Forwarding Email

Forwarding PopNet email to another email address

In UNIX, if you wish to forward your e-mail to somewhere else, you simply have to create a file called .forward in your home directory containing the e-mail address you wish e-mail to be forwarded to. The simplest way to do this is to log on the PopNet and type at the prompt: (for example)

    cd
    cat > .forward
    userx@psu.edu
    ^D

The last character is a control-D, which must be put on the beginning of the next line. (The cd command assures that the file is created in your home directory, not another directory) If you get the error message ".forward: File exists", then that means that you already have a .forward file. If you wish to change it, simply type rm .forward and repeat the above procedure.

This will forward any future mail to the above e-mail address. You should try sending yourself some e-mail to make sure that the address is correct. Note any existing mail will not be forwarded. To stop forwarding e-mail, simply remove your .forward file.

Forwarding Penn State access account email to your PopNet email

Mail sent to an Access userID at psu.edu such as user123@psu.edu can be forwarded to a PopNet email address.

There are three ways to change the forwarding address.

1. The best way is to use a web browser and visit:

   https://www.work.psu.edu

   There should be a link on this page (on the right hand side) which will allow you change your forwarding address on the CAC's network.

2. Another way is to send an email to accounts@psu.edu requesting that the change be made for you. Indicate in the email your preferred email address and include, for security purposes, your Penn State ID number.

3. The third way is to change the forwarding address manually through ph. It may be difficult. From an xterm window, type

       ph
   

   When the "ph>" prompt appears, enter

       login
   

   Supply your Access account user ID and a password. The required "nameserver" password is not necessarily the same as your general Access account password. If you have never changed it, you will have to use the cryptic password that you were originally assigned. If you have trouble logging on to the PH server, then you should probably use one of the above methods instead.

   Once you successfully logged into PH, enter:

       make email=youraddress
   

   where "youraddress" is your PopNet email address ex: userx@pop.psu.edu

   You can check that the change was made correctly by typing

       me
   

   When you're finished, you can terminate the connection by typing

       exit
   

Note that these changes affect only new email messages. Any existing messages will remain where they are already stored.

Last modified: 03/23/06 | Contact Webmaster