formerly University of Missouri-Rolla
Secure Email

Most email clients (Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, Netscape Messenger, etc.) use IMAP or POP3 protocols in order to connect to the campus Exchange servers from an outside machine. These protocols by default transmit credential information (userID and password) in plain text form. This is inherently insecure as a hostile user that has placed a "sniffer" program on your machine can steal the credential information and use it for malicious purposes.

In order to protect your credential information when using an email client from off campus, IT requests that you enable SSL encryption in your client (see below).

Note that the following instructions only apply if you are attempting to connect to your university Exchange account from off campus or from a wireless machine. If your computer is located on campus or in the residence halls or in Greek housing, you will not need to enable SSL as you will automatically be able to connect directly to the university Exchange servers. Select one of the email clients below for instructions on how to configure your preferred email client.

To configure any of the following email clients for secure email connection, refer to the Configure Email Client for Secure Connection KnowledgeBase article.

  • Outlook
  • Outlook Express
  • Mozilla Mail
  • Thunderbird
  • Netscape Messenger
  • Eudora for Windows XP
  • Eudora for Mac OSX
  • AppleMail

Note: Instructions for configuring Outlook XP or 2003 to use Exchange (on-campus usage) can be found in the Setup Outlook XP or Outlook 2003 for Exchange KnowledgeBase article.