What is an Email alias?

An email alias is an email address that doesn't have a mailbox. It forwards on any email sent to it to another address that you specify. It does not have a username and password associated with it.

An example:

My email alias is jdoe11@indstate.edu.

I have setup my email alias to forward to my MyMail account jdoe11@mymail.indstate.edu.

My friend sends an email to jdoe11@indstate.edu and it arrives in my MyMail inbox at jdoe11@mymail.indstate.edu a few minutes later.

What can an email alias do for me?

You can edit where your email alias points to at anytime using your Sycamore password. This means if your email address on campus changes for some reason, you can edit where your alias is pointing and anyone using your email alias to send you email will not need to use a different address (See the following instructions on how to do that). The email alias will stay the same even though your email address has changed.

Another added bonus is that its slightly shorter and easier to remember.

An example:

My email alias is: betty@indstate.edu

I have set my email alias to forward to my MyMail account bdavis33@mymail.indstate.edu.

My friend sends an email to betty@indstate.edu and it arrives in my MyMail inbox at bdavis33@mymail.indstate.edu a few minutes later.

I get married and my Sycamore login/MyMail changes to bblack25@mymail.indstate.edu. I edit my email alias betty@indstate.edu to forward to my new MyMail account, bblack25@mymail.indstate.edu.

My same friend sends me another email at betty@indstate.edu and it arrives at my bblack25@mymail.indstate.edu inbox a few minutes later.

I continue to receive email and I didn't have to notify all of my friends that my email address changed!

What can't an email alias do for me?

Since an email alias only forwards email somewhere else, you can't login to it and check it (if your e-mail alias username differs from your MyMail/GroupWise, i.e. betty@indstate.edu). In order to access e-mail sent to betty@indstate.edu you must check the account it is forwarding to (in this case, bblack25@mymail.indstate.edu).

Also, having your friends email you at your alias will not make your return replies from the MyISU Portal or GroupWise program have your email alias in the "From:" field. Instead, your bblack25@mymail.indstate.edu email address will appear there. This means when they hit "Reply" to email that you've sent, their replies will be emailed to bblack25@mymail.indstate.edu not betty@indstate.edu.