mail.cs.helsinki.fi - Department of Computer Science's email service

Last modified by pvettenr@helsinki_fi on 2024/02/08 06:48

E-mail addresses

Each of the computing facilities users at the CS Department has an e-mail address: firstname.(x.)surname@cs.helsinki.fi

The initial letter of the second forename cancel is used if there are several users with the same names. An alternative e-mail address is username@cs.helsinki.fi which is directed to the same mailbox.

Please pay attention to capitalization. The part before the at sign should be written either totally with lower case letters or with the initial letter of each name in capitals and other letters in lower case. Capitalization has no effect in the latter (domain) part of the address but we recommend writing it totally with minors.
E-mail addresses at the IT Department take the form forename.(x.)surname@helsinki.fi.

Using e-mail locally

  • The recommended e-mail applications is Thunderbird. It is also possible to make an SSH connection to one of the interactive Linux servers (e.g. melkinpaasi) and read your mail there with alpine.
  • You can always use Webmail (please read on for more information).

Using e-mail remotely

  • You can use e-mail at https://mail.cs.helsinki.fi/ with a web browser. One of the advantages with a web user interface is that you can access the mailbox and folders with just the web browser wherever you are, and do not have to configure a mail reader or look for an SSH client program.
  • You can receive mail with a TLS/SSL-secured IMAP connection with any e-mail application that supports these features. Respectively, you can send mail through the CS Department's mail server if the e-mail application supports a TLS/SSL-secured SMTP connection. The user account names and passwords are the same as in Webmail. Common mail applications that are known to work include Thunderbird and Microsoft Outlook.
  • You can make an SSH connection to the department (e.g. to melkinpaasi.helsinki.fi) and read your mail with alpine. 

Addresses of the mail servers

  • Incoming mail server: mail.cs.helsinki.fi, port 143 (IMAP+STARTTLS) or port 993 (IMAP+SSL/TLS), secured, password required
  • Outgoing mail server: mail.cs.helsinki.fi, port 587 (IMAP+STARTTLS), fuctions everywhere, secured, password required
  • Alternative outgoing mail server: mail.cs.helsinki.fi, port 465 (IMAP+SSL/TLS)
  • Mozilla Thinderbird can configure itself to use department's mail server

E-mail folders

There are a few special folders on the mail server:

  • INBOX - New messages arrive here. All other folders are subfolders of INBOX. Please delete read messages or move them to another folder since too large INBOXes slow down all users' e-mail usage. A decent size for your INBOX is not more than 100 MB or a few hundred messages.
  • Junk_E-mail - Surely unwanted messages arrive here. Surely unwanted messages include all virus warnings generated by mail.cs.helsinki.fi and certain error messages (delivery errors bounced to forged sender addresses). Messages older that 30 days are destroyed automatically in this folder.
  • Sent - A copy of each message sent with the Webmail is stored here. You can use Sent as the folder for sent messages in other mail applications, too. The Webmail creates automatically subfolders for each year and month. It moves messages to these subfolders after each turn of the month.
  • Trash - Messages deleted in the Webmail are moved here. You can use Trash as the folder for deleted messages in other mail applications, too. Messages older than 15 days are destroyed automatically in this folder.

You can create additional folders when needed. (The folders are accessible only through mail applications, not as files.)

Redirecting mail

NOTE: Instructions for mail forwarding between local and Office365 cloud mail can be found is CS Department's Office365 Guide. The following applies to general mail forwarding.

You can redirect your mail from the CS Department to another address, and leave copies of the redirected mail on the CS Department server if necessary. Redirections can be set up in the SqWebMail as follows: (if another redirection is already in effect, you can adjust the sorting rules with the help of these instructions)

  1. Log in to SqWebMail
  2. Go to "Edit Mail Filters" by clicking the link at the top of the page
  3. Fill in the following data in the "Edit/Add mail filter" form
    • "Rule name: postinohjaus"
    • Click on "Condition: Message is" and write 0 (null). (This option chooses all messages that are larger than 0 bytes, i.e. all messages)
    • Click on "Action: Forward to:" and write your redirection address. If you want copies of the redirected mail to remain at the CS Dept., please choose "and continue filtering".
  4. Click on "Submit".
  5. Click on "Save all changes". The redirection will be effective immediately.
  6. Finally you can log out of Webmail by clicking on the "Log Out" link at the top to the right.

You can redirect your mail only through the web user interface. We no longer support .forward files at the CS Department.

Other issues

The size limit for e-mail messages is 50 MB. We suggest transferring big files with SFTP or placing the file on a password-protected web page.