At UGent, we enforce a strict no-tolerance spam policy. Therefore, to ensure successful delivery of your emails to our UGent users, you must comply with the guidelines below.
Important: Delivery issues will persist, and our support team will be unable to assist until the administrator of the sending email server takes action to fully comply with these guidelines.
Guidelines:
1. Ensure that your mail server and client have the correct time and date settings as specified in RFC 5322.
2. Ensure that the following email headers in your message are syntactically correct: Date:, From:, To:, Reply-To:
3. Ensure that the following headers in your email are limited to one each: Bcc:, Cc:, Date:, From:, To:, Reply-To:, Subject:.
4. Immediately remove hard-bounced email addresses from your mailing list.
5. Ensure that your mail server has a static IP address.
6. Maintain valid DNS records for your domain pointing to your IP address and valid reverse DNS records of your IP address pointing to your domain. You can check your DNS configuration at https://intodns.com/.
7. Verify that your domain has a correctly configured MX or A record. You can check your MX configuration at https://mxtoolbox.com/.
8. Confirm that your email server always sends a valid HELO/EHLO value (fully qualified domain name) as specified in RFC 5321. You can check your HELO at https://www.abuseat.org/helocheck.html.
9. Ensure that your mail server(s) IPs are not listed on any known spammers' lists, such as spamhaus.org.
10. Make sure that DKIM, SPF, DMARC, MTA-STS, and BIMI are correctly configured for your email domain. Refer to https://www.usebouncer.com/email-authentication-methods-the-basics-behind-spf-dkim-dmarc-and-bimi/ for more information.
Tools:
Currently, we recommend using these tools to verify that your mail configuration is correct:
If you need to create a private email address in Sap My Apps but you don’t have a private email address (from your provider, Google, Hotmail, etc.), you can create one using the following guide.
For creating a Gmail address, we refer to the information from Google itself as this information can change without us having any influence on it. See https://support.google.com/mail/answer/56256?hl=en
If you want to use an email account from MS, the procedure is below (this guide is also subject to changes by MS)
Creating an account Creating an account works like this: Go to login.live.com Click on ‘No account?’ on Create one
Click on Create New Email Address. (Do you want to link the address? Then type the existing email address that you want to link to the Microsoft account.)
Type the name you want to use for the new email address. The address ends with @outlook.com. This is already filled in. (If the email address is already in use, a message will appear. Then type a new email address and click Next again.)
Click on Next.
Think of a strong password and type the password.
Click on Next.
Microsoft wants to receive some more information. Type your first name.
Click on Last Name and type your last name.
Click on Next.
Click on the dropdown menus under ‘Date of Birth’ to fill in the day, month, and year of birth.
Click on Next.
If you are linking an existing email address, Microsoft will send a code to the email address that is linked to the account. Type the code from the mail into the ‘Enter Code’ field and click on Next.
Microsoft wants to make sure that a person is creating the account and not a robot. Therefore, you have to solve a puzzle.
Click on Next.
Click on the correct solution.
Click on Continue.
The email address and account have been created. You see the homepage of your new Microsoft account.
Before opening a new ticket about undelivered e-mail(s), please check the following:
- Spam/junk folder: maybe the e-mail ended up there.
- Mailbox rules: check whether you have set up rules that automatically delete or move e-mails from this sender.
In Outlook Web Access (OWA), you can check this via Settings (cogwheel) > E-mail > Rules
in Outlook (desktop) via File > Manage rules and alerts
- Junk e-mail settings: check that the sender is not unintentionally on the blocked sender list.
In Outlook Web Access (OWA), you can find this under Settings > E-mail > Junk e-mail
in Outlook (desktop) via Start > Junk e-mail > Junk e-mail options
If you don't find the mail there, be sure to include all relevant information such as dates (with timestamp if possible), sender address, sender domain, subject, ... in your ticket.
Also, add the sender to the safe senders list. To do this, go to https://outlook.office.com/mail/ and refer to the attached screenshot on how to proceed. Open a previous email from the sender, click on the three dots on the right ①, then click on Block ②, and choose 'Never block' ③.
Having problems sending UGent e-mail? Check your SMTP settings first. In some e-mail clients, the SMTP settings of another e-mail account (Proximus, Telenet, ...) are sometimes incorrectly used to send UGent e-mail.
As a result, e-mails are not sent. Conversely, emails from other personal accounts cannot be sent using the UGent SMTP settings.
The email or list-server is intended as a means of mass communication, a so-called message pump; it is not intended for file sharing. Therefore, attachments on that platform should be avoided or kept to a minimum.
There are a few strategies to work around this limitation:
1. Increase the email limit: This is not effective as the limiting factor is often the email client (e.g., Outlook) or the available bandwidth when the email is being read (e.g., via GSM on an older device or slow connection). In short, just because your email client and connection can handle it doesn't mean the recipient's can.
2. Reduce the size of the email and its attachments. Here are some options:
a. The email message itself: For example, consider the size of the images in the mail footer (do you really need them? can they be in plain text?)."
b. attachments:
- If you really need them, can you provide a reference to a location? It's better to share a link to a file available on the internet or intranet rather than sending the file itself.
- If the attachments are not available at a location, make arrangements to store them: upload the material to a website (where the recipient may or may not need to log in) or save it to a shared (One)Drive (which is essentially a type of website). If it's internal to UGent, it can also be stored on a shared network drive.
- If it must be sent as an attachment, limit the size:
-- Compress the attachment(s) into a zip file or similar format.
-- Specifically for images and photos:
When placing them in a zip file, the result is often disappointing because the files already use some form of compression.
To reduce their size (in bits), it's best to use graphic software (or a website that can do this). Previously, the guideline was to reduce images to 72 dpi, but nowadays, it can be slightly more. Since this may seem abstract, a guideline like limiting the width in pixels can be used, for example, 1000 pixels wide is sufficient.
This can easily be achieved using software like IrfanView or similar tools (also in batch mode, processing all files in a specific folder at once).
Photo websites (Flickr, Google Photos, etc.) handle this automatically: when you upload photos there, they offer various versions depending on what the recipient (in this case, a web browser) can handle.
Another option is to change the format; this is what major internet players like Google, Netflix, and Facebook do (as they want to control their bandwidth usage).
If your attachment is still too large after these actions or if your location cannot handle such large files (e.g., a web share at UGent has limitations, and files larger than 1 GB might pose a problem), you'll need to resort to specialized sites. For UGent users, Filesender is available: https://www.belnet.be/en/services/identity-mobility-federation/filesender
Note well:
- Reducing the size or resolution of images is not a good idea when it comes to high-quality print work (consult your pressman for advice and solutions).
- If you put something on a web location, make sure that security is in place. All zip programs have the option to work with a password. Filesender also offers this feature.
Encrypting files before sending them is recommended if the material is confidential. Keep in mind: this will increase the file size again...
Note well 2: Email attachments are an ideal vehicle for phishing attempts. Our infrastructure to prevent phishing and similar threats will inspect every email and all attachments, even if they are packed in a zip file. These software solutions go to great lengths in their inspection process. For example, a text file will be unpacked in a so-called sandbox (a virtual PC), and it will be checked to ensure that opening that text file doesn't trigger any other actions. While this process is fully automated, you can imagine that checking all attachments passing through UGent can be time-consuming. This time consumption could result in slower email delivery. (If the recipient is outside of UGent, a similar process may occur on their end.) Hence, this is another reason to avoid using attachments.
