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Mail @ EPFL

To receive or sending emails, users can use the Official EPFL mail server or the IPG mail server (or both). Both servers have the same characteristics and can be used from standard mail clients programs or from Web Browsing. The principal motif to use the local mail server is that this server don't have a quota limitation on the mail that an user can store. The Official mail server of the EPFL has a mail quota of around 50 Mbytes for every users, and the maximum dimension of a message can't be more than 20 Mbyte (the worldwide mail service use a 7 bit codification, so the maximum real dimension of a mail message is around 15 Mbyte).

<note warning> Following the EPFL directives, the local mail server can't be reachable directly from outside EPFL, so we can't receive mail to the local account. Instead every user have to configure the official mail server to forward all the incoming messages to his/hers local mailbox. There's no possibility to have a global change of the configurations. </note>

Every user of the EPFL network has an email address like this surname.name@epfl.ch. Every message that is destined to this address is sent to the personal mailbox of the user. The mailbox is named after the name of the user (or the first 8 chars if the name is longer) and it's stored in the mailbox.epfl.ch server.

EPFL MAIL Server

If you want use the EPFL's mail server follow these instructions to configure your mail client, or jump here if you need just the network settings.

PRO

Simplicity of configuration
Accessible from everywhere
Understand IMAP,SMTP,IMAPS,SMTPS,HTTPS protocols
- Web, Imap, Smtp connections are encrypted
Antivirus & antispam Features

CONS

Quota limitation on the INBOX of 50 Mbytes
- Management of the email message become complicated when the quota limitation is reached
- Need to move/delete old messages in Inbox and Sent folders

IPG MAIL Server

At this address you can find instruction on how to configure your mail client to use the local mail server. If you are an expert here you can find just the settings.

PRO

Accessible from everywhere
Login & Password are the same you use to access the linux network
understand POP3,IMAP,IMAPS,SMTP,SMTPS,HTTPS protocols
- Web, Imap and Smtp connections are encrypted
Space for all your mail messages (received, sent, draft)
- No need to move your email messages from the server
Antivirus & Antispam Features (based on OpenSource projects)

CONS

The server functionality is limited by EPFL's policy
- The configuration of the mail client is a little tricky
- It's impossible to receive email messages directly to your address <username>@lth.epfl.ch
Backup of the mailbox just 1 time per day
Global antispam is the strongest possible and we can have some false positive
To inform the spam filter about errors we have to use the web interface