Setting up email

You will have been allocated an email address of the form spq32@cam.ac.uk, the spq32 part is called your username, userID or CSID. You'll also have an email password (you can change this to one of your own choosing). There are various ways to check your email within College and when you're at home.

1. Hermes Webmail

The Cambridge email system is called Hermes, and probably the easiest way to check your email is via the Hermes webmail system. If you've ever used Hotmail you'll be very at home. Just go to https://webmail.hermes.cam.ac.uk/, enter your username and password and you're away.

2. Mail User Agents

To read your email on your personal computer, you may want to set up a mail reader program like Outlook Express, Mulberry or Eudora. The instructions here are for Outlook Express, but it shouldn't be hard to figure out what to do for other email systems.

• Run Outlook Express, and from the Tools menu, select Accounts...
• Click the Add> button and choose Mail...
• On the first screen, enter your name and click Next >
• Now choose I already have an email address I'd like to use and enter your full email address eg spq32@cam.ac.uk, then click Next >
• On the next screen, ensure POP3 is selected, fill in the incoming server as pop.hermes.cam.ac.uk and outgoing server as smtp.hermes.cam.ac.uk, then click Next >
• On the next screen, your account name is your username, like spq32, and your password is ... well, you tell me... Tick Remember Password so you don't have to type in your password every time you check your email.
• Click Next > one more time, then Finish. You can now try sending yourself a message to check it all worked properly!

3. Telnet

Masochists, Luddites and people using the dated staircase terminals will have the excitement of using the Hermes Telnet interfaces. So, for the record...

• Open a Telnet window (eg Start>Run...> and type telnet).
• Telnet to hermes.cam.ac.uk (eg Connect>Remote System...> and type hermes.cam.ac.uk in the Host box)
• If you're on a staircase terminal, just type hermes
• Enter your username and password when prompted
• Type 1 to access the Pine mail software