City Staff Internal Email Instructions

Employees: To access the City e-mail server, go to the following link: http://mail.cityofsitka.com.

Basic E-mail with Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera

Set up your e-mail with your username, password , and mail.cityofsitka.com as your mail server. Make sure you set up your e-mail address as username@cityofsitka.com (Ask for help from the IS department if you need it.) Set the computer to save password, so you won't have to enter your password each time.

Get mail - click on this button to download your new mail. You will have to input your password the first time you get mail.

Reply - click on "reply" to send a message right back to the sender. New Message - click on "new msg" to start a new e-mail message to someone.

(A good test of the system and setup is to click on "new msg" and send yourself a message. Then use "get mail" to receive the message.)

Address book - as you receive messages, click on the e-mail address of the sender and the address will be entered into the address book. You also have a chance to enter the real name and phone numbers, etc. ... You can later access the address book with the "Communicator" pull-down menu and choose 'address book'.

As you receive e-mail, you should promptly delete old messages or move the messages to folders organized by topics. You might have a folder for personal mail and for each major project that you are involved with. You can create new folders within Netscape with the pull-down menu 'File' then choose 'New folder'.

Attachments

Beware!! Attachments are the primary source of computer viruses. Never open an attachment from an unknown sender, or even a questionable attachment from someone you do know. Do not view attachments 'in-line'. This means that attachments will automatically open. In Netscape E-mail, under the pull-down menu "View", there should not be a check mark in front of the choice "View attachment inline".

Open the attachment by clicking on the underlined title of the attachment in the attachment box. You might be able to choose "open it" if you have the proper software on you computer. For example, if the attachment is a Word file and you have Word on your PC, you can open it immediately. You can also choose to save the file to your hard drive and open or use it later. Be sure to remember where on your hard drive you save it. (It is handy to have a folder created on the C: drive called "download" or something like that.)

You can add any file to an e-mail as an attachment by clicking on "attach" then choose "file" then browse to the file you want to attach. You probably want to type a few lines of introduction to tell the receiver what the attachment is.

On-Line E-Mail access (live-link via the internet, "web access")

The new e-mail system can now be accessed for remote e-mail retrieval and special management at the following internet web site:

http://mail.cityofsitka.com

Some of the common features are the following:

• Here you can read your e-mail (click on "INBOX").
• You can compose and send e-mail. (click on "COMPOSE")
• You can set up a auto response, for example a message that says that you are on vacation until some date. (click on "OPTIONS")
• You can adjust the spam filter settings or look at the spam that has been filtered. ("OPTIONS")
• You can forward your e-mail to a different address or change your password.("OPTIONS")

Viewing your incoming e-mail

You will enter the e-mail server where you can check your mail by clicking on "Mailboxes" then click on "inbox". All the new e-mail will be listed and you can read and reply to each one by clicking on the sender's address under the "from" column. When you see the message, there is a reply button (among other command buttons).

Composing new messages

Click on the 'compose' button to create a new e-mail message. Click on 'send' to finish the new message process.

Deleting e-mail from web access

When you are viewing mail on-line, the messages remain on the server unless you deliberately mark the messages as deleted and then click on "purge deleted". If you don't delete the messages you can later download the messages to your regular office PC.

Changing your password

You go to the "Settings" tab at the top of the on-line page to change your password. Scroll down to the bottom of the page after clicking on "settings". Enter your old password then type in your new password twice. Then click on "update" to make the changes stick. (If you ever forget your password or username, call the IS department. We can't extract your password, but we can assign you a new password of your choice.)

Setting a vacation message

If you click on the "rules" tab, you can put a check in front of "vacation message" and then enter a message in the box. Then when someone sends you a message, they will get an immediate reply message with the text in the box. For example, you might want all senders to know that you will be out of the office for the month of June.

Junk Mail (SPAM)

Forward your obvious junk mail to blacklist@cityofsitka.com

Everyone receives a number of unwanted messages advertising all sorts of products and offers. You can forward your unwanted messages to a special account on our server called:

blacklist@cityofsitka.com

We will manually add the appropriate filters to the entire server system to filter the messages from these senders. Over time, we can accumulate a number of filters for many spammers. We won't be able to add every junk mail submitted to the filters because a sender may considered a spammer to one person and a legitimate vendor to another.

Also, you can set up filters in your own e-mail program to transfer certain messages directly to the your trash based on the sender or subject. In Netscape, in the Messenger module (e-mail) click on "Edit" pull-down menu and choose "message filters". Click on "New" to create a new filter.

E-Mail Privacy

In general, e-mail is not private or confidential. Although it is unlikely, e-mail can be captured and read by outsiders. After you receive messages, anyone can sit down to your computer, bring up your e-mail program and read your mail. When you delete you e-mail from your "inbox" the message is transferred to the "trash" within the Netscape program. The message still exists in the trash for your own reference or for other users of your computer.

Steps to fully delete old e-mail messages:

1. Highlight the message to trash in 'Inbox'
2. Hit the 'delete' key on your keyboard
3. Pull down file menu
4. Choose 'Empty trash on local mail. That e-mail message is now gone.

Forwarding Messages

If you want to pass the message on to someone else, just click on "forward" and enter the receiver's address on the "to" line.

Attachments within an e-mail are usually forwarded along with the message. Occasionally, attachments are lost in the forwarding process. This is especially risky when forwarding a forwarded message. Be sure to include an introduction statement so the receiver knows what to expect and can let you know if he or she does not expect the attachment.

Again, you can test the e-mail process by forwarding the message to yourself to see how the receiver will get the message and attachments.