E-Mail Services

PLEASE NOTE: As of June 1, 2014 the BSOE no longer provisions Google Apps accounts for new users. New users should use their UCSC Google Apps account for e-mail, calendaring, docs and so on. This information is provided here for users whose accounts were created before June 1, 2014.

Accessing Your E-Mail

There are several ways you can connect to the BSOE e-mail server to read your e-mail. Using the web-based e-mail client and Thunderbird are the only two officially supported configurations.  If you can configured other client software to work with our mail servers, you may do so.  However, please be advised that BSOE techstaff cannot support software products other than web-based e-mail and Thunderbird.

Using The BSOE Web-Based E-Mail

The BSOE uses the Google Apps for Education for our e-mail service.  This e-mail service has a very full-featured and very fast web-based e-mail client.  To use the web-based e-mail client, all you need to do is visit the web e-mail home page and log in using your BSOE credentials.

Using Thunderbird

Please see the Thunderbird Configuration Page for details.

Using Mutt or mailx

You can use Mutt or mailx to read your e-mail while logged in to the BSOE interactive Linux/UNIX servers.  Please keep in mind that these two e-mail readers are not officially supported by BSOE techstaff.

To configure Mutt to use BSOE google mail add the following to your .muttrc:

set imap_user = "Your User Name"@soe.ucsc.edu
 set spoolfile = imaps://imap.gmail.com/INBOX
set folder = imaps://imap.gmail.com/
set record="imaps://imap.gmail.com/[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
set postponed="imaps://imap.gmail.com/[Gmail]/Drafts"
set smtp_url="smtps://"Your User Name"@soe.ucsc.edu@smtp.gmail.com"

To configure mailx, add the following to your .mailrc file:

set folder=imaps://"your_user_name"@soe.ucsc.edu@imap.gmail.com
set record=+Sent
set from=""your_user_name" <"your_user_name"@soe.ucsc.edu>"
set smtp-use-starttls
set smtp=smtp://smtp.gmail.com
set smtp-auth=login
set smtp-auth-user="your_user_name"@soe.ucsc.edu
set from=""your_user_name" <"your_user_name"@soe.ucsc.edu>"

Other E-Mail Clients

If you would like to configure an e-mail client other than Thunderbird, you can use the following configuration information:

  • IMAP Server Name: imap.gmail.com
    IMAP User Name: Your BSOE User Name@soe.ucsc.edu
    IMAP Password: Your BSOE Password
  • SMTP Server Name: smtp.gmail.com
    SMTP User Name: Your BSOE User Name@soe.ucsc.edu
    SMTP Password: Your BSOE Password

SSL must be used to protect your mail transactions. Our outgoing mail server will not 'RELAY' your mail (that is, send mail addressed from you to someone outside the BSOE) unless your mail client supports "SMTP AUTH" and SSL.

If you are using Apple Mail on Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard), please set your e-mail client to send mail using port 465 - setting to "default ports" will cause timeout errors (even though "default ports" includes 465).

Our incoming IMAP server is compatible with both the IMAPS protocol (port 993) and the STARTTLS command (port 587).

Setting Up an Auto-Reply (Vacation) Message

If you will be away from your desk for an extended period of time, you can set an auto-reply message which will be automatically sent to anyone who sends you e-mail while you are away.  To set your auto-reply message, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the BSOE web-based e-mail client using your BOSE credentials.
  2. Click the gear icon and settings on the right.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the Vaction Responder section and enter your dates
  4. Click save changes at the bottom.

When you have returned to your desk, you can repeat the steps above except instead of checking the "Send auto-reply message" box, you should un-check it.

Forwarding Your BSOE E-Mail to Another Server

To forward your BSOE e-mail to another server, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the BSOE web-based e-mail client using your BOSE credentials.
  2. Click the gear icon and settings on the right.
  3. Select the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
  4. Click "Add a Forwarding Address" and then enter the address that you'd like your e-mail forwarded to in the box provided and click "Next" and then "Proceed".  Login to the email address that you want set to be the forwarding address and find the confirmation email with the confirmation code. Paste that code into the Forwarding Section of your BSOE email settings.
  5. Click save changes at the bottom.

Sending Mail from Campus GMail Account with BSOE Departmental Alias

Since BSOE is migrating its users from the soe.ucsc.edu Google Apps domain to the ucsc.edu one, anyone who needs to send mail with a departmental mail alias such as user@cs.ucsc.edu will need to perform the following steps.  Note that this requires a Google Apps account in the soe.ucsc.edu domain - unless your account was created years ago, you likely do not have one.  These steps are primarily here for legacy support:

  1. go to https://myaccount.google.com and log in with your @ucsc.edu account
  2. navigate to "Sign-in & security" and then to the bottom section of the page, titled "Connected apps & sites" 
  3. enable the "Allow less secure apps" option
  4. navigate to https://accounts.google.com/displayunlockcaptcha and click "Continue"
  5. go to the Gmail interface with your @ucsc.edu account and add the @cs.ucsc.edu alias under Settings -> Accounts
  6. when asked to provide SMTP server and credential information, use the following settings:
  • SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
  • Port: 587
  • Security: TLS
  • Username: your @ucsc.edu account (not @soe.ucsc.edu)* Password: your CruzID Blue password

Finally, save your changes and perform the verification step, either by using the URL that is e-mailed to you or the verification code in the same e-mail.

Getting Help With Your BSOE E-Mail

If you are experiencing a problem using the BSOE e-mail service, please open an IT Request ticket.