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Northern Illinois University

Information Technology Services

Forwarding NIU Student E-Mail

Students can configure their NIU student e-mail account to forward to an e-mail account of their choice.

Official University correspondence is sent ONLY to NIU student e-mail accounts. This includes:

  • Statements from Registration and Records and the Bursar’s Office
  • Student Financial Aid notifications
  • Correspondence from NIU faculty sent via BlackBoard

Mailbox Storage Capacity
Student Responsibilities
Instructions for Forwarding
Troubleshooting

NIU Student E-Mail accounts have a maximum storage limit of 50 Mb.

If you forward mail from your NIU student e-mail, you must still check your NIU student e-mail box regularly to ensure there is adequate space to receive University communication. Periodically log into WebMail and clear your account of old messages.

  • A copy of every message received is maintained in the account even if forwarding is enabled
  • When an account is over the limit, ONLY MyNIU mail is received

Student Responsibilities

  • Configure preferred account to accept NIU mail
    • Add niu.edu domain to trust list
    • Contact the account provider for assistance
  • Test the configuration to ensure the forward is operating as expected
  • Routinely log into the NIU Student E-Mail account to remove unnecessary messages
  • Change or remove forwarding settings if preferred account stops working or is no longer in use

Instructions for Forwarding

  1. Configure preferred e-mail account to accept messages from NIU:
    1. Add "niu.edu" as a permitted domain
    2. Add "students.niu.edu" as a permitted host
    3. Add "[Z-ID]@students.niu.edu" as a permitted address
    4. Contact your preferred account provider for additional assistance if needed
  2. Open a web browser and go to http://webmail.students.niu.edu
  3. Log in with your Z-ID and password
  4. Clean your NIU Student E-Mail account:
    1. Purge all items that you do not need
    2. Purge any items marked for deletion
    3. Clean out the Sent Items and Inbox folders
    4. Clean other folders that have been created and contain items
    5. Get the "Mailbox Used" value as close to zero as possible
  5. Select the "Options" icon
  6. Select the "Mailbox Management" tab
  7. Set "Forward All New Messages:" to "Yes"
    • Note: There is an option for "Keep Copy" on this screen. This function is disabled. Setting "Keep Copy" to "No" will not prevent forwarded messages from being retained in your Inbox and counting against your quota.
  8. Enter your preferred e-mail address in the "Forward to:" box
  9. Click on "Save"
  10. Click on "Close"
  11. Test the forwarding:
    1. Send a message from your preferred e-mail account to your [Z-ID]@students.niu.edu address
    2. Under most conditions, you should receive your forwarded mail back to your preferred e-mail account within 30 minutes
    3. If the forwarded message is delivered to your preferred e-mail account, you are done
    4. If the forwarded message is not received in your preferred e-mail account, reference Troubleshooting section below

Troubleshooting

If NIU forwarded e-mail is not received in your preferred e-mail account, try the following tips:

  1. Confirm that your NIU Student E-Mail account has sufficient space available for receiving messages
  2. Check that mail delivery between NIU and your preferred account is not impaired:
    • Send a message from your NIU Student E-Mail account to your preferred account
      • If this confirmation message arrives but the forwarding test message does not, problem is specifically with the forwarding
      • If neither message arrives, there is a temporary issue impacting delivery of mail; test again later
  3. Confirm that your preferred e-mail account does not have any spam blocking / junk mail handling that may prevent delivery of forwarded mail
  4. Go back to step 8 above and try removing and retyping your preferred e-mail address to make sure there are no errors
  5. Attempt to send another forwarded test message with internet delivery confirmation turned on.
    • This will usually provide a response that will help indicate where the problem with delivery is occurring. Contact your preferred account provider for additional assistance in doing this.
  6. If none of these solutions resolve the issue, contact the ITS Helpdesk.