Sam Strasser

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Note: This post only applies to members of the AYA, or Yale Alumni.

So as recent college graduates, my friends and I all must give up our precious Yale email addresses and move on. This is a guide on switching to use the AYA system with Gmail. The specifics are only for Gmail but you can probably apply most of them to other providers like Hotmail or Yahoo, or really anything.

Here are the general steps:

1. Sign up for a Gmail account
2. Forward your AYA email to Gmail
3. Forward your old Yale address to Gmail
4. Set up a Yale auto-reply to tell people that you have changed email addresses
5. Set up Gmail to send email from AYA
6. (Optional) Set up Gmail for POP access, for example, with Mozilla Thunderbird or Apple Mail

So let’s run through those step by step.

1. Sign up for a Gmail account

   Follow this link to sign up. This should be fairly simple, and I imagine you already have a Gmail account. Remember your email address, you will need it later.

2. Forward your AYA email to Gmail

   First you should find the email that the AYA sent to you. It was from “aya@yale.edu” and the subject was “Your Access to Online Alumni Services”. (If you cannot find the email, go to the registration page where there will be instructions on retrieving your account information.) When you do find it, on the left of the email will be a link that says “Register Now” and a 6-digit security code. Copy the security code and then click the Register Now link.

   For id I reccomend using the beginning of your gmail address. For example, if my Gmail address were samhstrasser@gmail.com then I would use samhstrasser. After choosing an id, click “permanent email”. Enter your id and password.

   Choose an email address that you will want to give forever. I used my Yale email address, except that it is @aya.yale.edu now. In step 2, enter your Gmail address which will be the destination for all forwarded email. Click continue and then Activate.

3. Forward your old Yale address to Gmail

   Go to http://config.mail.yale.edu and login with your netid. Follow the option called “Mail forwarding” across its row and click “configure”. Enter your Gmail address and press enter. Agree to the terms

4. Set up a Yale auto-reply to tell people that you have changed email addresses

   Back at http://config.mail.yale.edu click “configure” for the “Vacation (auto-reply)” row. Enter a message. Mine is something like:You have emailed me at my old email address. I have graduated and will be switching to [and I put my AYA email here]. Please update your records.
   - Sam Strasser

   Click “Activate vacation

5. Set up Gmail to send email from AYA

   One of the best parts of this setup is that you can email from your AYA account. It generally looks much more professional when applying for jobs and allows you to change form Gmail later, if you want to.

   Update: It takes the AYA site a little while to set up your account, so you might need to wait one day before finishing up this step.

   • Go to Gmail (http://www.gmail.com/)
   • At the top right click “Settings”
   • Click on the “Accounts tab”
   • Click “Add another email address”
   • Enter your name (it should already be ok) and your AYA address in the “email” field.
   • You will get an email in your Gmail account after a little while. When you do, click the link to activate your AYA email.
   • (Optional) You can make your AYA the default email that you send with. After validating your AYA account, there will be a link that says “Make default” to the right of your new email address. Click that link
6. (Optional) Set up Gmail for POP access, for example, with Mozilla Thunderbird or Apple MailIn Gmail, under Settings, click “Forwarding and POP/IMAP”. Use the configuration instructions there to set up your email for use on your desktop