Frequently Asked Questions
What are the server settings for Western's mail system?
The recommended server settings to connect to the Western mail system are;
| Incoming Mail Server: |
imap.uwo.ca |
| Encryption Method: |
SSL
|
Port: |
993 |
| Outgoing Mail Server: |
smtp.uwo.ca |
Encryption Methods:
|
SSL
|
Port: |
465 |
|
|
TLS |
Port: |
587 |
For specific documentation on popular email applications e.g. thunderbird, outlook or MacMail refer to our How Do I... documentation or contact the Customer Support Center.
What is SPF and why are my messages being rejected because of it?
This policy introduced on July 20, 2009, is a measure to reduce forgery of Western mail by limiting sent mail from an @uwo.ca address to our outgoing mail servers. Additional reasons for adopting SPF include:
- Part of being a good e-mail provider.
- Improve our world-wide reputation as an e-mail sender.
- Reduce the likelihood of individuals or entire domains blacklisting @uwo.ca.
- Reduce global and incoming spam, phishing and other illegitimate mail that forges @uwo.ca addresses.
- Reduce bounces to innocent UWO users whose addresses may otherwise be forged by spammers.
We have seen some side effects from this change in the following areas;
- Improperly configured mail clients
- Mail servers acting as a forwarder
- Automated messaging from web forms
To resolve the first issue individuals can reconfigure their mail clients to use Western's authenticated SMTP service. The solution to the remaining two problems are outside the control of the university. We are willing to work with external sites to facilitate mail delivery from a Western e-mail address. The following links are reference materials to become SPF compliant.
For more information on SPF, please see http://www.openspf.net/
What is a Rate Limiter?
We are limiting outbound message delivery by; 1) the number of messages and 2) the number of recipients (external to *uwo.ca) sent from an active email session within a short period of time.
Why?
To reduce the impact that a compromised account or virus-infected host will have on our mail system.
How will I know this is why I can't send messages?
You should receive a pop up when sending mail through your mail client. Refer to links below for pop up messages for some of the more popular mail clients.
What Does This Mean to Me?
If you don’t recall sending any large volume of messages then there might be a possibility that either your user ID or workstation has been compromised. For assistance in determining this please contact the Customer Support Centre.
If we have ruled out the possibility that your user ID and/or workstation is not compromised and you think you have hit limit #1. Ensure that you don’t have any messages building up in a queue e.g. outbound mail folder. This can be done by increasing the frequency of the poll for sent/received mail from within your mail client.
Alternatively, if you think that you are reaching limit #2 then consider creating a List Guardian (mailing list) which provides efficiencies in message delivery that will bypass the rate limits.
Why can't I send a survey messages using 3rd party services?
To be certain a copy of the bounce or undeliverable message should be sent to postmaster@uwo.ca. However, you are likely running into a problem with SPF records. Ideally we would like to see the application re-written so that it is SPF compliant. Please refer the technical support of
the survey application you are using to http://www.openspf.net/Best_Practices/Webgenerated.
If they are not able to re-write the send mail feature then we do have some flexibility to allow for this type of service. We would need to know the IP range they are using to send the survey message and the univesity email address being used to send the survey. Only once we have added the IP range to our SPF records on the sub domain, surveys.uwo.ca and have communicated the email alias back to you would you be able to sent out the survey message.
