Exchange Accounts
Exchange is Microsoft's messaging system that provides email, calendaring & scheduling, online forms, and the tools for custom collaboration. The primary role of Exchange is as an email message store, but it can also store calendars, task lists, contacts/address books, and other data. Exchange also provides encrypted and secure access via the web. CAEN recommends that faculty and staff take advantage of the U-M Exchange service over traditional (IMAP/POP) email services.
What is an Exchange account?
Having an account on the U-M Exchange server allows any U-M user to store and access email, do calendaring, keep a contacts list, organize tasks, and more using the Microsoft Outlook application (Macs use Microsoft Entourage) which is part of Microsoft Office. As a result, Outlook works more closely with other Microsoft applications than other email programs. Even though some Exchange users may not use the email features of Exchange, they will still be able to use the other resources such as calendaring and task management.
Service costs for the U-M Campus Exchange service can be found on the ITCS web page; CAEN will cover the service costs of Exchange accounts for all regular College of Engineering faculty and staff. For more information on using the Exchange service, beyond what is covered in this document, please visit the following ITCS sites:
Password Considerations
Accessing your Exchange account requires that you know your ITCS Active Directory (UMROOT) password. This password is different from your ITCS Kerberos (UMICH.EDU) password. If you have never set this password before and/or you are having trouble logging in, you should reset your ITCS Active Directory (UMROOT) password on the following ITCS web page:
Contact ITCS at 764-HELP for questions or further help with the password.
Who is eligible for an Exchange account?
Any regular College of Engineering (CoE) faculty or staff member (does not include GSRA or GSI appointments) is eligible for an Exchange account. Temporary administrative employees who require an Exchange account for their position must have their department manager submit a request to the CAEN Hotline, indicating the necessity for an Exchange account. Students are not eligible for Exchange accounts at this time.
Acquiring an Exchange Account
To acquire an Exchange account, CoE faculty and staff who already have a CAEN computing account can simply use Contact CAEN online. New employees, however, will need a departmental request (e.g. a memo) that indicates the need for Exchange in their position; this information can be included in the same request for standard computing access to the CAEN Hotline.
Where does my email go?
By default, both ITCS (uniqname@umich.edu) and CAEN (uniqname@engin.umich.edu) email addresses are delivered to a location specified via the U-M Online Directory (UMOD). To ensure that your email is being delivered to your U-M Exchange account, modify the E-Mail Forwarding Address field of your UMOD entry. The server should be listed in email address form as:
uniqname@adsroot.itcs.umich.edu
where uniqname is your U-M uniqname.
Using Outlook Web Access
Exchange offers secure, browser-based access to email and calendars. This is very useful for accessing your account from a remote/public computer, or when the Outlook application is otherwise not available to you. This web application is designed to mimic Microsoft Outlook closely, and offers many options for configuring your Exchange account: exchange.umich.edu
Note: While you may use any web browser to log into Outlook Web Access, in order to use the full feature set of the server you must use Internet Explorer.
When you first open the Outlook Web Access page, you will see the following login screen:
Outlook Web Access allows you to select whether you are on a public or private computer. You should always use the public setting if you are not on your personal computer, or on a computer where you are not the only user. The private setting is useful when on your personal computer because it allows a much longer period of inactivity before re-prompting you for login.
See the following page for a brief comparison of the different features, and links to more information: www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/featurecomparison.mspx
The Microsoft Outlook Application
After you install Microsoft Office and open Outlook for the first time, the Outlook Startup Wizard will start. After clicking Next, you will see this screen:
Any users who are using Outlook to connect to a Microsoft Exchange server will want to choose Microsoft Exchange Server as the server type. After clicking Next, the installer will continue the installation of the software. The next screen will ask you to enter a Microsoft Exchange Server. In that field, simply type exchange.umich.edu. For User Name, simply enter your uniqname, and click Next. At the last screen, click Finish.
If after finishing the setup via the wizard you notice that you made the incorrect choice for the above setting, open Outlook and go to Tools >> Options, then choose the Mail Setup tab and click Email Accounts to change the existing account options. You can also do this by opening the Mail Control Panel from the Start menu.
Using Outlook Off-Campus
In many cases, Internet service providers (ISP) block certain network traffic in order to stop the spread of viruses to vulnerable computers. In addition, Windows file sharing, Microsoft Exchange email & calendaring, and other U-M services are often blocked. See this page for tips on bypassing these blocks in order to use Microsoft Outlook from off-campus:
Using Cached Exchange Mode
Laptop users who travel should especially consider using Outlook's Cached Exchange Mode. This allows you to synchronize your email and calendars on the Exchange server with folders that reside on your laptop's hard drive. Then, when you are not connected to the Internet, you can continue to read and compose email. Once reconnected to the network, the email that was composed while offline will automatically be sent. To ensure that you are using Cached Exchange Mode, follow these steps:
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Open Outlook, and select E-mail Accounts... from the Tools menu
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Select the option to View or change existing e-mail accounts, and click Next
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Highlight the Microsoft Exchange Server entry, and click the Change... button
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Under the server name, check the box for Use Cached Exchange Mode
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Click Next, then Finish
You will need to quit and restart Outlook for this change to take effect. Outlook will then begin creating the initial cache on your computer's hard drive. Until this process is complete, Outlook may behave slowly, and it is best to let it finish the initial caching process before you begin working with your Exchange account again.
Flitering Spam with Brightmail
In an effort to aid U-M Exchange users in filtering unsolicited email, a spam detection system called Brightmail Anti-Spam has been deployed. Brightmail scans all incoming email messages before they reach a user’s inbox, and tags a message as spam if it matches the anti-spam filters used by Brightmail. The Brightmail service is extremely accurate, with a false positive identification of .0001%.
Anyone who has an Exchange account can use the Brightmail service. To configure Microsoft Outlook to use the Brightmail service, simply set up a filter that looks for the string X-Spam-Flag: YES in the header of each message you receive (there is a single blank space between the : and the YES). See this page for detailed instructions on using Brightmail:
Using Other Email Clients
The U-M Exchange server does allow secure IMAP over SSL to access email. For information on setting up your email program to access your Exchange account over secure IMAP, please see the following web page:
Note: While secure IMAP access is supported by Exchange, the use of the Microsoft Outlook program is required to utilize the full features (i.e. Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, etc.) of Exchange.
Further Information
Lots of information and answers to common questions are available in the Microsoft Outlook Help menu. This menu is very useful and will answer many questions, and should be checked before contacting your departmental computer support person. The Microsoft Outlook website, www.microsoft.com/office/outlook, is also a good source of information, as well as searching Microsoft's Knowledge Base at support.microsoft.com.
For more information on setting up Microsoft Outlook to access your U-M Exchange account, please visit the following ITCS site:
Those who use Microsoft Entourage on a Mac to access Exchange can find instructions at:
