E-Mail Server

  • Size Limits for E-Mails

    What are the size limitations of Münster University's e-mail system? We have summarized the most important figures and tips for "major customers".

    • A single e-mail must not be larger than 25 MB, i.e. it can contain a maximum of about 18 MB of files attached to it. Our mail servers refuse to accept larger e-mails.
    • The maximum size of the inbox is 1½ GB. E-mails arriving in excess of this size will be returned to the sender as undeliverable (does not apply to Exchange).
    • Other email folders can be any size (large folders are slower) and you can create any number of folders; there is no disk space quota.

  • Sending and Receiving Big Files

    Sending files of more than 5 MB via the conventional e-mail route is often problematic, but most e-mail providers stop sending files of 20 MB at the latest. This may be enough in most cases, but there are always situations where you would like to send or receive larger files. In this case we offer the following solutions:

    1. For All Cases: sciebo - the Campuscloud

    sciebo is a cloud storage service operated by the ZIV together with more than 20 universities in NRW. It is available free of charge to all members of Münster University. The data is stored exclusively in NRW. sciebo makes it very easy to share even large files or entire folders with others - either as a download link or via shares if the other side is also a sciebo user. Shares have the advantage that the other side can also send you files in this way. The functionality is described in a manual. It is even possible to protect the files with a password or an expiration date. If other people want to send you files, you can do this via a directory in which write permissions are set. Other people who know the link can then upload data to this directory via the web browser. With sciebo you can upload files up to 8 GB (via the web interface).

    2. For Receiving: Bigmail

    If people outside Münster University want to send you files larger than 18 MB, they can use our BigMail interface: There you can upload files up to 512 MB in size. You will then receive an e-mail at your university address with a randomly generated link from which you can download the files. This ensures that no one else has access to the file.

    3. For Sending: perMail

    While sending from the university address normally only works with attachments up to a maximum of 18 MB, our webmail program perMail offers a practical alternative here: It automatically switches to deposit, i.e. just like the procedure described above, the recipient receives an e-mail with a download link. Here, too, the maximum size is 512 MB.

  • Tips for Recipients of Many Large E-Mails

    These tips only apply to the standard mailbox, not to the Exchange mailbox:

    • In our "IT-Portal", activate "Nightly filtering" in the "E-Mail" section and select "Move read mails to quarterly folders". (If you receive several hundred megabytes per month, you may even be using monthly folders).
    • In your e-mail programs, make sure that the copies of sent e-mails are not stored in your Sent Folder ("Sent Objects" or similar), but in your inbox (perMail users can find this under "Settings" | "New e-mail page").

    This ensures that perMail is automatically called up once every night and that all e-mails read from the inbox are stored in folders on a quarterly (monthly) basis, sorted by time of receipt. In the automatically created quarterly (monthly) folders, you should be able to find your e-mails relatively easily even after a longer period of time.

    If you follow these instructions, all your e-mails are permanently stored in folders on the central e-mail servers, you do not need to worry about data backup and you can access all of your e-mails at any time with any IMAP-capable e-mail program or with our webmailer perMail.