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VMail: Frequently Asked Questions

VMail FAQ

Users can login to OWA by going to https://outlook.office.com. Once there you will sign in with your email address and e-password to access your inbox.

E-mails may be sent to a maximum of 250 recipients per email. It can be adjusted to meet a business need if approved. VUIT encourages the use of Distribution Lists to help main this recipient count.

If you use an Outlook Contact List instead of a Distribution List, each recipient in the Contact List counts as a single recipient.

Each mailbox can send emails to a maximum of 10,000 recipients per day.

The Collaboration team recommends the sharing of files via links to OneDrive or Box shares, instead of email attachments,

The message size limit for e-mails in Vanderbilt is 25 MB. This size limit includes all attachments. If you need to send a large attachment, choose one of the following options:

  1. Compress the file using Windows Explorer, WinZip, or 7Zip.
  2. Attachment Count: Total number of attachments may not exceed 256.
  3. No single attachment can exceed 20 MB.
  4. Archived attachments in ZIP, TAR, SIT, or other compressed format may not exceed 20 MB.
  5. Total number of files within an archived attachment may exceed 256.
  6. The maximum folder depth within an archived attachment may exceed 20.
  7. Split the file into two or more smaller files and send in separate e-mails.

Note: Other message size restrictions may be applied by your recipient’s domain and will take precedence over our limits.

Yes. To prevent the spread of viruses, protect campus productivity, & resources, Vanderbilt Information Technology (VUIT), in consultation with IT School Leaders and the Senior School Leaders, has elected to prevent delivery of certain file attachments.

Potentially dangerous attachments are identified by their three letter filename extension. All attachment extensions will be assessed and the selected extensions will be rejected, regardless of the operating system of the originating computer.

Spam is commonly defined as th e sending of unsolicited bulk e mail - that is, email that was not asked for (unsolicited) and received by multiple recipients (bulk).

VUIT utilizes Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) to filter spam for the university . All VMail and VUGmail users are enrolled in the service by default. Email sent to other external email services such as Yahoo! or Hotmail will not be filtered, though you may review these messages on campus.

Click here to learn more about Exchange Online Protection.

Follow this link https://admin.protection.outlook.com/quarantine to access emails quarantined by E xchange Online Protection (E OP ) . Enter your VUnetID @vanderbilt.edu and eP assword .

If you are on a MAC and received an error regarding certificates, click here and follow the steps.

Click here for information on managing your quarantined emails.

If you receive a spam email, you can send an email to Microsoft by forwarding the email as an attachment to: abuse@messaging.microsoft.com . Additionally, Outlook users may download a plugin from Microsoft, allowing the ability to report email as spam from within the message itself.

Click here to learn how to manage Junk email settings.

Safe senders are emails you do not want quarantined by Outlook . Emails are classified into two classes. Direct and Campaign.

Direct emails are messages sent directly from one person to another. This includes distribution or contact lists. The person listed in the “From” line is the one who sent the message.

Campaign emails are sent to large groups of people from one person. Third party applications such as Constant Contact, My Emma, etc … are examples of such applications. The person in the “From” line on these emails is not the person who sent the message in most cases.

Click here to learn how to mark a Safe Sender in Outlook.

Click here to learn how to mark a Safe Sender in OWA.

To change your primary email address, please submit a request ticket .

  • New Outlook Web Access – new look, better browsing capability, archiving, emojis, etc.
  • Updated Calendar – email reminders for events, improved search, birthday calendars, etc.
  • More storage – 100GB mailbox storage for each user
  • Better integration with other Office 365 services, like OneDrive and SharePoint
  • Improvements to document collaboration
  • More comprehensive spam detection
  • Additional out of office options

You are able to add additional email accounts in the Outlook app, such as Yahoo, Gmail, etc.

After your mailbox migrates, you will need to submit a Help Desk request to have your PST files moved.

By default IMAP and POP protocols are not enabled. To leverage IMAP or POP protocols requires the submission of an exception request. To request an exception, please submit a ticket to the VUIT Help Desk and include the following information:

  1. Name
  2. Email Address
  3. Affiliation (faculty, staff, graduate/professional student, UG student)
  4. School or department
  5. Reason for Request
  6. Attestation to the following:

Email Availability – Ensure VUIT can continue to have access to all email data for compliance and legal needs.

Email Security – Email can contain sensitive information and the need to protect it is imperative.

Encryption – Email clients must encrypt messages while in transmission.

If applicable, portable media/device where emails are stored should be encrypted

 

If your out-of-office auto-reply was on before or during your migration, it may not turn off at the time you scheduled. Please manually turn your auto-replies off. If you are still in need of assistance, feel free to contact the help desk.

Microsoft recently changed the format of quarantined messages for Shared Exchange Mailboxes which does not allow for the message to be released. If you have a message that you need to retrieve, please submit a support request for assistance.

Yes, you can add other email accounts to your Outlook client. Directions for VU users are available here. If you require additional assistance, please submit a support request. For VUMC assistance, please contact VUMC support.

To find your primary email address for your Vanderbilt University account, please follow these steps:

  1. Go to http://vanderbi.lt/primaryemail
  2. Sign in with your SSO credentials (VUnetID and e-password)
  3. Click View My Email Addresses
  4. Your primary email address will be shown in bold, blue text.

To clear individual VUMC users from your Outlook client cache:

  1. When composing a new email to a VUMC employee, begin typing their name in the To: field.
  2. When the suggested name appears, click the X next to the name
  3. Continue typing out the entire email address for this person
  4. Repeat for any VUMC user you communicate with regularly or have communicated with in the past

To clear your entire Outlook client cache:

  1. Open your email and from your inbox, click File
  2. Click Options
  3. Click Mail
  4. Under the “Send Message” section, click Empty Auto-Complete List
  5. Click OK

The Microsoft Exchange Global Address List (GAL) is a directory of all end users and their respective email addresses within an Exchange Server organization that uses Microsoft Outlook for email.  When you “look someone up” (via the Address Book or the To: and CC: buttons) you are drawing on the GAL.