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Email - frequently asked questions

Good email practices

Good email practices are simple. Encourage staff at your school to follow the below advice to ensure their email use is professional, not interrupted by spam and can easily be read by others.

  • use your work email for work purposes
  • only forward emails if absolutely necessary
  • if you have to forward, delete as much of the previous conversation (thread) as possible
  • ensure you only forward work-related emails, otherwise you may be flagged by a recipient as a 'spam' sender and may experience difficulty sending in the future

We often receive requests from school staff to 'restore' emails that have gone missing from Webmail. Emails rarely disappear mysteriously. We've included a few tips for you to troubleshoot if this occurs:

If:

  • you logged in to a colleague's computer and opened Outlook, thus removing your emails from Webmail and sending them to their machine, or
  • you configured a smartphone/ipad to get your email and they are no longer located in Webmail, or
  • you have deleted emails by accident...

...the cost to perform a backup/retrieval of your emails is at least $600 which your school can choose to bill you for.

Therefore:

  • ask your MIS admin to assist you in starting to use Outlook
  • know the importance of archiving/backing up your own emails by reading the relevant policies
  • be careful when configuring mobile devices/smartphones - these often remove your mail from Webmail

General email questions

Size and quota questions

Spam and phishing questions


General email questions

How can I access my MIS emails through Microsoft Outlook, Entourage or Mac Mail?

To access your MIS emails through Microsoft Outlook, Mac Mail or Microsoft Entourage, follow the guides below.


I'm trying to send emails and am receiving 'spam' email rejection notices (for schools and external companies)

The department's new spam system, Cloudmark, works in a number of ways:

  • Your MIS email address has a sending 'reputation'. If you constantly forward emails that other users mark as 'spam' (for example, jokes, internet deals/vouchers, or company newsletters), your reputation as a sender will be lowered. This means there is less chance of you receiving your emails, compared to someone that doesn't adopt these email practices.
  • If there is something in your email that a previous user has marked as spam, you may have difficulty sending it.

If you are a school-based staff member and the email you are unable to send is legitimate, you need to resend it to the original recipient, but also CC legit@eq.edu.au. The department's spam system will review all emails sent to this address and if deemed legitimate, will allow them through. You only need to log a job with the Service Centre if you have completed this process and cannot send the email after half an hour.

If you are an external company and your attempts to email a school email address are failing, you need to ask the school to log a job with the Service Centre on your behalf. It is recommended that you send the school an example or screen shot of one of your emails to accompany the request. A Service Centre technician will then work with the company to adapt the emails to ensure they are able to be sent.


I'm trying to send emails and I'm receiving 'blacklisted' email rejection notices

If you have received email rejection notifications informing you that your email was rejected due to being black listed, then it is likely the department's mail service has ended up on the SORBS list. The SORBS list is a black list for email senders who have been identified as spammers.

This could have happened for a number of reasons, such as compromised MIS accounts being used for spamming, or malware present on machines acting as spammers. You can find more information including steps to take to resolve a black listing here (PDF, 154k).


Can I transfer mail from another source into my MIS email account?

Mail forwarding can be used to transfer email to a MIS email account from another source, for example an email account with an Internet service provider. It is up to your external email provider to provide email forwarding facilities. 'POPping' email directly into MIS email accounts has always been strongly discouraged because it bypasses virus, spam and content filtering. It has now been disabled.


I have deleted an important email that I now need. Is it possible to retrieve it?

Yes, under certain conditions. As back-ups of the Managed Internet Service system are performed every night, as long as your email remained in your mailbox for at least one night, it could be possible to retrieve it. The system back-ups are retained for between 3 and 6 months allowing retrieval for that period. However, it is not a simple task and a charge for email retrieval may be applicable. The charge will be determined following the initial request and will depend on the extent of the work required. The cost for retrieval will be confirmed with you before work is conducted.

ICT Service Support and Planning
Phone: 1800 680 445
Service Centre: Log a job online


Size and quota questions

How much storage space can I have for email?

In the MIS, each student has an allocation of 15 Megabytes of email space. Staff have an allocation of 50 Megabytes per user. This is self-administering and is not counted as part of a school's disk space. However, schools wishing to increase the space provided for their staff or students will be able to do so for an annual fee based on the amount of space requested. The fee is $100/Gigabyte/year (+GST), plus a one off administration fee of $150 (+GST). To apply for an increase in email space for any groups in your school, please contact:

ICT Service Support and Planning
Phone: 1800 680 445
Service Centre: Log a job online


What size restrictions are placed on individual emails in the MIS?

You are restricted to a 5MB limit when sending emails in the MIS. This includes a total attachment size of 3.8MB.

Large documents with attachments graphics should only be sent via email to non-EQ recipients. To send to EQ recipients, the MIS Portal should be used - follow this guide to know how.


Can a school request an increase in their total email quota?

Yes. The current email quota is 15MB per student or other user and 50MB per staff user. These allocations are the minimum quotas that must apply.

Schools are then allocated additional email quota based on the day 8 enrolment figures each year.

Enrolment Additional School Email quota
1-300 200MB
301-800 500MB
801+ 1GB

A school may purchase extra email storage space in gigabyte lots and assign it to individual users, or all users in a group (such as 'teaching staff' or 'Year 6').

If you purchase extra email storage this results in a permanent increase for your school. You can change who the additional quota is assigned to at a later date, but cannot remove the additional quota.

Head to the Additional MIS Services page to see the full range of requests your school can make.

Cost payable to EQ for increasing email quotas

The cost of extra storage is $100/gigabyte/school year (or part thereof) (+GST), plus an administration fee of $150 (+GST) per request. The administration fee is paid once, when the increase is requested, not annually.

It will be financially beneficial to apply for a quota increase in the early part of the school year, rather than towards the end. For example, if a request is received in November 2012 the school will be charged $100/GB (+GST) for the 2012 school year (plus $150 +GST) and then in early 2013 will be charged $100/GB (+GST) for the 2013 school year.

Each request for a redistribution of the increased quota will be subject to an administration fee of $150 (+GST).

The MIS Administrator can manage their school's increased email quotas through the MIS Portal.

For more information on how to apply, head to the Additional MIS Services page to see the full range of additional MIS services your school can request.  For assistance completing the form, please contact the Service Centre.

The email I want to send is going to a large group of people and is quite large. What should I do?

Sending emails that are large or, that are going to a large group of people, increases bandwidth use causing slow performance. If you are attempting to send a large file or an email that:

  • is larger than 200 words
  • contains large attachments or graphics
  • is being distributed to a significant number of recipients

you should upload the information to a web page and email the URL with an explanatory paragraph. Speak to your MIS Administrator or view the guide on Sharing Large Files Online.


Spam and phishing questions

How can I stop receiving spam mail?

Incoming mail is now filtered for inappropriate words in the subject line. However, SPAM is typically written to avoid content filtering by replacing inappropriate words with look-alike words such as w0rd or l1ke so that it will not be detected by content filters.

Microsoft Outlook can be configured to reject mail from certain senders however, this is not particularly effective because professional SPAMmers change their name continuously to avoid this type of filter.

SPAM is an international problem. It is the Internet equivalent of advertisements in newspapers, on TV and via junk mail. Just as we are bombarded in the daily media with advertisements, it is common to receive unsolicited email for products not related to EQ's business.

  • Don't visit web sites that are likely to generate SPAM
  • Don't give your EQ email address away in return for permission to obtain access to a site
  • Don't post to news groups under your EQ email address. [Get a free address for this purpose, and, as this is not encouraged under the MIS, keep this sort of activity for home!]
  • Don't respond to SPAM, it just confirms that your email address is still valid and active
  • Don't send return receipts to email
  • Don't respond to offers to have your email address removed from SPAM lists
  • Don't buy anything advertised in SPAM

Also, please send any spam emails (as attachments) to spam@eq.edu.au.

How do I do this? (DOC, 395KB)

Remember that email newsletters you sign up to are not considered spam. Do not forward these to spam@eq.edu.au, instead, go to the newsletter's website and unsubscribe.


What do I do about phishing or spam emails?

Please send all phishing emails (as attachments) to phishing@eq.edu.au.

Any spam emails need to be sent (as attachments) to spam@eq.edu.au.

How do I do this? (DOC, 395KB)

You will never be asked to provide your MIS ID and password via email to anyone in the department. Do not reply to these emails.

Creative Commons License - Attribution CC BY

Last reviewed
03 January 2013
Last updated
03 January 2013
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