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Email Frequently Asked Questions.
by Hanz Makmur

    Last Modified: Sep 25, 2008
  1. Who is eligible to create an account  on the new CS Central Mail Server known as dragon.rutgers.edu?
    Any CS Faculty/CS Staff/ CS Researchers/ Current CS Grad Students/ Current Under Grad majoring in Computer Science
  2. How do I create an account on this new Central Mail Server ?
    To create an account on this server, you need to go to http://dragon.rutgers.edu and click the MakeAccount button.
  3. I tried to create an account on Dragon at: https://dragon.rutgers.edu/cgi-bin/makeaccount.pl but it failed with: Error: User is not a known member of the Computer Science Department What should I do?
    You get this message when you are not a CS student, CS faculty, CS staff or do not have a faculty or staff member sponsor. To obtain a faculty, technical staff, or administrative staff sponsor, please contact the potential sponsor directly.
  4. What will be my email address after I create an account on the new Central Mail Server ?
    Your email address will be your_username@cs.rutgers.edu. Please make sure you notify your correspondence about the change of address if you were not using this address previously. Your username will be the same as your current unix username.
  5. I imagine that user@cs is an alias for user@dragon. Can I give out any of them?
    Yes but we prefer you tell others that your email address is: user@cs.rutgers.edu
    We prefer user uses generic names like cs.rutgers.edu instead of dragon.rutgers.edu
  6. My email address is joe128@cs.rutgers.edu and it is not easy to remember. Can I have an alias like Joe.User@cs.rutgers.edu instead?
    Yes but not directly on our system. We do not allow users to create another alias in our server directly to avoid identity conflict. However, if you already have an alias like Joe.User@rutgers.edu, we mirror those alias on our system. To learn more about creating this alias, see NetID management where you can manage your email addresses or aliases and don't forget to set your university default email at http://search.rutgers.edu/changes.html
  7. Will I still be able to read my old and new mail using RMAIL, MAIL  or  MM ?
    The new mail server does not allow direct file access that RMAIL, MAIL or MM support. Thus we recommend that you switch to a more modern mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlook Express or Apple Mail or use the webmail. (See below.)
  8. I really like my RMAIL or MM and I don't want to change.  How do I get the new account to work with RMAIL or MM ?
    If you insist on using these programs,  we have provided a documentation that will let you continue using these 20 year old programs. Please See Reading CS Email using Legacy Mail Client
  9. Will I be able to use Pine to read mail on the new Central Mail Server ?
    Yes. Pine 4.33 and higher supports the standard Secure IMAP protocol and you SHOULD configure your settings on Pine to read mail using this new protocol. Edit your .pinerc file and modify the following fields as follow:
        user-domain=cs.rutgers.edu
    smtp-server=dragon.rutgers.edu/ssl
    inbox-path={dragon.rutgers.edu/ssl}INBOX
    folder-collections=local mail/[], dragon {dragon.rutgers.edu/ssl}[]
    If you plan to use Pine with more than one account, please see: Incoming Mail Collection and Using Roles in Pine. Please note that Pine is not a supported mail client. You are on your own if you use Pine. For more help about Pine see: Pine Information Center
  10. Can I read my mail using a browser?
    Yes. One of the features of this new mail system is Webmail. Simply point your browser to: http://dragon.rutgers.edu.
  11. Can I use any machine at CS and run pine, webmail and thunderbird or do I need to choose only one machine?
    You can choose to use either one or all at once. It does not matter as long as an IMAP based client is used.
  12. If I want to use pine, should I use it on paul, research, or where?
    It does not matter where you use a mail client from and you can have multiple instances of pine running at the same time.
  13. Can I still use pine to access my (old) mail folders after August 2006?
    Yes, as long as you access them the way you access them currently.
  14. I'm not familiar with IMAP, if I use pine anywhere and configure it to run with IMAP, where will I keep my emails, folders, etc.?
    IMAP based mail server stores all users mail/folders centrally in the server. During load, what you see from a client is just headers of the email.  When client asks it to open a specific folder, only header list are sent. When a specific email is asked to be opened, only that specific email is sent to the imap client. This means all your email reside in the server. This allows you to access it from multiple places/clients at the same time and still see the same email.
  15. What should I expect after creating an account on this new Central Mail Server ?
    You should read What to expect? document to familiarize yourself with the new mail server.
  16. How much space do I get on this new CS Central Mail Server?
    You will get at least 1 Gigabyte of disk space. When you reach 80% and 85% of your quota, a warning email will sent to you to remind you that you are running low in disk space. This quota is NOT related to your other disk quota in any of CS systems.
  17. What is that Spam folder in my account ?
    The spam folder in your account was created automatically when you created your mail account. Every mail you received in this new server is analyzed and given a score by our spam checker.  When a mail gets a score of 5 or more, it is placed inside this spam folder. Users should check this spam folder occasionally for false positives.
  18. Can you adjust the spam score to a different number ?
    Unfortunately because the way we setup our mail system,  this is not possible at this time.
  19.  How do I make sure  mail from xxx@yyy.com never gets filed spam?
     If for some reasons you would like to prevent email from certain address to be filled in the spam folder, you can create an account rule inside the mail server to prevent the automatic filling to the spam folder. The new rule should be placed in a higher priority than the spam filter rule. Please see: Setting Up Spamfilter on Dragon for an example of how to create a rule.
  20. Can I login to dragon.rutgers.edu and get a shell?

    No. Access to dragon.rutgers.edu is limited to secure POP, IMAP, WWW protocol only.
  21. I want to move my old mail to the CS Central Mail Server. How do I do that ?
    Moving mail from the older system to the new modern mail system is simple. Please see: Mail Migration to CS Central Mail Server for more info.
  22. I imagine I can migrate my mail folders in stages (a few folders now, some others later), is it so?
    Yes you can move them in stages. Simply put the one you would like to migrate into the Mailbox folder and only those mail inside the mailbox will be migrated to dragon. Remember migrated mail does not get deleted from the source. The migration software will simply mirror what you have to the new location. Please see: Mail Migration to CS Central Mail Server for more info.
  23. I am done with Rutgers and I want to move my CS mail to other mail server elsewhere. How do I do that ?
    Moving mail from the CS Central Mail System to the new  mail system elsewhere is simple. Please see: Mail Extraction From The CS Central Mail Server . If you instead prefer to carry your mail to a local storage, you need to use mail archiving software like MailStore
  24. Can I still send email from the unix machines like paul, remus, research etc?
    Yes. You can still send email out using whatever program you prefer but you won't get a reply on that machine, it will go to dragon instead. All email sent out will have the FROM header modified to reflect: your_username@cs.rutgers.edu
  25. Can I import my current addressbook into dragon.rutgers.edu webmail addressbook ?
    Importing an addressbook from previous mail system is easy *IF* your current addressbook is already in a vCard format. 
    Follow these steps to import vCard format data - Using the web interface, you need to create a Contacts folder. 
    - Once created, click on the Contact folder, then click on Folder Management.
    - Under this Folder Management window, you will be able to import or export vCard contacts data. For more info see: http://dragon.rutgers.edu/Guide/WebContacts.html#Settings
  26. Could I use Rutgers University Central LDAP as my directory for my Webmail interface?
    Yes. Under webmail interface, click Settings then click on Contacts. 
    Under the Directory AddressBooks section,  add: Rutgers for name and top for Search Base and click update. Once this is done, you will be able to find out email address of any one in Rutgers and Dragon Directory when sending email.
  27. How do I forward my dragon account's e-mail to another account?
    Log into your dragon account through the browser and click on the Rules Tab. Scroll to the bottom and check the box "Redirect All Mail to:" and  in the textbox below type the account you want it to be forwarded to.
  28. I am going on a vacation and would like to setup a vacation message for my mail. How ?
    Vacation message can be setup via the webmail interface. Login to dragon via a web browser and click on the Rules Tab. Enable the Vacation Message check box, put your vacation message in the box, clik on clear 'Replied Addresses' List button and click on the Update button to activate your new settings.
    29. Warning: For privacy, It may not be a good idea to tell people that you wont be at home in a long period of time. You may be surprised to find out when your return from vacation that your house was emptied.
  29. I don't like the look of the webmail interface. Is there a better interface ?
    Yes. There are many other interfaces (called: skins or layouts) that you can choose from. All of these are described in the What to expect? section. Click on the Settings panel of your webmail client and select a new layout. If you have a recent browser, try LookOut skin which gives you more natural interactive interface, far more advanced than the other non interactive skins. If you have Flash, you may like the more advanced Pronto mail client.
  30. I use the webmail interface to read my mail. When I opened an enclosure, I selected Save when asked. Where was it saved to?
    Any enclosures saved when using the web interface is stored in the default Download Folder of your browser. This folder is normally default to your Desktop. On a Linux box this means: ~your_username/Desktop. To change this setting, look in your browser Download setting.
  31. I'm reading about backups of mail on dragon on what to expect document along with instructions to migrate mail to dragon, and I'm trying to reconcile it with the current home directory archiving system. After the migration, will I get two archives: a dragon archive and a home directory archive?
    The archival CD will only contains material in your unix home directory. If you want mail included on this CD, please contact the person listed in the CD Archive site and ask about including your mail in that CD Archive.
  32. I don't like dragon rules for mail processing. It seems limited and does not do certain things I like. Is there other alternative ?
    There is a free program called imapfilter that processes mail on an IMAP server without moving it to local storage. This program is unsupported. You will need to learn, install and run this program yourself on a separate machine.
  33. I am leaving Rutgers soon. I would like to keep my mail account. How long can I keep it?
    All CS email accounts will be continued for a period of at least one year after a user leaves. One year after a user leaves all email services will be terminated unless
      a) the user retires, in which case their CS email will be maintained for life*;
      b) a student graduates with a PhD, in which case the user will have CS email forwarding for life.*
    For the first nine (9) months after leaving user email will continue to work without change. Beginning in the tenth (10) month each incoming message for the users will be delivered along with a warning message reminding the user that their email service will be closed and that they should inform everyone contacting them of these changes.
    *If a new user is assigned the same netid/username as yours, The new user will own that netid/username and you will have the option to choose a new netid/username.
  34. I have not been getting email from my cronjob. What is going on?
    Since our Linux and Unix machines no longer accept incoming email, in order to get email from your cronjob,
    - on non Solaris machines, you need to specify a MAILTO = your_username@rutgers.edu at the top of your cronjob. Without it, cron will have no idea where to send your cron notices as your local machine does not accept email.For example: 
    MAILTO = your_username@rutgers.edu
0 0 1,15 * 1 /path/to/scriptname
    - Solaris does not support MAILTO variable. For Solaris machines, you need to wrap your cronjob with /usr/local/bin/mailoutput as follow: 
    0 0 1,15 * 1 /usr/local/bin/mailoutput -r your_username@rutgers.edu "/path/to/scriptname"
    Note: your cron command must be inside quotes.
  35. My print jobs failed and I don't get any notification in the email. What happen?
    Since the department provide central printing queue that is accessible via any client that support LPR protocol, there is no easy way for the printing software to notify user about printing failure.
    - Problem for Laptop users: Users could be using unregistered laptops (MySonyVaio) and unregistered username (administrator or JoeUser) which are not known to the printer software. When a job is sent to the printer from your laptop, it simply forwards it to our central printserver and clear your laptop print queue. The print job seems to be finished printing from the laptop, while in fact it was simply placed in a print server queue.
    When there is a print job failure, the printing software normally sends failure notice to the sending machine: administrator@MySonyVaio or JoeUser@MySonyVaio. Since the sending machine is not registered as mailserver and more importantly, is not running a mailserver software, such failure notice can not be sent.
    - Problem for CS Unix Users: Since we centralized our mail server to combat spam, local Linux/Unix machine are no longer accepting email. When a local print job is sent to the print server, the print server has no way of notifying the sending machine when a printing failure occurs.
    Solution: In order to find out the status or what happened to your print job, you need to check the printserver's Queue and Printer Error Messages.
  36. Someone is trying to send an e-mail to one of our users here and is getting the error below. Is there any way to find out what the specific reason for blocking the mail? 
    SMTP module(domain cs.rutgers.edu) reports:
551 667788 Your mail was rejected because no security update
has been done on your mail client in the last 3 years.
See http://report.rutgers.edu/mail/
(in reply to end of DATA command)

    The problem is due to very OLD version of mail client with lots of known security problems. Please update ASAP! User of very old software whose security updates were released many years ago, risks his/her computer being hijacked and/or invested with virus and/or spyware, getting very slow, becoming victim of identity theft, losing his/her privacy due to compromised computer.

    Below is the list of very old mail clients that will be rejected. 

    X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.00.xxx.xxxx
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.xxx.xxxx
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.24xx.xxxx
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.26xx.xxxx
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.27xx.xxxx
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.28xx.xxxx
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.296x
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2616*
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.3416
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4115
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.635x
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416*
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v1.*
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.*
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.0*
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.5*
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.6*
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.7*
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.8*
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v3.95*
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.* 
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0* (Windows*
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.2 (Windows*
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 (Windows*
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (Windows*
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (Windows*
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.8 (Windows*
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 (Windows*
    See for Up to date list.

    In the effort to reduce spam and raise awareness on security issues with personal computers, we want users to maintain a more recent version of software. As such, we don't accept email from certain version of client anymore as over 99% of them are hijacked, spreading malware and spam. Please note that Microsoft Outlook/Express had their security fixes released over 4 years ago and Thunderbird had had their security fixes released over 2 years ago, please tell your correspondence to upgrade to a more recent version of mail client. Chances are their operating systems are also not updated with recent security updates. With so many spam and identity theft affecting users due to lack of security patches, we must enforce this practice for the benefit of all users at a cost of minor inconveniences to the affected users.

    Notes: Microsoft Security updates are available at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx and ThunderBird updates are available at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

    For more info on vulnerabilities and exploits see:
    - Multi-State Infomation Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), a site containing newly discovered security advisories
    - MilwOrm, a site containing proof of concept (PoC) codes for exploits. Once security fixes are released, many new PoC are placed here. This is the carot that people need to make sure all security updates are applied ASAP.

  37. Q. Why Am I getting Fail Delivery Message like below? 
         Your email to 'username@remus.rutgers.edu' was returned.
     See the enclosed error response and 
     http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/resources/email/dragon/faq.whtml#unknown  for more info.
     --
     SMTP module(domain remus.rutgers.edu) reports:
     host nomail.cs.rutgers.edu says:
     592 makmur@remus.rutgers.edu This machine does not accept email.     
     Please look at the correct email address from http://search.rutgers.edu

    You have sent email to an unknown user or to a machine that does not (no longer) receive email at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
    What Should I do ?

    -If you sent email to a generic user with an email address of user@machine_name.rutgers.edu, you can most likely reach that user at one of the following email addresses: user@department_name.rutgers.edu, or user@rutgers.edu.

    -If you sent email to a non Rutgers person, please recheck the email address you sent the email to. Make sure there is no space in the address or contact the person via other means and reconfirm his/her email address.

    -If you do not know the email address of the Rutgers person you need to contact, you can look up the address via http://search.rutgers.edu

    -If you sent mail to root@machine_name.rutgers.edu or to a similar special purpose user name (e.g., postmaster, abuse, help, etc.) please resend your message to help@department_name.rutgers.edu. Example: . Be sure to include the name of the machine you were trying to contact in either the subject line or body of the message.
    -If you still have unresolved mail related questions, contact help@department_name.rutgers.edu. Example: and we will do our best to help you.

    Example list of departments: CS,Math,Dimax,Physics,NBCS,CAIP etc.
    Note: NOT all departments run its own mail server

  38. My webmail access is very slow. Can this be fixed?

    If it takes a long time to load your mail folder, especially your Inbox, try to reduce the number of email you have in the folder to less than 1000. Take some time and organize your email into folders and you will see substantial improvements in speed of your webmail sessions.

  39. I can't login to Pronto, Instant Messaging and Calendar account.

    Dragon uses 2 types of password. (internal and external password). Internal password is stored inside dragon and external password is your RCI/Eden password. When your account was created, both password were the same.

    Changing one password and not the other, means you have 2 passwords to access your email. You can use both passwords to access your Mail and Webmail (IMAP/POP3/SMTP/HTTP), however this wont work when used for Calendar or Pronto or Instant Messaging.(XIMSS/CALDAV)

    Hopefully, this will get fixed in the next patch, in the mean time, you will need to use the Internal password to access Calendar, Instant Messaging and Pronto. If you forget the password, you can login using your current password to the web interface and change your internal password.

  40. I changed password to access my dragon email account (using Settings/Password). However, I am able to access my account by using both old and new passwords. What happen?

    Dragon will use both internal password and external password on eden/rci. Change them on both places if you want to make sure only 1 password works.

For more information see:
  • What is dragon?
  • Dragon features
  • How Do I get an account on dragon?
  • How to I migrate email to dragon?
  • How do I move out my email from dragon?
  • Setting up mail client to work with Dragon
  • Frequenty Asked Questions.
  • Mail Expiration Warning Optout
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    Contact the Computer Science Department at (732) 445-2001 | Contact the CS Help Desk at 732-445-2001 ext. 2443 or email help@cs.rutgers.edu.