Information for the mailing system

The login is done with the e-mail address (as username) and the password. The settings (see below) should be obtained automatically by any common e-mail program. Alternatively, the settings must be made as follows:

The webmail interface can be called up here.

The password can be changed here. Note: Currently, passwords with umlauts (äÄ, öÖ, üÜ, ß) cannot be used.
If a password with umlauts has been entered, it is not possible to log in with it. However, you can reset your password as usual.

The mail server supports Sieve filters. The filters can be edited in the webmailer or using plugins for MUAs (e.g. Sieve for Thunderbird). The servers implement some standard filters for all mail accounts, especially for spam filtering.

Users can send with their login, in addition to their own e-mail address, also with alias addresses which refer directly to them. For example, it is possible to send as alice@domain with the sender address alias@domain if an alias alias@domain → alice@domain,bob@domain exists.

Incoming and outgoing e-mails are filtered on the server side for spam and other unwanted content by several methods. However, automatic filtering is not always one hundred percent correct. If obvious spam mails are delivered to mail accounts or legitimate mails are incorrectly declared as spam, mail account users can move the corresponding mails from the Junk folder to another (e.g. Inbox) (ham mails) or move them to the Junk folder (spam mails). The mail server system will then incorporate these decisions to automatically optimise the spam filters. Alternatively, or for specific questions, the unmodified original message in the attachment can be forwarded to the Mailserver team.

1. How much space do I have in my mailbox?
   • By default, every user with a FeM address gets 5GB of storage space.
2. What is the maximum message size?
   • Mails with a size of up to 50MB can be sent. The limit applies to the absolute size of the e-mail, not to attachments. Attachments are about a third larger due to the coding in the e-mail.
3. Why have the folders in my mailbox disappeared?
   • The folders have not disappeared, they were probably just not synchronised.
   • In Thunderbrid, the folders can be updated as follows: Click on your mailbox in the left overview.
     Then select “Subscribe to IMAP folders” in the main window. A window opens in which all folders are displayed. Here you can select the folders to be synchronised. Then click on “Subscribe” and “OK”. The folders are then displayed and the mails contained are downloaded by clicking on a folder.
   • Select the folders to be displayed in the webmail under Settings → Folders.

The web interface for the administration of mailing lists and user settings can be found here.

Every list member or new list member can subscribe or unsubscribe himself/herself. To do so, either use the web interface on the overview page of the respective mailing list or send an e-mail to the -subscribe address of the mailing list (e.g. liste-subscribe@domain.de). Further instructions will then follow as an e-mail from the mailing list system. In general, however, it is sufficient to simply reply to the e-mail.

MS Outlook occasionally has some problems with the subscription process to mailing lists. This usually manifests itself in a failed subscribe process and a reply from the mailing list system with cryptic characters in the body. The cause is incorrect handling of the e-mails by Outlook. If the problem occurs, the easiest thing to do is for the mailing list administrator (usually reachable at the -owner address of the mailing list, e.g. liste-owner@domain.de) to add the affected address manually.

The web interface of the mailing list system maintains an account for each user. However, registration is optional for using the mailing lists. The account is used by the administrators/moderators of the lists as access for the configuration of the mailing lists and can be used by users (subscribers) to manage their memberships. It can also be used to access private archives, provided you have the right to do so.

Registration is done via the web interface. The username can be chosen freely. Only the e-mail address must be the one with which one has already been registered on a list or would like to be registered on lists. Of course, it should really exist. After sending the registration data, a confirmation e-mail is sent. Click on the link provided and then you can log in with your registration data.

If you are registered on several lists with different e-mail addresses, you can register several addresses for your account. To do this, click on your user in the top right-hand corner of the web interface and select Account. There you can enter secondary addresses under e-mail addresses.

The password can be changed via the settings menu account in the web interface. There are no restrictions on the choice of password.

If you have forgotten your password, you can reset it on the login page.

In the settings of each list there is a tab DMARC Mitigations. DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance and is used by mail server operators as a safeguard against the misuse of their domain. In certain cases, e-mails from lists may be rejected by a recipient (subscriber of the list) due to a violation of the DMARC policy.

To illustrate the problem, here is an example. A user sends an e-mail from an external domain (which uses DMARC) to a mailing list. Our mail server (MTA) also uses DMARC and acts as a relay for the server that manages the mailing lists. Now a user of the list receives this mail. His MTA now checks the DMARC policy and sees that our mail server has sent a mail in the name of the user at the beginning, although his policy forbids this. This means that the e-mail goes into the spam folder or is rejected.

The DMARC Mitigations fix this problem in several ways. The simplest and recommended one is to only set “Replace From: with list address”. This can be done on all lists and only affects these specific cases.

E-mail addresses can be added manually to lists, e.g. if problems occur during registration. To do this, first remove any outstanding request in the web interface. To do this, go to the tab Subscription requests under Pending Confirmation and then select Discard for the corresponding address. Then the addresses can be added manually via the tab Mass operations → Mass subscribe. It is important to set the checkboxes Pre confirm, Pre approved and Pre verified if the user is not supposed to take any further action (e.g. in case of registration problems).

Currently the e-mail command confirm in Mailman3 can only handle unsubscriptions. It is not possible to confirm or discard withheld messages. However, moderation can still be done via the web UI. See Issue 169.

It can happen that Reply-To headers (set by the MUA of the client) cause mails to lists to be discarded. This occurs when the corresponding address appears in the list of banned addresses, header filters or member/non-member addresses with “Discard” action. In particular, this also applies to the list address itself. This can cause (for example, if the mailing list address has been banned) mails to the list with Reply-To already set to the list to be discarded.

1. Do I need an account?
   • No, memberships can also be administered using regular Mailman commands. An account is only required for administering lists and viewing private archives.
2. Can I use multiple e-mail addresses?
   • Yes.
3. How does the system recognise my affiliation/rights?
   • Mapping is based on the e-mail address.
4. How is my password stored?
   • Hashed with Argon2i in a database.
5. Does the archive support full-text search?
   • Yes.
6. What are non-members?
   • Non-members are not members of the list (i.e. they do not receive any messages from the list) but are allowed to write mails to the list without moderation. A processing rule can be set for each non-member. For example accept or discard.
7. Where can I find a manual on how to use Mailman 3?
   • https://docs.mailman3.org/en/latest/userguide.html