Email services at ARSC

Your ARSC account comes with an email address of the form userid@arsc.edu, where userid is your ARSC user-id. For instance, if you logged on as blitzen, your email address would be: blitzen@arsc.edu. You can choose to have your ARSC email either forwarded to another email account or stored on ARSC's email server, accessible via IMAP.

Receiving email

In addition to functioning as a typical email account for correspondance, your ARSC email account serves as a repository for various system messages. Standard output that would normally be stored in your local system email account, as in the case of cron jobs, will be forwarded to your ARSC email account.

Forwarding email to another account

Most users prefer to read their email on their own workstation. You may forward your mail from ARSC to any other email address by creating a .forward file on ARSC's mail server. If a .forward file exists, the the mail server will redirect all email sent to you ARSC email address to the address specified in the .forward file.

Setting up forwarding for your ARSC email account

To set your .forward file on the ARSC email server, please use the following command from one of ARSC's Linux workstations, nanook, or seawolf:

/usr/local/bin/mailforward

Removing forwarding from your ARSC email account

To remove your .forward file so your email is stored on the ARSC email server, accessable with IMAP, please issue the following command from one of ARSC's Linux workstations, nanook, or seawolf:

/usr/local/bin/mailforward -delete

Accessing email with IMAP

In the absence of a .forward file, all email sent to your ARSC email address will be stored on ARSC's email server. This email is readable through IMAP from an ARSC Linux workstation. IMAP access from non-ARSC machines is not supported. Thus, to check email stored on ARSC's mail server, you will need to either be sitting at an ARSC Linux workstation or log in to one remotely to use an email client from there.

What is IMAP?

IMAP, which stands for Internet Message Access Protocol, can be used to access an ARSC email account. Using this protocol requires that email messages be stored on the mail server. Thus, if your ARSC email is currently being forwarded to a different email account, IMAP will not work. If you would like to disable email forwarding in order to use IMAP, please refer to "Removing forwarding from your ARSC email account" above.

IMAP email accounts can only be accessed from a machine within the ARSC network, such as a Linux workstation. Email clients that support the IMAP protocol include Thunderbird, a graphical email client, and pine, a text-based email client. Both Thunderbird and pine are available on Linux workstations.

Setting an IMAP account password

Before you can connect to the IMAP server, you need to set a password. This is accomplished by running the following command from a Linux workstation:

/usr/local/bin/imappwd

Adding an IMAP account to an email client

1. Type "thunderbird" in a terminal, or go to "Applications" -> "Internet" -> "Thunderbird Email" from a Linux workstation desktop environment
2. Go to the "Edit" menu and select "Account Settings"
3. Click on the "Add Account" button
4. Select the "Email Account" radio button and click "Next"
5. Enter your name and email address and click "Next"
6. Select the "IMAP" radio button, enter "mailhost.arsc.edu" for both the "Incoming Server" and "Outgoing Server" and click "Next"
7. Enter your user ID and click "Next"
8. Enter an "Account Name" and click "Next"
9. Verify your settings and click "Finish"
10. Highlight the "Server Settings" under the new account settings created
11. Check the "Use secure connection (SSL)" checkbox under "Server Settings"
12. Change the "Port" to 993
13. Click on the "OK" button to close the account settings window

1. Type "pine" in a terminal
2. Go to "Setup" -> "Config"
3. Press the down arrow key until the "inbox-path" variable is highlighted, and press 'C' to change the value
4. Set the variable to {mailhost.arsc.edu/user=${USER}/ssl/novalidate-cert}inbox
5. Exit setup, saving the changes you have made
6. Restart pine
7. When prompted, enter your IMAP password

More Information

• Refer to the support User Support if you encounter any problems.

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775 | voice: 907-450-8600 | email:

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