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Frequently Asked Questions for Students
Need Help?
Have questions? Call 777-1800 to place a support request
or submit your query via the web at
http://helpdesk.uts.sc.edu. When creating a help
ticket, please include as much information as possible
to expedite a resolution to your problem -- include any
login errors, specific problem description, browser or
e-mail client you are using, your operating system, and
cut and paste any error messages.
General E-mail
What is the
University E-mail System?
The University E-mail System is designed to offer all USC
students, faculty, and staff e-mail service and includes
an easy-to-use web interface.
Use the University E-mail System Responsibly! Refer
to the University's official
Student Guidelines for Responsible Computing and
comply with these guidelines at all times.
NOTICE: Most University offices, including the
Columbia Campus Registrar's Office, use your University
E-mail
address for official University correspondence. You
should check your University E-mail account frequently for
University-related e-mail.
How Do I Access the
University E-mail System?
The URL is:
https://webmail.sc.edu. Login with your network
username. First time users must reset their network
username password via VIP before accessing the
University E-mail System.
How do I
connect a secure IMAP client to the University E-mail
System?
Note that Outlook Express can not be configured as a
secure IMAP client for Exchange 2003; this is a
known issue with Microsoft.
What is my
University E-mail Address?
Your address will be:
networkusername@MAILBOX.sc.edu
Where ‘networkusername’ is your USC Network username.
What are my University E-mail account limits?
- Your mailbox can store up to 50 MB of data.
- Individual messages must be less than 32 MB.
- To conserve space, mail left in your inbox
folder is deleted by the system after 60 days!
An expiration notice e-mail will be posted to your
inbox when a message is removed due to expiration.
Keep your mailbox and folders cleaned up to prevent
loss of critical messages!
- System backups are maintained for the sake of
disaster recovery; University Technology Services
will not be responsible for restoring e-mail
messages.
How will I
know if I have exceeded my space limit?
You will receive a message from the system that your
mailbox has exceeded the size limit. You will continue
to receive messages but will not be able to send until
you free up space by deleting some messages.
How do
I access my USC Mail account?
The USC Mail web interface is located at
https://webmail.sc.edu.
Be sure to always LOGOUT of the e-mail session when you
are finished with your mailbox, especially if you are
working from a public lab.
Is there
any specific configuration required for Outlook Web
Access?
You will need to configure your internet
browser to allow pop-ups from the OWA site for Outlook
Web Access to fully function.
Click here for
instructions on how to do this.
How do I
forward my University e-mail from Outlook Web Access to
a personal e-mail account?
To forward your e-mail messages to a personal e-mail
account, you must establish a forward rule within
Outlook Web Access.
- Login to
Outlook Web Access with your network username.
- Select Rules on the menu in the lower left-hand
corner of the screen.
- Select new from the menu across the top of the
window.
- Enter a name for your forward rule. *This step
is optional.
- Under the heading Then, select the
Forward it to button.
- Enter your personal e-mail address to which your
e-mail will be forwarded.
- If you do not want to retain a copy in your
University e-mail mailbox, uncheck the box labeled
Keep a copy in my Inbox. Note that messages
in student inboxes will be automatically deleted
after 60 days.
- Click Save and Close to finish.
Is virus
scanning enabled?
Yes. The University
E-mail
System is running Trend Micro ScanMail to scan all
incoming and outgoing e-mails; this scan will block
known viruses from your e-mail messages.
Note: E-mail virus scanning does not replace the
need for you to run virus protection software on your
workstation, but supplements that protection. BE SURE
your machine is fully patched and has up-to-date virus
protection! Unsure? See
http://uts.sc.edu/virus for information on
downloading virus protection software.
What things does
the anti-virus system block?
- The first thing it filters out, of course, are
known viruses!
- The anti-virus filter will not allow attachments
with the following file extensions.
.386, .ade, .adp, .asx, .bas, .bat, .bin, .ceo, .chm,
.cmd, .cnf, .com, .cpl, .crt, .csh, .dll, .dot, .eml,
.exe, .hiv, .hlp, .hta, .htt, .inf, .ins, .isp, .js,
.jse, .jtd, .lnk, .mad, .maf, .mag, .mam, .maq,
.mar, .mas, .mat, .mav, .maw, .mhtml, .msc, .msi, .msp,
.mst, .ocx, .oft, .ovl, .pcd, .pif, .pl, .plx, .ppa,
.reg, .scf, .scr, .sct, .sh, .shb, .shs, .sys, .vb,
.vbe, .vbs, .vss, .vst, .vxd, .ws, .wsc, .wsf, .wsh,
.xnk
How do I
change my name in my e-mail account?
Login to VIP. . Select Personal.
Click on "Show Me Online Director Data and Alias". Go to
the update form and update your preferred name. This is
what will show as the first name in your University
E-mail account. It also will appear in the USC online
directory.
User Accounts and Logging In
What is my USC
Network Username and Password?
To determine your USC Network Username and set a
password, if you do not know these values, or if you
have forgotten your password or your password has
expired (passwords expire at least every six months for
your security), follow these steps:
- Login to VIP (https://vip.sc.edu)
(Forget your PIN ? Students should contact the
Registrar's Office; faculty/staff should contact
their departmental Human Resources representative)
- Select the "Technology" Link
- Select "Show Me Network Username"
- Your USC Network Username will be displayed and
you will be prompted to choose a password. You will
be asked to type it twice for verification. Your
password must be a “strong” password. Rules on legal
passwords will be displayed.
- Click on the "SET PASSWORD" button to set your
password to what you have specified.
PLEASE NOTE that setting your password through VIP
will change your password for all participating
systems, including access to many departmental
networks and labs on campus, as well as the
Blackboard system.
If you are locked out of the University E-mail System
because of multiple attempts to login with an incorrect
password (this is a security feature), just log back
into VIP and reset your password.
ATTENTION GRADUATING STUDENTS:
Please be aware that access to your University E-mail account
will be revoked 1 year after your last semester at USC
if you are an undergraduate; access will be revoked 2
years after your last semester at USC if you are a
graduate student.
What
if I am a graduating student?
Access to
your University E-mail account will expire one year after your
last semester at USC if you are an undergraduate. For
graduate students, e-mail accounts will expire after two
years.
What
is a strong password?
Your network
password must be at least 8 characters in length. Your
network password may not include any part of your name
or username. Your USC network password must contain at
least 3 of any of the following:
Numerical symbols
Special Characters
Upper Case Letters
Lower Case Letters
Please avoid passwords that contain:
- Words found in a dictionary (English or other)
- Names of family, pets, friends, co-workers,
fantasy characters, etc.
- Computer terms and names, commands, sites,
companies, hardware, software.
- Organization or department names or building
locations.
- Birthdays and other personal information such as
addresses and phone numbers.
- Word or number patterns like aaabbb, abc123,
qwerty, zyxwvuts, 123321, etc.
- Any of the above spelled backwards.
- Any of the above preceded or followed by a digit
(e.g., secret1, 1secret).
Passwords should never be written down or stored
on-line. Try to create passwords that can be easily
remembered. One way to do this is to create a
password based on a song title, affirmation, or
other phrase. For example, the phrase might be: "I
love the Gamecocks because we are the best!" and the
password could be: "I<3tGCbWrtb!" or
"1LTgcbC0ZwRTB~" or some other variation.
NOTE: Do not use either of these examples as
passwords!
How often do I have to change my
password?
You will be required to change
your password at least every 180 days.
Spam Management
Is
spam management enabled?
Yes. The
University E-mail System is running the SonicWall anti-spam
appliance to screen incoming e-mails. Any message
detected as likely spam is quarantined. You will receive
a daily summary in your inbox that you have spam. The
message will provide you a link to the quarantine. You
should periodically check your quarantined messages to
ensure that nothing was tagged as spam that you would
prefer to receive. You can configure your preferences
for tagging spam and for receiving notifications.
Is all spam
quarantined?
No, messages that are recognized as “known” spam are, by
default, deleted by the spam management system. You can
change this setting via the Spam Management option on
the Settings menu in the SonicWall spam management
system.
How do I
configure my spam management preferences?
Click here for a brief set of instructions for
configuring spam management preferences.
The complete User Guide for the SonicWall spam management system can be found at the following URL: http://sonicwall.com/us/support/230_6166.html
How do I
access my spam messages?
When SonicWall has quarantined one or more spam
message(s), you will receive a message in your inbox
with the following subject “Summary of junked e-mails
blocked” with instructions on how to view just that
message or the contents of your junk box within
SonicWall.
Please note that you may have a “Junk E-mail” folder
within your mailbox by default; it should be empty as
all of your messages that are classified as likely spam
are quarantined by the SonicWall spam management system.
Trouble-Shooting Hints
Can I send
e-mail to username@webmail.sc.edu?
No, username@webmail.sc.edu is not a valid e-mail
address; your default e-mail address is username@mailbox.sc.edu.
I’m
encountering script errors when using Outlook Web
Access?
Make sure that your internet browser allows pop-ups from
Outlook Web Access; otherwise, some functions may return
a script error or may default to the login screen.
I am trying to
schedule a meeting with someone; when I check his
availability, the system reports that no data is found.
The system can only provide availability information for
users who have posted at least one appointment to their
calendars.
I am unable to
create a public folder.
Public folders are not supported on the University
E-mail system; please note that attempting to create a
public folder in Outlook Web Access may not report a
meaningful error message, depending on the internet
browser you are using.
My secure IMAP
connection is being refused.
Verify that the IMAP port is set to 993 and that SSL is
enabled for this connection. The correct IMAP server
name is imap.mail.sc.edu.
I am
encountering the following error message “0x800CCC0E -
The connection has failed. Account: ‘<AccountName>’,
Server: ‘asmtp.mail.sc.edu’, Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25,
Secure(SSL): No, Socket error: 10060, Error Number:
0x800CCC0E”
The correct port for SMTP is 2525. SSL also needs to be
enabled for this connection.
I am
encountering the following error message “0x800CCC0F -
Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection.
Possible causes for this include server problems,
network problems, or a long period of inactivity.
Account: ‘<AccountName>’, Server: ‘asmtp.mail.sc.edu’,
Protocol: SMTP, Port: 2525, Secure(SSL): Yes, Error
Number: 0x800CCC0F”
Your client may not support the secure configuration or
you may have a firewall between your connection and the
server. Outlook Express is not a supported client for
this configuration. Please review the list of tested
email clients.
If you are using Outlook 2003, be sure that you have
Office SP2 correctly installed. If you are unsure if you
already have SP2 applied check ‘Help’ | ‘About’ to
confirm your version.
I am
encountering the following error message “0x800CCC0E -
‘…Unable to connect to the server…”
Please verify that the client has the correct server
name for both SMTP (asmtp.mail.sc.edu) and IMAP (imap.mail.sc.edu).
Additional troubleshooting tips can be found in
Microsoft KB article 813514
I can not
configure Outlook Express as an IMAP client?
Outlook Express can not be configured as a secure IMAP
client for Exchange 2003; this is a known issue with
Microsoft.
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