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Information Technology Services

Create a new Exchange account

Step 1: Prepare Computer

  • Correct setting for Date, Time, Timezone (Washington State is in the Pacific TIme Zone) AND ESPECIALLY DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME SETTINGS. Standard Time occurs after the clocks are set back in the Fall; Daylight Savings comes when clocks are set forward in the Spring. Incorrect settings will affect calendar entries and the date/time stamp of messages. Failure to do this will cause appointments and meetings to appear incorrectly on your or others calendars.
  • Up-to-Date Client Software, OS and Office Service Packs, Anti-Virus Software and Definitions.
  • Make note of all email list servers you are subscribed to. If you have used reply addresses OTHER THAN xxxxx@wsu.edu (your Network ID) to subscribe, you may wish to unsubscribe using your old mail account and client, then re-subscribe from Outlook etc. once you have been set up on Exchange.

Step 2: Check for Exchange Server Provider IMPORTANT – DO NOT OMIT THIS STEP:

Various colleges and departments run their own Exchange or mail service. If you are associated with: CAHNRS, CVM, Puyallup, Institutional Research, Energy Program, Mathematics, EECS, Architecture, WSU Tri-Cities, and WSU Vancouver, you need to check with your systems support staff to see which mail service should be used. The central Exchange service is for all other Faculty, Staff, and Graduate and Professional Students.

Step 3: Run Self-Service Account Setup

  • You must be a WSU Graduate Student or Employee (faculty, staff, administrative professional)
  • Click HERE to run the Setup Process.

Step 4: Test new account with Outlook Web Access

  • To check that the Exchange account is set up correctly, run Outlook Web Access at: http://connect.wsu.edu and when prompted for your account, type in your NID (your Network ID) and password.
  • You might wish to send mail to yourself and see that you receive it. This will verify that your Exchange account has been set up correctly.

Subscribe to USING-OUTLOOK discussion list

Go to lists.wsu.edu and follow the instructions to Join a List

Mailbox Requests

Use this form to request special accounts and mailboxes on the WSU central Exchange service.

Names for these Special Accounts REQUIRE the use of a period: i.e. Forestry.webmstr@ad.wsu.edu or cub.front.desk@wsu.edu. Best practice is to limit TOTAL characters in the name (including the periods) to 16. This prevents the account name from being truncated for log-in use.

Available accounts fall into four categories:

Schedulable Resource Accounts

Calendar mailboxes for Resources (for equipment that you want to allow to be reserved).
Schedulable Resource Account Request Form

Schedulable Location Accounts

Calendar mailboxes for Locations (for meeting room locations that you want to allow to be reserved).
Schedulable Location Account Request Form

Shared Mailbox Accounts

Receive and send ‘departmental’ mail from areas outside of the department (such as for Webmasters or for inquiries from prospective students). These addresses might be published on Web sites or in other publications.
Shared Mailbox Request Form

Departmental Alias Accounts

Receive ‘departmental’ mail and transfer to an individual Exchange account and/or (more typically) an Exchange Distribution Group (such as ‘SAdesk@wsu.edu’ forwarding mail to ‘ITS.DSS.SAdesk@ad.wsu.edu’ where ‘ITS.DSS.SAdesk’ is a distribution group). These addresses also might be published on Web sites or in other publications. Alias accounts cannot be created until after the distribution group has been created.
Departmental Alias Request Form

Naming Convention for Departmental Alias Accounts.

Prefer dept.familarname (with period between words): e.g. forestry.helpdesk

Name of NID wil be same as name of Actual Account -or- Distribution Group alias.

Tech Talk about the 16 character Limit

Accounts with names longer than 16 characters are truncated for the Account Name value in Active Directory and most users prefer to avoid this. For example, a departmental account named IS.ITS.SIS.laptop.HP would be truncated to IS.ITS.SI!M5688. While the actual value remains IS.ITS.SIS.laptop.HP, users must type the truncated version to authenticate in some situations (i.e. Outlook Web Access).