To use our internal mail server you have to follow a series of step:

1. Forwarding all of your incoming messages from the EPFL mail server to our mail server
2. Configure the web interface to access your new mailbox
3. Configure the mail client in your ws/laptop to access your mailbox

Go to the short version of this document if you know how to do the setup and you only want the configuration data.

<note> The configuration is more complicated than expected due to some limitation imposed by the EPFL policy regarding electronic mail. Namely, mail originating from outside EPFL can only be received by the central mail server. Therefore our server will only receive the messages forwarded form the central server. </note>

We are working also on a calendar usable from mail client/ical client/web, tell me if you can be interested.

1. Go to the administration page of your EPFL/imap account: https://imapwww.epfl.ch/useradmin/login_fr.cgi
2. Authenticate with your usual gaspar account;
3. Click on Option de distributon;
4. Select the Redirection activée (Forward) check box;
5. Enter your e-mail address on our server:
6. In the box named Rediger vers entry your lth address: <username>@iscsrv15.epfl.ch
7. Save your seeing by clicking on Appliquer

You can also choose to keep a copy of your messages on the central server by flagging the Garder une copie sur le serveur en cas de transfert option. In this case, you will have to periodically delete/move the mail messages from your mailbox as the quota on the central mail server is quite limited.

<note> From now on, every incoming mail message is forwarded to your new mailbox </note>

1. Point your browser to https://lthmail.epfl.ch (you will be asked to accept a self-signed certificate)
2. Login using the login and password you use on your workstation.
3. As this is your first login, you will be asked to enter your real name and your e-mail address. Important: enter your official epfl address (surname.name@epfl.ch) here.
4. Click on Options and play around with other settings if you want.

This is a more or less standard webmail interface: link to your mail folders (including the standard Inbox, Draft, Trash, Sent) are on the left, and a new message can be created clickint the Compose button. Hopefully, you have already used a similar interface.

A power feature is the integrated access to the EPFL ldap directory: you can search the address of a person at EPFL, by clicking the addresses button. Remember to Sign Out when you're done.

The parameters to use on your e-mail client are the following:

• Incoming Mail:
  • account/server type: IMAP
  • mail server: lthmail.epfl.ch, or licosmail.epfl.ch, or algomail.epfl.ch, or lcmmail.epfl.ch;
  • port: 993/tcp (imaps, SSL authentication)
  • username: your unix <username> (the one you use for your workstation, and/or cluster access);
  • password: your unix <password>;
  • mailbox: <username>
  • real address: <username>@lth.epfl.ch (valid only inside the epfl network)
  • address for the world: name.lastname@epfl.ch
• Outgoing mail from within EPFL (workstations)
  • smtp server: ipgmail.epfl.ch, or licosmail.epfl.ch, or algomail.epfl.ch, or lcmmail.epfl.ch;
  • Port: 25/tcp
  • Encryption: none
• Outgoing mail from outside EPFL (laptop, home computer)
  • smtp server: ipgmail.epfl.ch, or lthmail, or licosmail.epfl.ch, or algomail.epfl.ch, or lcmmail.epfl.ch;
  • Port: 225/tcp
  • Encryption: STARTTLS

<note tip> The reason why we propose two different SMTP server configurations instead of just using the encrypted one (port 225), is that only the messages sent using the unencrypted connection (port 25) can be used to improve the quality of the antispam filter (at least for now). </note>

1. Open Thunderbird
2. Create a new mail account of type IMAP (Edit → Account Settings…)
3. Insert your real address surname.name@epfl.ch as mail address
4. Incoming server: lthmail.epfl.ch
5. Incoming username: <unix username>
6. account name: you can put whatever you want to identify the account
7. Your account is ready, but we need to make some customizations.
   1. Now you are out of the wizard and on the page of the accounts
   2. Select the new account you just created and check if the informations are correct. DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING you don't know
   3. Select Outgoing Server (SMTP) in the left part of the account window.
   4. If there's a default mail server, select it and click edit (if there's no mail server, click add)
   5. Description: whatever you want
   6. Server name: ipgmail.epfl.ch
   7. Port: 25
   8. Close the account window (click on ok), now you can browse the folders on your new mailbox.

To receive/send mail from a laptop and from outside epfl, we need to use cryptographic protocols and a non standard configuration, so:

1. Open Thunderbird
2. Create a new mail account of type IMAP (Edit → Account Settings…)
3. Insert your real address surname.name@epfl.ch as mail address
4. Incoming server: lthmail.epfl.ch
5. Incoming username: <unix username>
6. account name: you can put whatever you want to identify the account
7. Your account is ready, but we need to make some customizations.
   1. Open the Account Preferences panel and select the account just created
   2. Click on Server Settings
   3. Activate the SSL flag under Security settings.
   4. Select “Outgoing Server (SMTP) in the left part of the account window.
   5. If there's a default mail server, select it and click edit (if there's no mail server, click add)
   6. Description: whatever
   7. Server name: lthmail.epfl.ch
   8. Port: 225
   9. Activate the Use name and password flag under Security and Authentication
   10. User Name: <your unix username>
   11. Use secure connection: TLS or SSL
   12. Click OK
   13. Close the account window (click again on OK) and close Thunderbird.
   14. Reopen Thunderbird and try to access your mailbox on lthmail.epfl.ch. The system will ask for the acceptance of a certificate, Accept it. Now you can browse the folders on your new mailbox.
   15. Send a mail message to someone. The system will ask for the acceptance of a certificate, Accept it. After It will ask for your password (the same you used to access the mailbox).

<note tip> To move your mail from local repositories and from the EPFL mail server, the simpler way is to use Thunderbird. Just drag and drop the mail folders in the new mailbox (avoid same names of folders) and the work is done. </note>

<note warning> PINE users have to follow these instructions to move their mail messages from PINE mailboxes. </note>

From now, you can send/receive mail message from the web interface or from the mail client (laptop or desktop). You can use these programs even in parallel mode (the web interface & the mail client can be used at the same time).

The mail server has an antivirus program and 2 level of antispam (one centralized and one local). Regarding security and space: the messages are recorded in a raid 5 disk system with a backup every night. We project also to have in the future a complete mirror system that start when the 1st server stop working.

hope is enough for the start.

the short way