What are the best practices in using WebMail 2.0?

What are the best practices in using WebMail 2.0?

Always Clicking the button When You Want to Quit the WebMail

To quit the WebMail by just closing the Webmail's window is INCORRECT. For security's sake, You should ALWAYS click the button (see picture below) if you want to properly log out your email account and completely quit the WebMail.

Accessing WebMail 2.0 in "Local Intranet" Zone

Whenever possible, you should access WebMail 2.0 in the "Local Intranet" zone of your Internet Explorer (IE). This can be done by adding the WebMail 2.0 server to the "Local Intranet" zone in the "Security" settings of your Internet Explorer browser with the steps below:

Select "Tools" in the IE menu, then select "Internet Options…"

In the "Internet Options" window, select the "Security" tag and then click the "Local intranet" icon.

Select the "Sites…" button in the "Local intranet" section.

In the "Local intranet" pop-up window, click the "Advanced…" button and type "mail.cityu.edu.hk" for Staff WebMail, "stdmail.cityu.edu.hk" for Student WebMail, and "almail.cityu.edu.hk" for Alumni WebMail in the "Add this Web site to the zone:". Then click the "Add" button. Click the "OK" buttons in the pop-up windows to accept the change.

Avoid Using Public Terminals outside Campus to Access WebMail

For security, you should avoid using public terminals outside campus for accessing email and other systems as much as possible to avoid the risk of exposing personal or sensitive information. In case it is necessary to access email from public terminals, you should avoid downloading/saving attachment to the local disk of the computer, always remember to logout your account and then close all browser windows after use, and press the reset button if provided.

Viewing Multi-language Email

WebMail 2.0 will automatically display multi-language email in correct format if the email comes with "standard" encoding format and mail header information. However, some email might come with "non-standard" encoding format. In such case, you should change the "Encoding/Charset" option located inside WebMail 2.0 (see picture below), and NOT the option that located in the web browser's menu. It is because changing Encoding/Character-set of the web browser has NO effect on this WebMail product.

Saving Outgoing Email in "Sent" Folder

If you have used WebMail 1.0, you are recommended to move all messages from the "OUTBOX" folder to the "Sent" folder. It is because WebMail 1.0 stored outgoing email in the "OUTBOX" folder, while WebMail 2.0 stores outgoing email in the "Sent" folder by default. Since most email client software no longer stores outgoing email in "OUTBOX" (or outbox, Outbox) folder nowadays, for consistency and convenience you are advised to move all email from the "OUTBOX" folder to the "Sent" folder.

Regularly "Save Draft" when Composing Long Email in WebMail

WebMail system can be accessed on public-access terminals in the University (Terminal room, laboratory, etc.), Internet cafe, public libraries, etc. In order to improve security and protection of user privacy, the WebMail 2.0 server will automatically log you out after some times (currently is 2 hours, but may be shorter in the future) of inactivity is detected. Please note that such inactivity will exist during typing/editing message in WebMail because no communication occurs between WebMail server and user's Web browser until a WebMail's button (e.g. the [Send] or [Save Draft] button) is clicked. Therefore, all unsaved content will be lost if time taken for typing/editing the message is too long. To avoid such problem, you are recommended to use one of the following methods when composing an outgoing mail with long content:

Click the [Save Draft] button for say, every 20 or 30 minutes during composing the email. Every "Save Draft" action taken will generate a communication with the WebMail server and the content of your composed email will be saved to the "Drafts" folder of your mailbox on the Email server. You can get back this "drafted" message to continue the composition later at anytime you like.

Use a text editor (e.g. Notepad) or a work processor (e.g. MS Word) to prepare/edit the message content (and save the message to a temporary file if necessary) first, then login the WebMail and use Window's "copy and paste" function to copy the message content to WebMail's "New Message Window", and send the email eventually after doing the final editing of the message.

(verified correct)