Nevis Mail

The Nevis mail domain is nevis.columbia.edu. When you are given an account on the Linux cluster, a mail account is established for you with the same name as your user ID. For example, if your Linux user account is jsmith, your e-mail address is jsmith@nevis.columbia.edu.

For many of the users at Nevis, the most significant aspect of the computer systems is to send and receive electronic mail. This page is an index to important topics about the e-mail services at Nevis.

The basics

Configuration

• As you configure your Nevis e-mail, don't forget about your Columbia UNI account if you work for Columbia. Columbia will only send its University-related e-mail to your UNI account. You have to decide which account to use.

• How to configure most standard mail readers. If you want to skip the long descriptions, here's a quick guide.

Webmail

A web-based mail program called Roundcube, is available on our web server. The URL is https://roundcube.nevis.columbia.edu/.

This is not a perfect facility. It is not meant to be. It is provided primarily so that if the only form of internet access is a web browser, you can still check your mail. It's also a convenient way to set up vacation/out-of-office messages (and other mail filters).

Managing your mail

• How to forward mail to another account. Be sure to read the section about what to do with your mail account when you leave Nevis.

• How to use the vacation program.

• On the Nevis mail server, there are two different ways to set up mail filters.

• Information about the mailing list server (including FAQ); here are the available mailing lists.

• A discussion on choosing POP vs. IMAP to read your mail.

• Other mail-related files that affect how your Nevis e-mail is processed by the server.

• How to create nested IMAP folders.

Mail security

• How to tell if an e-mail message is real.

• Each mail message is scanned for viruses.

• How to configure SpamAssassin, the Nevis-wide spam filter.

• Our perhaps overly aggressive approach to blocking mail and IP addresses.

Alpine at Nevis

• Configuring alpine
• How to set up Alpine without passwords.
• Using alpine in addition to another mail reader.

Problems and solutions

• "I have a mail problem, but I can't e-mail anyone to tell them about it because of the problem. Help!"
  • Try using webmail to send a message.
  • If you can't do that because the Nevis mail server is down, try sending a message to the system administrator's Gmail address.
  • "But I can't send a message to that Gmail address because the Nevis server is down!" If you're saying that, then you don't think you have an alternative e-mail account. Remember that you also have an e-mail account on the Columbia University systems, via your UNI. Your account name is <UNI@columbia.edu>, and the SMTP server is send.cc.columbia.edu.

• Does your mail program seem stuck, or does it take an abnormally long time to send or recieve messages?

• Does it take a long time to login?

• If the images are missing from your mail message, it may have something to do with the anti-virus scan.

• Are you having problems with a forward file?

• Are you seeing an error about "Relaying Denied?" Check your mail reader's configuration; SMTP authentication must be turned on (and you need to use you Linux cluster password). There may also be a problem with the firewall; contact the systems administrators.

• Speed problems? Try the FAQ.

Old or obsolete items

• Mail server upgrade - completed 15-Aug-2016.

• Are you seeing messages about certificates?

• The IMAP file switch - completed 19-Feb-2009.

• Other old stuff.