Table of Contents
ECE email server
The Research Computing Support service operates in-house email services for the ece.utoronto.ca domain, as part of the unix login account service.
This is a separate service from your UTORmail email address (issued to all UofT faculty, staff and students) ending in @utoronto.ca or @mail.utoronto.ca.
Not all ECE users are assigned a departmental login account on the research networks. These are optional at the discretion of the supervisor. If your supervisor has assigned you a Unix login account, this also includes an email address of username@ece.utoronto.ca. Your password for this email account is the same as your account's login password.
Users with an ECE email can access it in a mail client via IMAP, or in any browser by visiting webmail.ece.utoronto.ca, using the account name and password for their Unix login.
A departmental @ece address also receives email addressed to the same username in legacy mail domains of our research groups including {@comm, @waves, @ele, @eecg, @control, @light}.utoronto.ca
Account closure
Accounts for students and visitors are typically assigned while at UofT with that supervisor, and may then be closed after you graduate, change programs or supervisors, or withdraw. Closing a login account also disables the account's email access. We can provide forwarding of incoming mail to the closed account's email address; just supply a forwarding address when closing the account. Supervisors should ensure users know to download any saved emails and account files, and ask about forwarding, before an account is closed. Consider forwarding if the email address has been published as author contact in research publications. Searching for the email address at https://scholar.google.com is a quick way to check.
Other email services
ECE email accounts are an entirely separate service from your UTORmail email account (assigned to all UTORid holders.) For help with your UTORmail email or any UTORid-linked services, contact the central UofT Help Desk at help.desk at utoronto.ca or call campus extension x84357 / (416) 978-HELP, or visit the Help Desk counter on the ground floor of Robarts Library.
Another unit which previously issued email addresses to some faculty and staff is the Faculty's “ECF” Engineering Computing Facility. If you have an @ecf email address, the support contact is ecf.help at utoronto.ca. The ECF website is https://undergrad.engineering.utoronto.ca/undergrad-resources/engineering-computing-facility-ecf/
Email Client Settings for ECE email accounts
In your email client program, such as MS Outlook or Thunderbird, use the option to add an account, and enter your ECE email address and password during the setup. 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
Managing your User Settings on the Server
User settings can be modified through a web-based interface called Usermin. Log in to Usermin with your Unix login name and password, and you'll be able to create, change and remove:
- SpamAssassin filter settings,
- Procmail filter settings,
- email forwarding to another address
- autoreply (vacation) messages
The Mail option in the upper-left of the Usermin web interface, when expanded, will list the user tools installed.
The link for Usermin on the ECE mail server is: 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)
It's also possible 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. Contact ecehelp for details if needed.
Procmail can be very useful for users that receive large amounts of incoming mail.