Using Lifetime Email with a Free Webmail Service

A number of providers offer free webmail services including Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. These free services provide an email account, space to store received and sent emails, and an interface to read those emails.

Google GMail

GMail is the recommended webmail service for use with the Graduate Lifetime Email service. It provides services such as a configurable From: address, so you can send mail from your graduate account, and the ability to use mail clients such as Outlook to read your email.

If you want to send email from GMail with your graduate address in the From: line, you must do the following:

1. Log into your GMail account

2. Click the "Settings" link in the top right

3. Click the "Accounts" link in the orange area

4. Click "Add another email address"

5. Type your full graduate email address in the Email Address box.

6. Click the "Next Step" button

7. Click the "Send Verification" button.

   Google will send an email to your graduate address, which will then be automatically redirected to your GMail account. You will need information in this email to finish setting up your From address.

8. Wait a couple of minutes for the confirmation email to arrive

9. Click on "Inbox" in the left hand menu

10. Open the email from "GMail Team" with subject "GMail Confirmation"

11. Click on the link to verify your graduate email address.

    A window should open with a "Confirmation Success" message. Once this has been done, you can select your graduate address to be on the From: address of all mail you send from GMail.

12. Close the confirmation window.

13. Select "Settings" from the top right of the GMail window

14. Select "Accounts" from the orange area.

15. Click "Make default" next to your graduate address.

Now all email you send from GMail will have your graduate email address in the From: line. When composing a new message, you will have the option to select your GMail address instead. To turn off sending your graduate address as your From: link, repeat steps 13-15 and click "Make default" next to your normal GMail address.

Since you will need to read the email that GMail sends out to confirm the change, you cannot set your From: address up until your Graduate Lifetime Email address has been set up and is working.

Note: Because of the way that GMail stores threaded conversations, sending a test mail from your GMail account to your graduate address will appear to not work. This is because GMail treats the returned mail as a duplicate and does not display it. You will need to send test emails from another account (or get someone else to send it for you).

Microsoft Hotmail

Hotmail is a popular choice but has several problems. In the free version of Hotmail, you cannot use a mail client such as Eudora, and you cannot set your graduate email address as your From: address.

Hotmail also uses anti-spam measures which are known to catch graduate email. You will need to check your junk folder regularly. When you first set your graduate email address, you will need to set up your graduate email address in your Hotmail settings.

After you have completed signup, or changed your forwarding address to a Hotmail account, check your Junk Mail folder for messages from Convocation or people who have sent mail to your graduate email address. You will need to do the following to stop Hotmail putting your graduate email in the Junk folder:

1. Open the Junk Mail folder

2. Click on the message sender or subject to open it

3. Click the "Not Junk Mail" button at the top of the message

4. Select the second option "This message is from a mailing list I belong to..."

5. Click the "Next" button.

You should be informed that your graduate email address has been added to your list of mailing lists. This should ensure that you receive your graduate email.

Note: Hotmail will delete mail from your Junk Mail folder after only 5 days, so you must perform these steps as soon as you set up your graduate account. It is easy to lose an important confirmation email in this way.

You can also add your graduate address to Hotmail directly from the settings pages as follows:

1. Click the Options link in the top right (next to Help)

2. Click the "Junk E-Mail Protection" link.

3. Click "Mailing Lists"

4. Type your full graduate email address under "Type a single e-mail address"

5. Click the "Add" button.

6. Click "OK"

Yahoo Mail

We do not recommend that users use Yahoo Mail. Yahoo has been reported to delay or discard all email originating from UWA believing it to be spam. If this happens, you will not receive your graduate email.