Office of Information Technology at Ohio University

Office of Information Technology at Ohio University

Webmail Help

When to Use Webmail

Webmail is perfect when you don't have access to your normal e-mail software. Whether you are a faculty member at a conference, a student who is home for the weekend, or a staff member visiting an office that uses a different e-mail system, Webmail lets you check messages quickly and easily.

Webmail is not meant to replace your existing mail software. Instead, think of it as a supplement. If you have the option of using your regular mail client, do so.

Browser and System Requirements

Netscape 4.0 or later *
Internet Explorer 4.0 or later
MacOS 7.x or later, MacOS X, Windows NT/95/98/2000, or Windows CE. Webmail also works with most flavors of Unix with a windowing environment.

*Netscape has one known bug with Webmail. If you resize a message composition window, icons may disappear, and sending that message may fail with an error. To avoid this bug, click on the message composition window's Reload button after you've resized it.

Logging In

To use Ohio University's Webmail, enter your Oak ID and password in the appropriate boxes and click "Oak E-Mail".

Your Oak ID and password are the same login and password that you use with your regular University e-mail (Mulberry, etc.). If you don't know your Oak ID or password, please visit our password reset page to obtain instructions on obtaining a new password.

If you have never changed your Oak password, Webmail will not allow you to log in. If you still are using your default Oak password, please visit our password change page before trying to use Webmail.

Don't Forget to Log Out!

When you are finished using Ohio University Webmail, be sure to click the "Logout" link in the green status bar. For maximum security, you also should quit your web browser before leaving your computer.

If you leave your browser open and do not select the "Logout" link in the status bar, your e-mail will remain open until your session automatically expires after three hours of inactivity. Not only will subsequent users be able to read your mail during this time slot, they also will be able to send mail from your account!

Getting Help

Once you successfully log into Webmail, detailed help is available by clicking the "?" icon in the upper right of the Webmail window.

Address Books

If you currently are a Mulberry user, you can access all of your Mulberry IMSP address books from within Webmail.

Attachments

To open a message with an attachment in Webmail, you must click on the "Subject column" of the message. This will enable you to view the attachments.

If you open an attachment during a Webmail session, a temporary copy will be saved on that computer's hard disk. You may want to delete such copies if you are using a public computer.

To send attachments, your Preferences must be set to save sentmail. This is on by default. To verify that your settings are correct, open your Preferences, select Compose and make sure that 'Save Sent Mail to Copy-to' is checked.

Webmail Requires "Cookies"

If "cookies" are turned off in your web browser, you will receive this message when you attempt to login:

"You have been logged out of Ohio University Webmail because your session information is invalid."*

To turn on cookies in Netscape: go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced and select "Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server".

To turn on cookies in Internet Explorer: go to Tools -> Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level and click "Enable" under "Allow per-session cookies (not stored)".

*If cookies are enabled and you still get this same error message, make sure that you entered your Oak ID and password correctly.

Webmail Requires Javascript

If your browser does not have Javascript enabled, you will receive the following error when you try to log into the system:

Warning: Uninitialized variable or array index or property (lastaccess) in ../lib/imp.lib on line 1025

If you are unsure how to enable Javascript, please call the Support Desk at 740-593-1222.

Missing E-Mail Messages

Webmail only displays messages that are stored on Oak (or your selected non-Oak server). If you normally use a POP e-mail client that automatically deletes messages from the server after downloading them, then you may see "0 messages", even if there are quite a few old messages on your office or home computer. If you are forwarding your e-mail to another system, you also will see "0 messages".

We strongly recommend changing your personal e-mail client from POP mode to IMAP mode. Doing so not only makes it possible to access your messages, both old and new, via Webmail, it also protects your e-mail from local hard drive failures.

To find out more about how POP works and how to change to IMAP, call the Support Desk at 740-593-1222.