CUSD E-mail Setup for Home Use...
Thunderbird is a standalone version of the Mozilla Mail client which is freely available for downloading and use on either Macs, Windows or Linux computers. It offers sophisticated mail management features without the associated Web browser. It is a well-supported and well-behaved piece of software that includes many modern features including Bayesian spam filtering, and is highly recommended.
We will assume that you already have a mail client that you have been using to send and receive e-mail from within the Claremont Unified School District--either in an office or in a classroom. It might be Eudora, Outlook or Mail.app. Whatever. Let's now assume that you would also like to read your District e-mail from home, using the network connection that you have using an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as Verizon or Comcast, etc. How exactly do you do that? This document might help...
First, download a copy of Thunderbird for your computer, and install it using the directions that you can find on the Mozilla website. Go http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/ to download a copy of Thunderbird.
After you have installed your e-mail client software, you are ready to begin... (While these instructions use the Macintosh version as an example, versions of Thunderbird for other platforms work similarly with only slight differences.)
When you launch Thunderbird for the first time
the Account Wizard may start automatically. In that case, skip to step
2 below. If it does not, open the File menu, then click on New, then
"Account..." Most likely, you won't need to "import" any settings from
another program, so make the following choice and click Next.
The first screen asks what kind of account you want to set up. The default "Email account" is correct, so just click Next.
Type in your name as you want it to appear on
outgoing email in the Your Name box. Type in your email address in the
form "username@mailserver.claremont.edu" where "username" is your
assigned, uniform username for your CUSD accounts. (In this example,
Ursala Sername has an eight-character username of "username".) Then
click Next.
Change the incoming server type to POP
(PostOffice Protocol). In the Incoming Server box, type the name of the
server from which you usually get your e-mail; within the District,
this would be either "chsmail.claremont.edu" or "chs.cusd.claremont.edu" or, perhaps, "webmail.cusd.claremont.edu".
In the Outgoing Server box, type the name of the appropriate outgoing
mail server. (This is the tricky bit, if you are going to be trying
this from home.)
This outgoing server choice is defined by your ISP. If you are uncertain, you may need to give them a call to confirm what you should use for your Outgoing Server setting. This list might be of assistance:
Enter your username as both the Incoming User
Name and Outgoing User Name.
(Usually, these can be the same, but your ISP may require that you use
your assigned username that they provided to you for your Outgoing User
Name.) Click Next.
You will then be asked to name your account.
You can leave the default, which is your email address, or change it to
something more descriptive. Then click Next.
The final screen summarizes the information that you just entered. Verify that it is correct and then click Finish.
You are now ready to use Thunderbird to check
the e-mail for this account. Just click Get Mail, and provide your
password to log into your CUSD e-mail account...
Checking (or downloading) your e-mail should be no problem. If you try to send mail and you get an error message along the lines of "Permission denied", you will need to make some additional configuration changes. This may require a call to your ISP for more specifics on the Outgoing Server or something related to your account through them.
You can also adjust the new settings on your account in Thunderbird, if you need to make some adjustments. Under the Tools menu, you will see "Account Settings…"
From here, you can make additional modifications, as necessary.
And, here's a hint that might be helpful if you are going to check your District mail account from several machines, such as at home and at work… Include a setting that instructs Thunderbird to "keep your mail on the server" for a few days. This will mean that you can download a copy to view on your home machine, and (correctly) your office machine should be set to download and remove the mail from the server. See below:
If you have other questions, please call our Information Services department and talk with one of our User Support Analysts.