then if the mail is Web-based (e.g. Hotmail) you can read it using any Web browser. If it is not Web-based then you need to consult the information provided by your ISP. You may be able to forward such mail to Hermes and read it there.

The title of this document is: Choosing a mail program
URL: http://www.cam.ac.uk/cs/email/choosingmuas.html