Penn Live FAQ
This page contains a general list of frequently asked questions about Penn Live.
Need help setting up or using your Penn Live account?
Please see the Penn Live Support page
Subscribe to the Penn Live blog for news and tips on how to get the most out of Penn Live
Please review the information below and visit http://www.sas.upenn.edu/computing/help/pennlive/welcome
when you're ready to sign up.
Need Technical Help? See our Technical FAQ
- What is Penn Live?
- Why should I want to use Penn Live?
- Will my SAS email address change if I sign up for Penn Live?
- Who is eligible for Penn Live?
- Is Penn Live required?
- What happens when I graduate?
- Do I need to use a Windows PC or Microsoft Internet Explorer?
- Will someone from Microsoft be reading my email?
- How much email storage space do I get?
- What features are included?
- Does Penn Live
include SPAM filtering?
Sign up and get started
- How do I sign-up?
- How do I check my mail using Penn Live?
- What if I forget my password?
- What are the recommended settings for
Penn Live?
Alternatives to Penn Live
- What are the alternatives to Penn Live?
- What if I am forwarding to GMail or another service and would like to continue to read my mail there?
- If I sign up for Penn Live and I
don't like it, can I choose another email option?
Technical help and articles
- Please see our technical FAQ
About Penn Live
What is Penn Live?
Penn Live is a special version of Microsoft Windows Live, a state-of-the-art email and communication suite customized specially for Penn students. When you sign up for Penn Live, it will serve as your Penn email account. Mail sent to your SAS email address (e.g. pennkey@sas.upenn.edu) will be delivered to your Penn Live account. When you send mail from Penn Live, it will be marked as having been sent from your SAS address.Why should I want to use Penn Live?
Penn Live offers significant advantages over traditional email services for SAS students.- You'll have 5GB of storage space available; that's approximately 125 times more than is available from a typical student account on mail.sas
- Penn Live is hosted on servers managed by Microsoft to provide the highest levels of reliability and performance
- The Penn Live communication suite includes more than just email.
- Many of your classmates will be using Penn Live, so it will be efficient to use calendar and other collaboration tools to coordinate both academic and non-academic activities.
Will my SAS email address change if I sign up for Penn Live?
No, your email address will not change. When you sign up for Penn Live, mail sent to your @sas address will be forwarded to your Penn Live inbox. When you send email from Penn Live, your From and Reply-To addresses will be your @sas address.Who is eligible for Penn Live?
Penn Live is available only to students within the School of Arts & Sciences.Faculty and staff are not eligible for Penn Live.
Is Penn Live required?
No. Penn Live is optional for eligible SAS students, and a Penn Live account will not be created for you automatically. If you wish to use Penn Live, you will need to register by completing the form at http://email.sas.upenn.edu/registration/pennliveWhat happens when I graduate?
One advantage of Penn Live is that you won't have to abandon or export your email, contacts, or calendar items when you graduate from Penn. You can continue to use Penn Live services after you graduate if you wish. Once you are no longer a full-time student at Penn, the standard Microsoft Live Mail advertising will appear in the interfaces for your email, calendar, etc. but your account will otherwise be unchanged. If you don't log in for 365 days, any mail messages stored on the Penn Live server will be deleted, but the account itself will remain. If you log in after a 365-day lapse, you can resume using email services but all your old messages will be gone.Do I need to use a Windows PC or Microsoft Internet Explorer?
No. All the Web-based services included in the Penn Live suite can be accessed from Windows, Mac, or Linux using Internet Explorer or Firefox. Safari and other browsers are not supported at this time.
Live Messenger is available for both Windows and Mac OS 9 and OS X; the Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta application is only available on Windows. Students may use POP to access their Windows Live Hotmail via e-mail clients on the Mac or other non-Windows computers.Will someone from Microsoft be reading my email?
No, Microsoft will not read your email. See Microsoft’s statements on this at http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx and http://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/fullnotice.aspx While an automated process indexes your email content for fast search retrieval, no humans at Microsoft will be looking at your email.How much email storage space do I get?
Windows Live Mail currently provides 5 gigabytes of storage for email and calendar content. This should be enough for all of the important email you receive while a student at the University.What features are included?
The Penn Live Program includes:- Windows Live Hotmail, Microsoft's new "Web 2.0" email system with an intuitive desktop look and feel.
- A Web-based calendar that allows other students to see when you are available and to schedule appointments with you.
- Contacts management, so you can easily store and find contact information and create contact groups.
- Offline access to your mail from Windows PCs using the beta version of Windows Live Mail Desktop. Live Mail Desktop also allows access to multiple email accounts -- including Gmail and AOL mail -- and can include RSS feeds to your favorite blogs and news sources together with your email. Students will also be able to use POP to access their Penn Live mail using other e-mail clients.
- You can use your Penn Live account to access an extended set of tools offered by Microsoft including Windows Live Messenger, Spaces.Live, and Windows Live for Mobile.
- More to come! Penn will work with Microsoft to continue enhancing the Penn Live platform. See http://ideas.live.com for some of the products Microsoft is working on as part of its Live initiative.
Does Penn Live include SPAM filtering?
Yes. When you use Penn Live, incoming mail will be filtered two ways - first with Penn's internal spam filters and then again with the Microsoft filters.Go back to the top of this page
Sign up and get started
How do I sign-up?
You can sign up for Penn Live by going to: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/computing/help/pennlive/welcomeYou will need to have a valid PennKey.
How do I check my mail using Penn Live?
Once you have created your Penn Live account, you can log into Penn Live at http://pennlive.sas.upenn.edu
You can also log in at any of the following sites:
- hotmail.com
- mail.live.com
- from the link in the Penn Portal
Please note that these links will direct you to the main Live Mail logon page. You will need to enter your full email address as your Windows Live ID-- e.g. pennkey@sas.upenn.edu.
Do NOT log in at webmail.sas.upenn.edu This is for mail.sas webmail only. Penn Live is a distinct email service.
What if I forget my password?
Information on resetting your password can be found here.What are the recommended settings for Penn Live?
Go back to the top of this page
Penn Live has lots of options for how you can configure your account. Most settings come pre-configured in a way that is suitable for typical users. But there are a few important settings that you should make sure are properly configured for your needs on ce you start using Penn Live. Please see our list of recommended settingsAlternatives to Penn Live
What are the alternatives to Penn Live?
If you don't want to have your SAS mail sent to Penn Live, you can instead have your SAS email forwarded to any account you have with another email provider (GMail, Yahoo, etc.). Register your preferred forwarding address by completing the form at http://email.sas.upenn.edu/configure
If you had a SAS email account prior to May 1, 2007, you may continue to use your mail.sas account just as you did before, until you graduate or your account otherwise expires. You are not required to switch from mail.sas to Penn Live.What if I am forwarding to GMail or another service and would like to continue to read my mail there?
If you are currently forwarding your mail to GMail or another service, and are happy with your current arrangement, you don't need to sign up for Penn Live. Your mail will continue to forward to your preferred mail service.If I sign up for Penn Live and I don't like it, can I choose another email option?
Yes. If you sign up for Penn Live but later decide that you would rather use a different service for email, you can change your SAS email address to forward to whatever service you prefer. Use the form at http://email.sas.upenn.edu/configure to change your forwarding configuration.
Please be aware that changing your forwarding address to another service provider will not delete your Penn Live account and will not migrate mail messages from Penn Live to your alternate email service provider. Your Penn Live account will remain active, but if you don't log in to Penn Live for 365 days any messages remaining in your Penn Live account will be deleted.