The SchoolEmail Wiki¶
Welcome to the SchoolEmail Wiki where you will find a comprehensive list of information and guides on using Outlook, OWA and the SchoolEmail Portal.
SchoolEmail is an email service originally built with schools in mind, its aim is to provide a secure, reliable and affordable service to educational organisations accross the world. If you would like more information on SchoolEmail please contact us.
This Wiki was created using Read The Docs.
SchoolEmail Portal Administrator Guides¶
The SchoolEmail Portal is a website used to manage an organizations email accounts.
The wesbite that provides a secure and easy to use interface for creating new email accounts, changing passwords, global settings and more.
This portal also has bulk options available, this allows you to make changes to multiple accounts at the same time, saving precious time managing large organisations.
Users¶
The following guides are for use with the SchoolEmail Portal. The guides contain information on how to create/delete and modify user email accounts.
Create a user¶
To create a user, first login to our online SchoolEmail Portal. Login with your username and password. (Administrators only)
Then using the navbar at the top go to Users > Create New User.
Fill in the details of the user you would like to create, as the example below shows. Once you have added all the information needed click ‘Create New User’.
Providing your organisation has enough spare premium / standard accounts, your new user will be created. You can now login to the created account via our SchoolEmail Login Page.
Manage a user¶
You can easily edit any of your users’ details using our online management portal. To edit a user, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top go to Users > Manage Users.
On this page you will see a list of all your users. To narrow the list down, you can use the search filter.
The search filter lets you select from a number of options, for example if you would like to view only pupil accounts, change the user type to pupil and click update, this will change the user list to only show pupil accounts. When you have found the desired user, click the blue pencil icon to the right of the user.
You will now be taken to this edit user page. Here you can click any of the values such as first name, last name, password etc. When you click the desired value, a box will appear and will allow you to edit the contents, once edited click the blue tick box to save your changes.
You may notice some values such as account status and email address policy are are button switches - these are features that can be turned on or off just by clicking the button.
Delete a user¶
Note
SchoolEmail has a two-stage delete, this is used to reduce accidental deletions when using the bulk delete option in our SchoolEmail Portal.
When you first delete a user, they will be disabled and scheduled for deletion after 30 days. This retention period means the user will be kept on our system for 30 days before being permanently deleted.
If you require that user to be removed immediately, you may delete an already deleted user a second time to immediately and permanently delete them. To delete a user, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top go to Users > Manage Users.
On this page you will see a list of all your users. To narrow the list down you can use the search filter. When you have found the desired user, click the blue pencil icon to the right of the user.
This is the edit user page, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the delete user button. You will now have added that user into a retention period of 30 days. Any deleted users will be held on our system for 30 days before being permanently deleted.
When a user is deleted for the first time, they will still appear in your address list and groups. If you require these users to be removed immediately, delete the user a second time by repeating the process. On the second delete you will receive a confirmation.
Please be aware, when you delete a user for the second time, the user will be completely removed from all address lists and groups as well as having their mailbox and the emails it contains deleted permanently.
Email forwarding¶
Here we will go through the required steps on how to setup forwarding from a SchoolEmail account to a non-SchoolEmail account. You will first need to create a contact for the external email address. See our Contacts guides for more information.
Once you have a contact created we can begin to setup the forwarding. First, login to the SchoolEmail Portal. Login with your username and password. (Administrators only)
Then using the navbar at the top go to Users > Manage Users.
On this page you will see a list of all your users. To narrow the list down you can use the search filter. When you have the user that requires their emails to be forwarded, click the blue pencil icon to the right of the user.
You will now be taken to the edit user page. Find the field named ‘Forwarder’ and begin typing the name of the user (a SchoolEmail user account or an external contact may be selected here).
After you begin typing, a dropdown box will appear with a list of users based on your search. Click the desired user from the dropdown, then click the blue tick icon and you will be asked to confirm your selection.
Now that forwarding has been applied, a new option becomes available below.
Below the forwarder field there is now another field called ‘Deliver and redirect’.
This is disabled by default. If disabled, emails will be forwarded without saving a copy. If enabled, emails will be forwarded and a copy will be saved in the mailbox that is being edited. Choose the delivery method you require and the forwarding will now be applied.
Calendar/Mailbox permissions¶
User permissions are broken down into two types, calendar permissions and mailbox permissions. Calender permissions allows users to view other users calendars with just read access or both read and write access. Mailbox permissions allow users to access other users email accounts.
Note
Full access is required to view another users account via OWA.
To manage your user permissions, you can login to the SchoolEmail Portal. Login with your username and password. (Administrators Only)
Using the navbar at the top go to the users dropdown and click ‘permissions’.
In the ‘User’ field start typing the name of the user who is needing access to a mailbox or calendar. As you type you will be presented with a list of users, select the desired user and click the tick to confirm.
Now in the ‘Target User’ field start typing the name of the user who’s mailbox or calendar the first user is needing access to. Again as you type you will be presented with a list of users, select the desired user and click the tick to confirm.
The ‘Permission Type’ field is where you select the type of permission you require.
- Calendar Read Only - Allows user to view but not edit target users calendar.
- Calendar Full Access - Allows user to view and edit target users calendar.
- Mailbox Read Only - Allows user to add the target users inbox to their OWA/Outlook account, but will be unable to send messages as the target user.
- Mailbox Full Access - Allows user to add the target users inbox to their own OWA/Outlook accounts and also allows the user to send messages on behalf of the target user.
Once the required permissions are selected click the blue ‘add’ button.
You will be asked to confirm, once confirmed please allow up to 30 mins to apply.
Export a list of user accounts¶
You can now select and download a list of your users’ details using the SchoolEmail Portal. To export a users list, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top go to Users > Manage Users.
On this page you will see a search filter followed by a list of your users. If you want to narrow down the users before exporting, use the search filter by changing one or multiple fields to suit the list you require and click update to produce a new list with your chosen filter/s.
When you have the desired user list you want to export, click the blue export list button at the bottom of the search filter.
Note
There may be user accounts waiting to be deleted that will not be counted in the list, change the Deleted filter to yes and click update to check on accounts in retention.
After clicking export list, you wll get a request to download a .csv file which you can choose to save or open. Your computer may automatically choose the best application to open this file, however if you get prompted to choose an application, select Excel or Notepad.
Groups¶
Groups (or distribution lists) are used for creating a single email address that can be used to deliver emails to multiple users. There is no limit to the number of groups you can create and groups can be used internally as well as externally.
Create a group¶
To create a group, first login to our SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top go to Groups > Create Group.
There is only one field to fill in when creating a group and that is the group name. Add the name into the field and click the blue tick icon to confirm the name.
Now click the blue ‘Create New Group’ button and your new group will be ready to manage. To start adding users to this group or to change any settings such as the groups email address, please see the manage group guide below.
Manage a group¶
Groups can be managed through our online portal. You can change the group name and email address, as well as being able to add and remove users.
Note
The default groups ‘Fullschool’, ‘Teachers’ and ‘pupils’ are locked and updated automatically. You can still choose to hide the group from the address list as described below.
To manage groups, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top go to Groups > Manage Groups.
On this page you will see a list of all your distribution groups including the default system groups. Click the blue pencil icon next to the name of the group that you would like to change.
This is the edit group page. You can edit the display name, hidden from address list, internal use, email addresses and members, as well as delete the group. Click any of the values and when you click the desired value, a box will appear and will allow you to add/edit the value, once changed click the tick box to save your changes.
Two of the options are switches, these are hidden from address list and internal use only. Click these to enable or disable these features. When hidden from address list is enabled, this group will no longer be visible in your address book.
When internal use only is enabled, the group can only be emailed by users within SchoolEmail. Adding members to the group requires you to begin typing the name of the user you wish to add in the ‘add new’ field. A dropdown box will appear as you type the user’s name. Click the user that needs to be added and then click the blue tick icon to add the user to the group.
Giving a user portal access¶
You can give any existing user access to the SchoolEmail portal, if you need to give a user access to the portal that doesn’t have a SchoolEmail account, you will need to create them one. To create a new user, please see our guide create a user. To give an existing user access to the portal, first login to our SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top go to Groups > Manage Groups.
On the manage groups page you will see a list of all your distribution groups, including the default system groups. Find the group that is named ECP Admin and click the blue pencil icon to the right of it.
Once you are in the ECP group page, you can add new members by clicking the ‘add new’ field below the ‘Members’ header. Begin typing the name of the user you wish to become a Portal Administrator and a dropdown box will appear.
Click the user that needs adding, then click the blue tick icon to add the user to the group. You will be asked to confirm your selection. Once confirmed, the user will now have access to this portal. They will now be able to login to the SchoolEmail Portal with their SchoolEmail account.
Contacts¶
A contact allows you to make an internal email address for an external email address. Useful when needing to forward emails from a SchoolEmail account to an external account. This also means you could add external users in to your organisations groups.
Create a contact¶
Note
When a contact is created, please be aware this is a global contact that can be seen by everyone in the organisation.
To create a contact, first login to our SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top go to Contacts > Create Contact.
On this page you will need to add the two required fields: display name and email address. Add the details of the contact you would like to create by clicking the blue line to begin adding the information, then click the tick to confirm.
Note
The email address has to be a valid email address from a non SchoolEmail account.
Once the fields have been filled in, click the create new contact button.
A blue pop-up box will appear to confirm the contact has been created successfully. Once the new contact has been created, it will immediately appear in your address book and in OWA. Outlook users may have to wait up to 24 hours to see the new contact. This contact can now also be added to SchoolEmail groups and can be used for forwarding. To forward emails to this contact, see the Forwarding Guide.
Manage a contact¶
To edit an existing contact’s details, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top go to Contacts > Manage Contacts.
Here you can see a list of all your contacts. To edit a contact, click the blue pencil icon to the right of the user’s name.
You can now change the user’s details: click either display name or email address, add the required changes and click the blue tick to confirm.
Note
The email address has to be a valid email address from a non SchoolEmail account.
Spam¶
External spam whitelist¶
When you add an address to the external whitelist, all emails sent from this address will pass through the spam filters without being checked. This is used when a specific address is being rejected or being flagged as spam, but you know it is a legitimate email from a trusted sender.
Note
If the emails are getting treated as spam (moved to Junk folder) but do not get tagged with [*****SPAM*****] in the subject line, then you will need to adjust your Outlook or OWA junk mail filters.
To add an address, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal.
Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top, click Spam.
In the ‘Add new’ box, change the type to ‘External’ and click the tick to confirm the change.
Now in the ‘Email’ box, add the address of the user that needs to bypass the spam filter, and click the tick to confirm. Once you have added the information, click the add button.
Now you will see a confirmation box appear. Click confirm and please allow up to 30 minutes for the changes to be applied.
Internal spam whitelist¶
When you add an address to the spam allowed list, all emails sent to the email address will not pass through our spam filters. This ensures that emails being delivered to a specific address are not being blocked/rejected by the SchoolEmail filters.
Warning
Doing this will completely bypass our spam and virus checks for the requested email address; this may result in a lot of spam and viruses being delivered to the inbox. If you allow an internal email address through our SPAM filters, you are accepting the risks involved.
To add an address, first login the SchoolEmail Portal. Login with your username and password. (Administrators only)
Then using the navbar at the top, click Spam.
In the ‘Add new’ box, change the type to ‘Internal’ and click the tick to confirm change. Now in the ‘Email’ box, add the email address that you do not want to receive filtering for, and click the tick to confirm.
Once you have added the information as our example shows click the blue add button.
Now you will see a confirmation box appear. Click confirm and please allow up to 30 minutes for the changes to be applied.
Settings¶
Enable pupil protection¶
Pupil protection is a custom filter for your SchoolEmail accounts. The filter checks every inbound and outbound email against a list of vulgar words and sexual predator phrases.
When you enable this filter, you have the option to either copy the message to a ‘moderator’ contact (both the recipient and the moderator will receive the email), or have it redirect completely (so only the moderator receives the flagged email).
The SchoolEmail Moderator can be any email account or contact within SchoolEmail.
To enable pupil protection, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal. Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top, click System.
On this page you will see the Pupil Protection setting. The Status states whether the filter is enabled or disabled. Click the switch to change between disabled and enabled. The Moderator is the email address of a person who will receive any emails that get flagged by our pupil protection filter.
The Action is whether a flagged email gets delivered and copied to the moderator or gets re-directed to the moderator only.
Once you have changed your settings, click the blue Update button and a confirmation will appear. Click confirm and allow up to 30 minutes for the settings to apply.
Add a custom disclaimer¶
Note
This guide is for adding a organisation wide disclaimer to all emails sent externally. For individual signatures, see the apporpriate OWA/Outlook guides.
A custom disclaimer is a notice or warning that is added to all outgoing email. It forms a distinct section which is separate from the main email message, and can be used to explain your organisation’s policy on confidentiality, copyright, contract information, defamation, discrimination, harassment, and privileges.
To create a custom disclaimer, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal. Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top, click System.
You will be able to see the custom disclaimer box. Enter the text of the disclaimer into this box and click ‘Update’ to save the changes.
Note
Only text can be displayed for the disclaimer, it cannot contain images.
Click confirm and you will find your disclaimer has now been applied. It will be attached to all emails sent from within your organisation, above SchoolEmail’s own disclaimer.
Address book segregation¶
Address book segregation is used when you would like to change who sees who in the address book for your users. When selecting ‘staff’ you can allow them to see just other staff users or all users. When selecting ‘pupils’ you can allow them to see other pupils, staff or both.
To enabled address book segregation, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal. Login with your username and password. (Administrators only)
Then using the navbar at the top, click System.
Once on the system page, find the panel named Address Book Segregation. Select which type of user you would like to change (Staff or pupil) and then use the dropdown to select which users can be seen in the address book.
Click the blue tick icon to confirm your selection. Once the desired settings have been chosen click the blue update button.
You will see a confirmation window appear. Click confirm and the changes will be applied. Please allow up to 30 minutes for your users address books to update.
Note
Address books in Outlook can take up to 8 hours to update as they use an offline copy of the address book.
Pupil mail flow restrictions¶
Mail flow settings are also known as Pupil Email Restrictions and allow you to set whether your pupils can send and/or receive emails from external sources i.e. whether they can email users outside of SchoolEmail.
To enable pupil mail flow restrictions, first login to the SchoolEmail Portal. Login with your username and password. (Administrators only) Then using the navbar at the top, click System.
On the systems page, find the pupil email restrictions panel. The direction field here can be clicked and you will be presented with the following options:
- Inbound Email - Pupils cannot receive email from users outside of SchoolEmail.
- Outbound Email - Pupils cannot send emails to users outside of SchoolEmail.
- Both - pupils cannot send or receive emails from users outside of SchoolEmail.
Once the required direction has been selected click the blue tick icon to confirm your selection. Now click the blue update button to apply the changes.
As this is a major change to the mail flow of your users, you will be asked to confirm your decision. Click confirm and your changes will be applied.
OWA User Guides¶
The following guides contain information on the general use and operation of SchoolEmail’s Online Web App.
If you are using Outlook, please see our SchoolEmail Outlook Guides for more information.
Change password¶
To change your password, first make sure you are logged into your webmail account using our SchoolEmail login page.
Once logged in, click the cog in the top right hand corner of the screen and a drop down list will appear.
Click the ‘change password’ option on this dropdown and you will be taken to the change password page.
Now you can add your old password and then type in your new password twice and click save, your password has now been changed.
Block a senders address¶
To block a senders address, first make sure you are logged into your webmail account using the SchoolEmail login page.
Now find the email from the sender which you wish to block and click on it to open the email. Once it is open, click the ‘...’ button located at the top right of the window. This will show a list of options, click ‘Mark as junk’.
The email will now have been moved into your junk folder and the senders address has been added to the list of blocked senders which will mean OWA will automatically put all emails from this sender directly into your junk folder.
Blocking a sender is as easy as that.
Whitelist a senders address¶
To whitelist a senders address, first make sure you are logged into your webmail account using the SchoolEmail login page.
Now find the email from the sender which you wish to whitelist and click on it to open the email. Once it is open, click the ‘...’ button located at the top right of the window. This will show a list of options, click ‘Mark as not junk’.
The email will now have been moved into your Inbox folder and the senders address has been added to the list of allowed senders which will mean OWA will automatically put all emails from this sender directly into your Inbox.
Whitelisting a sender is as easy as that.
Get email headers¶
Getting the headers of an email is very useful. The headers contain information about the email being sent such as where it came from, what it’s return address is and more. We may request the headers for any reported emails.
To get the headers of an email, login to your account using the SchoolEmail login page.
Now you will have a list of your emails in front of you. Find the email you wish to get the headers from and double click it, the email will open in a new window.
Along the top right hand side of the window there is a button with three dots, click this. This will open a set of options, click “View message details”.
The message details box will have opened. This is the information we require.
Using your mouse, right click in the box and choose the ‘select all’ option. You will notice the text within that box has been highlighted, now right click on the text again and this time click the ‘copy’ option.
The headers are now saved to your clipboard and the next step is to send them onto the relevant person.
Now you have copied the headers on to your clipboard, close the window and you will be back to the email window. Click the forward email button and then in the body of the email right click and select the ‘paste’ option.
Those headers will now be copied into the email. Make sure to add the address of the person requesting the headers in the ‘To’ field and click send. The email with the headers will now be on its way.
View another users email account¶
You cannot login directly to another user’s account without knowing the password, however you can view it through another account using OWA. This requires permissions to be added for one account to access another account and as such can only be applied by a Portal Administrator.
To do this you will need to give a user (the account you will use to view another account) full mailbox access to the target user (the account that needs to be viewed).
Please see our guide on adding user permissions.
Once the permissions have been applied, log in to the account using our SchoolEmail login. page and click the name in the top right hand corner of the browser window, a dropdown will appear. Click the “Open another mailbox” option.
Begin typing the name of the target user in the box that appears and a list of users matching the name will appear, click on the desired user and then click open.
You will now be taken in to the selected user’s mailbox. You will not be able to send any emails or view the calendar using this method but you will be able to view any emails that the mailbox may contain.
Create your own email signature¶
Login to your account using our SchoolEmail login. page and click the cog in the top right hand corner of the screen and a drop down list will appear. From this list click the “options” button
After the page has opened you will see a number of options down the left hand side, click the “settings” tab.
Now we can see the email signature box, add the signature you would like to see on the bottom of your emails. You can change the font, text size, colour as well as adding links to your websites and more.
Once you are happy with your signature, tick the box underneath to automatically include the signature on every email you send. Now just make sure to click the save button at the bottom of the page before closing the window and your signature settings will be saved.
SchoolEmail Outlook Guides¶
The following guides contain information on the general use and operation of Outlook versions 2010, 2013 and 2016.
For the web based email application please see OWA User Guides for more information.
Connect to an account¶
Note
Please make sure your Outlook Application is fully updated before attempting to connect, updates are provided in Windows Updates.
Open your Outlook application, if this is the first time connecting with Outlook you will see a welcome screen to begin with, press next and when asked if you would like to connect to an exchange account, click yes and next.
Fill in the details required “Name, Password and Email address”. If you are unsure of these details, ask your organisations email administrator.
Your account should now connect successfully, click finish and let your Outlook collect your emails if any exist.
Get email headers¶
Getting the headers of an email is very useful. The headers contain information about the email being sent such as where it came from, what it’s return address is and more. We may request the headers for any reported emails.
To get the headers of an email, open Outlook as normal. Once open, find the email you need to get the headers from and double click the email to open it in a new window.
The next step is to click the ‘File’ tab in the top left hand corner of this window.
This is the main options page for Outlook, near the bottom middle of the page you will see a button described as ‘Properties’. Click the properties button and you will be taken to another window.
At the bottom of this window is a box named ‘internet headers’. This is the information we require. So with your mouse, right click in the box and choose the ‘select all’ option. You will notice the text within that box has been highlighted, now right click on the text again and this time click the ‘copy’ option.
The headers are now saved to your clipboard and the next step is to send them onto the relevant person.
Now you have copied the headers on to your clipboard, close the window and you will be back to the email window. Click the forward email button and then in the body of the email right click and select the ‘paste’ option.
Those headers will now be copied into the email. Make sure to add the address of the person requesting the headers in the ‘To’ field and click send. The email with the headers will now be on its way.
Recover a deleted item¶
All items that are initally deleted get moved into the ‘deleted items’ folder, here the messages will stay until they are deleted a second time. If an email is deleted a second time, you will have 30 days to retrieve the email from the mailboxs retention area.
To retrieve an email, right-click the ‘deleted items’ folder and select ‘recover deleted items..’.
A new window will open listing all the items that can be recovered. Highlight the item/s to be recovered and select the option to “restore selected items” and click ‘ok’.
The selected items will now be moved back into the folders they were deleted from orginally.
Block a senders address¶
Open the Outlook application and find the email from the sender which you wish to block and right click on the email. In the menu that has appeared, hover the mouse pointer over the ‘Junk’ option and another few options will appear.
Click the option named ‘Block Sender’ and the email will be moved to your ‘Junk Email’ folder. Outlook will now put any email sent from that sender directly in to your Junk email folder instead of your inbox. Blocking a sender is as easy as that.
Whitelist a senders address¶
Open the Outlook application and find the email from the sender which you wish to whitelist and right click on the email. In the menu that has appeared, hover the mouse pointer over the ‘Junk’ option and another few options will appear.
Click the option named ‘Never Block Sender’ and the email will be moved to your ‘Inbox’ folder if not already in it.
A pop up box will appear stating the address has been added to your safe senders list. Outlook will now ensure any email from that sender will get delivered directly in to your Inbox. Whitelisting a sender is as easy as that.
Create your own email signature¶
Open your Outlook application and click the ‘File’ tab in the top left hand corner.
Down the left hand side click the ‘Options’ button.
In this window, click the ‘Mail’ button and we can now click the ‘Signatures...’ button.
First thing we can do is create our signature name. Click ‘New’ and give your signature a name which just allows you to have multiple signatures.
Now you can add the details of your signature using a variety of Fonts, Sizes and Colours. When you’re happy, click the save button to save the signature.
To select the default signature on new emails and replies/forwards, click the dropdown boxes next to the corresponding options and select your signature name. Click ‘ok’ and the settings will be applied.
Clear your auto-complete cache¶
Open your Outlook application and click the ‘File’ tab in the top left hand corner.
Down the left hand side click the ‘Options’ button.
In this window, click the ‘mail’ button and scroll down untill you see the ‘Empty Auto-Complete List’ button and click this.
A window will appear asking you to confirm your decision to clear the auto-complete cache. Click yes and all auto-complete entries will be removed.
Misc¶
Rejected, failed or bounced emails.¶
Emails can fail to be delivered for a number of reasons, some of the most common reasons an email gets rejected/bounced is:
- Email was sent to a non-existent address - this is common when an email address has been typed incorrectly or no longer exists.
- The recipient’s mailbox is full - when an account has reached it’s maximum storage capacity.
- The email gets rejected as possible spam - there are many email services and each has its own methods of checking and flagging spam, as such sometimes legitimate emails get caught as spam and are rejected. (common causes are no subject and only using CAPITALS in your emails)
- Compromised accounts leading to blacklisting of email services - a compromised account on a legitimate email service can get that email service blacklisted which means they get added to a database of known spammers.
When this happens other users of that email service will find their emails will be rejected until the blacklisting has been lifted.
Most of the time the cause can be seen in the failed email that is returned. In our example it has returned with “554 5.4.4 SMTPSEND.DNS.NonExistentDomain; nonexistent domain” as that domain does not exist.
Other possible failure messages could be:
- Recipient address rejected: User unknown in relay recipient table - the address you are sending to does not exist. Verify the address is correct, there are a number of email address verifiers online.
- Delivery expired (message too old) ‘4.7 - Delivery expired (message too old)’ (delivery attempts: 0) - often received after a delay usually meaning the recipients mailbox is full. Contact the recipient and/or retry.
- Service unavailable; Unverified Client host [smtpout1.vmhdgvko.co.uk] blocked using dbl.spamhaus.org; - the sender has been blacklisted. Only the service provider of the sender can resolve this.
It should also be noted, some email services may not send any details when rejecting an email. Contacting the service provider is normally the best course of action when this is the case.
If a sender is being rejected for reasons other than those described, please ask the sender to send the failed email response to us, using our contact form.
What is Spam¶
The definition of spam when applied to e-mail is Unsolicited Bulk E-mail, e-mail that has been sent in bulk to recipients who have not given permission for the message to be sent to them. Spam is also known as junk e-mail.
Spamming is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message to multiple addresses. Spam messages are almost always commercial or fraudulent messages, and are quite often sent with false return address information. The usual reason spam is sent is to attempt to infect unsuspecting users with viruses that send more spam, or to try to steal information from the users. You can find out more at www.staysafeonline.org.
A rapidly growing form of spam is what is known as a Phishing scam. These are messages sent in bulk to a random list of people, claiming to be from a company they may trust, such as a bank or e-bay. These Phishing e-mails will look absolutely genuine to even the most experience Internet user, but will in fact be linking through to a fraudsters website with the aim of stealing personal information from you. Spammers quite often fake the ‘From’ address of a message, that way the message will not be returned to them in the case of any problems.
Another type of spam comes in the form of mailing lists. When you sign up to various websites such as comparison sites, you will usually have to add your email address. These companies often have sharing clauses that allow them to share your details with other companies “legitimately”. You can normally tell these apart as they will have an unsubscribe option somewhere in the email.
Combatting spam can be very difficult. Spammers often use networks of computers in foreign countries to avoid local anti-spam laws, or even make use of hijacked networks of computers that have been infected with a virus or trojan. These hijacked computers are known as a “Bot-Net”. They are a network of hundreds or even thousands of computers that are under the control of a hacker. A hacker who controls such a “Bot-Net” will rent time on these computers to the spammers who then use them to send out millions of spam messages.
How you get spam¶
The first way a spammer gathers their list of addresses is to scan websites. They have built automated tools that scan through web pages with the sole purpose of gathering email addresses. The email addresses they gather are added to a database, which may then be sold on to other spammers.
These automated tools are able to search through search engines such as Google to find new sites - in the same way as you would. Their e-mail address collecting tools then read through every page on the website making a list of any address they find. This includes any public forums you may of posted a message to, any online notice you may have posted or even on your own personal home page.
Another way a spammer gets addresses is through some websites that ask you to register before giving access to certain aspects or to enable you to order a product. Some of these websites may not be as careful with your e-mail address as you would like, some may sell on their mailing list to other parties or they are simply hacked into and your details are stolen.
Another method that results in spam being sent is getting a virus on a persons local computer. The virus will read all the contacts in your address book and begin to start sending spam to them. This is something to be watchful of. If someone you know and trust sends you a suspicious file, don’t open it thinking it will defiantly be safe they may have become a victim of spammers.
The final method is that the spammers will simply guess your e-mail address. Once the spammers know your domain name (The last part of your e-mail address, e.g. @schoolemail.co.uk) they will just send off thousands of emails with random names. So they would e-mail jonh.smith@schoolemail.co.uk, jane.smith@schoolemail.co.uk and so on.
Because they are able to send out millions of spam messages each day, it doesn’t matter to them that 90% of these addresses do not get delivered, the 10% that do is more than enough.
Dealing with spam¶
If you are receiving spam as an individual, we recommend blocking the sender using OWA or Outlook. To do this click the relevant guide below:
If multiple users in your organisation are receiving the same spam emails, we recommend sending us the headers of those emails. Click the relevant link below to see the guide on getting the headers of your emails.
If you are receiving legitimate emails from known senders and they are being marked as [*****SPAM*****], you can add that sender to your organisation’s whitelist using the SchoolEmail Portal. For this see our Portal external whitelist guide.
Password security¶
The protection of our users’ accounts and data is our top priority. We use the best encryption and certification methods available to us to ensure your accounts are safe and secure. That being said, the data is only as secure as the password protecting it.
Some passwords can be easily guessed and over the years passwords have needed to become more complex than ever due to more complex programs (viruses/Malware) built by criminals hacking into accounts with brute force.
These programs can also vary on how often they attempt a login and what passwords they try. Often, they are programmed to try various combinations of the email address and the password of ‘password’. See the recommended Do’s and Dont’s shown below, when setting passwords.
Don’t use the following passwords with any type of combination such as PaSSWoRD, p4ssw0rd etc:
- Password
- Your Name (This information can be taken from sites that have sign-up forms)
- Admin/Administrator
Don’t use the same details in your password as those that make up your email address Don’t use any everyday short word such as hello, open, school, table etc
Do use as many characters as possible. Recommended minimum is 6. Do use a combination of uppercase and lowercase characters. Do use numbers and symbols in the password whenever possible.
Connect via iPhone¶
Note
Connecting to a SchoolEmail account via mobile devices requires a premium account. If you are unsure whether your account is premium or standard, contact us or your organisations email administrator.
To add a SchoolEmail account to an iPhone, go to the phones ‘settings’.
From here click ‘Mail, Contacts, Calendars’ and then click ‘Add Account’.
Select the option ‘Exchange’.
Fill in your SchoolEmail account email address and password, feel free to give it any description and click next.
Your phone will connect to the account and start retrieving any mail items the account contains.
Connect via Windows Phone¶
Note
Connecting to a SchoolEmail account via mobile devices requires a premium account. If you are unsure whether your account is premium or standard, contact us or your organisations email administrator.
To add a SchoolEmail account to a Windows Phone, go to the phones ‘settings’.
From here click ‘email + accounts’ and then click ‘Add Account’.
Select the option ‘Exchange’.
Fill in your SchoolEmail account email address and password and click ‘sign in’.
Your phone will connect to the account and pull down any data the account contains.
Frequently Asked Questions¶
What is OWA?¶
OWA (Outlook Web App) is the name for the web-mail service provided by SchoolEmail. When you login to access and send emails in a browser (such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer) you are using OWA.
What is a Portal Administrator and a SchoolEmail Moderator?¶
A Portal Administrator is the name given to people who have access to manage your organisations email accounts. A SchoolEmail Moderator is the name given to the person who is chosen to receive emails caught with our pupil protection filters.
Can we get our own custom theme?¶
Yes! We can create a custom theme for your school or organisation which consists of a personalised login page and OWA theme. Our in-house web designers will work with you to create a design to match your existing branding and school website. For more information please contact us.
Can we increase the number of accounts we have part-way through a subscription?¶
Yes! Please contact us with your request, stating the number of additional accounts you would like. A member of our team will contact you, usually within 24 hours.
Can we transfer our emails from another email service to SchoolEmail?¶
Yes! We have a migration tool that will transfer emails into your SchoolEmail account from most email services. Visit our migrate page to start transferring your emails into your SchoolEmail account.
What is a Domain / Domain Name / DNS?¶
A Domain is the unique internet address that appears after the @ sign in email addresses and after the www of a website address (www.schoolemail.co.uk is a domain). It typically takes the form of your organisation’s name and a standard Internet suffix, such as stjames.bradford.sch.uk. You can transfer an existing domain name or purchase a new one. We also provide a free domain of jnrmail.com.
Can you host our domain?¶
Yes! We can host both new and existing domains. Existing domains will need to be transferred to us from your current domain name holder which can take a few days. For pricing and information, please contact us.
What is a group?¶
A group (also known as a distribution list) is a list of email addresses that can be emailed together. For example, we automatically create a ‘Teachers’ group. You would simply email teachers@yourschooldomain.sch.uk and it would send the email to all teachers in school.
Are mailboxes backed up?¶
We backup all mailboxes for disaster recovery, which ensures we never lose any emails for any of our users.
Can we backup individual mailboxes?¶
Yes! We offer an add-on service to backup individual mailboxes on a daily basis, allowing you to recover a mailbox to a specific point in time. Please contact us for more information.
Can we access a mailbox without knowing the password?¶
Yes! You have full control to grant permission for a user to have full access to another user’s account. This is controlled by your portal administrator.
The SchoolEmail Portal says our subscription is due soon, what happens when it runs out?¶
If your subscription runs out before you can renew it, your email accounts will still continue to work and the portal will still be available. However, you will be unable to create any new accounts until a renewal is confirmed.
How secure is our user data and where is it held?¶
We take data protection and security very seriously. All data is held on servers in the UK and under no circumstances will we use or share that data for any purpose. The information we hold is only accessible to a limited number of senior employees, all of whom have enhanced CRB checks and are required to sign and adhere to a strict data protection code of practice.