Accessing Webmail

Webmail is a web-based application to access Whitman's email. That means you can access your email over any web browser from anywhere in the world. To get started, simply log in at http://webmail.whitman.edu.

Recommended User Options

Address Book > Options

Under Searching Options switch Default directory for your personal address book, contact lists, and searches from My Address Book to Shared Directory.

Options > Message Options > Message Composition

Under When saving sent-mail, should we save attachment data? change it from Prompt every time an attachment is sent; default to YES to Prompt every time an attachment is sent; default to NO .

Options > Message Options > New Mail

Set Refresh Folder Views to some value other than Never - For instance, every 5 minutes is a reasonable setting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I use Webmail to filter junk mail?

For filtering junk mail we recommend using Postini - a service that the College pays for that filters out spam and viruses - instead of webmail filters. The spam filtering is on by default for all users and can easily be configured to set the level of junk mail blocking. See our Setting up Postini to Block Spam guide for instructions on how to tune Postini to your liking.

The benefit of this service is that it traps all the spam before it even gets to your account so you don't have to deal with processing each message with a blacklist. You will receive an occasional email (the interval is configurable) notifying you that there are message for you to review at the Postini site.

I get an email from WCTS saying I have 2976 messages in my inbox. I only see 15 - what gives?

It's likely that your Webmail is configured to hide deleted messages. You can check how it is currently set by looking in the far right of the tan bar right above your listing of messages. If it is not hiding them, you'll see a link that says "Hide Deleted." The opposite is true if you see "Show Deleted." In any case, you should regularly "Purge Deleted Messages" to clean up unneeded space and improve responsiveness of your mail.

I've updated my (signature/sent-mail folder/etc.) but it's showing my old one. What's going on?

The profile editor interface can be a bit misleading. Under "Mail->Personal Information" you need to first choose the identity to modify in the "Select the identity you want to change:" drop-down menu, make the edits there, and finally click "Save Options".

I'm composing a message in webmail, but I can't get to the Send button without scrolling.

Most likely your screen size is smaller than standard, so you can't see all the buttons at once. In most web browsers, you can send a message by clicking ctrl-s (hold down the control key then press the s key), thereby avoiding the need to find and click the Send button.