VUB/ULB E-mail Frequently Asked Questions
(and their Answers)

Electronic mail is one of the most popular network applications. Many different programs and environments exist, and users are quite often confronted with problem situations. This page aims at collecting the resulting questions and answering them, to the service of the entire user community.

1. Is my electronic e-mail private ? (written 4 March 1999)
   "Standard" electronic mail messages are best compared to postcards. The postal system more or less guarantees that outsiders cannot read what's written on them.
   Once the card gets in someone's hands, the message can be read.
   To ensure really private communications, users must apply data encryption techniques. Programs exist to accomplish this on even the most basic of computer and network infrastructure. It's no rocket technology (anymore).
   A widely used, very available, cheap and good package is PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) by Philip Zimmermann.
   An encrypted e-mail message can be compared to a message in an envelope physically strong enough to resist opening by force.

2. Does the university keep copies of electronic mail messages ? (written 4 March 1999)
   No, most certainly not.
   However, the electronic mail gateways do register the sender and recipient(s) of a given message, where it came from and its size. That's all.
   This information is never released to individuals having no legitimate professional or judicial interest.

3. I receive unwanted e-mail messages asking me to buy certain goods or services, how can I make this stop ? (written 4 March 1999, updated 26 February 2001)
   Unfortunately, unsollicited e-mail messages of a commercial nature are a real plague. When volume is really low and the contents are not disturbing, best reaction is to push or click the 'delete' key and forget about it.
   Don't reply. In many cases, the return address has been falsified or, worse, your answer merely serves to confirm that your e-mail address is an active one, leading to more unwanted messages.

   Also read this information on anti-spam filtering.

4. I need assistance from a real, living system administrator. Where is he ? (written 4 March 1999)
   Two e-mail addresses are commonly available.
   
   postmaster is the address where all technical questions and remarks can be sent to. If you are reporting an error, include the complete error message in your request.
   We aim to provide answers within one working day, but most of the time you'll have an answer much sooner.
   
   abuse is the address where all complaints on misuse of the electronic mail system (and others) can be reported to.
   Please include the complete offending message, including ALL message header lines. You may need to "play" with the settings of your e-mail program to make those visible.

5. I need to send Mrs. Jane Doe at the University of Southern Somewhere an e-mail message. How do I obtain her electronic mail address ? (written 4 March 1999)
   If you know the domain name of her institution, things are relatively easy.
   First, try to find the information from the institution's Web pages. Many organizations have on-line directories. Start your search at http://www.[domain-name-of-organization]/
   Should the first approach fail, send your question to postmaster@[domain-name-of-organization] asking him for the exact address of your correspondent or to have your message forwarded. Many organizations don't give out e-mail addresses of their members for reasons related to privacy.
   If you don't know the domain name of the institution, contact one or more of the on-line directories in the larger area. Unfortunately, those have a tendency to be rather incomplete.
   Telephone and telefax are other means to establish initial contact and exchange e-mail addresses.

6. My message did not get through because it was judged "too large". How comes ? (written 4 March 1999, updated 18 April 2000)
   Electronic mail is often used to transmit pictures, sounds, programs and other stuff as attachments. The result can be a quite large message.
   Large messages require a great amount of resources on the mail servers and this can lead to a shortage of disk space, causing service disruption to many other users as well.
   Many organizations impose a limit on the size of incoming e-mail messages. Commonly, those limits are around 0.5 to 5 Megabyte.
   The VUB/ULB also enforces a (quite generous) limit on the size of electronic mail messages.
   Read our announcement.