Using WebMail at Iowa State University
published by Information Technologie Services
Handout GNG 286
June 2006
WebMail is a web-based interface for checking your Iowa State email. It is most suitable for people with a low volume of mail or for short-term use (while on vacation, for example). To access WebMail using your web browser, go to https://webmail.iastate.edu/.
Common Tasks
Logging In—Enter https://webmail.iastate.edu/ into the location or address line of your web browser and press Enter. Then enter your Net-ID (the first part of your Iowa State email address before the @) and your password.
Checking Mail—Once you are logged into WebMail, click
on Get Messages to download your email. Read
a message by clicking the subject line or clicking the envelope icon.
Sending Mail—To send a message, click Compose on the top of the WebMail screen. Enter the email
address of the user you want to send to in the “To:” field and the subject of the message into the
“Subject:” line. Enter your message into the text box in the middle. If you want to send a file
with the message, click the “Add
Attachments” button. Click the send button to send the
message.
Password Changes—Go to https://asw.iastate.edu/ and
log in as you would to WebMail. Click on
Manage User and then Change your
Password; enter your new password. If you have forgotten
your password, stop
by 195 Durham Center with a photo ID, or fill out the password change form available online at
http://www.it.iastate.edu/forms and fax it to the Solution Center.
Setting Up WebMail
Even though you can use WebMail without ever changing the settings, you may want to customize some options to suit you. To do so, click on Options.
Identity—This allows you to make the email you send a little more personal. With the real name field, you can decide what name your recipients see along with your email address.
Settings—If you use only WebMail for your email, then
check Remove From Server. However, if you
also use another email program and WebMail, then check Leave
On Server. If you want to save sent or deleted
messages to folders, check the corresponding boxes.
Startup—You may want to uncheck the box
“query preferences on login” after you
have
your preferences set up the way you want.
Interface—Choose the interface that best fits your requirements for speed and appearance.
Need Help?
For more assistance, contact the Solution Center at 515.294.4000, by email at , or in 195 Durham Center.
Advanced WebMail Features
Folders—To set up a folder, click on Manage
Folders. To move an email message to a folder, select
the message by checking the box to the left of the message, change the folder in the box labeled “Move
Message to:” and then click on Move. To
delete a folder, the folder must be empty; use the Delete
Folder
option on the folders screen.
Trash—Also found on the folders screen is an
Empty Trash button, which can be used to delete all
the messages in the trash folder.
Address Book—WebMail allows you to store addresses. To create a new address, click the Address
Book button on the top and then click New Contact or Group List.
Spell Check—When you compose a message and want to
check your spelling, click the Spell Check
button to highlight the words that are not found in the dictionary.
Replying and Forwarding—After reading a message, there are many options for what you can do with a
message. You can Reply to it to respond to just the
sender, or Reply All to respond to everyone addressed
on
the message. You can Forward it onto another user or
use Redirect to send the message with the attachments,
just the way you received it.
Filtering—The mail filtering capability lets you create filters to sort your incoming mail quickly into folders. A built-in SPAM filter can be enabled or you can create your own filter.
Common Problems
Why are there gaps in the numbering of my messages?
When you delete messages or move them to folders, WebMail does not update the file numbering. To renumber the messages, go to the folder menu and click on the icon in the Rebuild column for each folder.
How much mail can I store?
You have 1 Gig of space to store your files, including email and Web pages.
I have another email account; is there a way I can check my WebMail from that account?
You can forward all of your WebMail messages to another account, but you will not be able to get new mail in
WebMail while forwarding is in place. To forward your mail, log in
to https://asw.iastate.edu/, click on
Manage User, and then click on View/Edit your
email delivery. Check the box by Forwarded to
and enter an email
address. Click on Update Now and the forwarding to the
other account will take effect overnight.
I need an email program with more features; do I have to use WebMail?
You can check your Iowa State email through a variety of programs. If WebMail doesn't meet your needs, a list of supported email options are available at http://www.it.iastate.edu/email.
How large an email can I send?
Iowa State will transfer email up to 20 MB in size. Text messages will generally not approach this limit so your concern should be with the size of the attachment. Other email providers, such as HotMail, only allow 3 MB per message.
