Email Configuration

Messenger Express, a web-based email client, is built into NYUHome to provide convenient access to your NYU email. If you prefer, you can also set up a desktop mail program (such as Eudora or Outlook Express) to access your NYU email. Once you configure one of these programs with your appropriate mail server information (instructions below), the program will interact with the central NYU mail server and allow you to access your mail. Desktop mail clients also provide more advanced mail management features such as filtering, manipulation of header fields, and text formatting.

Please note that mail programs should be configured to use the IMAP mail protocol. With IMAP, you keep all of your mail on the server, in folders. IMAP gives you the option of accessing your email through a desktop email program or NYUHome no matter what computer you use to access your email. See below for more about IMAP.

Instructions for Supported Email Clients

Select your preferred email program for configuration and access instructions:

• NYUHome Web Mail Client (Messenger Express)
• Thunderbird: Windows | Macintosh
• Eudora: Windows | Macintosh
• Apple Mail (Macintosh only)
• Outlook 2003 (PC only)
• Outlook 2007 (PC only)
• Outlook Express
  • Subscribe to Newsgroups using Outlook Express
• Pine
• Important Note for People Using AOL

Basic Configuration Information

If your preferred email program is not one of the supported clients listed above, you may be able to configure it using these basic settings:

• Username: Your NYU NetID (e.g., aqe123). Please note that your NetID is case sensitive. Always use lowercase letters.
• Password: Your NYUHome password
• Outgoing Mail: smtp.nyu.edu
  
• Incoming Mail: mail.nyu.edu
• Mail Protocol: IMAP
  (Please note that NYU does not support the use of the POP mail protocol.)

More About IMAP

IMAP permits you to use desktop mail clients to work with your email, yet it does not limit you to reading your messages from one personal computer. With a desktop mail client set up to use the IMAP protocol, you store your email messages and create folders on the central mail server. You can read both old and new messages, move messages to different folders, reply or delete them, and the changes will carry over from one computer to another.

Note: A desktop mail client set up for IMAP will display your email folders and messages that are, in fact, stored on the mail server as if they were on your personal computer, but they do not stay on your personal computer unless you explicitly copy or move them there. (Depending on the desktop mail client, there may be several different ways to copy or move a message to your computer.) This can be confusing, particularly for people who have been using a desktop mail client set up for POP because IMAP email looks a lot like POP email (which did copy messages to the personal computer). Also, some desktop mail clients set up for IMAP use the term "download" to refer to displaying messages and headers on the personal computer, rather than copying them to the personal computer. Be sure you understand where your messages are before you delete them. People have been known to delete all the messages on the server, thinking they had a copy on their personal computer, when they did not.

Important Note for People Using AOL

If you ordinarily connect to the Internet with AOL, you can continue to do so with NYUHome. You may also find it convenient to use an AOL connection if you're traveling and want to log in to NYUHome from another computer.

However, AOL's browser is not compatible with NYUHome. You can use AOL to establish a connection to the Internet, but you must use a recent version of a web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer to log in to NYUHome.

Once AOL is launched on your computer and an Internet connection is established, reduce all the AOL windows on your desktop. Next, launch your web browser software from your hard drive. From that browser, go to http://home.nyu.edu, and you will be able to log in to your NYUHome account.

Note: If you receive an error message after you've connected to the Internet using AOL and launched a separate browser to connect to NYUHome, please review this information: www.nyu.edu/its/faq/nyuhome/#ipswitch.

Page last reviewed: August 19, 2008