The University offers two types of email accounts, UNIX and Exchange.  All students have a UNIX email account.  An employee may decide to obtain an Exchange account instead of requesting a UNIX mail account.

WebMail or UNIX mail @albany.edu (students and employees) - UNIX/WebMail accounts are basic email accounts without access to the Global Address Book or a calendar for collaboration.  Access to WebMail is available using a browser that allows cookies for the albany.edu site.

Students activate their WebMail account when they first set their password for MyUAlbany and UNIX accounts.  A student's email address is netid@albany.edu.  The University uses the UAlbany email address for all communications sent to students.  

Employees activate their WebMail account by first setting their UNIX password and then requesting a UNIX mail account.  Employees can also indicate they would like an alias instead of using their NetID as part of their email address.  Once the form is submitted, the email account will be active within 2 hours.  The employee is notified within two business days about the alias (usually first initial and lastname followed by @albany.edu).

Students and employees can configure a local email program to download mail from their UAlbany UNIX mail account via IMAP or POP protocols.  The incoming mail server is imap.albany.edu and the outgoing (SMTP) server depends on how you connect to the Internet.  If your computer is connected to the UAlbany network, the address is smtp.albany.edu.  If you connect to the Internet using Apogee or another Internet Service Provider (ISP), contact your provider for their SMTP server information. 

Exchange/Outlook mail @uamail.albany.edu (employees only) - This account is available by request only. Exchange access allows the user to access the Global Address Book as well as a calendar for collaboration. A user MUST have a Windows Network Access account prior to obtaining an Exchange account. The CSS Contact will submit the form to request the appropriate accounts for an employee. 

Once the Exchange mail account is created, employees can access their Exchange mail using MS Outlook installed on their University computer or through the Outlook Web Access (OWA) using Internet Explorer (version 6.x and higher.)  OWA is a convenient method for checking Exchange mail when working remotely or when traveling.