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Email

What is Email

EMail
Electronic mail is a method of delivering messages across the Internet. The message can be sent in a plain text format or in HTML format, and can have an attachment, attached to it. A message can be sent to more than one addressee at a time. Email does not require constant contact between the sender and the recipient. The message is transferred between servers until it reaches the destination server which stores it until the recipient decides to check his mails.

Email Format
An email message contains 3 parts:

  1. Header – similar to the envelope of conventional mail. It is constructed from fields, such as: To, From, Subject, Encoding and transport details such as the servers through which the message was passed.
  2. Body - This is exactly the same as the body of a regular letter.
  3. Attachment – documents, pictures or other computer readable files.

Mail Client
Mail clients are client side applications that provide a command-based, menu-based, or graphical method for interacting with the e-mail system. The mail client may installed on a local computer or on a web server that enables access to the mail box using a browser.

Protocols
Mail protocols are Internet standards that enable different clients and servers to communicate using an agreed set of commands and formats.

SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-mail messages. Client mail applications use SMTP for sending messages to a mail server and the mail servers use SMTP for sending messages to other servers. The standard port for SMTP is 25/tcp.

POP3
Post Office Protocol is used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. POP3 is a simple system with little selectivity. All pending messages and attachments are downloaded at the same time. When retrieving mail using POP3 the mail client can instruct the server to keep or delete the messages immediately or after a client set period. Whenever the mail client access the mail box the server has to scan all the messages kept on it to determine which messages were not retrieved yet by the client (this may cause the server to react very slowly when accessing a large mailbox). The standard port for POP3 is 110/tcp.

IMAPv4
Internet Mail Access Protocol enables a mail client to work directly on the server stored mailbox. Most IMAP clients support both on-line and off-line modes of operation. E-mail clients using IMAP generally leave messages on the server until the user explicitly deletes them. Using IMAP it is possible to sort the messages on the server in folders, and apply tags such as the messages' read/unread status. This and other facets of IMAP operation allow multiple clients to access the messages from multiple machines. The standard port for IMAP4 is 143/tcp.

Secure Transport
IMAP,POP3 and SMTP usually transfer data in plain text and it can be easily intercepted and tapped to, especially when connecting over insecure networks such as publicly accessible unencrypted wireless connection. Some mail servers and clients can encrypt mail transport using TLS in a similar way to the way HTTPS web traffic is encrypted using SSL. When using secure transport the traffic the standard ports used are smtps (465/tcp) imaps (993/tcp) and pop3s (995/tcp). When the mail server or client does not support secure transport it is possible to encrypt the network transport using VPN.

 

Email in HUJI

Eligibility

All students and staff (Administrative and academic) are entitled to an Email account. In general, HUJImail server is dedicated to students, SAVION exchange server to administrative staff, and academic staff & graduate students can open an account on HUCA's branches servers: MD - Ein-Karem, CC and VMS - Givat-Ram, PLUTO - Mt. Scopus, AGRI - Rehovot.

Specifications

  • SMTP server/outgoing server: outmail.huji.ac.il
    It is highly recommended to set your client to this address as all mail that reaches our mail gateway checks for viruses and spam.
  • Quotas: Quota of mail boxes differs between the servers. Limit size of outgoing messages for all servers is 15Mb.

 

 

 

 

Last updated: 15/04/2015