UCC Umail (Google Apps) using on a mobile?

Solair

I was just wondering is there any way of setting up UCC's Google Apps Umail service on an Android mobile device?

I usually check my e-mail on my mobile and I find it an absolute pain to have to log into websites unnecessarily other than for complicated things.

I tried using my UCC SIT log in credentials on the Gmail client on Android, which is what you do for any other Google Apps account I have used, but it didn't work. Google said something about how they do not retain the login credentials for this domain.

Any ideas?

closeline

I tried the same for my Android phone. It didnt work. Although a friend of mine has his CIT email on the phone. I have to say the email on the phone is brilliant. So handy and quick.

teddy b123

It uses your old umail password (the one you had before the new portal came along) for pop imap and exchange so it may be worth trying that? Also are you trying this on the ucc wifi? Cause the port you need might not be open

Solair

I'm back doing a masters. My old ucc email password is long forgotten. The old system was kind of unusable so I always used my own private account.

I find the It policies in UCC a bit user unfriendly.

If you think about how people use email these days, if it doesn't work on smartphones, it's rather pointless!

Google Apps should mean that people have access from all sorts of devices. It seems utterly daft to restrict that! Smartphones are pretty widespread and ubiquitous technology at this stage.

I suppose I could just forward everything to gmail.

If ucc email is not easy to use and fully functional, people won't bother using it. That has always been the system's downfall!

Can they not just use a normal google apps login protocol??

Knasher

closeline wrote: »

I tried the same for my Android phone. It didnt work. Although a friend of mine has his CIT email on the phone. I have to say the email on the phone is brilliant. So handy and quick.

Thats weird, works perfectly for me.

Solair

It's something to do with the way the log-in process works. It seems that Google does not have passwords / user details for Umail accounts. It's all done through that portal sit.ucc.ie system.

If the WiFi system is anything to go by, UCC have a habit of making simple IT systems unusably complicated!

I remember giving up on the WiFi system and getting a broadband dongle as the settings were just such a p.i.t.a. Everytime I logged out of it and used another WiFi node, such as my home network, the proxy settings had to be changed.

Knasher

Yeah the network admin people in UCC are crazily strict, absolutely 100% over the top. I'm doing a Ph.D. so I've been around to a few other colleges for conferences and the like and they are usually pretty open, even other colleges in Ireland.

I also think they go out of their way to make the network more complicated. There is no benefit to making students register their laptops given how easy it is to change MAC addresses on most devices. Additionally it is perfectly easy to make the proxy system auto configure, absolutely no idea why they choose not to.

The reason it works for me is probably because when they first set it up it wasn't misconfigured properly and I still had the option of changing my google password independent of their system.

Solair

Knasher wrote: »

Yeah the network admin people in UCC are crazily strict, absolutely 100% over the top. I'm doing a Ph.D. so I've been around to a few other colleges for conferences and the like and they are usually pretty open, even other colleges in Ireland.

I also think they go out of their way to make the network more complicated. There is no benefit to making students register their laptops given how easy it is to change MAC addresses on most devices. Additionally it is perfectly easy to make the proxy system auto configure, absolutely no idea why they choose not to.

The reason it works for me is probably because when they first set it up it wasn't misconfigured properly and I still had the option of changing my google password independent of their system.

+1

I've used other campus' networks too and they're far less annoyingly setup.

NeitherJohn

I had the umail set up on my Gmail app on my HTC Desire HD before they switched over to the single sign on system on the student portal.

Now it's changed over to the single sign on, mine still works. Probably because I set it up before the changeover. My girlfriend has a Wildfire S, and she can't get it work either.

I had a handy link on how to use POP3 or IMAP to add the account to Gmail, but I can't find it. As soon as I can find it I'll post it up.

Solair

I might email them and see if it can be done!

closeline

Knasher wrote: »

Thats weird, works perfectly for me.

How did u get yours working??

Solair

I think we'll have to just keep annoying them with requests to give us passwords for the actual Gmail system as opposed to that clunky SIT website

You can log into the SIT website via your mobile phone and then it will open the m.gmail.com version of Gmail but it's a bit cumbersome to put it mildly and while it will work on Android browsers, I'm not sure it will work on iPhone.

The single SIT log-on thing should be optional really.

Knasher

closeline wrote: »

How did u get yours working??

It seems that because I was using this earlier I was able to set my login credentials before they disabled the ability to use them (and for a while I was able to login to the umail interface from the regular gmail one). Now that they have disabled that I doubt it is possible.

My advice is to set up the forwarding in your umail to your regular gmail. You will get emails just as quick and you are able to set it up so it looks like the replies come back from the same address.

Solair

I think we should all just keep asking for this service to be re-enabled.

If they want people to actually log into and use their @*.ucc.ie accounts, then they would want to make it a bit easier!

It's very much defeating the purpose of having Google Apps !

Knasher

Good luck, but from everything I've heard the person in charge of all this has a reputation of being pretty stubborn. And this was from people pretty high up the pecking order and not lowly students like myself.

Solair

I think this link explains everything:

It's either using:

http://code.google.com/googleapps/domain/sso/openid_reference_implementation.html

or

http://code.google.com/googleapps/domain/sso/saml_reference_implementation.html

ríomhaire

I got mine working the other day. Remember when there wad a 4 digit pin and to log into umail (which had a separate login) you had to enter that pin twice? When you're registering your umail account on the gmail app just enter your account as [numbers]@umail.ucc.ie and password as the pin number twice (so eight digits long).

Now I won't have to miss emails about lecture times changing this year!

I've also set up a calendar sync with my main gmail account and put my timetable on it so my timetable shows up on my phone. Don't do that with your umail account though. I tried it on that at first and for some reason the timezone was messed up (it didn't take winter time/summer time into account I think) and everything it sent to my phone was an hour off and I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Worked fine with my normal gmail account.

Solair

Tried that. It worked like a charm!

Redisle

I've just been using POP3 to pull all the umail emails into my personal gmail account since day 1. All UCC emails are labeled UCC and I even have all the "All Students" emails avoiding the inbox altogether and just being tagged with UCC. That way the only ones that get to my inbox are addressed to my class or myself. Never log onto the UCC system at all and I can send from all my UCC aliases from within my gmail account.

Handiest solution IMO. Only ever need to login to one email acccount.

Redisle

I've just been using POP3 to pull all the umail emails into my personal gmail account since day 1. All UCC emails are labeled UCC and I even have all the "All Students" emails avoiding the inbox altogether and just being tagged with UCC. That way the only ones that get to my inbox are addressed to my class or myself. Never log onto the UCC system at all and I can send from all my UCC aliases from within my gmail account.

Handiest solution IMO. Only ever need to login to one email acccount.

closeline

Can anyone tell me how to do this??

Solair

Here's how :

To setup Gmail's mail fetcher see here:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=21289

POP settings:
Server: pop.gmail.com
Username: StudentNumber@umail.ucc.ie
Password: Your old UCC PIN number repeated twice.

To set up Gmail to send mail as your UCC address:

See:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=22370

closeline

Solair wrote: »

Here's how :

To setup Gmail's mail fetcher see here:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=21289

POP settings:
Server: pop.gmail.com
Username: StudentNumber@umail.ucc.ie
Password: Your old UCC PIN number repeated twice.

To set up Gmail to send mail as your UCC address:

See:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=22370

What do you do if you havent a notion of your old PIN number.

Solair

closeline wrote: »

What do you do if you havent a notion of your old PIN number.

It's contained within your new SIT.ucc.ie login number .. i.e. the numeric bit!

If you haven't got that, reset your PIN

https://portal.ucc.ie/portal/page/portal/ucc/Forgot%20Password

It will send out your portal PIN, which usually contains your old PIN, to your secondary registered email address i.e. whatever email address UCC have on file.

If you haven't got any email on file, you'd need to contact the student records office and get them to add an email. Then wait about 4 hours for the students record system and the portal password server to sync. up.

closeline

Do you go into the College email and it or do you go into your personal email and add the college email to it??

Solair

If you mean adding a secondary email to your student records, you go into the portal admin system to add it when you are registering.

You can amend your contact details in there.

If you're locked out of the portal entirely and have no secondary email registered, you'll have to contact the Student Records Office.

You can also just log into your UCC email, click on the 'cog' symbol and find 'forwarding' and just follow the instructions to forward email toy our preferred email account.

closeline

Solair wrote: »

If you mean adding a secondary email to your student records, you go into the portal admin system to add it when you are registering.

You can amend your contact details in there.

If you're locked out of the portal entirely and have no secondary email registered, you'll have to contact the Student Records Office.

No I already have a secondary email.Im just wondering how to set up the college email on my android phone..

Solair

closeline wrote: »

No I already have a secondary email.Im just wondering how to set up the college email on my android phone..

1) Download the Gmail app from the Android Market, if you don't already have it.
2) Add a new account.
3) User name is your full UCC numerical email address i.e. studentnumber@umail.ucc.ie
4) Your password is your old PIN Twice. This is probably the numerical part of your new portal pin that you use to log into the UCC email/admin system.
5) If you do not have this password, follow the forgot password link above, and it will be emailed to the secondary (non-UCC) email address that UCC have on file in your student records.

closeline

Solair wrote: »

1) Download the Gmail app from the Android Market, if you don't already have it.
2) Add a new account.
3) User name is your full UCC numerical email address i.e. studentnumber@umail.ucc.ie
4) Your password is your old PIN Twice. This is probably the numerical part of your new portal pin that you use to log into the UCC email/admin system.
5) If you do not have this password, follow the forgot password link above, and it will be emailed to the secondary (non-UCC) email address that UCC have on file in your student records.

In fairness you are making it easier and easier each time to set up..Just about the old pin..My new pin has 9 letters and 2 numbers so that musnt have anything to do with my old password..I will do number 5..is the username just your student number??

Solair

closeline wrote: »

In fairness you are making it easier and easier each time to set up..Just about the old pin..My new pin has 9 letters and 2 numbers so that musnt have anything to do with my old password..I will do number 5..is the username just your student number??

If you don't have your old pin, which was all numeric, I don't think you can use it.

UCC seems to have dropped support for the service. They introduced that single log in portal system where everything goes through http://sit.ucc.ie/ to make things 'easier'. :rolleyes:

Your best bet after that, is to forward the email from your UCC email to your Gmail and then setup "Send mail as" in Gmail.

Cog Wheel button > Accounts and Import > Send mail as ... & Follow on-screen instructions. That will let you send email as your UCC account, once it's verified by Gmail and you will get your UCC email forwarded to your Gmail.

That way you can use it from your phone. It's almost as good as the direct method.

Log into the UCC account occasionally, just in case it's blocked anything being forwarded on though.

closeline

Solair wrote: »

If you don't have your old pin, which was all numeric, I don't think you can use it.

UCC seem to have dropped support for the service.

Your best bet after that, is to forward the email from your UCC email to your Gmail and then setup "Send mail as" in Gmail.

Cog Wheel button > Accounts and Import > Send mail as ... & Follow on-screen instructions. That will let you send email as your UCC account, once it's verified by Gmail and you will get your UCC email forwarded to your Gmail.

That way you can use it from your phone. It's almost as good as the direct method.

Log into the UCC account occasionally, just in case it's blocked anything being forwarded on though.

Ya I am after resetting the student portal password now but what is that got to do with the old pin??

Solair

closeline wrote: »

Ya I am after resetting the student portal password now but what is that got to do with the old pin??

In my case anyway, it contained my PIN. They just added extra characters to my old PIN.

Perhaps yours is different, or you never had an old pin.

...

Direct access to the Google Apps system seems to be no longer properly supported though. So, if it doesn't work, you'll have to look at the forwarding system instead!

closeline

Solair wrote: »

In my case anyway, it contained my PIN. They just added extra characters to my old PIN.

Perhaps yours is different, or you never had an old pin.

...

Direct access to the Google Apps system seems to be no longer properly supported though. So, if it doesn't work, you'll have to look at the forwarding system instead!

Well I had a 5 digit pin at once stage last year..Would that be it?? Anyway I will try the forwarding system at the moment.

Solair

You could try that ... entered twice

Otherwise, I have no idea!

alsiet2011

Knasher wrote: »

Yeah the network admin people in UCC are crazily strict, absolutely 100% over the top. I'm doing a Ph.D. so I've been around to a few other colleges for conferences and the like and they are usually pretty open, even other colleges in Ireland.

I also think they go out of their way to make the network more complicated. There is no benefit to making students register their laptops given how easy it is to change MAC addresses on most devices. Additionally it is perfectly easy to make the proxy system auto configure, absolutely no idea why they choose not to.

The reason it works for me is probably because when they first set it up it wasn't misconfigured properly and I still had the option of changing my google password independent of their system.

if you change the mac address on the device you'll have to re-register the device once again. you only allowed 2 devices in ucc anyway and devices are enabled based on mac addresses. nowadays you can select automatically detect setitngs via the browser which works in most cases although sometimes you will need to go through the proxy. chrome is the best for ucc. IE doesnt work too well

Solair

I, like many students I know, gave up on UCC WiFi long ago. It's just too awkward as you can't use mail clients, online chat, or anything that's not a simple HTTP / HTTPS connection.

It's nearly easier to just bring a 3G dongle at this stage and the mobile networks are pretty fast.

The only slight downside of this is that you still cannot get ANY mobile reception in the Western Gateway Building i.e. the main IT building!
The building's structure acts like a Faraday Cage, blocking all radio reception

alsiet2011

Solair wrote: »

I, like many students I know, gave up on UCC WiFi long ago. It's just too awkward as you can't use mail clients, online chat, or anything that's not a simple HTTP / HTTPS connection.

It's nearly easier to just bring a 3G dongle at this stage and the mobile networks are pretty fast.

The only slight downside of this is that you still cannot get ANY mobile reception in the Western Gateway Building i.e. the main IT building!
The building's structure acts like a Faraday Cage, blocking all radio reception

you should be able to use mail clients. just make sure pop/imap is enabled on your account. not sure if this feature is still enabled domain wide but was when i was there last year. i worked in the IT desk also. good times.

Solair

alsiet2011 wrote: »

you should be able to use mail clients. just make sure pop/imap is enabled on your account. not sure if this feature is still enabled domain wide but was when i was there last year. i worked in the IT desk also. good times.

It never worked for me with IMAP anyway.
No longer on the network so it doesn't matter to me now But it was annoying all last year!