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Department of Computer Science

Technical Services and Support

Accessing Email

by Hanz Makmur – Sept 1, 2016 • Updated: Oct 14, 2022

Note: All new employee must activate and use Rutgers Connect for all official business.  You may also get ScarletApps account for personal use. Please  activate these account when you get your NetID by clicking Service Activation link.

This guide shows you how to access your Faculty/Staff email known as Rutgers Connect.  There are multiple ways to access it as listed below:

1. WebMail Interface 

The easiest way to access your email is to use supported web browsers by connecting to Outlook Web Access (OWA). To read your email, simply open location below.

Openhttps://connect.rutgers.edu
Usernameyour_netid@cs.rutgers.edu
Password: your_netid_password

Important: As of Summer 2021, all access to Rutgers Connect from outside Rutgers Network  requires NetID+. If you have not done so, please activate your NetID+  if you have not done so.

Once logged in, you will notice the Rutgers Connect Web Interface known as Outlook Web Access (OWA), showing all your email and other features available there.

2. Using Email Client on desktop/portable computer.

Another way to access your email is to use email client like Outlook, Thunderbird, or AppleMail on your desktop computer and using your portable devices like tablets and smart phones. Please do not use Spark mail client. This client is blocked by OIT due to privacy issue as it caches user mail and user credentials on third-party servers and will not work.

Rutgers Connect support Exchange based clients and you need to configure your devices properly before you can read your email.The recommended client for full compatibility to Office 365 is to use Microsoft Outlook client. However since Outlook is not available on every platform, alternatively, you can use IMAP protocol to read your email. Please be aware that Offline Archive wont be accessible via IMAP. Warning: IMAP protocol may be turned off soon by OIT and no guarantee to work in the future.


NOTE: As of October 2018, IMAP/SMTP are no longer enabled by default on Office365. If you need IMAP/SMTP protocols,  you must request it via CS Help Desk


2A. Using IMAP Based Mail Client 

IMAP protocol is standard way of reading email on basic email client. This protocol is available for most users except for people who have access to Health data and should be using Exchange protocol described in  Section 5 below. To read your email on Rutgers Connect, you need to set your email client’s incoming and outgoing server using oAuth2. For specific details see: (login required)

When done, the settings should look like below when everything is set properly.

Incoming Mail Server:

IMAP Server:  outlook.office365.com
Port: 993
Encryption: SSL/TLS
Authentication method:
oAuth2

Outgoing Mail Server

SMTP Server: smtp.office365.com
Port: 587
EncryptionSTARTTLS
Authentication method: oAuth2

Note: Rutgers Connect does not support calendar standard (CalDAV). Calendar feature only works with Email clients that support MS Exchange protocol or the Webmail interface. If you have older version of Thunderbird, you may need to upgrade it. MS365 requires more secure authentication that the older version does not support.

2B. Using Exchange based Mail Client.

Exchange protocol is the preferred method to accessed Microsoft Office365 if you have email client that support this protocol. Follow instruction listed in Email and Calendar Setup from OIT.

3. Setting up Compliant Mobile Devices fo Rutgers Connect

Despite the fact that it is possible to follow the IMAP Based Mail client settings table above to reconfigure your mobile devices to work with Rutgers Connect, you should be aware that for security reasons, University Acceptable Use policies require that all mobile devices are to be enrolled in Mobile Device Management (MDM) for all Rutgers staff and faculty.

Intune Company Portal

Essentially you need to install  Intune Company Portal app and give Rutgers access to control your phone if it is ever lost or stolen.  Follow Mobile Device Management Policy website to setup your mobile devices.

Note: If you set your mobile devices to use IMAP settings above without enrolling in MDM, you are non compliant with University Acceptable Use policy.

Tips: When Synching email with your mobile devices, make sure that the Mail Days to Sync or Period to sync email, calendar setting is set to the number of days you want to see. By default, it is set to sync only a few days of email which means you will not be able to see email older that that set limit

On Apple iOS devices, this setting is at:
➧ [Settings] ➧ [Mail,Contacts,Calendars] ➧ [MS365] ➧ [Mail Days to Sync]

On Adroid devices, this setting varies by version/make/model of your device:
➧ [Settings] ➧ [Accounts and sync] ➧ [your_email_address ➧ [Server settings] ➧ [Period to synch email, calendar]

4. Accessing Special Shared Accounts

For those who have access to special Shared Accounts, to access email for these Shared Accounts, new configuration needs to be added your email client for each Shared Account. There are 3 ways to access it. Depending on your client, follow  guide below,

  1. How to View a Shared Mail Folder via WebMail aka Outlook Web Access (OWA)
    Summary: On Connect Webmail, right click on your Full Name, choose add shared folder and enter the name of the folder as is. Example: cs111@cs.rutgers.edu
  2. Accessing shared accounts in Thunderbird [*]
    This guide explains how to access  Shared mail  using Thunderbird client
  3. Accessing shared accounts in Mac Mail [*]
    This guide explains how to access Shared mail using Apple Mail client.

[*] For both Thunderbird and Apple Mail setup, don’t forget for each Shared Account setting in your mail client, you need to prepend ‘cs-‘ on its name. Example for a resource named: “cs111@cs.rutgers.edu“, it needs to be called as “cs-cs111”.

For Incoming Server (IMAP), enter your username: your_netid@cs.rutgers.edu\cs-cs111.
For Outgoing Server(SMTP), enter your username as: your_netid@cs.rutgers.edu.
 
5. FAQ on Rutgers Connect Email.

Guides on how to set your email client settings for Rutgers Connect is available from OIT Rutgers Connect Knowledge Base.  Note: Dont forget to swap any ‘yourdepartment@rutgers.edu‘ or ‘yourdomain@rutgers.edu‘ to ‘cs.rutgers.edu’.

 

6. Training Resources

For those who want to learn about the new Rutgers Connect system:

Problems?