Microsoft Outlook 2010 is among the e-mail client programs supported for use with FacStaff by SAS Computing.
Requirements: Microsoft Outlook 2010, a FacStaff e-mail account and Internet connectivity.
Microsoft Outlook is included with most editions of the Microsoft Office suite, but not all. SAS allocations computers come with Microsoft Office preinstalled. Classroom and lab computers, meant for public use, have Microsoft Office installed, but not Outlook. Other computers, purchased from either the Computer Connection, or through other channels may not come with Microsoft Office, or Outlook. Penn's licensing agreement with Microsoft allows faculty, staff and students to purchase licenses for Microsoft Office at prices much cheaper than retail.
FacStaff is the SAS faculty and staff e-mail system. Any standing faculty member, lecturer, post-doc, visiting scholar and staff employee can request a FacStaff account online, once their PennKey has been created and their details entered into the Penn payroll system. The FacStaff Services web-page is the place where e-mail accounts can be requested along with other options like password changes, vacation responders and webmail access. An active PennKey is required for anyone requesting a FacStaff account.
Microsoft Outlook setup will not complete successfully if there is no network connection present. Internet connectivity can be had through traditional wired (Ethernet) access and through AirPennNet wireless. An IP address, supplied by the LSP, may be required for wired connectivity. AirPennNet can be configured for users, online, via the AirPennNet-Help wireless network.
Screenshots from Windows 7 Professional SP1 x64
- Start Outlook (this example uses Outlook's first-run settings)
- YES, configure an e-mail account.
- Outlook tries an Auto Account Setup, choose "Manually configure server settings or additional server types".
- Select "Internet E-mail" for the service type. Do not choose Microsoft Exchange. FacStaff is not an Exchange server.
- Fill-in the blanks with the appropriate information. FacStaff (the e-mail server) is an IMAP-only service. The incoming server can be either facstaff.sas.upenn.edu, or mobile.sas.upenn.edu. If you receive SAS e-mail on a mobile device already, use mobile.sas. Don't click "Next >" yet.
- Click the More Settings button on the bottom-right corner of the window. We need to enable SSL for incoming IMAP service. Select the Advanced tab and enabled SSL for both incoming and outgoing server with ports 993 and 465, respectively. Don't close the window yet.
- Click on the "Outgoing Server" tab and check the box titled "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication". Use the default settings of "Use same settings as my incoming mail server". Click OK.
- Clicking OK will bring us back to the Internet E-mail Settings window. CLick the "Test Account Settings" button. Outlook will send a test e-mail to/from your SAS e-mail account. If any pieces of the test fail, go back over the corresponding settings. If the test passes both parts, click "Next >".
- Outlook's account setup has been completed by this point. Click "Finish".
- Outlook's user interface is very busy. I like to clean it up a bit by making things more traditional with the folder list to the left, inbox contents at the top middle-right and the message preview window underneath. Outlook wants to have the "Outlook Data File" be the primary account. The IMAP settings used by FacStaff do not work this way. Collapsing the Outlook Data File and expanding the "pennkey@sas.upenn.edu" folder list displays the Facstaff IMAP directories. The calendar and task list at the extreme-right of the window show a quick preview for each item. SAS uses Meetingmaker for it's calendar, which does not sync with Outlook, so there is little point in using it. I just collapse the whole column to take back some screen real estate.
