Why Should I Use Webmail?

Have you ever used webmail to access your e-mail on the server? If your answer is "yes", congratulations! You have found the most convenient tool for checking your e-mail. If your answer is "no", perhaps you should try once.

This article introduces a web-based tool for managing your e-mail. Not only at HKU, but a lot of Internet Service Providers (ISP) are also using the web interface for their email system so that users can check their email using a web browser from anywhere at anytime.

You may ask: What is the advantage of using webmail over the email tools I am using now? Well, let us count the ways:

With Webmail, you can read and send email from virtually anywhere in the world, even from a cyber-cafe or the airport lounge. All you need is a web browser (e.g. Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer) and access to the Internet.

There is no need to configure your e-mail program. What are the outgoing and incoming servers? You don't have to care anyway! Users of client e-mail programs such as Netscape Mail, Outlook Express, Eudora know the pains of mis-configuring.

Users of the host Pine e-mail system will find that webmail cuts out a step in connecting to the system (a process called logging on).

In addition, Webmail provides an SSL interface so that your email can be transmitted in encrypted form – and no one can read your email even if they intercept it via eavesdropping or wire-tapping.

Perhaps, you are using Outlook, Eudora or PC-Pine at home to check your e-mail and everything looks fine. Well, this is only true if you are using the HKU network. If you subscribe to an ISP's network service, you will find that some email functions are not available. This is due to the security measures we have implemented to protect the HKU network from outsiders. For example, if you use an ISP's service to access your mails in the Centre's servers using the PC mail client such as Eudora, Netscape Mail or Outlook Express etc, you will have to re-configure the mail client to use the ISP's outgoing mail server (i.e. SMTP server) for email sending.

Also, when you use the HKU network, your email program can be configured in either the IMAP or POP formats for receiving mail, otherwise, you must use the POP format to download all your email to your PC. However, with Webmail, you can receive or send email from your mailbox whereever you are. The Webmail server acts as a proxy between your web browser on the PC and your mailbox on the server. After successful login, it collects mail from your mailbox, processes them, and displays them at your browser. Since e-mail messages are not downloaded to your PC, you don't have to worry about your email program hanging in the middle of a streaming of hundreds of messages to your mailbox.

The Webmail was upgraded from version 3.51 to 3.61 to fix a number of bugs. For example,

e-mails received in 1999 will never come before 2000;
updated attachment handling routines such that attachment will never become the email message body;
improved handling for messages in HTML format;
faster response

We will keep our Webmail service as efficient as it can be to provide the best service to our users, i.e. you.

To try out Webmail, please visit: http://webmail.hku.hk

(N.B. If you have bookmarked http://webmaila.hku.hk or http://webmailb.hku.hk in your browser, please change it to http://webmail.hku.hk. This URL will take you to the most updated version of webmail at any time.)

Kenneth Yip
Tel: 2857 7973
Email: kenty@cc.hku.hk

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