First Days email

Choose your email client

Webmail is the easiest.

There are two interfaces at http://imp.williams.edu and http://webmail.williams.edu
Webmail is also convenient for checking your mail from a computer that is not your own, like from an internet cafe or email station on campus.

If you want to set up a client on your computer, we recommend Outlook Express for PCs running XP, Windows Mail for PCs running Vista and OSX Mail for the Mac. Other clients will work fine, but these are three we know work well and they come preinstalled with Windows and Mac OS.

Outlook Express for XP

If you are opening Outlook Express for the first time on your computer, choose to create a new internet mail account and do not import anything at this time, then skip to step 2.

1. Tools menu, Accounts, Mail tab, Add button, Mail.
2. Display name is your real name, next.
3. Email address is username@williams.edu eg 10abc@williams.edu
4. Incoming server is an IMAP server, server address is studentmail.williams.edu and outgoing mail is mail.williams.edu
5. Account name is your username eg 09abc, next, finish.
6. From the Internet accounts window click on the new account you just created and select properties. Click the Servers tab. At the bottom, check the box that says "My server requires authentication". Ok.

Windows Mail for Vista

1. Tools menu, Accounts, Add button, E-Mail account.
2. Display name is your real name, next.
3. Email address is username@williams.edu eg abc9@williams.edu
4. Incoming server is an IMAP server, server address is studentmail.williams.edu and outgoing mail is mail.williams.edu, check the box that says "Outgoing server requires authentication".
5. Enter your username and password (if you want to save it).

OSX Mail:

These instructions are for OS 10.4 Tiger mail. Older versions follow similar steps.

1. Account type is IMAP, Account Description is Williams IMAP, Full name is your real name, Email Address is username@williams.edu eg 10abc@williams.edu. Continue.
2. Incoming mail server is studentmail.williams.edu , User name is your username, put in your password, Continue.
3. Outgoing mail server is mail.williams.edu , check the box for Use Authentication, put in your username and password.