How to Access WVU MIX Mail in a Conventional POP3 Client

Note: Most of the information below was originally conveyed to me in January 2005. I graduated from WVU in May 2007, and since then I have received reports that the outgoing mail settings stated below no longer work. If anyone has anything to add, feel free to leave a comment. Meanwhile, try them at your own risk.

In 2006, the university provided a set of public instructions for configuring MIX mail as an IMAP account in Mozilla Thunderbird, ostensibly to ease the transition to a new web-based e-mail system. IMAP has the advantage over POP3 that mail remains resident on the server. Although the transition has been completed, these instructions remain online.

If you are a student, faculty, or staff member at West Virginia University who has a "mix.wvu.edu" e-mail address, you might be forgiven for thinking that the only way to access your account is through a web interface.

Not exactly true. I have found out that it is possible to set up and access MIX e-mail from a conventional POP3 or IMAP e-mail client after all.

For anyone at WVU who would be interested, here is how to set up Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla 1.x/SeaMonkey Mail, or Netscape 7.x Mail to retrieve MIX mail. These directions can be adapted to other e-mail clients as well:

Open Netscape Mail, Mozilla Mail, SeaMonkey Mail, or Thunderbird.

If not prompted, create a new account. If using Thunderbird, select "Account Settings..." from the "Tools" menu. If using Netscape, SeaMonkey, or the Mozilla application suite, select "Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings..." from the "Edit" menu.

Click on the "Add Account..." button in the Account Settings dialogue.

In the "New Account Setup" dialogue that appears, ensure that "Email account" is selected and press "Next >."

Under "Identity," fill in the "Your Name:" field with the name you wish to appear in the "From" field of the e-mails you send. Fill in the "Email Address" field with your MIX e-mail address, and press "Next >."

Under "Server Information," fill in the "Incoming Server" field with "mix.wvu.edu, and press "Next >."

Under "User Names," ensure that your MIX user name is present in the "Incoming User Name" field. Press "Next >."

Under "Account Name," press "Next >." Ensure that all information appears to be correct, and press "Finish."

In the left panel of the Account Settings dialogue, select the "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" option appearing at or near the bottom.

Under "Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings," fill in the "Server Name" field with "smtp.wvu.edu." Check the "Use name and password" box, and fill in the "User Name" field with your user name. (See the notes below if you are off-campus or have trouble sending e-mail with these settings.)

Click the "Get Mail" toolbar button to retrieve any e-mail you may have stored on the server.

Enjoy! Note that mail you have downloaded into your e-mail client will no longer be present when viewing your e-mail through MIX's web-based interface.

Notes on accessing e-mail off-campus:

The "smtp.wvu.edu" outgoing mail server settings may not work, or at the very least not work reliably, off-campus.

Off-campus, you can use a different server that works in conjuction with a CentralID Account. Add an additional outgoing server under "Outgoing Server (SMTP) Settings," filling in the "Server Name" field with "exsmtp.systems.wvu.edu" and the "User Name" field with your CentralID user name; this is different from your MIX user name and is typically an alphanumeric string of the form "abc123." Click "Set Default." You should be prompted to enter a password while sending mail with these settings; otherwise, make sure that "TLS" is selected under "Use secure connection." (Source)

The server setting "scooter.wvu.edu" (brought to my attention some time ago by Jason Francis) may also work under some circumstances, but the official word is that it "does not really exist any more and people should not be using it to send mail through," and indeed there seems to be little reason to bother with it when other alternatives exist.

Alternately, if you permanently live off-campus, your local Internet service provider should provide outgoing mail server settings that you could use.

Advantages to retrieving e-mail in a POP3 client such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Netscape/Mozilla Mail:

Much faster, quicker at loading messages, and less cumbersome than using a web interface.

More reliable than a web interface.

No restrictive and outdated web browser checks.

You are capable of using features such as Thunderbird's Address Book and advanced junk-mail controls.

Disadvantages:

Obviously, with a POP3 account you cannot easily access your e-mail from computers other than your own (such as public computers).

I doubt that everyone at the WVU OIT endorses students accessing their e-mail this way. Until recently, there was no published reference to accessing MIX e-mail via POP3/IMAP on a WVU website at all. And I imagine that this would be a technical-support nightmare if this procedure was officially supported and every person on campus, not all of which know how to configure e-mail clients or whose idea of an "e-mail client" is an old version of Outlook Express, started using it.

Try at your own risk. ;-)

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