Frequently asked questions about e-mail (FAQ)

After closing your account, you no longer have access to your email. We cannot provide you with a backup of the email. Please visit https://ugentbe.sharepoint.com/sites/intranet-ict/SitePages/en/Account.aspx 
Created: 31 January 2024
Last updated: 7 July 2025 13:42:13
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:

https://mxtoolbox.com
https://www.mailhardener.com/

(Nederlandstalige versie: https://otrsdict.ugent.be/otrs/public.pl?Action=PublicFAQZoom;ItemID=349)
Created: 26 July 2023
Last updated: 16 October 2024 05:47:46

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.

Created: 25 June 2024
Last updated: 25 June 2024 08:08:45
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.
 
Created: 19 February 2025
Last updated: 19 February 2025 15:59:24
  1. Make sure your personal UGent mail account is already set up in Thunderbird
  2. Choose "Add Email Account" from the "Account Actions" menu
  3. Enter the email address of the shared mailbox in the next screen
  4. Choose "Configure manually" :
  5. In the next screen choose "Extended configuration" :
  6. You will be asked to confirm the extended configuration, click "OK"
  7. At "Server name" enter outlook.office365.com (port: 993):
  8. Select uUnder "Security Settings":
    • SSL/TLS for "Connection Settings"
    • OAuth2 for "Authentication Method"
  9. In the left navigation column, choose "Outgoing server (SMTP)" :
  10. In this screen, a new outgoing server has been added with the email address of the shared mailbox. Select that outgoing server and choose "Delete".

Created: 7 July 2025
Last updated: 7 July 2025 13:58:27

In the default Mail client of macOS it is not possible to add shared mailboxes, so use the Outlook client for shared mailboxes.

  • Choose "Preferences..." from the "Outlook" menu
  • Choose "Accounts"
  • Choose "New account..." with the + menu at the bottom left
  • Enter the email address of your shared mailbox in the search field on the next screen
  • Choose "Add"

The shared mailbox is now visible in the accounts column on the left.


Created: 7 July 2025
Last updated: 7 July 2025 13:53:16

Ghent University provides extensive filtering of the e-mail traffic, with the aim of keeping unwanted and dangerous e-mails out of your inbox. In order to give the user insight in to which e-mails are being blocked and the possibility to quickly respond to false positives, we will allow the unwanted mail to flow straight to the "Junk E-Mail" folder of your mailbox. This way you can check for yourself what is being filtered. However, be very careful when opening mail in the Junk E-Mail folder and only consult mail that you expected and clearly recognize.

Scanning and filtering

Ghent University provides scanning and filtering of incoming mail. Because e-mail offers no guarantees about the identity of the sender, it is easy to forge (senders of) e-mails and use it to distribute malicious content. This makes e-mail the favorite medium for hackers, phishers or other individuals with bad intentions. Unfortunately, many serious security incidents start with opening apparently legitimate links or trustworthy looking attachments, or following instructions from known (but falsified) correspondents. This means that Ghent University has to take the necessary measures to prevent this type of mail traffic as much as possible.

A first filtering consists of marking known unwanted e-mails, or known senders of unwanted e-mails. The "fingerprint" of such mails or the IP addresses of senders are automatically shared over the Internet, allowing us to immediately classify mails or senders that are already flagged as untrustworthy by others.

For some public mail providers such as Gmail and Yahoo, this approach is insufficient. Both platforms offer everyone the possibility to (anonymously) create an e-mail address, and they are therefore heavily used by actors with bad intentions, who in this way can quickly vary the e-mail addresses they use for their activities. Flagging all of Gmail or Yahoo isn't an option, of course, and the variations also make using "fingerprints" less effective, so here we're working based on the content of the mail. Thanks to statistical analysis (bayesian inference), we can still identify unwanted mail quite accurately on the basis of the vocabulary used in the mail.

Virus scanner and measures against spoofing

Attachments naturally go through a virus scanner, which also works on a database of known malware that is kept up-to-date. But even that is not enough because many new variants appear every day. Therefore, all attachments and most links (which can also harbor malware) are opened again in a safe, virtual environment, to detect what they do once opened. In this way, even new and unknown malware can be detected before it ends up in a mailbox.

Finally, we combat "spoofing", the falsification of senders, by using mechanisms (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Companies and institutions can indicate which e-mail systems are thrustworthy for e-mails with their domain name as sender. E-mails that come from elsewhere, or do not have a valid "stamp" from the mail administrator, will also be marked as suspicious. Not all e-mail domains use this system, but we use it when available and we also use this for the ugent.be domain to prevent anyone from posing as a UGent user.

Defang: harmful attachments and links are removed

Harmful attachments and links are removed from incoming e-mails without blocking the e-mail itself, which simply ends up in the 'Junk e-mail' folder.

A warning is also placed at the top of such a 'defanged' e-mail:

Check your "junk mail" folder

We place all suspicious or unwanted e-mail in the "Junk e-mail" folder of your mailbox and only withhold mail that we determine with certainty to be dangerous (virus, ransomware). So it is highly recommended to check that junk mail folder occasionally, because no filtering mechanism is 100% error-free. But treat everything you find in this folder with the utmost caution. If you see strange or unexpected messages, you can assume that they are fake! Only consult mail that you clearly recognize and already expected and keep in mind that malware can be presented in mails from known correspondents or even in mail conversations in which you have already been involved.


Created: 10 July 2025
Last updated: 10 July 2025 08:39:49
Follow the MS guidelines for export of your UGent mail and calendar : 
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/export-emails-contacts-and-calendar-items-to-outlook-using-a-pst-file-14252b52-3075-4e9b-be4e-ff9ef1068f91
Created: 23 August 2024
Last updated: 23 August 2024 13:07:37

Check if it's not in the spam folder of your email client? For Outlook, that would be https://outlook.office.com/mail/junkemail

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.

afzender toevoegen aan safe senders
Created: 26 July 2023
Last updated: 19 September 2023 08:54:24
  1. Open your email in https://outlook.office.com/mail
  2. Click on the 3-dot menu (also known as meatballs / falafel menu).
  3. Choose the Save option to save the email as an eml file.
    Save mail as eml file
    Save mail as eml file
  4. Send an e-mail to spam@ugent.be with the eml file attached.

Created: 25 August 2023
Last updated: 8 July 2025 10:00:35

If you want to adjust the autoreply or out-of-office message for a shared mailbox, you must do this via the web version of Outlook, as it will not work in the desktop version.

You can open it by following these instructions: Open and use a shared mailbox in Outlook

Then:

  1. Open Settings: Click the gear icon (Settings) in the top right and select “View all Outlook settings.”

  2. Go to Automatic Replies: In the settings menu, go to “Mail,” then “Automatic replies.”

  3. Enable Automatic Replies: Toggle the switch “Turn on automatic replies” to On.


Created: 10 July 2025
Last updated: 10 July 2025 12:51:30

Having problems sending UGent e-mail?

First check your SMTP settings. Some e-mail clients sometimes incorrectly use the SMTP settings of another e-mail account (Proximus, Telenet, ...) to send UGent e-mail. The result is that e-mails are not sent. Conversely, e-mails from other personal accounts cannot be sent using the UGent SMTP settings either.

  • For personal computers, the outgoing mail server setting is smtp.UGent.be
  • For servers of a department, lab or service, the outgoing mail server setting is smtprelay.UGent.be.

Need help configuring your e-mail application correctly? Check https://helpdesk.ugent.be/email/en/


Created: 22 August 2023
Last updated: 8 July 2025 09:27:44

The UGent mail servers allow e-mails of up to 25 MB to pass through. However, it is not recommended to send e-mails of such size. Keep the size of an e-mail as small as possible (e.g. by compressing it into a zip file) or make the file available in another way.


Created: 27 July 2023
Last updated: 8 July 2025 07:16:16