Table of Contents
ECE Email Server
Updated: 2017-07-07
This Wiki page contains some of the technical details of the new ECE Email server for the Department's Research Groups.
New email format
The new ECE Email server uses a different format for storing email messages.
In the old email format, a mail folder is stored in a single file. This causes head aches when multiple email clients try to access the folder and the performance drops as the folder contents gets bigger.
In the new format, email clients can read and delete messages while new mail is being delivered. Each message is stored in a separate file with a unique name, so it is not affected by operations on other messages. The local file system handles file locking, not the mail agent program which increases reliability.
Webmail
The Webmail server uses the open-source SquirrelMail package.
ECE's webmail site is https://webmail.ece.utoronto.ca
ADDED PLUGINS
The Proon plug-in can manually or automatically prune any of your folders of old messages. There is detailed help information under the Options→ Pruning section.
The Bypass Trash plugin provides configurable means to allow users to quickly purge one or more messages without moving them to the trash first. A button called Wipe is shown which removes a message without sending it to the Trash folder.
The Address book Import - Export plugin allows for the importing or exporting of address books from a CSV (comma separated values) file. This will be located at the bottom of the Addresses section.
Email Client Settings
Many client programs will automatically configure the appropriate IMAP connection settings for your account, but confirm that the connection settings your client configures are the same as what's listed below.
The outgoing SMTP mail server is mail.ece.utoronto.ca. The SMTP server uses secure SSL/TLS port 465.
SMTP server IP address 128.100.10.107 using SSL/TLS port 465
The incoming IMAP mail server is mail.ece.utoronto.ca. The IMAP server uses secure SSL/TLS port 993.
IMAP server IP address 128.100.10.107 using SSL/TLS port 993
Supported Mail Clients
Below is a list of mail clients which work well with the Email server. We will be adding links to How-to pages containing instructions for configuring the client email.
- Thunderbird https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/ Free and open-source email client with IMAP support
- Outlook Express Outlook Express is replaced by Windows Mail
- Windows Mail
- Apple Mail Apple Cheat Sheet
- Icedove (Tier 1 Linux Default Thunderbird equivalent)
- Evolution
Managing your User Settings on the Server
User settings can be modified through a web-based interface called Usermin. SpamAssassin filter settings, Procmail filter settings, forwarding email, and autoreply (vacation) messages can be configured. The Mail option in the upper-left of the Usermin web interface , when expanded, will list the user tools installed.
https://mail.ece.utoronto.ca:20000
How-tos for web-based interface:
Setting Up ECE email autoreply (vacation)
Setting Up ECE email forwarding
The ECE email server uses Spamassassin for filtering Spam email. The system scores incoming email based on sender, subject, content, attachments and additional attributes and if the score is high enough, the email is placed in your Spam folder.
Spam will still get through since there is a balancing act between allowing legitimate email and blocking spam. Spammers are constantly finding ways to disguise their spam to look like legitimate email.
The following web page shows how to mark incoming email addresses as Always Allow (Whitelist) or Always Deny (Blacklist).
Allow and Deny email Addresses in Spamassassin (Spam filter Whitelist and Blacklist)
The following web page shows how to define additional tests on incoming email depending on content of the header or body. Custom tests are usually not needed but in the case you are getting a lot of false positives or negatives then the option is available.
Additional content tests for Spamassassin
Procmail can be very useful for users that receive large amounts of incoming mail.