DavisMail is the UC Davis version of Google's free Web-based email service, Gmail. DavisMail offers a fast, feature-rich, cost-effective, email option for students. To learn more about the features, visit mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html.

If you already have a UC Davis email account, we will activate your DavisMail account for you. Email account conversions will begin during fall 2008 for all students except those who are already redirecting their email to an external email service provider (including an existing Gmail account). If your email is still being redirected to an external email service after the DavisMail migration is complete, and you would like to activate your DavisMail account, visit computingaccounts.ucdavis.edu, select “Redirect your email address” and follow the instructions.

After the fall migration is complete, new students will automatically receive a DavisMail account when they become a UC Davis student.

Yes. You must agree to the Google Terms of Service (TOS). There are two TOS; Google’s and UC Davis’s. A copy of both can be found at davismail.ucdavis.edu. If you do not agree with the Google TOS, you must redirect your email to an external email provider of your choice. To redirect your email, visit computingaccounts.ucdavis.edu, select “Redirect your email address” and follow the instructions.

Your DavisMail user name and password will only work with the services available within the UC Davis domain. To access other Google services, you will need to open a non-UC Davis account through Google.  Your DavisMail account is separate from Google’s other offerings.

The difference is mostly on the look and feel of these applications. These changes are the inclusion of University logos, banners, and some feeds to the Start Page. Behind the scenes, Google also delegates control of UC Davis’ Google Apps and user accounts to UC Davis system administrators.

No. If you decide you do not want to use a DavisMail account, you may go to computingaccounts.ucdavis.edu to direct your UC Davis email to an external email address of your choice. It is up to you to decide whether or not you would like to use your DavisMail account or direct your email to an outside account at your own risk.  IET is no longer offering students an email account on the central servers.  Some departments maintain local servers and may opt to give their students accounts.

All regularly enrolled undergraduate and graduate students, except for Medical School students, are eligible to use DavisMail. The service is not provided to staff or faculty even if they are taking some classes.

The goal of the first phase of the Gmail project was to assess the service for student use. In the second phase, the campus will be determining whether or not DavisMail meets the requirements and needs of staff and faculty.

No. DavisMail is not available to staff members who are part-time students.

Yes. DavisMail is available to students who work part-time on campus.

No. Your email address will remain the same.

To access your account, go directly through the MyUCDavis portal.

Storage capacity within DavisMail is continually increasing. The current storage capacity level is at 7+GB.

No. As long as you are a student, your DavisMail will be free of advertisements. Once you graduate, your email will be handled like a general Gmail account and may contain small text ads.

Google Apps are communication and collaboration tools offered in conjunction with Gmail. You have access to Google Calendar, Talk, Start Page, Chat, Docs and Sites. For a full list of Apps available, click on the Google Apps button at the top of your start page. For help with Google Apps, contact Google directly by clicking on the Help link at the top right hand corner of the Google Apps you are using.

Google recommends using Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 7 in order to take advantage of the newest DavisMail features. The campus supports the following Web browsers:

If you need help to install one of these Web browsers, contact IT Express.

For help regarding your DavisMail account, contact IT Express at 530-754-HELP (4357). They offer support Monday-Friday, from 7AM to 9PM, except university holidays. Please note: IT Express only offers support for your DavisMail account. For help with Google Apps, contact Google directly by clicking on the Help link at the top right hand corner of the Google Apps you are using.

No. Your email address is not changing so your WarnMe contact information will remain the same. For more information on the WarnMe system, visit ucdavis.edu/help/warnme_faq.html.

In June of 2008, a UC-wide contract was signed by University California Office of the President and Google, Inc. UC Davis, in conjunction with other campuses, worked with UCOP to develop a UC-wide contract that would meet the needs of the campus community. The contract is seven years—the initial contract is four years, and renewal is automatic for three additional one-year terms. The contract is not exclusive, and there is no cost to the University for using Google’s services. UC Davis has the right to terminate the agreement at any time. In the event of a contract termination, UC Davis would move all the existing accounts back to the central servers.

No. Your personal information will not be shared with anyone.

Email is filtered and tagged for viruses and spam through the campus email system. Google checks and filters emails for spam and viruses regularly. For more information, please visit google.com/mail/help/fightspam/spamexplained.html.

Google maintains Privacy Policies for each of its applications. For a complete list and access to each of these policies, please visit google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/privacy.html. However, confidential or sensitive information should NEVER be sent through email. Please read question 21 below.

Sensitive information should NEVER be sent through email. As recommended in our Email Best Practices page email.ucdavis.edu/email/Email_Best_Practices_04_16_08_v4.php, we advise against sending sensitive information via email. There are a number of reasons for this:

• Email could be intercepted and accessed by an unauthorized party.
• Email could be shared inappropriately by the recipient.
• Email could be compromised for as long as it is retained by you or the recipient.
• There are no retention controls over the recipient's system.
• Accessing your email over an insecure network (i.e., Internet Cafe or open wireless network) can expose your user account information.
• Although encrypted connections can mitigate the risks of having ones' authentication credentials compromised, email itself is still plain text when traveling between the sender and the recipient and can be easily intercepted.
• Regardless of the provider, email is not a secure method of communication. This applies to our current campus email systems as well as most third-party email providers.

Sensitive information is information such as Social Security numbers, driver license numbers, credit card information, medical/health conditions, etc. None of this information should be sent via email, regardless of the email provider. As a general rule, privacy experts advise to consider whether it would be appropriate or desirable for the contents of the email to appear in a public forum (e.g., newspaper). Email operates as a postcard that can easily be read in transit and at the destination by unauthorized parties. It could be retained forever, or shared with unintended readers. For more detail please see our Email Best Practices page, email.ucdavis.edu/email/Email_Best_Practices_04_16_08_v4.php .

By law some intellectual property should not be stored outside of the U.S. Individuals handling sensitive materials are reminded not to share this information via email regardless of the email provider. Ultimately, an email that is intended for a user within the U.S. can be easily forwarded.

The privacy and security provisions in the agreement with Google state that administration and management of Gmail accounts in the UC Davis domain are under the control of UC Davis email administrators. User authentication is provided by our campus Central Authentication Service (CAS). CAS provides an added level of security since no password information is sent to Google. Users should remember that CAS authentication is provided only when they use the Web interface. If they access DavisMail via an IMAP or POP client, CAS is not used. For details on IMAP and POP setup please see question 33.

There are a number of alternatives for sharing sensitive information in a secure way. For more information, please visit security.ucdavis.edu/index.cfm and under the "How-to" section access the "Transfer Files Securely (SFTP)" page. Also consider that although information may be transferred in a secure manner, its storage may be subject to unauthorized access. In this case, data encryption may be appropriate.

Using email for sensitive information is not recommended. For more detail information please go to, email.ucdavis.edu/email/Email_Best_Practices_04_16_08_v4.php

If you are currently redirecting your campus email to another service and would like to use DavisMail, please go to computingaccounts.ucdavis.edu and select “Redirect your email” and follow the instructions provided on the screen. If you need help with this process, please contact IT Express. You will need to make this change before we can migrate your account. Please refer to question 2.

DavisMail is a separate service from a standard Gmail account. If you would like to start using your DavisMail account, you may go to computingaccounts.ucdavis.edu and select “Redirect your email.” You will need to make this change before we can migrate your account. Please refer to question 2.

Your old email will be copied over to your new DavisMail account at the time of activation.

Yes. For 30 days after your DavisMail account is activated you will have access to your old email via Geckomail. To access Geckomail, go to geckomail.ucdavis.edu.

For 30 days after your DavisMail is activated, you will continue that have access to your existing email on the University servers (i.e., Geckomail). All of your existing messages will be copied over to your new DavisMail account, and any new messages sent to your UC Davis email address will be delivered only to your DavisMail account.

DavisMail uses labels instead of folders. Labels will be created corresponding to your old folder names and applied to any messages in those folders.

If you wish to access your DavisMail account with an email client such as Outlook, Apple Mail or Thunderbird, click on the following link http://xbase.ucdavis.edu/1701 and follow the instructions.

After you graduate, you will continue to have access to your DavisMail account. You account may start showing small text ads. Also, once you graduate, IT Express will no longer be able to provide support for your DavisMail account.

You will continue to use the same email account.

Yes, to change the “From:” address of your messages follow the instructions on the following page, mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=22370.

You can import address books from Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and other services into your DavisMail account. See mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=8301 for directions. Google does not provide a tool to export contacts/addresses from Geckomail to DavisMail.

Yes. Your email account will not change and will still be compatible with UC Davis email lists. But, if you start a thread on a Listproc list, you will not receive messages from that list thread until some other list participant responds to it. For more information, visit mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=82454&topic=13272.

Use the Report Spam button to let Google know if you received junk email or a spoofed message.
Use the Report Phishing link to let Google know if you have received a phishing message. You will see a red warning message at the top of any emails that are suspected of referencing a phishing site.

PLEASE NOTE: UC Davis will never ask you to confirm or verify you computing account by providing your password via telephone or email. Requests that ask you to reply to an email or visit a non-campus affiliated Web site to confirm or verify your account by providing your password are phishing scams. DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE REQUESTS-even if they appear to come from an email address ending with “ucdavis.edu”.

If you think you have provided your password or other personal information in response to a phishing scam, contact the IT Express Computing Services Help Desk immediately at 530-754-HELP (4357).

No. Your Kerberos password and login ID will stay the same. If you want to access your DavisMail email using an IMAP or POP client such as Outlook Thunderbird, or Mail.app, you will need to setup a password, different from your Kerberos password. Please see question 33.

The password to access DavisMail is your campus Kerberos password. If you forget your campus Kerberos password, please contact IT Express. If you access your email using an IMAP or POP client, you will need to setup a different password. Please see question 33.

To change your password you should go to computingaccounts.ucdavis.edu and select “Change your password,” and follow the instructions. Or visit any of the listed password reset locations (182 Shields, MU Station, 1154 Meyer, 15 Olson, 1101 Hart and 75 Hutchison) on campus to get assistance.

No. This functionality is not available at this point.

For additional help please visit the google.com/support page or call IT Express.

• Javascript must be enabled; most devices have Javascript disabled by default
• XHTML compliant
• Cookies need to be enabled
• Network must allow cookies and secure SSL traffic

Please note: IT Express does not provide support for mobile devices of any kind, even if your device is compatible with Google services.

Gmail is different from regular email services in that it does not use a folder system for organizing emails. Instead, it uses Filters and Labels. For more information on how to organize your email, visit http://mail.google.com/support/?hl=en and scroll down to the “Organizing” section. There you will find information on Filters, Labels, Storage and Archiving.