Departments | Computing Division | Fermilab at Work | Fermilab Home _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Computing Division

Setting Email Forwards

General information

Set your mail forward on the mail gateway server to the machine where you wish to receive your mail. This may be an IMAP server or a UNIX machine. All other accounts should have their mail forwards set to your account on the mail server (username@fnal.gov). This way you can easily change your mail destination.

Let's assume that all your accounts are under the name of username and you wish to read your mail on mysystem.fnal.gov. Say you also have accounts on system1.fnal.gov, system2.fnal.gov, system3.fnal.gov, system4.fnal.gov, and system5.fnal.gov.

1. Make sure that you don't have a forward set on mysystem.fnal.gov
2. Set your forward on fnal.fnal.gov to username@mysystem.fnal.gov
3. Set your forward on system1.fnal.gov, system2.fnal.gov, system3.fnal.gov, system4.fnal.gov, and system5.fnal.gov to username@fnal.gov

Graphically that would be:

system1.fnal.gov |
system2.fnal.gov |
system3.fnal.gov |---> fnal.fnal.gov ---> mysystem.fnal.gov
system4.fnal.gov |
system5.fnal.gov |

If you subsequently decide that you wish to read your mail on system4.fnal.gov instead of mysystem.fnal.gov:

1. Remove the forward on system4.fnal.gov
2. Change the forward on fnal.fnal.gov to username@system4.fnal.gov
3. Change the forward on mysystem.fnal.gov to username@fnal.gov (This step may be omitted if mysystem.fnal.gov is down -- which is often the reason for changing the forward.)

Remember: The order in which you set your forwards is important! You do not want to create a loop where system a points to system b and system b points back to system a!

Setting your forward on the email gateway server

You can now change your forward and/or your password using a web interface to the mail gateway server. Go to Email Gateway User Option. In order to change your forward, you must know your mail server password. If you do not know your username or password on the mail server, contact the CD Helpdesk, helpdesk@fnal.gov, extension 2345, Wilson Hall Ground Floor.

After you have set your forward, you should check it by sending email to yourself on fnal.gov. From most mailers you will send to username@fnal.gov.

It is very important to test your forward. Even if you are getting email, that doesn't mean that your forward from fnal is working. People may be sending directly to the system where you read your mail. If you test it yourself, you can be sure that it works.

Setting your forward on systems other than the mail server

IMAP servers

These are not configured to support mail forwarding. They are final mail destinations. See IMAP at Fermilab.

UNIX systems

See Chapter 12 of UNIX at Fermilab.