All students in HUJI have mail accounts at mail.huji.ac.il where all official HUJI announcements (including library announcements) are sent.
By default, all mail sent to login@cs.huji.ac.il will be sent to the CSE user's mail.huji.ac.il account (with no copy stored locally at CSE).
Users who have their mail automatically forwarded to mail.huji.ac.il will not have spam mail saved to their spam folder, but spam mail will be forwarded with the string [CSESPAM] prepended to the Subject header of the mail message. This string can be used to filter spam in your mail.huji.ac.il account as illustrated in the section Filtering CSE Spam.
Users with existing CSE mail folders should note that only future mail will be forwarded to their mail.huji.ac.il accounts. The contents of their old folders will remain at CSE. While we don't support transferring of folders to mail.huji.ac.il accounts, users who want to do this, at their own risk, can try using public domain software at http://www.marklyon.org/gmail/.
Please note that whenever the automatic forwarding is overridden either by ~/.forward or ~/.nogmail, mail sent directly to mail.huji.ac.il (such as official HUJI messages) will still arrive there unless the user sets up a forwarding directive in his mail.huji.ac.il account to forward all his mail to his CSE address (login@cs.huji.ac.il).
The management and configuration of the mail.huji.ac.il mail domain is under the auspices of Hebrew University's Computer Centre and all questions or complaints regarding receiving, sending and reading mail there should be directed to the mail.huji.ac.il support page.
CS mail accounts
Sending mail
SMTP Server Settings
You should set up the outgoing (SMTP) mail server in your mail program as following:
| Connection | Outgoing mail server | username | password |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inside CS network | mailhost.cs.huji.ac.il | -- blank -- | -- blank -- |
| Inside HUJI dialup (modem, ADSL, ISDN) | outmail.huji.ac.il | -- blank -- | -- blank -- |
| Outside HUJI system | mailhost.cs.huji.ac.il | your CS login | -- blank --* |
- * From within CS or HUJI networks, no password is needed. From outside, the first time you try to send e-mail, you will be prompted for your OTP password. You will then be able to continue sending e-mail during the current session for three hours, at which point, you will be again prompted for a new OTP password.
Temporary Failure Messages
If you are outside the HUJI system and the first time you try to send mail you get the response:
451 Temporary failure, please try again later.
You can either download and use the OTPKnocker application or authenticate using telnet.
OTPKnocker Authentication
1. Copy the knocker to your Windows Desktop from ftp://ftp.cs.huji.ac.il/pub/auth/OTPKnocker/OTPKnocker.exe
2. Read the instructions in ftp://ftp.cs.huji.ac.il/pub/auth/OTPKnocker/README
3. As long as the OTPKnocker application is alive, you will not need further authentication to send e-mail.
Many thanks Tal Maoz for writing and debugging this application.
Telnet Authentication
Follow these instructions:
1. Open a DOS (cmd) window on your PC.
2. Do:
telnet auth.cs.huji.ac.il 5
3. Enter (no prompt):
login OTP
Example:
najenson 475661
4. You should get a response: Ok
5. If you get "Authentication failure", you mistyped your OTP, go back to #2.
6. Once you get "Ok" -- keep the connection open (i.e. iconify the window, do not exit).
As long as the connection is open, you will be able to send e-mail via mailhost.cs.huji.ac.il without being prompted for further authentication.
Reading mail
Using IMAP
This is the preferred method to read your mail. Set your mail program to use imap.cs.huji.ac.il as an IMAP server with your username as your CSE login. The account password is your regular, fixed password inside CS, or the OTP password if you're connecting from outside. The OTP password is valid for three hours, after which you will be prompted for a new OTP password.
There is a detailed explanation for how to configure thunderbird for using IMAP.
Using POP
Note: If you have any way of using IMAP then use it and _not_ POP -- support for POP will gradually disappear.
To get your mail with POP set your mail program to use pop.cs.huji.ac.il as a POP server with your username as your CSE login. The account password is your regular (IDNG) password (not a password from your OTP generator).
Using Movemail
From inside CS, you can use movemail which will read the mail spool file directly (not supported by all mail clients). The mail spool is /cs/mail/login. This is the default for thunderbird and pine.
Spam filtering
Incoming mail is filtered for spam. For more information see the Spam Mail Filter page.
Forwarding mail
You can forward your incoming mail in various ways by updating your ~/.forward file.
Mail vacation messages
You can auto-reply to incoming mail, for example when going on vacation.
Alumni account
Gradudates of the School of Computer Science & Engineering are entitled to an alumni account for life.
Mail.Huji.Ac.Il accounts
Disabling auto forwarding
By default, all mail sent to login@cs.huji.ac.il will be sent to the CSE user's mail.huji.ac.il account (with no copy stored locally at CSE).
However, if a CSE user has a ~/.forward file in his home directory, the directives in that file will be followed and no automatic forwarding to mail.huji.ac.il will take place.
Similarly, if a CSE does not want his CSE mail to be forwarded to his mail.huji.ac.il account, he can create a ~/.nogmail file in his home directory. Such a file can be created from any Unix command line by doing:
touch ~/.nogmail
Filtering CSE spam
All spam caught at CSE will be autoforwarded to your mail.huji.ac.il account with the string [CSESPAM] prepended to the Subject line -- this will allow the use of the filter and label tools available at mail.huji.ac.il in the following manner:
Choose Settings->Filters from your mail.huji.ac.il account main page.
This will bring you to the filter definition page: 
Click on Create new filter and fill in [CSESPAM] in the Subject field of the form: 
Click on Next Step and tick off the boxes marked Skip the Inbox and Apply the label: 
In the Choose label menu, choose New label and give it the value CSESPAM: 
Click on OK to give: 
Click on Create Filter and you are all done: 
When you want to review your spam mail, go to the Label section of your main mail.huji.ac.il page
and click on CSESPAM: 
Newsgroup
Reading newsgroup
To access CSE newsgroups, set the NNTP server to news.cs.huji.ac.il.
If you're connected to the Internet through an external service provider you will have to authenticate yourself at the beginning of the session. If you have an account at CSE, use your login and OTP. You can re-use the same OTP for 3 hours, after which you will have to enter a new OTP. Users without OTP should use their ID number and 4-digit password.
Accessing world-wide newsgroups
Inside the HUJI network you can also view general news groups by setting the NNTP server to nntpserver.huji.ac.il. To view general newsgroups from an external service provider, consult with the customer support of your ISP as to which news server to use.
