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Email programs and Gmail/Google Apps for Education

You will still need to use the Gmail interface.

For the most seamless interaction with all of the Google Apps for Education here at Willamette University, using the Gmail/Google Apps web-based interfaces is recommended.

Although you may prefer the look/feel/interface of an email program there are many administrative features that are only accessible by using the web-interface at wumail.willamette.edu.
Examples of features only accessible through wumail.willamette.edu

• setting vacation auto response
• enabling IMAP or POP connections
• setting any mail forwarding

Tips and best practices

Adding a new account, don't overwrite your old one.

If you have your mail program already connected to your old mailbox at Willamette, you should remove that account before setting up for Google, since the old Willamette mail server has been retired. Also, it is not recommended for you to simply dive into your existing email program and alter the mail server settings. Remove the old account and create a new account from scratch.

Automatic Configuration may not work.

Many email programs nowadays will attempt to detect your email server settings based on your email address/domain name. This is known to work in the current version of Mozilla Thunderbird. It does not work in Apple Mail. It may work in Outlook. If the automatic detection fails, you will need to do a 'manual' setup, which is an option in all of the mail clients.

Use IMAP instead of POP:

Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail, and Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010 all support IMAP. If IMAP doesn't work well for your particular client, then you can try POP. 

Server Settings

For the most part, here are the server settings we've found that should work for most email program setups:

• Incoming Mail Server: imap.googlemail.com
  • Port: 993
  • Security: SSL or TLS
  • username: your entire WU email address (e.g. asmith@willamette.edu)
• Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.googlemail.com
  • Port: 465
  • Security: SSL or TLS
  • username: your entire WU email address (e.g. asmith@willamette.edu)

Thunderbird

• Adding your Google Apps for Education email account to Thunderbird:
  • Thunderbird 5 and later (latest version is recommended)

Outlook

This type of setup is for Outlook email only; it does not synchronize Outlook Calendar, Contacts, or Tasks with Google. On the Google pages for Outlook 2003/2007, use willamette.edu where they refer to domain name. If you have Outlook setup for the old Willamette mail server, be sure to remove that account in Outlook and setup a new account from scratch.

• IMAP setup - configure Outlook to connect to your Willamette email account via IMAP:
  • Outlook 2010 (Windows)
  • Outlook 2007 (Windows)
  • Outlook 2003 (Windows)

• Apple Mail

  • Apple Mail 3 and later - Adding your Google Apps for Education to Apple Mail

  Other email programs

  Supported email clients - Google has a list of supported email clients and their setup instructions. REMINDER: if the 'automatic configuration' doesn't work for your willamette.edu email address, you will have to do a manual setup.