JDF Unlimited has recently deployed new IMAP services for email. This document describes how to configure the Microsoft Outlook mail client to communicate with the new IMAP server, and how to move local Outlook mail to the IMAP server. Note that before you can configure Outlook for the IMAP server, you must have a mailbox on the new server. On this page: Configuring Microsoft Outlook for the JDF IMAP server involves using the "new account" wizard. Select the "Tools" menu item and the "E-mail Accounts" option. This will bring up a dialog box which allows you to add a new e-mail account, as seen here:
 Select the "Add a new e-mail account" option and click the "Next" button to bring up the next page. This new page allows you to select the type of e-mail server you are adding:
As shown, select the "IMAP" server type and click the "Next" button to go on to the next page. On this page, you will enter several personal settings:
For "Your Name", enter your first and last name, as you would like to see it on your outgoing e-mail. For your "E-mail Address" setting, enter your preferred domain name and e-mail address (ie: joe@seattlemechanics.com).
The "Incoming mail server (IMAP)" should always be set to "mail.jdfunlimited.com". The "Outgoing mail server (SMTP)" should be set to your specific internet service providers outgoing mail server. In the event that server is not available, use "mail.jdfunlimited.com" and contact support@jdfunlimited.com for further assistance. Under "Login Information", you should enter the "User Name" with your JDF account name (i.e. "foo" in the example above). If you prefer to have your e-mail password cached (that is, stored locally on your machine), you can check the "Remember password" box and enter the password for your .mail instance into the "Password" field. Note that this is insecure - anyone who can get onto your computer can then read your e-mail and send mail as you. Click on the "More Settings" button and you will see this page:
On this page, the "Mail Account" represents a meaningful string that identifies the account to you. You can leave it as the default "mail.jdfunlimited.com" or choose another setting. You can also set the "Organization" field, which is included in outgoing e-mail and identifies the organization or affiliation of your choice. Click on the "Advanced" tab for additional settings:
Click the "Next" button back on the main settings page to confirm all of your data. You will then see a "Success" page indicating that your account has been set up. You can click "Finished" to complete the process.
Once your Outlook client has been set up to access the IMAP server, you can begin to move your existing mail to the new server. Typically, you will already have an e-mail account set up in IMAP, probably using the POP mail protocol to download mail from a server into local folders in your IMAP client. This means that the mail that you have already read is stored on your local machine. While it is possible to use the IMAP service in a similar manner (that is, downloading your mail to your local machine) the real power of the IMAP service is available when you store all your mail, both read and unread, on the IMAP server. Storing all of your mail on the IMAP server has the following advantages: - The IMAP server is maintained and backed up by JDF Unlimited, and is regularly monitored for errors.
- Your mail is accessible even if your desktop system is not available, crashes, or needs to be replaced.
- Mail on the IMAP server is available through the webmail interface at http://webmail.jdfunlimited.com (off-site link, will open in a new window).
- If you have a laptop or home computer, you can access your mail on the IMAP server the same way you do at your desk.
Moving your mail from a local Outlook folder to the IMAP server is simple. When you have the IMAP server set up in Outlook, you will have two different "Inbox" folders: one under the IMAP server account and one under your local folders (under the "Outlook Today - [Personal Folders]" account).
If you want to copy the folder "Test" from your local folders to the IMAP server, simply right-click on the folder "Test", and select the "Copy" operation from the pop-up menu. For the destination folder, select the "Inbox" folder under the "mail.jdfunlimited.com" (or whatever you called it) account and click "OK". The folder "Test" and all of the contents will be copied to the IMAP server and will appear under "Inbox". We suggest that you use the "copy" operation rather than the "move" operation so that you can verify that the folder and messages made it to the IMAP server correctly before removing the local folder. If you want to move individual messages, you can simply select them from the local folder, right-click and select "copy" as above. You can use the "shift-click" operation to select more than one message to move, or you can use "Control-A" to select all messages in a folder.
Occasionally, when moving a large mail message (most likely with a large attachment), Outlook will stop responding for an extended period of time (several minutes) and then respond with an timeout error. JDF Unlimited knows of this issue and it appears appears to be a particular interaction between Outlook and IMAP (other clients do not seem to exhibit this problem). Currently, the best workaround to move the problem message to IMAP is to mail the offending message to yourself at the IMAP server. We also recommend using Thunderbird or Mozilla Mail, available from www.mozilla.org. -JDF Unlimited Support Services
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