An interesting query arrived about when to advertise role-based, rather than individual, e-mail addresses. Do role-based ones feel too impersonal, for example, because senders don't know who they are dealing with?
We're pleased to announce that from today the service can provide end user certificates, which are used for digitally signing and encrypting emails. These are called S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) certificates.
S/MIME are installed on email clients which then enable the end user to send digitally signed emails, giving recipients assurances that the email originated from the sender's account. By signing emails, recipients can also have confidence that the contents of the email has been been altered in transit.
Once you have the appropriate certificate credit on your organisation's Certificate Service account, you can proceed and request the required S/MIME email certificate, by clicking on the 'Request Certificate' tab in the JCS portal. The following steps apply:
Request Certificate
1. Is the certificate for a primary or secondary school? Note: S/MIME certificates are not available for school owned domains.
Version: 3
Issued: July 2016
Reference: GEN-DOC-007 (previously published as PB/INFO/081)
Author: A. Cormack
Last Reviewed Date: 18/08/2020
A number of Janet connected organisations have asked whether they are permitted to allocate email addresses under their ‘organisation.ac.uk’ domain to former students (alumni). This factsheet discusses the issues this is likely to raise.
The following notes provide some hints and tips about the use of e-mail. They cover the content and format of e-mails, sending and receiving attachments, courtesy and general housekeeping tips.
Common Courtesy
Always consider the feelings of recipients when composing e-mails. Good manners are also important when dealing with incoming e-mail.
E-mail should be read at least once a day if possible. If users are away for long periods, try to let people know.
Open relays allow any combination of origin and destination address, and are frequently abused by advertisers and others to distribute UBE. This will usually overload an organisation's mail server, affecting its ability to handle legitimate mail, and often leaves the organisation with a flood of complaints and error messages to deal with. Sites that are frequently abused as relays may be added to blacklists used by many network operators and ISPs to reject all e-mail and other traffic. Advice on preventing relaying is available from the MAPS website:
A question that has recently slipped over the threshold to become Frequently Asked is that of JANET customer organisations issuing e-mail addresses in their .ac.uk domains to former students when they graduate. The policies for JANET and the .ac.uk domain don't prevent that, but there are a number of practical, technical and legal issues to think about.
