For those people in the Department who do not use their umn.edu email accounts directly, information about the U's Gmail transition is below.

What is this switch?

The University Office of Information Technology signed a contract with Google to manage central (@umn.edu) email. Physics will continue to run independent email servers.

How does this affect you?

If you do not use your @umn.edu account, instead using your @physics.umn.edu account (or @astro.umn.edu), nothing will change for you. You will need to re-set your email forward preferences after converting however.

Does my e-mail address change?

No. If your e-mail account was JohnDoe@umn.edu while the University was using GopherMail, it will stay JohnDoe@umn.edu when you move to Google.

To which Google products do I have access?

For that information, see the University's FAQ on Google Apps at the University

1. Prepare your umn account for transition.
2. Follow the directions in 'Signing Up for Google Apps'. (If you do not this, it will be done automatically for all eligible people at the University on Nov 16th!)
3. Log in to your new University Gmail account: http://mail.umn.edu
4. Warning: Do not set up the forwarding below if you already forward mail from your physics email account to your umn.edu account, or you will cause a loop and lose mail!
5. Click the spoke icon at top-right of the page. A menu will appear, select “Mail Settings”
6. Select the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab
7. Click the “Add a Forwarding Address” button
8. Enter your physics (or astro) email address and click “ok”
9. Select the 'Forward a copy of incoming mail to…' option and select your forwarding address from the drop-down menu.
10. Select the action you'd like your messages to take from the drop-down menu. You can choose to keep Gmail's copy of the message in your inbox, or you can send it automatically to All Mail or Trash.
11. Click Save Changes.

Next, we will set up so that the University Gmail does not put anything into the Spam Folder. This will prevent legitimate emails being marked as spam, however it also means that ALL SPAM MESSAGES, INCLUDING PHISHING E-MAILS AND HOAXES will now be sent to your @physics.umn.edu (or @astro.umn.edu) e-mail address. As always, remember that all reputable websites will not ask you for secure information (password, name, DOB, SSN, address, etc.) through e-mail and practice safe browsing.