Colonial Mail is GW's email system. All students, staff, faculty, departments and student clubs/organization are encouraged to get a Colonial Mail account.

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Here is a listing of Computing and Email policies:

• Code of Conduct For Users of Computing Systems and Services
• Network Publishing Guidelines
• Electronic Mail Policy
• ISS Mass Email Policy

All GW Policies are listed at http://policy.gwu.edu/

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Point your browser to our Account Center and select the type of account you need and qualify for.

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Point your browser to our Online Manuals section, and check out the Email section.

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Delete all suspicious and unsolicited email attachments. Never open any email attachments that you are not expecting, even if they appear to have been sent by your family or friends, as the file may contain a computer virus. Also make sure that you have anti-virus software installed and updated on a regular basis (at least once a week) on your computer. Norton Anti-Virus is free to the GW community. When in doubt, feel free to contact us at (202) 994-5530, or ithelp@gwu.edu.

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There could be several reasons for this:

• You may be over your disk quota. Please the quota FAQs for more information.
• The Colonial Mail server may be running slowly and taking a longer time than usual to respond.
• The Colonial Mail server may be down - please see http://helpdesk.gwu.edu for details.

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To forward mail, you must first log into the Colonial Mail Management Console:

• Go to: https://amc.gwu.edu/
• Log into the Colonial Mail Management Console using your email password and username
• Then click on "Forwarding Rules" in the left column
• Under "Set Forward Rules", check "Forwarding On", uncheck "Deliver a copy to the inbox when forwarding email", unless you would like a copy of the messages in your Colonial Mail INBOX.
• Type in the email address you want your mail forwarded to, and click on "Apply"
• Make sure you test mail forwarding by sending yourself an email at your @gwu.edu email address and checking the email account you are forwarding to.

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To setup a vacation message/auto-responder, you must first log into the Colonial Mail Management Console:

• Go to: https://amc.gwu.edu/
• Log into the Colonial Mail Management Console using your email password and username
• Then click on "Vacation Message" in the left column and follow directions and click "Apply" once done
• Test the vacation message by sending yourself an email or asking a friend to send you an email message.

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Please contact the ISS Help Desk at (202) 994-5530.

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One should be careful when choosing an email account username. ISS will not change usernames or email addresses unless there are considerable circumstances for doing so. Requests for a change of username or email address will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

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Accounts can only be deleted by filling out the account deletion form located at the bottom of the account center webpage.

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There could be several reasons for this. Some of them may be:
• Heavy Network Traffic
• High Load on the mail servers, i.e., a lot of users checking their mail at the same time
• A large amount of messages in your INBOX or other mail folders, especially if you are using Colonial Mail, PINE or another IMAP client.
• If mail services are running slowly for a large number of our clients, details are posted on the main Help Desk web site at http://helpdesk.gwu.edu/ .

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There could be several reasons for this:
• The password is case sensitive, so make sure that you are using the correct case and that the CAPS lock is off.
• Make sure you are using the correct password
• The Colonial Mail server may be running slowly and taking a longer time than usual to respond
• The Colonial Mail server may be down - please see http://helpdesk.gwu.edu for details


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After you graduate, you may set up an e-mail forwarding account username@alumni.gwu.edu email address. Please see the GW Alumni Online Community page at https://my.gwu.edu/login/alumni.cfm/ for details.

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Winmail.dat attachments appear when the sender using Outlook sends messages using Rich Text Format. To fix this in Outlook:

1. Go to Tools > Options > Mail Format
2. Under Send in this message format: select Plain Text or HTML.
3. Click OK.

Detail info is at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;278061 and
http://www.gpc.edu/~jbenson/resource/winmail.htm

You can also download and purchase a shareware utility (WMDecode.zip) that will convert Winmail.dat files into actual attachments from http://www.biblet.com/

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This is because you are using GW's SMTP (outgoing mail) server from off campus instead of using your ISP's SMTP server to relay mail. GW's SMTP server does not work from off campus locations. Please contact your ISP for its SMTP server. If you live in the Aston, the Dakota, or any of the Scholar's Village Townhouses and need SMTP service, please login here to access this information: https://gwired.gwu.edu/s/ext/myresnet/index.php.

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Off campus users need the following:

• For the outgoing mail (SMTP) server, please contact your internet service provider
Please note that some ISPs do not offer SMTP servers or may not allow you to send mail through them if your return email address is set to your Colonial Mail address.

• For POP3 incoming mail server, use: pop.gwu.edu
• For IMAP incoming mail server, use: imap.gwu.edu

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In order to send mail, you need an Outgoing Mail Server or an SMTP server. Most ISPs will provide their clients with SMTP servers (usually listed on their web sites under Email or obtained by calling the ISP). Simply configure your email software with your Colonial Mail address and GW's incoming mail servers - pop.gwu.edu or imap.gwu.edu - and add your ISP's Outgoing Mail or SMTP server.

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Spam is any unwanted bulk email. Sending or helping distribute spam is generally considered poor etiquette (think unsolicited telemarketing phone calls) and consumes valuable resources - time and disk space.

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You can enable GW's AntiSpam solution by logging into the Account Management Console with your NetID and password. Also, please see our Spam Information & Prevention.

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GW does not tolerate spam. It is against our Code of Conduct For Users of Computing Systems and Services and listed in our Email Policy.

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You can enable AntiSpam filtering on your Colonial Mail account. Also, please see our Spam Information & Prevention page to see how you can further reduce spam.

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Here is how you bounce spam messages (with message headers) using ...

• PINE: type b when viewing the message and at the BOUNCE (redirect) message to: prompt, type abuse@gwu.edu and press Enter.

• Netscape 4.7x: Click on View > Headers > All to reveal the headers and then click on Message > Forward As > Inline. Send the message to abuse@gwu.edu.

• Outlook: Right-click on the message in question. Left-click on Options and look for Internet Headers at the bottom of the Message Options window. Highlight all the headers and press ctrl-c to copy them all. Compose a new message; in message body press ctrl-v to paste the headers. Send the message to abuse@gwu.edu.

• Outlook Express: Click on the message in question. Click File > Properties > Details. You will see Internet headers for this message. Highlight all the headers and press ctrl-c to copy them all. Compose a new message; in message body press ctrl-v to paste the headers. Send the message to abuse@gwu.edu.

• Colonial Mail: Log into Colonial Mail. Open a message. On the "From" line, at the far right-hand side of the message window, you will see an arrow pointing to the right: Click on the arrow to view the full message header. To view return to viewing brief message headers, simply click on the same arrow (which will be pointing down).

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Point your browser to our Mail Filtering pages.

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