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Choose Which Email and Calendar Application to Use

Faculty and staff can access their Cornell email and calendar in many ways. This page explains the university-supported ways, and common alternatives if none of those ways meets your needs.

Please note that your college, unit, or department may require that you use a particular method to access your Cornell email and calendar. Your IT or computer support staff can advise you about any requirements or recommendations.

Find out about managing your email and calendar:

 See a comparison of the differences in functions available with Outlook, Entourage, Mail / iCal, Outlook Web App, and Thunderbird.

Managing your email and calendar on the web

Outlook Web App is a Cornell-provided service for managing your email and calendar on the web. It can be used with most current web browsers, including Internet Explorer,  Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.

You can choose to use Outlook Web App exclusively. Or you can use it when you're away from your own computer, and use another email and calendar application, such as Outlook, Entourage, or Apple Mail / iCal, the rest of the time.

Managing your email and calendar with Outlook, Entourage, or Apple Mail / iCal

Outlook, Entourage, and Apple Mail/iCal are email and calendar applications that are installed on your computer. They are designed specifically for Cornell's Exchange email and calendar system. 

  • Outlook 2010 is for Windows computers. It comes with Microsoft Office 2010.
  • Outlook 2011 is for Macintosh computers. It comes with Microsoft Office 2011.
  • Outlook 2007 is for Windows computers. It comes with Microsoft Office 2007.
  • Entourage 2008 is for Macintosh computers. It comes with Microsoft Office 2008.
  • Mail and iCal are for Macintosh computers. The versions that come with Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) work with Cornell's Exchange email and calendar system.

CIT will discontinue support for Entourage (Mac) and Outlook 2007 (Windows) on May 31, 2012.

We encourage anyone using Outlook 2007 (Windows) to upgrade to Outlook 2010. We encourage anyone using Entourage (Mac) to upgrade to Outlook 2011 for Mac. Both are free for Cornell faculty, staff, and affiliates. (See our software licensing agreement for details.)

Outlook, Entourage, and Mail / iCal offer powerful ways to integrate your email, calendar, task lists, and address book, and many options for organizing your email. They also provide flexible, secure ways to enable other people to manage your email and calendar.

Outlook and Entourage look very much like Outlook Web App, Cornell's service for viewing your email on the web. That's beneficial because, for the most part, you only need to learn one of these applications to efficiently use any of them.

Learn to use Outlook, Entourage, Mail, iCal, or Outlook Web App through hands-on workshops, and web-based tutorials, podcasts, video clips, and step-by-step instructions.

Install Outlook for Windows or Mac: Under the Microsoft Campus Agreement, Cornell University staff, faculty, and affiliates* can download Microsoft Office to install onto their institution-owned computers at no charge.

*Weill Cornell Medical College has its own independent arrangement with Microsoft, and is not covered under the Microsoft Campus Agreement. Weill Cornell staff should check with their local IT providers for more information.

Managing your email with Thunderbird

Thunderbird is an email-only application that is installed on your computer. It is a free, open-source, highly customizable email application for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

Compared to Outlook, Entourage, and Mail / iCal, Thunderbird has these limitations:

  • No built-in connection to your calendar. To access your Exchange calendar, you would need to use Outlook Web App or (if you use Mac OS X 10.6, Snow Leopard, or 10.7 Lion) iCal.
    If you use your calendar extensively or in complex ways, you will need Outlook or Entourage to access all the calendar features.
  • More limited set of ways to organize messages.
  • No secure, flexible ways to enable other people to manage your email.

Managing your email and calendar on your mobile phone

You can use your BlackBerry, iPhone, or other smart phone to manage your Cornell email and calendar.

Other ways to manage your Cornell email

If none of the university-supported ways to read your Cornell email meets your needs, you can choose to:

  • Use any email application that supports the IMAP or POP email protocols. You would need to install and configure the email application on your own, and do your own troubleshooting if problems arise.
    • Incoming mail server: netid.mail.cornell.edu (substitute your own NetID, for example, pqs665.mail.cornell.edu) ... Port: 993 ... Security: SSL
    • Outgoing mail server: authusersmtp.mail.cornell.edu ... Port: 587 ... Security: TLS
  • Forward your Cornell email to a non-Cornell email account. Be sure to note the university's guidelines about situations in which you should not forward your Cornell email.