Table of Contents:
 Introduction
 Getting Started
 Problems

Introduction

Web-based email is not intended as a replacement for full featured email clients such as Netscape Messenger, Microsoft Outlook, Pine, Eudora and others but as a means of checking your email when you are away from your primary computer.   If a feature is not mentioned in this document it means that it is currently unsupported by us (which may or may not mean it will be supported in the future).  It will help if you keep the size of your Inbox small (no more than 50 messages) as the Inbox is indexed first as it loads and then updated frequently.

Getting Started

Point your web browser to the following location: https://webmail.csb.yale.edu.  Make sure you use the https nomenclature indicating a "secure" connection as that is all that is supported.  This results in an encrypted session between your internet browser and our webmail server.

The following was done using the Netscape browser so if you are using a different one it will not look the same as in the following examples but the procedure will be basically the same.

If you browser successfully finds our server you should be confronted with the following certificate acceptance procedure.
Certificates are used for "secure" connections as a means of verifying that the computer that you want to connect to is in fact that computer.  The first time that you connect to a computer and accept the certificate for all time that certificate is what is used to identify that computer not the hostname or IP address which can be "spoofed".
Please ignore the hostname of the computer in the following discussion as it is a test machine set up for this purpose.
 

This screen tells you that you have encountered a new Site Certificate but the certificate is not "signed" by a certificate authority recognized by Netscape.  This is because we created our own certificate authority to sign the certificate.
Please click on the Next> box.

Here we are personally verifying ourselves to you rather that using a trusted third party.
Please click on the Next> box.

You are now offered the option of what to do about the certificate.  Choose option 3 "Accept this certificate forever" if you don't want to go through the procedure again from the computer you are using.
Please click on the Next> box after you have selected the option of you choice.

If you do not want to be warned again about talking to this site do not select the Warn button.  Please click on the Next> box to continue.

Almost done.  Please select the Finish box.

This message is ok; just a problem with the fact that we are signing our own certificate.  Please click on the Continue box.

This should now bring you to our login screen.

Click on the Username box and enter your CSB account username.
Click on the Password box and enter your CSB account password.
Click on the Log in box.
Don't forget to use the Logout option at the top of the Inbox page when you are finished.

The next screen to appear is the main web mail window containing the subject lines of all your messages which are located on our mail server in your Inbox.  At this time no message has been retrieved only the headers are displayed.

As you can see I currently have 129 messages in my Inbox of which two are unread (little envelope in left column and a different row color).  Inbox messages are grouped in blocks of 20 messages with the last block as the default to display.  The arrows in the center on the top and bottom on either side of the page number box will allow you to scroll up or down through the page blocks.
By clicking on the From or Subject column of a message that message will then be downloaded to your browser.

The screen now changes showing you the message with an option bar at the top and bottom for Delete | Reply | etc.  By selecting Back to Inbox you are returned to the original view of your Inbox.  The arrows to the left of the Back to Inbox allow you to select the next or previous message for download and display.  If you delete the current message the next message is downloaded and displayed.
If the message contains attachments they will be listed but not downloaded until you click on them as shown below.

The Reply, Reply to All, Forward, Redirect, Message Source, Save as and Print options all pop up a new window which is self-explanatory.  When you delete a message the Inbox window will show a darkened row with a line through the fields and a trash can in the far left column.  The message still remains in the Trash folder for later retrieval if necessary; however the Purge option removes the message permanently.

By selecting Hide Deleted the row will be removed.

By clicking on the Inbox box a pop box comes up with a list of all the mail folders/files in the CSBimap directory in your home directory.  You can use this to view a message that you have stored there as opposed to the messages in you Inbox which are located in the system mail folder.  Be careful with your Inbox as it has a limit of 40MB which gets used up very quickly by attachments.  It is good practice to move messages from your Inbox to another folder in your CSBimap directory to keep the size of the Inbox manageable.  You can always retrieve messages from there with your mail program if necessary.
If you wish to move or copy a message to a different folder select the message, click on the Messages to box, select the folder and then click on Move or Copy (Move moves the message removing it from the current location Copy put a copy in the new location)

Between webmail sessions no "state" information is saved.  This would require a separate database application to be running in which the information is to be saved.  Our view of web-based email is one of  convenience for our users when they are away from their primary computer and not to be used as a full-fledged email client.
If a new message arrives in your Inbox while you are using web-mail you will not be notified.  By occasionally clicking on the refresh icon (the two arrows forming a circle above the upper Select: box) your browser will issue a request to our server for an update of the page which will include any new messages.  When you are finished with your mail session select the Logout option on the menu bar at the top of the page.  This will terminate your session cleanly and update you Inbox before closing.

Problems:
If you leave your primary mail program logged on at work and access you mail from another location you can expect your Inbox to be inconsistent when you return.  Most full featured mail programs when they are running believe they have a "lock" on your Inbox and thus do not honor any changes made by a different mail client.  Another point to remember is that your Trash folder does not actually exist as a separate folder.  Messages marked for deletion are just that marked; they remain in your Inbox until the Trash is purged/deleted/removed.  This is why they show up again as New Mail when you come back to your existing mail connection.  If you have viewed your mail from a different location when you come back  log out of you mail session and then log back in.  Your Inbox will now be updated with the changes made from the remote mail session. (Reload does not cause the Inbox to be updated only logging out and back in will do it.)

If you experience problems send email (if it is working) to sysadm@mail.csb.yale.edu or you can leave a voice message in David's mailbox at (203) 432-5743 (I actually do try and remember to check my  mail and voice messages when I am home.)