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Department of Computer Science

Technical Services and Support

Accessing Email

by Hanz Makmur – Sept 1, 2016 • Updated: Oct 14, 2022

Note: All new employees must activate and use Rutgers Connect for all official business.  You may also get a ScarletApps account for personal use. Please activate these accounts when you get your NetID by clicking the Service Activation link.

This guide shows you how to access your Faculty/Staff email, which is known as Rutgers Connect.  There are multiple ways to access it, as listed below:

1. WebMail Interface 

The easiest way to access your email is to use supported web browsers by connecting to Outlook Web Access (OWA). To read your email, you can open the location below.

Open: https://connect.rutgers.edu
Username: your_netid@cs.rutgers.edu
Password: your_netid_password

Important: As of Summer 2021, all access to Rutgers Connect from outside Rutgers Network requires NetID+. If you have not done so, please activate your NetID+.

Once logged in, you will notice the Rutgers Connect Web Interface and Outlook Web Access (OWA), showing all your email and other available features.

2. Using Email Client on desktop/portable computer.

Another way to access your email is to use email clients like Outlook, Thunderbird, or AppleMail on your desktop computer and use your portable devices like tablets and smartphones. Please do not use the Spark mail client. OIT blocks this client due to privacy issues as it caches user mail and user credentials on third-party servers and will not work.

Rutgers Connect supports Exchange-based clients, and you need to configure your devices properly before you can read your email. The recommended client for full compatibility with Office 365 is to use Microsoft Outlook client. However, since Outlook is unavailable on every platform, you can use the IMAP protocol to read your email. Please be aware that Offline Archive won’t be accessible via IMAP. Warning: OIT may turn off the IMAP protocol soon, and there is no guarantee it will work in the future.

NOTE: As of October 2018, IMAP/SMTP are no longer enabled by default on Office365. If you need IMAP/SMTP protocols,  you must request them via the CS Help Desk.

2A. Using IMAP-Based Mail Client 

IMAP protocol is the standard way of reading email on basic email clients. This protocol is available for most users except those with access to Health data and should use the Exchange protocol described in  Section 5 below. To read your email on Rutgers Connect, you must set your email client’s incoming and outgoing server using oAuth2. For specific details, see: (login required)

When done, the settings should look below when everything is set correctly.

Incoming Mail Server:

IMAP Server:  outlook.office365.com
Port: 993
Encryption: SSL/TLS
Authentication method: oAuth2

Outgoing Mail Server

SMTP Server: smtp.office365.com
Port: 587
Encryption: STARTTLS
Authentication method: oAuth2

Note: Rutgers Connect does not support calendar standards (CalDAV). Calendar feature only works with Email clients that support MS Exchange protocol or the Webmail interface. If you have an older version of Thunderbird, you may need to upgrade it. MS365 requires more secure authentication that the older version does not support.

2B. Using Exchange-based Mail Client.

Exchange protocol is the preferred method to access Microsoft Office365 if you have an email client that supports this protocol. Follow the instructions listed in the Email and Calendar Setup from OIT.

3. Setting up Compliant Mobile Devices for Rutgers Connect

Even though it is possible to follow the IMAP Based Mail client settings table above to reconfigure your mobile devices to work with Rutgers Connect, you should be aware that for security reasons, University Acceptable Use policies require that all mobile devices are to be enrolled in Mobile Device Management (MDM) for all Rutgers staff and faculty.

Intune Company Portal

Essentially, you need to install the Intune Company Portal app and give Rutgers access to control your phone if it is ever lost or stolen.  Follow the Mobile Device Management Policy website to set up your mobile devices.

Note: If you set your mobile devices to use the IMAP settings above without enrolling in MDM, you are non-compliant with the University Acceptable Use Policy.

Tips: When Synchronizing emails with your mobile devices, ensure that the Mail Days to Sync or Period to Sync email calendar setting is set to the number of days you want to see. By default, it is set to sync only a few days of email, which means you will not be able to see emails older than that set limit

On Apple iOS devices, this setting is at:
➧ [Settings] ➧ [Mail,Contacts,Calendars] ➧ [MS365] ➧ [Mail Days to Sync]

On Android devices, this setting varies by version/make/model of your device:
➧ [Settings] ➧ [Accounts and sync] ➧ [your_email_address ➧ [Server settings] ➧ [Period to synch email, calendar]

4. Accessing Special Shared Accounts

For those who have access to special Shared Accounts, to access email for these Shared Accounts, a new configuration needs to be added to your email client for each Shared Account. There are three ways to access it. Depending on your client, follow  the guide below,

  1. How to View a Shared Mail Folder via WebMail aka Outlook Web Access (OWA)
    Summary: On Connect Webmail, right-click on your Full Name, choose Add Shared folder, and enter the folder’s name as is. Example: cs111@cs.rutgers.edu
  2. Accessing shared accounts in Thunderbird [*]
    This guide explains how to access  Shared mail  using the Thunderbird client
  3. Accessing shared accounts in Mac Mail [*]
    This guide explains how to access Shared mail using the Apple Mail client.

[*] For Thunderbird and Apple Mail setup, remember that for each shared account setting in your mail client, you must prepend ‘cs-‘ to its name. For example, a resource named: “cs111@cs.rutgers.edu” needs to be called “cs-cs111”.

For Incoming Server (IMAP), enter your username: your_netid@cs.rutgers.edu\cs-cs111.
For Outgoing Server(SMTP), enter your username as: your_netid@cs.rutgers.edu.
 
5. FAQ on Rutgers Connect Email.

Guides on how to set your email client settings for Rutgers Connect are available from the OIT Rutgers Connect Knowledge Base.  Note: Swap any ‘yourdepartment@rutgers.edu’ or ‘yourdomain@rutgers.edu’ to ‘cs.rutgers.edu.

 

6. Training Resources

For those who want to learn about the new Rutgers Connect system:

Problems?