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Mail Server

The Internet mail server of the department is running on math.dartmouth.edu (gauss). This is the server that should be used for outgoing or SMTP whenever configuring an e-mail client for your Math account. All mail arriving at and leaving gauss is scanned for spam and malware attachments. Detected spam is marked by adding "*** SPAM: score ***" to the Subject line. This can be used for filtering rules in your mail client or in procmail configuration (.procmailrc in your home on gauss). Messages with spam score > 12 or those carrying known malware are dropped by the server.

TLS and SMTP authentication

Math mail server supports encrypted connections (TLS mode) and SMTP authentication. What this means is that it is possible to use gauss as an outgoing server even when outside of campus network. Unfortunately Internet providers increasingly often limit this possiblity enforcing the use of their own SMTP servers.

In order to use gauss SMTP from outside of campus, your mail program's settings for outgoing server have to be adjusted:

  1. Enable TLS for outgoing server. Note that TLS is sometimes referred to as SSL (Mac OS Mail, for example) and the outgoing server is often called SMTP server. Outgoing server port should remain 25, i.e. the default.
  2. Enable authentication for outgoing server. Username and password are those of your account on gauss.

When using gauss remotely, i.e. not on campus network or VPN, mail can only be sent after successful authentication. And the authentication is only offered by the server if an encrypted TLS connection is established.

N.B.: Symantec Antivirus E-mail Auto-Protect will not allow sending e-mail using TLS. A message will pop-up saying that a encrypted connection was detected and sending the message will fail. The workaround (also published on Symantec website) is to disable Internet E-mail Auto-protect feature in your Symantec Antivirus configuration.