Frequently Asked Questions About Western's Alumni Email For Life Service
FEATURED QUESTIONS:
At the current time Western's Alumni Email for Life service does not support POP, IMAP or mobile setup.
The reason this feature is not available is because the authentication process to log into your account happens on the Western server with your credentials then being passed to Gmail. In order to set up POP, IMAP or mobile access to any Gmail account, you need a Gmail password and this password is not available in our configuration.
We are working with Google to add the functionality to support POP, IMAP and mobile setup for Western's Alumni Email For Life service and will let alumni know as soon as it is offered.
In the interim, you can forward your @alumni.uwo.ca email account to another personal account and then that account can be setup for your email client in either POP, IMAP or mobile.
Full Email For Life accounts have been set-up for Western alumni who previously had an @alumni.uwo.ca forwarding address.
To activate your Email For Life account, please follow the How to Connect instructions.
Google has extensive resources for users. You can find more information about how to use the Gmail service in its Help Centre.
You can also complete the Email For Life Assistance Form and a support team member will contact you within 72 hours.
BACKGROUND QUESTIONS:
We hope so but the reality is technology is changing. Who knows what email will look like in 30 years, or whether it will go the way of so many other technologies before it.
That said, we're confident that both Google and The University of Western Ontario will be around in some form for a very long time. It is therefore reasonable to assume that your new @alumni.uwo.ca account will be too.
Of course, email usage is subject to Google's terms of use, and to the University's own policies around use of its web properties. As such, we reserve the right to suspend or deactivate email accounts if there is any breach of the user agreements.
Western's primary reason for offering Email For Life is because, during the last couple of years, it is the most frequently requested addition to the existing suite of alumni benefits.
Email also offers Western and The University of Western Ontario Alumni Association a more environmentally friendly and cost-efficient way to communicate with you.
We currently send the following types of email:
- Event Invitations (by geographic region or special interest)
- The Purple Flash monthly newsletter
- Faculty Newsletters
- Alumni Service Offers
- Fundraising Initiatives Surveys
Yes, numerous other educational institutions partner with Google. A few Canadian examples include the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, Wilfrid Laurier University and Nipissing University, all of whom use Gmail to provide email services to their alumni.
Only The University of Western Ontario has the right to give out Google accounts that end in "@alumni.uwo.ca." This demonstration of your affiliation with Western can be useful for résumés and connecting with fellow alumni.
In addition, Western's special education partnership with Google means there are no external ads on @alumni.uwo.ca pages.
More than 12,000 Western alumni already have @alumni.uwo.ca email addresses. And every graduate from the Class of 2010 and onwards will automatically receive a Western alumni email address.
It's up to you. You determine which types of email you wish to receive. Become engaged.
The University of Western Ontario Alumni Association has carefully selected a handful of trusted affinity partners. These vendors offer reduced rate and value-added features on products such as insurance and credit cards. Western may disclose your contact information, under strict confidentiality agreements, to these partners for the purposes of contacting you to determine your interest in their products.
For more information about how your personal information is collected and used, please see our privacy policy.
Western respects your privacy. Select University of Western Ontario employees are responsible for creating and, by request, disabling accounts but do not access inboxes.
Yes, we're in the process of launching the Western Alumni Directory. This online directory will contain the names and graduation information (faculty and year) of all Western alumni. It will be up to individual members if they want to share any further information.
Only Western alumni will be listed in the Directory but alumni and current students will be able to search it.
In accordance with Western's special education partnership with Google there are no external ads on the @alumni.uwo.ca pages.
The only personal information provided to Google by The University of Western Ontario is your name (for the "From" line of the email), and your email prefix (the part before the @ symbol; also known as User ID).
All @alumni.uwo.ca accounts store their files in Google-owned servers around the world, along with other Gmail accounts.
No. Google will not read your email.
TECHNICAL QUESTIONS:
You log in with your Western User ID and Password at mail.alumni.uwo.ca.
Yes. In the top right corner of any Google mail page, click on the "Options" wheel icon, select "Mail Settings" from the drop-down menu, then click on the "Forwarding" tab, and forward the account as you please.
Each Western alumnus or alumna is assigned a User ID that serves as the prefix (the part before the @ symbol) of the alumni.uwo.ca email address associated with his or her account. This Western User ID is permanent and cannot be changed.
You may, however, request an email alias. An email alias is a forwarding email address that simply redirects messages to your actual account. It is important to note that an email alias does not replace your Western User ID. Your User ID will still be used to log in into your email account.
If you would like an email alias, please submit a new alumni email alias request to
efl-support@uwo.ca or call 519-661-4176 or 1-800-420-7519 business days between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Requests will be reviewed to ensure the requested alias does not already exist and created where possible.
Go to the Western Identity Manager. Enter your User ID, which is your email prefix (the part before the @ symbol) and click the "Forgot Password?" link. You will need to correctly answer three of the challenge response questions you created when setting up your Western Identity for the system to reveal your password.
No. To ensure the highest level of security around your information as well as the exclusivity of the @alumni.uwo.ca address, Western is authenticating users through its own system rather than Google.
To ensure the highest level of security around your information as well as the exclusivity of the @alumni.uwo.ca address, Western is authenticating users through its own system. As such, there are two ways to access your @alumni.uwo.ca account on a mobile device:
1) through a wireless connection to the web where you can browse to mail.alumni.uwo.ca and log in to your account
2)
by forwarding your @alumni.uwo.ca account to another email account that is synced with your mobile device.
To enable the redirect on mail.alumni.uwo.ca to work properly, please edit the bookmark as follows:
IN FIREFOX
- click on Bookmarks in the Firefox tool bar
- click on Organize Bookmarks in Bookmarks drop-down menu - this will open the Bookmark Library
- in the Bookmark Library, find and click on the mail.alumni.uwo.ca bookmark (NOTE: it may appear with a different name depending on how you saved it as a bookmark; i.e. @alumni.uwo.ca or Information Technology Services)
- change the Location associated with the mail.alumni.uwo.ca bookmark from https://shibidp.uwo.ca/idp/Authn/UserPassword to http://mail.alumni.uwo.ca
- close out the Bookmark Library window and test the bookmark
IN INTERNET EXPLORER
- right click on the mail.alumni.uwo.ca bookmark in the list of bookmarks (REMEMBER: it may appear with a different name)
- click Properties
- change the URL from https://shibidp.uwo.ca/idp/Authn/UserPassword to http://mail.alumni.uwo.ca/
- close out the Bookmark Properties and the test the bookmark
IN SAFARI
- from the Bookmarks menu, select Show All Bookmarks
- click on the mail.alumni.uwo.ca bookmark (NOTE: it may appear with a different name depending on how you saved it; i.e. @alumni.uwo.ca or Information Technology Services)
- change the Address from https://shibidp.uwo.ca/idp/Authn/UserPassword to http://mail.alumni.uwo.ca/
- close the Bookmarks Bar screen and the test the bookmark
You need to modify your browser security settings as follows:.
IN FIREFOX
- Go to Tools -- Options -- Security. Click on the “Exceptions” button, add mail.alumni.uwo.ca and click on Allow – this should then appear in the exceptions list. Then click on Close.
- Go to Tools -- Options -- Security. Under the Warning Messages, click on the “Settings” button -- make sure there is not a check mark beside the phrase “I am about to view an encrypted page that contains some unencrypted information (if it is checked, uncheck it). Click on OK.
IN INTERNET EXPLORER
- Go to Tools -- Internet Options -- Privacy. Click on the “Sites” button and add mail.alumni.uwo.ca as a trusted site.
- Go to Tools -- Internet Options -- Security -- Custom Level under the Miscellaneous section. Change “Display mixed content” to Enable.
No, the two accounts are completely separate entities. Your @uwo.ca student account is only active, however, while you are a student and for approximately four months after your last registered term at Western. After that period, you will need to transition to using your new @alumni.uwo.ca account.
You can still, however, retain your @uwo.ca contacts and email messages by transferring them to your new @alumni.uwo.ca account. See questions 4 and 5 below for detailed instructions.
Your student @uwo.ca account is retained for at least 4 months past your last registered term.
If you return to Western as a student, your original student email account will be reinstated.
The easiest way to share your new @alumni.uwo.ca address is to turn on the vacation message for your existing @uwo.ca account while it is still active and include the message:
"I'm graduating! Please update your contact list with my new email address: your-prefix@alumni.uwo.ca."
Yes, your contacts and email can be moved from your @uwo.ca to your new @alumni.uwo.ca account.
To respect your privacy, however, this information will not be ported over automatically. It will be up to you to transfer your desired contacts and email from your student account to your new alumni account. Detailed instructions are provided below.
Moving your contacts is a two-step process.
You first need to export your contacts from your @uwo.ca account. Here's how to do so from Western's Webmail Interface:
- Login to your @uwo.ca account at mail.uwo.ca
- Select the Address Book tab (in the bottom left of the screen)
- Click the Import/Export icon and select "Export" from the drop-down menu
- In the Export contacts from Address Book pop-up, choose the export format "Microsoft Outlook CSV"
- Click the Export Contacts button
- Save the File Download and/or make note of the file name and location
- If you're using a different email client for your @uwo.ca account, for example Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird or Mac Mail, please refer to the Western ITS Help documentation for exporting an address book at www.uwo.ca/its/doc/hdi/email/exportmyaddressbook.
- Login to you @alumni.uwo.ca account at mail.alumni.uwo.ca
- Select Contacts from the left navigation
- Select Import (in the upper right corner of the screen)
- Click the Browse button and find the contact export file
- Click the Import button
- You will receive a message indicating how may contacts have been imported.
- Click the OK button to see all of them listed
- Go to the Western alumni email for life homepage at mail.alumni.uwo.ca and login
- Click Settings at the top of the page
- Click on the Accounts tab
- In the Check mail using POP3 section, click on Add POP3 email account
- Enter your full @uwo.ca email address and click Next Step
- Fill in the remaining settings as follows:
- Username: Your Western User Id
- Password: Your Western Password
- POP Server: pop.uwo.ca
- Port: 995
- Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server (optional)
- Check "Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail"
- Label incoming messages (optional)
- Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox) (optional)
- Click Add Account
CAUTION: If you have messages stored in your @uwo.ca account that are in folders other than your inbox, you will need to move them to your inbox before they will be transferred. The process is easiest if you transfer one folder's worth of messages at a time (for example, transfer your inbox messages, then copy sent-mail messages to your inbox and transfer them, then copy another folder's message to your inbox, etc.). Just be prepared for the process to take awhile if you have a large number of messages and/or folders. It will take existing as well as future messages that are delivered to your @uwo.ca account and transfer them to your @alumni.uwo.ca account.
Yes, when your @alumni.uwo.ca is created, the forwarding from your @uwo.ca address is automatically transferred.
If you want to start accessing your @alumni.uwo.ca account in Gmail, however, you'll need to follow the instructions on the How to Connect to get into your account.
Yes. One is being offered to you by virtue of your staff, faculty or returning student status, and the other by virtue of your alumni status. The two email accounts are physically separate, and will only forward or share email from one to the other if you wish them to.
ALUMNI QUESTIONS
Full Email For Life accounts have been set-up for Western alumni who previously had an @alumni.uwo.ca forwarding address.
To activate your Email For Life account, please follow the How to Connect instructions.
Western enforces strict rules around passwords to ensure they are difficult for hackers to crack or decode. To review the rules that passwords must follow, please read the Western Password Policy.
Challenge responses are your personal answers to predetermined questions. They are designed to enhance password security and facilitate easy password management, including accessing a forgotten password.
You need to answer at least three (3) challenge response questions when activating your Western Identity. To review the conditions that challenge responses must adhere to, please read the Western Challenge Response Policy.
Yes, when your @alumni.uwo.ca account was created in Gmail, the forwarding was automatically transferred.
If you want to start accessing your @alumni.uwo.ca account in Gmail, however, you'll need to follow the instructions on the How to Connect to get into your account.
Western has created Email For Life accounts for all 2010 and 2011 graduates as well as alumni who had an @alumni.uwo.ca ca forwarding address prior to 2011.
If you are not a member of one of these groups, please complete an Email For Life Account Request.
Please note, it takes between 7 - 10 business days to create an account.
Yes. One is provided to you by virtue of your staff or faculty member status, and the other is offered to you by virtue of your alumni status. The two email accounts are physically separate, and will only forward or share email from one to the other if you wish them to.
HELP
Where can I go for help?
Google has extensive resources for users. You can find more information about how to use the Gmail service in its Help Centre.
You can also complete the Email For Life Assistance Form and a support team member will contact you within 72 hours.
