FAQ

E-mail account creation and availability

USING THE E-MAIL

Q2.1-I got an e-mail account how can I login?
Q2.2-When login to my e-mail account is it necessary to type the full e-mail address i.e.(user@kau.edu.sa) or just type my username without adding "@kau.edu.sa", in the username  field?
Q2.3-Is there any user guide that tell me how to use the webmail (send, receive, and attach the message etc..)?
Q2.4-Is it possible to change my e-mail password from the webmail page?
Q2.5-Is it possible to change the e-mail interface from English to Arabic language and save this change permanently?

Outlook

Extra Questions

Q6.1-I have some other questions and suggestions, to whom can I refer to? 

 E-mail account creation and availability

Q1.1- Is it possible to get an e-mail account? Who are allowed to use the KAU e-mail?

The e-mail service in the meantime is provided for university members only:

• Various departments in the university (for official use).

• University employees (Staff, Employees and Technicians).

• Postgraduate and undergraduate students (renew every semester).

   

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Q1.2-How I can get an e-mail account?

For University employees and staff (governmental jobs):

• Download the (330-F-1) form and fill it completely –if this is the first time you apply for the username in general, but if you have already a user account on the university network then there is no need to fill the form completely, you can just type your username only-, then bring it to IT center, or send it by fax on (6405845), or by E-mail to (itc.hdu@kau.edu.sa ). Notice that you should use the WinZip program to decompress this form.

• Attach a photocopy of your identity card/Iqama/Passport.

• Attach a photocopy of your university card.

For other employees (not governmental job) the following is required too:

• An official letter to IT director signed from the head of department that you belongs to.

For postgraduate and undergraduate students the following are required too:

• Attach a photocopy of your student ID in addition to a photocopy of your study schedule.

• Stamp the form from the educational affair department in your college.

• Renewal request is needed every semester.

For the official e-mail account, an official request letter to the IT center director is required.

 

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Q1.3-What is the naming policy for the email account?

For the personnel E-mail account:

The E-mail account must be identical to the domain user account (Network account), which usually consist of the first character from the first name and the sure name. In case of duplication, additional characters may added from the meddle name or grand father name.

For the Official E-mail account:

The E-mail account will be formed of two parts separated with a period "."; the first part represents the name of the college, or the side, while the second part represents the name of the department, or committee…etc. For example, here is the email address of the Help Desk unit (HDU) inside the Information Technology Center (ITC) : itc.hdu@kau.edu.sa

 

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Q1.4-In the past, I had an e-mail account but I forgot its username and/or password, what should I do?

You can get your username and have a new password by calling the Help Desk on (6951440), or e-mail them on itc.hdu@kau.edu.sa .

               

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Q1.5-I am not sure whether I have an e-mail account or not, but even if I have an account, how can I verify its functionality?

You can verify that you have a valid username and password  by calling the Help Desk on (6951440), or e-mail them on itc.hdu@kau.edu.sa . If you don't have any, please see Q1.2 (how to create a new email account).

 

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USING THE E-MAIL 

Q2.1- I got an e-mail account how can I login?

- You can login by opening the university website at http://www.kau.edu.sa , then entering the username and password.

- In addition, you can login from the http://mail.kau.edu.sa , there you will have the ability to:

• Choose the interface:

  • Advanced (for Internet Explorer 6 or higher) this is a graphical interface, it looks like the outlook interface and has many additional features, it is recommended to use it if you have a good internet connection speed or when you're working from the university network; because it has some graphics which takes some time to download.

     

  • Advanced (for Mozilla 1.0 or higher), this interface is similar to the previous one, but it designated for the FireFox browser (Mozilla).

     

  • Simple Interface (Any browser), this is a simple text, fast interface that you can use from any internet browser regardless the internet connection speed that you have right now.

     

    • Simple Interface (Ajax),this interface is similar and looks like the previous one, but it was designed using the AJAX technique to increase the performance and add additional features.

     

     

• Choose the language:

  • Arabic.

  • English.

Note: to change the language permanently see Q2.5 for more details.

• Use the Password Utility.

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Q2.2- When login to my e-mail account is it necessary to type the full e-mail address i.e. (user@kau.edu.sa) or just type my username without adding "@kau.edu.sa", in the username field?

When login to your e-mail account you must type your username only without adding "@kau.edu.sa" in the username field.

 

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Q2.3-Is there any user guide that tell me how to use the webmail (send, receive, and attach the message etc..)?

There is a complete help file in our webmail page; you can access it by clicking on the icon "Help". Notice that the help contents are available in Arabic language as well as the English language according to the user's interface language.

 

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Q2.4-Is it possible to change my e-mail password from the webmail page?

Yes, this is possible on both the simple interfaces as well as the advanced interfaces:

For the simple interfaces:

Select "User Profile" at the tail of the webmail page, then select "Change Password" from the left pane.

Type your old password, your new password, and press on the "Change Password" icon to save your new password.

 For the advanced interface:

From the preference menu choose "Change Password".

Type your old password, your new password, and press on the "Change Password" icon to save your new password.

 

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Q2.5- Is it possible to change the e-mail interface from English to Arabic language and save this change permanently?

Yes, it is. All what you have to do is to select "settings", then go to "Service Language", and  choose the Arabic from the drop list menu, then press on "Save Settings" button so the change can take effect.

Disk Quota

 

Q3.1- What is the storage capacity limit for each user?

The maximum storage capacity for each user is 20MB.

 

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Q3.2- Which folders are included in the disk quota calculation?

All the e-mail folders are included in the disk quota calculation, such as Inbox, Sent, Trash, Spam and all the remaining personal folders if there any.

 

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Q3.3- Do I reach the maximum disk quota or not yet? Can I know exactly what is my current disk space utilization?

 You can identify your current disk space utilization by going to "Folders" menu from the head of the webmail page, then you will find -at the meddle of that page- a quota meter (Mailbox quota) which indicates your current disk utilization.

 

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Q3.4- My mailbox does not receive any incoming messages, is there any problem? How can I solve it?

Usually, this happen when your mailbox quota was exceeded. All what you have to do is checking your quota status (see Q3.3) and free up some disk space by deleting or downloading some of your messages. (see Q3.6 for more details).

 

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Q3.5- What happen if someone send to me a message while my mailbox quota was exceeded? 

In this case, the new incoming message will be return to its origin immediately with a notification that the recipient's mailbox is full and cannot accept any more messages, and ask the origin to try again later.

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Q3.6- My mailbox quota was exceeded, what can I do?

In order to get a new message, you have to free up some disk space by one of the following method:

Use the Outlook program to download your message and keep it on your own PC. (see Outlook FAQ's for more details)

Empty the "Trash" and the "Spam" folder and delete the unimportant message from the sent folder.

 

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Q3.7- The allocated disk quota for all users (20MB) is not enough for me since I receive a lot of large messages everyday, is there any solution?

The best available solution is to use one of e-mail client program such as Microsoft Outlook for sending/receiving messages.

 

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Outlook

 

Q4.1- What is the Microsoft Outlook? And how does it work?

Microsoft Outlook is consider to be one of the most famous e-mail client that help the user to send/receive messages in all kind of format (text/html) periodically. In addition, it enables the user to manage his calendar, meeting, address books, and its have a lot of other features.  

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Q4.2- Where I can get Microsoft Outlook Express?

Microsoft Outlook Express is included with all windows versions (win9x, win2000, windows xp) by default; you can found it under the program menu. If you don't, you can add it through "Add/Remove programs" utility which exist in your control panel, then from the "Add/remove windows component" window verify that the Outlook Express is selected and proceed by follow the adding wizard. In addition, there is another enhanced version of outlook comes with Microsoft Office.

 

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Q4.3- How I can configure the Outlook so that it can work inside the university?

 

There is a user guide prepared in English and Arabic language for many Outlook versions, on this link:

 http://www.kau.edu.sa/itc/isd/arabic/email/config.asp

 

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Q4.4- How I can configure the Outlook so that it can work from home or from any other place outside the university?

There is a user guide prepared in English and Arabic language for many Outlook versions, on this link:

 http://www.kau.edu.sa/itc/isd/arabic/email/config.asp 

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Q4.5- I would not prefer to access my emails by using the outlook, because I'd like to access my messages from anywhere through the webmail page on the internet, what can I do?

You can simply adjust your Outlook Express settings so it can download your message and leave a copy of these messages on the E-mail server for a specific number of days, 10 days for example, after this period, the Outlook will delete these old messages from the server and keep it on your own computer to free up the mailbox disk space.

To do this, follow these instructions:

For Outlook Express:

From the "Tools" menu, choose "Account", then choose your email account and go to its properties, from the "Advanced" tab select the last 3 options:

·        Leave a copy of messages on server.

·        Remove from server after (5 or 10) days.

·        Remove from server after deleted from "Deleted Items".

 

For Outlook 2003:

From the "Tools" menu, choose "Email Account", then click next to view your email account list, choose your email account and click on "Change" button, go to "More Settings", then from the "Advanced" tab select the last 3 options:

·        Leave a copy of messages on server.

·        Remove from server after (5 or 10) days.

·        Remove from server after deleted from "Deleted Items".

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Q4.6- I configure the Outlook according to the user guide on the university webpage, but it doesn't work and it asks me to give the username and password every time I send/receive messages, what's the problem?

 

To solve this problem, you have to verify that you insert the full e-mail address on the username field, for example:

Username: user@kau.edu.sa

Password: ********

 

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SPAM

Q5.1- What is spam?

Spam is any message or posting, regardless of its content, that is sent to multiple recipients who have not specifically requested the message. Spam can also be multiple postings of the same message to newsgroups or list servers that aren't related to the topic of the message.

 

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Q5.2- What is spam also called?

Other common terms for spam include:

• UCE (unsolicited commercial email)

• UBE (unsolicited bulk email) or Bulk.

• Junk email.

 

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Q5.3- Who is send spam?

The individuals who send spam are typically people who purchased or collected a list of email addresses. They send messages from numerous different addresses to all areas of the Web. These messages tend to be "forged," to hide who actually sent them.

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Q5.4- How did they know my E-mail address?

There are several tactics that spammer use to get your email address, to read more about it, please visit the SPAM articles that we published on the following link:

http://www.kau.edu.sa/itc/isd/arabic/email/Spam_en.asp

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Q5.5- What can I do to stop spam?

In addition to adjusting the settings on your KAUmail account, here are some other spam-fighting tips:

• Protect your email address - treat it like your phone number.

• Use an email service that offers spam-fighting tools, like KAUmail.

• Never send your password, credit card numbers, or other personal information in an email. KAUmail will never ask you to send this type of information.

• Don't post your email address in public places (e.g., newsgroups, message boards, chat rooms) where spammers mine for email addresses.

• Never respond to unsolicited email - this can alert the sender that your email address is valid.

• Never click on a URL or web site listed in spam - this will also alert the sender that your email address is valid.

• Never forward spam chain letters.

 

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Q5.6- What is the KAUmail Anti-Spam service? And how does it work?

KAUmail Anti-Spam service is designated to identify the spam messages based on some world wide filters and rules, these filters and rules are updated periodically and automatically through the Internet by the Anti-Spam dedicated organization that keeps detecting all the new techniques that the spammer use in their spam. In addition, KAUmail Anti-Spam service may introduce a report that explains the reasons behind identifying a specific message as spam.

 

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Q5.7-  How to turn on the Anti-Spam service?

 The Anti-Spam service is turned on by default.

 

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Q5.8- How to change the Anti-Spam service settings?

You can change its settings from your E-mail account by going to "Spam Settings" through the link at the end of your inbox page; also you can access "Spam Settings" from the left-side pane on your webmail general "Settings".

 

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Q5.9- What can I do thorough the "Spam Settings" page?

Through the "Spam Settings" page you can do the following:

1. Determine the "Spam Detection Level" (sensitivity):

You can specify the Anti-Spam detection level where:

• Level 1 (Extreme) means that the Anti-Spam is very sensitive, it will deeply check every incoming message to determine whether it is a spam or not. Although, this might help to catch almost the spam messages but it might also detect some true message or Arabic message as a spam, so, if you choose this setting you should check your Spam folder regularly for the message that wrongly detected as a spam.

• Level 5 (Normal) this is the medium level of detecting sensitivity, and it is recommended to use if you does not receive too much spam.

• Level 10 (Low) this is the lowest detection level, if you choose this level only the most obvious messages will be detected as a spam.

 

2. Determine what to do with spam "Spam Treatment":

If you got a spam you can choose one of these options:

• Mark as SPAM (default), this is the default setting for the Anti-Spam service, by choosing this option any incoming spam will be saved  in the inbox but with a "Spam tag" to differentiate between the true message and the spam message, this is also the recommended option if the user use the outlook program regularly.

• Move to SPAM folder, this is the recommended setting if the user used to use the webmail page rather than the outlook program.

• Bounce Message, if the user chooses this option any spam message will be rejected.

3. Specify the "SPAM Tag", in this field you can specify a tag to append to a message subject if marked as Spam, for example:

• <SPAM>

• <Might be SPAM>

• <Identified as SPAM>

• "Be careful... <SPAM!>

4. Bypass the incoming email from the "Trusted Users", this option mean that the users whom in address book are a trusted users; so there is no need to make any spam check on the incoming email they send.

5.  Turn the "Spam Report" on of off, if it is enabled, any incoming message marked as spam will be re-written to include a report on why the message was identified as spam (spam detection reasons).

 

6. Enable the "Auto-Learn" features, the Anti-Spam service has the ability to automatically learn between Spam and valid messages based on the message moving process; if the user for example move the message from Spam folder to inbox folder this will learn the Anti-Spam service that this message is valid and true so it will not identified as spam again and vise versa if the user move the message from the inbox to Spam folder.

 

7. "Accept White-list Mail Only", if you enable this feature all the incoming email will be denied unless the sender address is contained in the trusted-senders.

 

8. Specify a list of trusted email-addresses you wish to receive email from. This list is called "Trusted Senders", for example if you received any email from your friend and this email has been wrongly identified as spam, you can simply avoid this permanently by adding your friend's address to this list.

9. Specify a list of black-listed email-addresses you wish deny receiving email from. This list is called "Blacklist Senders".

 

10.Specify a list of trusted recipient email-addresses. If a message contains the recipient address in the To/Cc/Bcc header the message will be automatically trusted. This list is called "Allow Recipients"

 

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Q5.10- What is the Spam folder?

The Spam folder is an email folder that optionally holds the spam messages depending on your Anti-Spam settings.

If you receive mail in your Spam folder that you would prefer to see in your inbox, just move the message to the inbox, this moving process will learn the Anti-Spam service to not identify this message (sender's address) as spam again. Alternatively, you can add the message's sender address to your "Trusted Sender" list from your "Spam Settings" menu (See Q5.9.8).

 

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Q5.11- Should I move spam messages to Spam folder or keep it on inbox?

This is depending on how you are check your email regularly:

• If you are used to check your email by the outlook program, then you should keep your spam on the inbox folder; because Outlook usually downloads only the inbox folder, and it is necessary to download the spam messages in this case because it might have an important message which was wrongly identified as spam.

• If you are used to check your email from webmail (through the internet), then it is recommended to move the spam messages to Spam folders; to simplify browsing your messages and to clean-up your disk space regularly by empty the Spam folder.

To move spam messages to Spam folder see the next FAQ.

 

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 Q5.12- How to configure my E-mail account to filter spam messages and move it to Spam folder?

To move the spam messages to the Spam folder do the following:

• Go to "Spam Settings".

• Change the "Spam Treatment" option to "Move to Spam Folder".

 

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Q5.13- Do messages in my Spam folder count toward my quota?

Unfortunately yes, so you have to check the Spam folder regularly to pick those messages that wrongly identified as spam, and to clean up your disk space by deleting the rest of messages in Spam folder. (see Q3.2)

 

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Q5.14- What should I not do with spam?

As mentioned before in the previous question, spammer used to purchase a list that contains thousands or even hundred of thousands of email addresses, some of this email address is valid while the rest is not, so, to prevent alerting spammer that your email address is valid be aware of the following:

• Never open an unsolicited email (i.e., spam) unless you have the "Block HTML graphics" setting on (See Q5.15). This setting will prevent spammers from being alerted that you have opened the message.

• Never respond to spam. To the individuals who send spam, one response or "hit" among thousands of mailings is enough to justify the practice.

• Never respond to the spam email's instructions to reply with the word "remove" unless you trust or know the sender. Many spammers use the "remove" or "unsubscribe" links as a ploy to get you to react to the email. This may alert the sender that your email address is open and available to receive mail, which greatly increases its value. If you reply, your address may be placed on more lists, resulting in more spam.

• Never click on a URL or web site address listed within a spam email. This could alert the site to the validity of your email address, potentially resulting in more spam.

• Never sign up with sites that promise to remove your name from spam lists. Although some of these sites may be legitimate, more often than not, they are address collectors. The legitimate sites are ignored (or exploited) by the spammers, and the address collection sites are owned by spammers. In both cases, your address is recorded and valued more highly because you have just identified that your address is active.

 

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Q5.15- Can I block HTML graphic images?

The HTML graphic images are a common technique used by spammers to identify your email account; you can alter your webmail settings to block URL referenced images in messages.

To block HTML graphic images:

• Login to your email account.

• Go to "Settings".

• Alter a preference called "Block images in email messages" as you need.

 

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Q5.16- How can I report spam from the Inbox without having to view the message?

You have two methods to report a message as spam without open it:

1.By auto learning the Anti-Spam service through moving the message to the SPAM folder. To do this simply tick the message,  by click on the check box beside it, and move it to SPAM folder, by clicking on the button "Move" on the tail of mailbox page.

2.Or by adding the sender address to the Blacklist Sender which exist within the "Spam Settings" page.

 

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Q5.17-  What is a "cheating" message, and what do I do if I get an email asking for my personal information?

Cheating message is a type of online fraud where the perpetrators attempt to acquire personal, financial, and/or other account information (such as user IDs, passwords, credit card numbers, PINs, etc.) from unsuspecting victims. This type of fraud is typically initiated by sending an unsolicited but official-looking email claiming to be from a reputable company, such as a bank, a credit card firm, or an online establishment. The fraudulent email usually contains an urgent message that tries to lure the recipient into providing sensitive information.

To avoid being victimized by cheating message, below are several useful tips:

• Do not respond to emails asking for any personal or financial information.

• Be cautious when clicking on links within a suspicious email.

• Never log in or enter private information in a pop-up window.

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Q5.18- How do I find out who sent the email?

The email message's header contains some information relating to the sender's identity, the most important part of this information is the Internet Protocol (IP) address that corresponds to the sender's Internet service provider (ISP).

To find out this information, you should first open the message and from the left pane click on the button called "View Headers" to display the message's header, you should find a line in the email message's header that contains an 8 to 12 digit number, separated by periods. It should look something like this:

 

Received: from [123.456.78.91] by . . .

 

The "123.456.78.91" represents the unique IP address of the sender's ISP. Once you have identified the IP address, you can run a "whois" search to determine which ISP provides this person with Internet access.

There are several utilities available on the web to run a whois search. Here's one web site that can help you to determine which service provider is responsible for the IP address:

http://www.geektools.com/whois.php

 

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Q5.19- What is message header, and how can I display it?

Email headers are used to deliver a message over the Internet and contain a record of the specific route taken by the email. A full email header is included in every message that you receive.

For most people, a compact, "brief" header is enough. It contains:

• From:     (the sender's address)

• To    :     (the recipient address)

• Cc    :     (Carbon copy to another addresses)

• Subject: (Message subject)

• Sent :     (The sending date)

• Priority:  (The message priority, high or normal or low)

• Type :     (The message type, Text, or Embedded Html with Text, or Attachments)

Other people, however, may prefer to see "all" of the header information.

To display the header for a specific message:

• Open the message you would like to view the header for.

• Click on the "View Header" button located on the left pane of the message window (in simple interface) or it will be on the top-right (for the advanced interface).

• A separate window will then pops-up with full header.

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Extra Questions

 

Q6.1- I have some other questions and suggestions, to whom can I refer to?

Dear user if you have any other questions or suggestions you can thankfully refer to us through this e-mail:

   postmaster@kau.edu.sa