Divisional E-Mail Setup
Web Mail
Web based e-mail is available for staff at: https://webmail.ics.mq.edu.au/. Make sure cookies are enable, your computer is in the correct time zone and has the correct local time.
General Settings
Make sure to authenticate using your ICSID username and password. If you don't have or don't know your ICSID, please visit E6A355.
Use IMAPS only. POP and POPS are NOT supported.
| Service | Server | Port |
| Incoming IMAP server (SSL enabled) | imaps.ics.mq.edu.au | 993 |
| Outgoing SMTP server (SSL enabled) | smtps.ics.mq.edu.au* | 465 |
*You can use your ISPs SMTP server and port number
which should be documented somewhere on their web site.
Specific Email Client Settings
CTS recommends users use Mozilla Thunderbird as the divisions preferred email application.
Outlook Express
The following show how to configure Outlook Express provided you have a staff account.
Make sure to set the "Check for new messages every ..." option to 30 minutes or more. Shorter intervals puts a load on the server and actually slows down email access!
Click on the "Division of ICS" folder. Make sure NO folders have any "Synchronization Settings" set.
There is a bug in Outlook Express / Outlook 2000 which prevents the automatic new email notification from working. (See: http://www.washington.edu/imap/IMAP-FAQs/index.html#7.37)
Antivirus Security: Outlook Express have several automated features that should be turned off to reduce the possibility of being infected by e-mail viruses. Please disable the preview pane (View -> Layout -> Preview Pane) and enable reading message in plain text (Options -> Read tab -> Read all messages in plain text).
Outlook
Outlook settings should be similar to Outlook Express above. Please see the following link on how to compact pst files:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291645
Mozilla Thunderbird Settings
Make sure the "Check for new messages every..." option above is set to 30 minutes or more.
Mac Mail Settings
Eudora Settings
Note: We strongly discourage the use of this client as its IMAP and pop implementation is buggy and does not seem to be standards compliant. Also Qualcomm ceased sales of Eudora on May 1st.
The following settings are for Eudora 6.2. Please upgrade Eudora if necessary. Disable or remove the old POP account or you will get duplicate messages when both POP and IMAP try to access your Inbox. Deleting the old POP account will not effect existing POP mail folders. Consolidate your mail folders by first creating the same folders on the IMAP server and then drag the old POP e-mails to the new IMAP folders. If there is a lot of mail, you may need to email help@ics.mq.edu.au to request a disk quota increase.
The IMAP server FAQ mentions that if you can't connect via SSL using Eudora, go to Eudora's advanced network configuration menu and increase the network buffer size to 8192. (See: http://www.washington.edu/imap/IMAP-FAQs/index.html#7.41)
Email Tips
IMAP is used to read mail. SMTP is used to send mail. Authenticated SMTP (SMTPS) is available and recommend. Most standard IMAP, POP and SMTP ports are blocked for security purposes. Use the settings above to securely access e-mail.
It is strongly recommended moving mail from Inbox into other mail folders. Keep the Inbox folder free for new incoming mail.
Check if you are in the appropriate mailing lists (http://www.ics.mq.edu.au/cts/aliases_lists.html) These lists are maintained by departmental administrators.
ICS Mail Delivery
Incoming and outgoing e-mail goes through our e-mail server and is subjected to the following processes:
- Alias / List Expansion: E-mail recipients are expanded by aliases and mailing lists. Attachments are limited to certain fixed sizes. The email is then sent to the Barracuda service.
- Barracuda Service: If the message is detected as spam, the email is quarantined and notifications are sent to users and deleted after two weeks. Messages with viruses will be automatically deleted without notification.
- Delivery: Mail is then delivered to individual user accounts on the main file server.
The current policies are to quarantine spam for two weeks and delete virus infected e-mails. As e-mail viruses and spam use similar methods to propagate, it is difficult to find the right compromise between security and false positives. The high turnover of staff and students plus the diverse interest of our users makes us an appealing target for spammers. Most of the sheer bulk of spam we receive go to users who have left, invalid users or invalid addresses. While this may seem to have no obvious affect on your e-mail, it consumes server resources as e-mail still needs to be processed before it's detected as spam and delays delivery of valid e-mails to all users.
Common methods of spam propagation seem to originate from e-mail address books, public web pages, university staff directories, etc. which are harvested for valid e-mail address and use by spammers to flood users mailboxes. Another method involves sending web encoded (HTML) e-mails with embedded files that cause requests to be sent to the spammers server. These requests are used to validate e-mail addresses for future spam attempts.
While we endeavour to address the more common methods of attack, there always will exist a portion of e-mails that will get falsely categorised. The measures in place try to reduce false positives while filtering the bulk of spam constantly flooding our servers.
Please note that:
- E-mail has always been and will continue to be a store and forward system with NO GUARANTEES of delivery. Just because you sent someone an e-mail does not imply they received it, read it, or even bothered to reply.
- Users have differing views on handling spam / virus e-mails but system administration and budget constraints only allow implementation of one policy for all.
- E-mail is not a method of file transfer. Increasing disk storage requirements limit the disk space dedicated for e-mail. The current size for e-mail attachments is therefore restricted to 20 megabytes. Please use alternate means, such as personal web links, SCP, etc., for anything larger.
We cannot recover undelivered messages. Since the division currently receives large volumes of e-mails, we can only keep limited logs.