Frequently asked questions about Birkbeck's GMail service

1. Have concerns about privacy been addressed in the use of hosted services?

Use of the GMail service is not compulsory to students, and those with reservations about using a commercial or hosted service for their Birkbeck email may make other arrangements, and should update their preferred contact email address within MyBirkbeck.

Google's privacy statements and the terms of service are available.

2. How do I migrate my old email into GMail

This is supported and straightforward, and short instructions are available.

3. I had forwarding setup in the old webmail service. Will that be maintained?

No, forwarding is not recommended.If you would like to use an external email account to receive your Birkbeck email, amend your contact settings in MyBirkbeck.

4. How do I import my address book?

Within the Webmail service, or the email client you are using, export your address book to a csv file. Google supports the import of address books to the Google contacts, by clicking on contacts and import.

5. Can I use POP or IMAP clients?

Yes, though as before these are not recommended and support is limited. The POP and IMAP servers are pop.gmail.com and imap.gmail.com. Enter your account name as <username>@mail.bbk.ac.uk.

6. Can I use the other applications available in the Google service.

Yes, please do, though note that support is limited at present. Experience elsewhere suggests that using the Google Apps applications is intuitive, and no restrictions have been placed on these. Please ensure you are familiar with the implications if sharing documents or sites however.

7. I'm a member of staff using Exchange, can I use the GoogleApps applications?

Yes, though you may have to change your ITS password before it is synchronised with the Google service if you haven't changed it recently. If you want to migrate to GMail for your college email, that is also supported, but not recommended.

8. I'm a member of staff and want to use GMail as my mail service. Can I?

Yes. However, note that GMail addresses are handled differently, and using your @bbk.ac.uk mail address will not be the same as using a College based system. Incoming email will be unaffected, as anything sent to your Birkbeck email address will be routed to the GMail service. The main implication is that with the way Gmail works, the default address can never be initial.surname@bbk.ac.uk (as bbk.ac.uk is not a google domain). However, Gmail allows users to "send as" any address owned by the user, so you can set this in Gmail. In addition, we are adding an additional "nickname" for staff so that you can set, within Gmail, the default address of initial.surname@mail.bbk.ac.uk (which is fine as the domain @mail.bbk.ac.uk *is* operated by Google). This is the main compromise for staff using the Gmail service.

9. I'm a Sessional Lecturer using webmail. Do I need to migrate?

Yes. However, you may elect to use the staff email service based upon Exchange, rather than GMail, if preferred.

10. I'm a staff member using Webmail. Do I need to migrate?

Yes. However, you may elect to use the staff email service based upon Exchange, rather than GMail, if preferred.

11. When will the Webmail service be closed?

Assuming there are no underlying problems with the equipment providing the old service, the Webmail service will continue to be available until 31st May 2011.

12. Will my email address <username>@students.bbk.ac.uk continue to work?

Yes, the same email address will be retained for incoming messages. A new mail alias is also provided – <username>@mail.bbk.ac.uk – and this is the default for sending email, but you can elect to use other mail addresses if preferred.

13. Will you transfer the messages to my new mailbox?

We do not plan to undertake this on users' behalf, but is straightforward. Please see the documentation available on importing mailboxes.

14. I'm a postgraduate research student (or Sessional Lecturer) with personalised email address, can this be set to the default for sending email?

 Incoming email will be unaffected, as anything sent to your Birkbeck email address will be routed to the GMail service. The main implication is that with the way Gmail works, the default address can never be initial.surname@<subdomain>.bbk.ac.uk (as <subdomain>.bbk.ac.uk is not a Google domain). However, Gmail allows users to "send as" any address owned by the user, so you can set this in Gmail. In addition, we are adding an additional "nickname" (a Google term) for staff so that you can set, within Gmail, the default address of initial.surname@mail.bbk.ac.uk (which is fine as the domain @mail.bbk.ac.uk *is* operated by Google).That being the case, you can either set the default sending mailbox to a @bbk.ac.uk or @subdomain.bbk.ac.uk address, verify it, and use that for outgoing mail (any replies will be sent to the Birkbeck systems for forwarding to Gmail), or use the initial.surname@mail.bbk.ac.uk which is a Gmail held alias (and any replies will be sent directly to the Gmail box). Alternatively of course, staff can use the Birkbeck Exchange email service.