Email Configuration

This page provides information on the protocols that can be used to send and receive email, and how to configure your email client to work with those protocols.

We offer instructions on the correct configuration of four email clients to work with your email account:

POP and IMAP - Two protocols providing access to your email

To gain access to the email stored in your WU Mailbox through an email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.), you can basically use the following two protocols:

  • POP3 (Post Office Protocol) and
  • IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)

The main difference is that IMAP stores all messages and modifications made to them on the mail server. This has the advantage that all emails and the folder structure can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection.POP3 retrieves the messages from the mail server and stores them locally on the user’s computer. This has the advantage that all retrieved email messages can be viewed and edited offline, whereas IMAP always requires an active connection to the mail server.

To ensure confidentiality and privacy, you should always access/retrieve your email through an encrypted connection. The SSL protocol provides a secure connection that prevents eavesdropping on email traffic. The incoming server’s name for both protocols is sslmail.wu.ac.at. POP3 uses port number 995, IMAP port number 993.

Please note that if you have more than one account on our servers, you must use the identification "username@server" (e.g. "mhuber@isis") instead of using just your user name to determine which of your accounts you would like to access.

Sending email through encrypted and authenticated SMTP

  • What is SMTP?

The abbreviation SMTP stands for "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol", which is a standard protocol used in the transmission of email in computer networks. Sending email over the Internet thus requires an SMTP server. Usually, all email is transmitted from your computer via your standard provider’s SMTP server. However, when logging on to the Internet via a different provider (e.g. when accessing the Internet via a WLAN hot spot), access to your standard provider’s SMTP server is not possible. In that case, you have to rely on the SMTP server of the provider at hand (and change the settings of your email client accordingly) or use a webmail interface instead.

  • What is encrypted authentication via SMTP?

Authenticated SMTP allows you to send email via your trusted standard SMTP server even when not logging on to the Internet via your standard provider. Authentication refers to the fact that a user name and password are required. The advantage of authenticated SMTP is that you can use your preferred email client without having to change the SMTP settings every time you leave your usual environment, which is particularly handy for laptop users who often access the Internet through a number of different providers, especially WLAN providers. In addition, authenticated SMTP means that email transmission is encrypted, which results in much improved security.

The encrypted SMTP server’s name is sslmail.wu.ac.at, the respective port number is 465.

Within WU LAN, you may forgo encryption for the incoming and outgoing mail server. Please note, however, that for security reasons we do not recommend exchanging email without using encryption at any time.