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ALUMNI EMAIL FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How does the Penn Law Live service differ from the free Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail service?

There are a number of differences between the Penn Law Live offering and the Microsoft Live Hotmail service generally available to other users. These include:

  • The interface is customized and branded for Penn Law.
  • Your email address shows that mail you send comes from your school account rather than from "microsoft.com," "hotmail.com," or "live.com.". I.e. your identity remains username@alumni.law.upenn.edu

Why does the login page have the Microsoft and Hotmail logos?

Currently the login page is not branded. Once you login with your Law School address, however, the Microsoft brand is replaced with that of Penn Law Live.

Will my mail be identified as coming from Windows Live?

No, your mail will appear to be originating from a Law School server. That is, when you send email from that account, your "From" and "Reply-To" addresses will also be your Law School Alumni email address.

Will I be able to access my Penn Law Live email using clients like Thunderbird, Windows Mail, Outlook and Apple Mail?

Yes, with an upgrade to Windows Live Hotmail Plus, Penn Law Live supports POP access from email clients. In addition, Microsoft provides an Outlook Connector for Outlook, and a standalone Windows Live Mail Desktop application. See the POP + SMTP page for configuration.
More Information on POP Configuration Below.
More Information on Windows Live Hotmail Plus.

Does Penn Law Live include SPAM filtering?

We are working to get better use of the Junk Mail folder in Penn Law Live. There are two main issues that we expect to be resolved:

  • Spam filtering is not working as effectively as it could, in general.
  • Messages marked as "****SPAM****" are not put in the Junk folder automatically, so you will need to manually discard those.

How large is the email quota (storage space)?

Penn Law Live Mail currently provides 5GB of storage for email and calendar content.

Do I need to use a Windows-based PC? Do I need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer?

No. All the Web-based services included in the Penn Law Live suite can be accessed from Windows, Mac, or Linux using Internet Explorer or Firefox.
The only exceptions are Live Messenger, which is available for both Windows and Mac OS 9 and OS X; the FolderShare Satellite sync software, available for Windows and Mac OS X; and the Windows Live Mail Desktop application, which is only available on Windows.

Can I have mail go to both Penn Law Live and another email address?

Yes. At any point, you may enable forwarding to an external email provider such as Gmail or Yahoo. This is done at the Email Forwarding Tool by choosing Forward to other email addresses. You can choose up to three addresses, and decide separately at “Enable or disable your Penn Law Live email” whether a copy will go to Penn Law Live.

What if I want to forward my mail to a different email service such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or my existing Windows Live Mail or Hotmail, account?

No problem. The email forwarding service provided by the Law School allows you to send your email to whatever email service you choose. While other external services may not offer some of the benefits of the Penn Law Live service -- such as automatically setting your Law School Alumni address as the "From" and "Reply-To" address -- you are free to use whatever email service you prefer.

What if I already have a Windows Live Mail or Hotmail account?

You may still keep any external accounts; they are independent of your Penn Law Live Account. You may switch to Penn Law Live exclusively and even move your existing messages there.  You may also link your Hotmail IDs using the steps below. You will then be able to switch quickly between accounts by selecting the drop down arrow in the upper right of Penn Law Live’s web interface.

Warning: Do not link an ID that is a shared inbox. This will give all the shared users access to your personal accounts.

  1. Go to the Account Summary page
  2. Click Link Windows Live IDs.
  3. At the top of the page, in the Password box, type your current Windows Live ID password.
  4. In the Windows Live ID box, type the Windows Live ID that you want to link.
  5. In the Password box, type the password of the Windows Live ID that you want to link.
  6. Click Link.

Will my account expire?

You can keep your Penn Law Live email account for as long as you wish. You will simply need to log in at least once every 180 days. After that, the contents of the inbox will be deleted, but the account itself will remain.

Will someone from Microsoft be reading my email?

No, Microsoft will not read your email. See Microsoft's privacy statements:

Although an automated process indexes your email content for fast search retrieval, no humans at Microsoft will be looking at your email.

Am I required to use the Penn Law Live service?

No. While the Law School expects you to read mail sent to your school address, where you choose to read that mail is up to you. You have the option to forward your email to another service provider of your choice.

How do I access Penn Law Live from a Mac (OS X)

  1. The first time you run Apple Mail, a New Account dialog will automatically open.
    • If this is not the first time you have run Apple Mail, you can get to the New Account dialog by going to the tools menu, selecting "Account Settings..." and clicking the "Add Account" button in the bottom left corner of the window. Make sure the "Email Account" option is select and click Next.
  2. Fill in the following information.
    • Select POP as the account type.
    • Enter Penn Law Live for the account description.
    • Enter your full name, as you would like it to appear on the email that you send.
    • Enter your full Penn Law Alumni email address.
    • Click Continue.
  3. Fill in the following information.
    • Enter pop3.live.com for the incoming mail server.
    • Enter your full Penn Law Alumni email address for the user name.
    • Enter the password for your Penn Law Live account.
    • Click Continue.
  4. Click Continue when you see the error message, "Trying to log into..."; it's a normal part of the setup process.
  5. Fill in the following information.
    • Check the box that says Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
    • Set the authentication box to Password.
    • Click Continue.
  6. Fill in the following information.
    • Enter smtp.live.com for the outgoing mail server.
    • Check the box that says Use Authentication.
    • Enter your full Penn Law Alumni email address for the user name and your Penn Live password in the password field.
    • Click Continue.
  7. Click Done.
  8. From the main Apple Mail window, click on the Mail menu and select Preferences.
  9. Click the Advanced button.
  10. Verify that the "Remove copy from server after retrieving a message" box is checked.
  11. Change the dropbox below it to read "When moved from Inbox".
  12. Close the settings window and save changes when prompted.

How to access Penn Law Live from Outlook or Live Mail Desktop

The following instructions will guide you through setting up your Penn Law Live account with an email client (either Microsoft Outlook or Windows Live Mail Desktop). If you have an older Penn Law email account also, you can set this account up on the same email client, and move emails back and forth.

If you are using Windows Live Mail Desktop:

  • Set up your Penn Law Live account
    • Download and install Windows Live Mail Desktop
    • Open Windows Live Mail Desktop.
    • On the left pane, click "Add and email account"
    • Fill in your name and email address
    • Uncheck "Automatically determine my login ID"
    • for "Login ID," enter your full email address
    • Click "Next"
    • Select "HTTP" for incoming mail server
    • Click "Next"
    • Click "Finish"

If you are using Microsoft Outlook

    1. Download and install Microsoft Outlook Connector
    2. Open Microsoft Outlook.
    3. Go to Tools, then Email Accounts... Select Add a new email account.
    4. Select Additional Server Types from the list of server types.
    5. Select Microsoft Office Outlook Connector from the list and click Next.
    6. A new window will pop up. Enter your Law school e-mail address in Email Address (lawkey@law.upenn.edu) and your password.
    7. Enter the name you would like to appear in outgoing mail in Your Name. Then, click OK.
    8. To complete the configuration, you will need to completely exit out of Microsoft Outlook. Go to File, then Exit.
    9. Restart Microsoft Outlook and you may see a prompt asking you to provide Microsoft with feedback on Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. Click Cancel if you do not wish to provide Microsoft with feedback or click on the Agree checkbox and click OK if you would like to provide Microsoft with feedback.
    10. Your Penn Law Live account is now setup. Your E-mail and Contacts will synchronize with the web-based interface. The Calendar will not synchronize unless you have a Plus upgrade.

More Information on Windows Live Hotmail Plus

How do I access Penn Law Live from other mail programs using POP+STMP?

In order to use POP and SMTP you will need to upgrade to a Plus account. More Information on Windows Live Hotmail Plus

Using POP and SMTP you can get your Penn Law Live account to work with almost any mail client program, including many PDAs and smart phones. Below are instructions for Outlook Express. Other programs will have similar options, so you can use this as a model.

  1. On the Servers tab:
    1. Set the incoming mail (POP3) and Outgoing mail (SMTP) settings to:
      1. Incoming mail: pop3.live.com
      2. Outgoing mail: smtp.live.com
    2. Enter your Logon information as follows:
      1. Username: Your full email address such as username@alumni.law.upenn.edu.
      2. Password: Your Penn Law Live password. (If you are not sure, verify it by trying to login at live.law.upenn.edu
    3. Uncheck the Logon using Secure Password Authentication box
  2. Under the Outgoing Mail Server option:
    1. Check the My Server requires authentication box
    2. Under settings:
      1. Select Use same settings as my incoming mail server
  3. On the Advanced tab:
    1. Check both the boxes that indicate This server requires a secure connection (SSL).
    2. Verify that the port number for Incoming Mail (POP3) is set to 995. If it is not, set the port number Incoming Mail (POP3) to 995.

Note: configuring a mail client does not remove your mailbox or change your email address and you can still access your email via the http://live.law.upenn.edu

If you have any questions about your new address, please contact the ITS Help Center at itshelp@law.upenn.edu or (215) 898-2679.