NUS student mailbox size

If you are wondering what is your max mailbox size, it is 30MB+1GB. This system is stupid in the sense that we are still with 2006 Hotmail sizes. The 1GB is from LargeMail, the descriptions of this which have been removed from any mention. However, a email send on 22Nov 2008 reveals the following.

Dear Student

We are pleased to inform that your mailbox size has been increased to 1 GB! You should hardly notice any changes except the introduction of a new icon for less frequently accessed emails which will be stored in the secondary storage. The secondary storage is lower in cost with negligible performance difference compared to the primary storage. You will continue to work in the usual manner with your favorite NUSmail.

We believe LargeMail will serve you better in the years to come for your studies, interaction with fellow students, collaborators and friends. Please visit http://www.nus.edu.sg/comcen/NUSmail/feedback if you would like to share your delightful experience with the user community.

More information on LargeMail is available at http://www.nus.edu.sg/comcen/NUSmail/large.htm.

Yours sincerely,

NUS Postmaster

Computer Centre

~Think about IT. Imagine it.~

If you want to have more information, Google has cached a copy of the page here and here.

Using Gmail to read and write your NUS email

Settings up Gmail to grab your NUS email is not difficult. However, if you fail to setup the proper setting for emails sent from your NUS email account to other NUS email accounts, you will be shocked to find out that all those mails will be bounced.

All Settings for Gmail to retrieve NUS email
Name: Your desired name
Email Address: Your email address@nus.edu.sg (works with FriendlyMail too!)

Send email through: nus.edu.sg SMTP servers
SMTP Server: smtp.nus.edu.sg (Port 25)
Username: uXXXXXXX

And lastly your NUS network password. If all goes well your mailbox will be populating with all your mails soon.

Guide to NUS FriendlyMail

Ever wondered how to change away from your uXXXXXX@nus.edu.sg into yourname@nus.edu.sg? FriendlyMail is a feature that is neated tucked away on the Exchange login page yet with no clear description of what it does. However, I hope that you will now know what it does and apply for one.

Guide to automatic logons to NUS wifi access points

If you are tired of manually logging into the NUS wireless network, clicking on accept certificate in Firefox or invalid certificates in Internet Explorer, you might want to consider using the automatic way to logon to the wifi network.

In fact, there is also another very good reason why one should use the auto logon system. The system implements 802.1x and WEP encryption which provides a greater degree of security as compared to logging into NUSOPEN.

However, since there is already some very good guides available, I should just link to them here.
For Windows XP.
For Windows Vista, Windows 7 (similar to Vista).

Alternatively, you can also consider securing yourself with WebVPN when connecting using the NUSOPEN SSID.

Guide to joining the NUS domain remotely and NUS Printer Selection

Note: This guide will employ the use of a virtual machine running a seperate copy of the operating system (XP in this case) to join the network using a NAT-VPN connection. However, if you are joining the domain while logon to NUSNET, you can skip step 3.

Step 1: Install Virtualbox and setup a operating system, Windows XP in the following case.

Step 2: Setup your virtual machine to use NAT mode (default setting) in your virtual machine configuration.

Step 3: Setup your host machine and install WebVPN, and connect to it.

Step 4: Use the join domain tool and join the domain with the virtual machine.

Step 5: After a restart, you should be brought to the login screen.


If all goes well, you should be login to the domain and it should automatically popup a message of the day, mapped you the network drives (home folder and other relevant mappings). In addition, you will be prompted to install TrendMicro OfficeScan if not installed.

One very last attraction to have this guide is the most important feature you gain upon joining the domain is the NUS Printer Selection utility which shows you the printers around the campus and maps them automatically on a click of a button. This also allows you to login using "Campus Login" on IVLE.

Using Microsoft Outlook for NUS Exchange mail server

Step 1: Install Microsoft Office and the corresponding Microsoft Outlook.

Step 2: Start Microsoft Outlook and setup your exchange account


Step 3: Key in the relevant settings

Exchange Server Name: exchange.ex.nus.edu.sg
User Name: Your Name

Step 4: Remember to click the Check Name button

... and if all goes well, you should see your name underlined in the User Name input box. Just select next and Microsoft Outlook should sync things with the Exchange server.