Harvard-MIT Data Center

Your email account is allocated a fixed amount of space for email storage. This is your email quota. Messages in your Trash and SPAM folders count toward your quota, so be sure to empty these folders if you need to reclaim space in your email account.

If your mailbox is almost full, consider deleting some messages. If you use an email application that saves emails on the mail server, such as Mozilla Thunderbird configured to use IMAP protocol, you also can move (drag and drop) email messages or folders from your Inbox on the server to Local Folders on your computer, which reduces your disk space usage on the server.

You can check how much of your email quota you are using from either Mozilla Thunderbird or webmail. See Desktop Email or Webmail for detailed information.

Our Email Account Administration interface enables group managers to create and edit email accounts within their group. As a manager, you can access only specific domains. For example, only gov.hmdc.harvard.edu email addresses can be managed by a manager with GOV domain access. Group managers sometimes can view accounts in other groups, but they cannot manage them.

To access the Email Account Administration interface, go to the following URL:
    https://admin.hmdc.harvard.edu/

Access to this interface must be granted by our staff. If you are unsure whether you have an appropriate account, please contact us.

Logging In to the Management Interface

To log in:

1. In a web browser, go to https://admin.hmdc.harvard.edu.

   The Email Account Administration Login web page is displayed.

   

   

2. Enter your assigned username and password, and then click Login.

   The Manage Existing Accounts web page (the Search Accounts tab) is displayed. Only the departments assigned to you are listed in the Browse Groups field.

   Note: Your browser might prompt you to remember the password for your login account. It is never a good practice to enable this function if you log in from any machine other than your own.

   

   

Logging Out of the Management Interface

To log out of the Email Account Administration interface, click the Logout tab at the top of the interface.

The Email Account Administration Login web page is displayed, containing the message You have logged out. This message indicates that you are no longer in the Email Account Administration function.

A desktop email client is software that runs on your desktop or laptop computer. Examples of desktop client applications are Thunderbird and Outlook. We provide installation assistance and day-to-day user support for desktop email clients. Our preferred desktop email client is Thunderbird.

You cannot change your HMDC email password by using Thunderbird Email Software.

You can change your email password from the HMDC Account Self-Service web site. You must know your old password to change it. New passwords must meet HMDC password strength requirements.

It was previously possible to change your email password from within Webmail, but this is no longer supported.

To change your email password, log in to the HMDC Account Self-Service web site using your HMDC-serviced email address and email password:

https://help.hmdc.harvard.edu/account_manager/

For detailed instructions on changing your password using the HMDC Account Self-Service web site, please refer to our Details to Setting Your Password page.

Although most of your SPAM blocking is taken care of by us, there also are junk mail filters built into Thunderbird that can assist with SPAM prevention.

To enable Junk email filters in Thunderbird:

1. Launch Thunderbird.
2. Click the Tools menu at the top, and select Account Settings.
   The Account Settings window appears.
3. In the left side of the Account Settings window, your account name appears in the following format:
   <youraccountname>@hmdc.harvard.edu.
   Click the Junk Settings link under your account.
4. In the Junk Settings window, be sure the following options are checked:
   • Enable adaptive junk mail controls for this account
   • Move new junk messages to: junk folder on <youraccountname>@hmdc.harvard.edu
5. Click OK to accept the setting changes, and exit out of the Account Settings window.

You can access your SPAM folder from any email application, such as Thunderbird or webmail, just as you do with your normal email. Your SPAM folder appears as a subfolder in your normal email Inbox.

Note: If you cannot see your SPAM folder in your mail client, you need to subscribe to it. See Managing Folder Subscriptions for details.

1. Select your SPAM folder.
2. Look at the messages that were placed in the folder.
3. If you find a message that you wish to keep, move or copy it to your Inbox.
   Messages in your SPAM folder are deleted automatically on a biweekly schedule. You can delete unwanted messages manually from your SPAM folder more frequently if you choose.
4. If you find a message in your SPAM folder that is not spam, see the webmail Blacklisting and Whitelisting pages.

One nice feature of Thunderbird is that it allows you to decide which email folders from the server you would like to view. This is done through subscribing (to view) or unsubscribing (to stop viewing) folders on the server.

To subscribe or unsubscribe to folders on the server:

1. Log in to Thunderbird.
2. Select the File menu, and then choose Subscribe.
3. If visible, Click the "+" sign next to the Inbox folder to list the folders on the server.
4. Click the folder you would like to change, and then click either the Subscribe  or Unsubscribe button.
5. Click OK.

To check your email quota in Thunderbird:

1. Launch Thunderbird
2. In the left pane, click your Inbox.
3. From the Edit menu, select Folder Properties.
4. In the Properties window, click the Quota tab.
   Your email quota usage is displayed numerically and graphically.

Guide Overview

You can back up your email, your Thunderbird adress book, and your complete Thunderbird profile. We recommend that you do regular back ups to avoid potential losses of information and personal settings.

You also can import and export email and addresses.

Guide Overview

You can set up your email client to use an address book, to enable spell check, and to create a signature to appear at the bottom of email that you send through this client.

Guide Overview

We are available to assist the CGIS community with installing, configuring and troubleshooting email applications for PC and Mac computers. We currently recommend Mozilla Thunderbird as a desktop email client as it provides excellent security and reliability within the HMDC network environment.

You can download Thunderbird from the following location:
    http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

FAS affiliates also can download a customized version of Thunderbird from the FAS Computing downloads page, located at the following URL:
    http://www.fas-it.fas.harvard.edu/

The FAS Thunderbird installer is preconfigured for FAS email addresses and features an easy setup and installation script. The FAS installer also provides direct access to the University's LDAP directory configured to help users stay in touch with other Harvard community members. We will gladly help you configure LDAP access if you currently do not have access to this useful resource.

We support, but do not recommend, Eudora for Mac and PC, as well as the Macintosh Mail application. We do not provide support for Macintosh Entourage, Microsoft Outlook, or any other desktop email application.

Welcome to download Thunderbird HMDC Customized Add-on: Please use attached file below: desktop_thunderbird_bundle.xpi  OR the individual add-on.

1: Addressbook Synchronizer - Sync address books to multiple machines via local, remote and Imap.
2: Duplicate Contact Manager - It facilitates handling of duplicates, remove or combine duplicates in the addressbook.
3: Quicktext - Lets you create templates that can be entered into emails with a shortcut
4: Display Quota - Add a bar for the quota of the imap account.
5: Mail redirect - Allows to export messages out of the thunderbird to another email address without forwarding
6: Confirm Folder Move - It prompts before moving folder
7: HMDC Email Auto Configuration - Facilitates HMDC email account creation and configures default preferences.

File(s): 

addressbooks_synchronizer-0.9.0-tb.xpi

duplicate_contact_manager-0.6-tb.xpi

quicktext-0.9.9.9-tb.xpi

display_quota-0.2.1.1-tb.xpi

mail_redirect-0.7.4-mztb.xpi

confirmfoldermove-1.0-tb.xpi

hmdc_email.xpi

thunderbird_addons_bundle.xpi

While our preferred email application for personal computers (Thunderbird) provides the best experience, you can access your email securely by using webmail if you are traveling or using an untrusted computer. Webmail is a great resource for staff or faculty who frequently are out of the office and do not have access to their personal computers.

We provide webmail though the interface available at the following URL:
    https://webmail.hmdc.harvard.edu

Our webmail contains full address book functionality, including support for email aliases (nicknames), account management utilities such as mail forwarding, auto-replies and signatures, as well as email archiving.

You can change your email password from the HMDC Account Self-Service web site. You must know your old password to change it. New passwords must meet HMDC password strength requirements.

It was previously possible to change your email password from within Webmail, but this is no longer supported.

To change your email password, log in to the HMDC Account Self-Service web site using your HMDC-serviced email address and email password:

https://help.hmdc.harvard.edu/account_manager/

For detailed instructions on changing your password using the HMDC Account Self-Service web site, please refer to our Details to Setting Your Password page.

Webmail provides a Global Address Book, a directory of all users who have HMDC email accounts that you can search.

1. Click the Address Book link in the left or top menu.
2. Use the Find pull-down box to search by Name or Email.
3. Type your search criterea in the Matching text box.
4. Click the From pull-down box and select HMDC Email Directory.
5. Click the Search button.
   A list of matches appear on the next page.

To copy a contact to your address book:

1. Click the check box next to the contact name.
2. Click the to Selected Address Book pull-down box and select My Addressbook.
3. Click the Copy link.

To compose an email to one of the contacts:

1. Click the contact name.
2. Click the email address.

1. Compose a new message or reply to a message and enter the message text.
2. Click the Spell Check link.
   Webmail displays each word of the message that it could not find in the dictionary, if any.
3. To correct a misspelled word:
   
   1. Select the correct word from the Suggestions pull-down menu or type the correct word in the adjacent text box.
   2. Choose one of the following options:
      • Change - Change this occurrance of the word.
      • Change All - Correct every occurence of the word in the message.
      • Ignore - Leave the word as is.
      • Ignore All - Leave all occurences of the word in the message as is.
4. Click Next to go to the next page of misspelled words, or click Cancel if you made an error and choose to discard any changes you made.
5. Click Done when you are through with checking spelling.

Guide Overview

Read how to attach, open, and send files by using webmail.

Guide Overview

This section describes how to work with SPAM in webmail, including:

• Rules that define what constitutes SPAM
• How to set up SPAM filters
• How to use the webmail SPAM folder
• How to report an email as SPAM
• How to report an email as legitimate
• How to use the Blacklist and Whitelist functions to manage emails

Guide Overview

You can set up an automated message to be sent in reply to any emails you receive when you are out of the office.

Remember to remove the automated message when you return to the office.

To check your email quota in webmail:

    Log in to webmail and open your Inbox.

    Near the top of the page, just under the Webmail navigation icons, is a line similar to the following:

        Quota: 10.0MB/100MB (10%) 

The first number indicates the amount of space, in megabytes, that is used for your current mail. The second number is the size of your mailbox. The third number is the percentage full. For this example, the mailbox can accommodate up to 90 MB more of mail.

Guide Overview

As you rely more on your email as a method of storing and archiving important information, backing up email becomes an extremely important task. Please read through these topics and follow the instructions to back up or restore your email and addresses on a regular basis.

Guide Overview

Use the information in this guide to set up your webmail functions with personalized settings. Read how to manage your account information, aliases, and email forwarding.

SPAM is unsolicited email, sent in bulk to many people indiscriminately, usually for commercial or fraudulent purposes. Our system identifies and tags SPAM automatically for your convenience; You need do nothing to activate this feature. You can set up additional SPAM filters through Thunderbird’s junk mail filters or through webmail’s SPAM filters.

Email viruses (and other malicious attachments) are attached executable files that can damage your system when you or your email application try to open the attachment. Our virus protection blocks known viruses, and modifies any other suspicious attachments so they do not execute automatically. Any incoming message that is found to contain a virus is refused with a virus warning. Intended recipients do not receive any notification of this event.

Note: All incoming messages are scanned for viruses and SPAM properties.

HMDC SPAM Filtering

Our upgraded SPAM identification uses a number of different techniques to attempt to determine if a message is SPAM. These methods include analysis of the email headers for obvious spammer tricks, analyzing the content of the mail for text that is known to be SPAM, consulting automated internet-wide databases of spammers, and keeping a whitelist database of email addresses from which you receive frequently (and thus regarded as less likely to send you SPAM).

SPAM identification is inherently probabilistic. Every message is scored, using dozens of rules, to determine if it is SPAM. So, it is possible for a legitimate message to be mistakenly filed as SPAM, or for a SPAM message to pass through as legitimate mail, especially when a new form of SPAM first appears. Our experience is that the error rate is very low. In addition, the system is dynamic, databases of known SPAM messages and senders are updated continually, and the system learns about your email habits over time, so accuracy of the system becomes higher with use.

SPAM filtering is usually quite accurate, but be aware that if a message is identified or filtered as SPAM, the sender does not receive any notice to this effect. Because of this, if you opted for filtering, we recommend that for the first month of use, you give your SPAM box a quick check weekly for mail falsely identified as SPAM.

HMDC deals with SPAM in two ways:

• SPAM Identification - This feature is always on, and can not be turned off by the user. The server analyzes every message. Then it tags the subject line of the SPAM messages with "*****SPAM*****" so that you can easily identify, delete, and filter SPAM messages by hand.
• SPAM Filtering - This feature is not on by default, but the user can enable this manually in webmail. SPAM filtering automatically moves SPAM messages into your SPAM folder. The contents of the SPAM folder are deleted automatically on a weekly basis.

For instructions on setting up an additional, personal SPAM filter in webmail, refer to Managing SPAM.

For instructions on using additional, personal junk mail settings in Thunderbird, refer to Managing Junk Mail.

All incoming messages are scanned for SPAM (unsolicited, junk electronic messages). Each message is compared to a database of known SPAM attributes and assigned point values for each attribute that the message contains.

When a message reaches a certain point threshold, the text SPAM is added to the beginning of the subject line, and the email is delivered to the recipient. We cannot guarantee all incoming messages will be identified properly as SPAM or nonSPAM.

We provide two ways of dealing with SPAM:

• SPAM Identification analyzes every message received by the server to determine if it is likely to be SPAM. It then tags the subject line of the message with *****SPAM*****, so that you easily can identify, delete, or filter such messages by hand or by using features of your email application.
  Our server performs SPAM identification automatically.
• SPAM filtering hides SPAM so that you need not see it at all. This builds on SPAM identification by shunting all mail identified as SPAM to a separate SPAM folder (accessable through any email client), where it is deleted automatically on a weekly basis. SPAM filtering is not activated by default. See Managing SPAM for additional information.

A computer virus is a computer program that copies itself when an infected program is run. This means that along with executable files, the code that controls your hard disk can be infected. The vast majority of computer viruses also perform some action besides copying, ranging from displaying a message on your screen to wiping your hard disk. Viruses can be transmitted by email, using floppy disks, running infected files, or opening infected documents. Other malware can have effects similar to virus. A trojan horse is a program which performs other functions in addition to its declared function. A worm is a program that spreads copies of itself through networked computers. Neither is, strictly speaking, a virus.

If You Discover an Infection

If you discover an infection, it must be treated promptly so that it does not infect other systems and files. Stop using any computer or files that you believe to be infected, and notify us immediately. HMDC software normally detects viruses automatically, and warns you of them. In some cases, however, newer or more complex viruses might not be caught by the software.We normally issue warnings if a new and dangerous virus is discovered. If you are seeing the symptoms of a virus, have received a warning from someone other than us, or have questions about the legitamacy of an email attachment, check these resources to see if there is a virus with those symptoms: Myths and Hoaxes, CIAC, and Symantec Antivirus Center.

If You Receive a Message Telling You That SPAM or a Virus Was Sent From Your Account

If you did not send the original message, and have up-to-date antivirus software, ignore the message. Some viruses pretend to send mail from other addresses, causing the mail servers to misidentify the sender. Other tips:

• Try to avoid sending executable attachments. Any message that contains only text or documents should have no problems going through the server.
• If you are sending executable attachments, make sure these are contained in .zip or other archive files.
• If the mail server continues to reject your mail, run a thorough virus scan on your system, using up-to-date virus software.

For more information, refer to Email Attachment Blocking.

We actively scans all incoming email messages as part of our virus prevention strategy. Email messages that contain attachments with known viruses are blocked. In addition, messages with certain types of attachments are refused as well.

If a message is refused by the our mail servers, the sender sees an error message similar to the following:

500 Message contains virus or suspected virus attachment. For more information: http://www.hmdc.harvard.edu/email/viruses/email-attachment-blocking.html

Please note that any attachment that you receive via email may contain malicious code and always should be scanned with virus software. We provide McAfee VirusScan free for FAS students, staff, and faculty; it can be downloaded from the FAS Computer Services web site at the following address:
     http://www.fas-it.fas.harvard.edu/

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of email attachments are blocked?

Generally email attachments with the following file extensions are blocked. Note that this table is not gaurunteed to reflect the current block list accurately. In addition, any attachment with two extensions, such as something.ado.zip, also is blocked.

How can I send an attachment that may be refused?

The best way to ensure that your email message will not be refused for containing a suspect attachment is to change the file extension on the attachment so that is not on our list of blocked extensions. FAS has a good tutorial available at their web site.

Note: Although .zip file is not a refused extension there are two circumstances where a ZIP archive might be refused:

1. The ZIP archive contains a virus or suspect files. Our virus scanner looks inside of ZIP archives for suspect files.
2. The ZIP archive is encrypted. Any encrypted ZIP archive cannot have its contents scanned. To protect our users, email messages with this type of ZIP archive will be refused.

Changing the extension of the file prevents either of the two reason from blocking your message.

I want to change the extension on a file, but the file name does not show the extension so I cannot change it. What should I do?

Many computers running the Windows operating system automatically hide file extensions, so you first need to change your settings to show file extensions. FAS has a good tutorial available at their web site.