FAQ
What is Google Apps?
Why are we using Google Apps?
How will I login to my account?
How are the Google services linked together?
What do I need to know about documents and spreadsheets?
I can chat in my email account. Why bother with the Google Talk client?
Where can I find more information at Google?
Will my Google Apps password change when I change my Wesleyan password?
Can I use Google Apps even if I have opted out of using Wesleyan Gmail?
Google Apps is a bridge between Wesleyan and Google products. This bridge allows us to combine the strengths of both sides. Students gain the benefit of utilizing the features of Google Apps in an ad-free environment and maintain their current Wesleyan email address.
Communicate via email, instant messaging, and voice calls. Create and share calendar events, documents, and spreadsheets. Access it all from one place.
To bring together applications. To improve communication. We can focus on student needs and adding value to the experience while Google focuses on building products and maintaining the feature set. Our goal is to offer a reliable and feature-rich webmail environment. Our IT staff can utilize an administrative set of APIs to build on top of Google Apps rather than starting from ground zero.
How will I login to my account?
There will be two ways you can log into your account. The first way is via your ePortfolio using your username and password, which will authenticate you for Google services as well. The second way is to log in directly through a Wesleyan Google Apps Portal page. After logging in using either method you will be connected to Google’s Start Page with links to all the Google services available.
How are the Google services linked together?
You have one username for all services in the Google Apps package. Once you log in to one service, you can easily access all others.
The Start Page provides access to the rest of the services. The Start Page is publicly available, but won’t display personalized content until you log in. You can see a recent snapshot of new mail, calendar events, and updated documents.
Within your email account, you can chat with your contacts. You’ll receive invitations for calendar events and to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets.
What do I need to know about documents and spreadsheets?
It’s a web-based word processing and spreadsheet application. Your documents are stored online. You and anyone you invite to collaborate can access the document from any internet-connected computer, and make changes simultaneously. Multiple people can make changes at once, and everyone’s changes show in real-time.
You can get started right away by creating a new document or by uploading a file from your computer. Since the products are integrated, you can use your email account Contacts list to invite people to view or edit your documents.
More Tips
Revision history — Individual edits are kept so you can see who made changes and revert back, if necessary.
Search — Just like the rest of Google products, you can harness the power of Google search to look for a document you haven’t edited in months.
Security and privacy — You choose who sees your document. Other users can only access your document or spreadsheet if you add them to the list of collaborators or viewers, or if you decide to publish the document.
I can chat in my email account. Why bother with the Google Talk client?
Free voice calls, voicemail for when your contacts are offline, and file transfers while chatting.
PC-to-PC voice calls (VoIP) are practical and offer great quality. The person on the other end can be anywhere in the world as long as he or she is connected to the Google Talk network.
Where can I find more information at Google?
Google Help Center: www.google.com/support/a/users
Will my Google Apps password change when I change my Wesleyan password?
Yes. When you change your Wesleyan password in your E-Portfolio your Google Apps password will be updated to the new password.
Can I use Google Apps even if I have opted out of using Wesleyan Gmail?
Yes. If you have opted out of Wesleyan Gmail you may still access the many Google Apps services using your Wesleyan username and password.
ITS,
This change is great overall. Well done. That said, I use Google applications for almost everything these days … begrudgingly. Of course they are incredibly useful. However if most people who used Google knew just how much personal information it is allowed to retain, I believe many would think twice about their relationship with the company. Please add a section to FAQ that extensively covers the issue of Wesleyan users’ privacy within the context of the new system; please also compare it to what it was prior to the switch and explain exactly how it differs from everyday users of Google Apps. There is certainly much cause for concern and I am sure many would feel relieved if they were more protected because of this deal, and not less.
Thank you.
What happens to our access to Google Apps after students graduate?
On Monday, will we still be able to access our old webmail to transfer everything to Google Apps?
Yes. You will be able to access your old webmail for about 1 month in order to move mail to your new Google account and move any contacts over. You can access your old account via webmail.wesleyan.edu or mail.cyrus.wesleyan.edu. You will just no longer be able to send messages from there.
As far as what happens after graduation, you will continue to have access to your mail at Google Apps after graduation. You will be able to login via the direct login screen at http://mail.gapps.wesleyan.edu.
A how to on setting up IMAP for the new google apps would be appreciated. I have been trying unsuccessfully for a few minutes now to get my new wesleyan email online in Apple Mail
Hi Dylan,
The How To for setting up an IMAP connection to your Gmail is found here: http://googleapps.blogs.wesleyan.edu/how-tos/gmailimap/. It is important to remember that you have to reset your Wesleyan password through Portfolio and turn on IMAP in Gmail before configuring your Apple Mail program. If you have any issues following the How To please contact the Helpdesk at 685-4000 and we will be happy to walk you through the setup.
Hi Bram,
After graduation you will continue to have access to both your Wesleyan Google Apps account, including email.
Since we are unable to send mail from our old account, how are we supposed to transfer our old emails to the gmail account? A tutorial on that would be very helpful.
Thanks for the help.
Could I second the motion for a email transferring tutorial? Thanks for the suggestion Mike.
And thanks for all your help ITS.
Hi Mike & Phillip,
Under the How To’s section of this blog there are several guides on how to move your old email into the new Gmail system. This may be the one you are looking for specifically: http://googleapps.blogs.wesleyan.edu/how-tos/popinbox/
I already use Gmail and forward my Wesleyan email to my Gmail account. Now I have two different Gmai accounts–one with a little Wesleyan logo in the upper left-hand corner and one without said logo. How do I merge them into one?
Hi mchall,
If you were forwarding your Wesleyan email to a personal Gmail account (or any personal email, ie Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) prior to today you will need to setup that forward again in your new Wesleyan Gmail account. This How to will step you through that process: http://googleapps.blogs.wesleyan.edu/how-tos/forwarding/
Using those how tos allowed me to access the old email folders, but I cannot access the gmail account through outlook. Everything is filled out as specified, but I am receiving a recurring message that the web login required has failed, requesting me to resend username and password. Under the errors section of the test account settings (under the outlook account settings in tools) it says that the connection to the server has been interrupted.
Have any history with this problem?
Thanks for your help.
Phil
Hi Phillip,
I’ve replied to you via email. Thanks.
I’ve got a couple of questions about the new service:
1) Spam filtering: I assume that this is being handled entirely by google now, but I had an email from the registrar’s office flagged as spam today. I imagine that it has something to do with the fact that I wasn’t specifically listed as a recipient, but given the large amount of email we all receive that falls into that category, this may be a significant problem. Is there any way to let “internal” wesleyan mail through the spam filter, without letting any spammer just spoof the from address to get through as well? I imagine this being a problem especially for those who forward their wesleyan mail to another account, as the mail erroneously flagged as spam would not be forwarded, even to the spam folder of the account you check regularly.
2) Connection speed: I’ve used gmail for quite a while, getting my wesleyan email forwarded there, and basically never using webmail. The one exception is when I want to send a file with a large (several MB) attachement, from an on-campus connection. By using the wesleyan server, I can upload my attachment in 2-3 seconds, rather than 45-60 seconds on gmail. I haven’t tried sending large files yet, but I’m assuming that since the gmail servers are located off campus (right?) that they will be constrained by the university’s internet connection. Is there any way we could still be able to send mail using the wesleyan server, either through webmail or an SMTP account?
3) Logging in: “The second way is to log in directly through a Wesleyan Google Apps Portal page.” Could you provide a link to that page? What about other google login options, such as their mobile gmail site, m.gmail.com? Is there any easy, lightweight, mobile/iPhone friendly way to login to the new service?
Thanks for your help and info,
-Matt
Mr. Hammond, I’m having the same problem as Phillip – all properly filled out, yet still getting “Web Login Failed” msg. Help! D:
Thanks!
Hi
I have the same problem as phillip and prichard. Any help? It also isn’t working on my iphone with the correct settings in place becuase of a time-out error.
Thanks
Efrain
Hi Efrain,
There a couple things to check. Make sure that you’ve turned on IMAP in your Gmail settings and also that you’ve reset your password in EPortfolio. Once those two things have been you will be able to setup your Gmail account on your phone.
John
Is there any easy way to use the built-in chat function in an external chat protocol like pidgin? What settings should I use?