The Physics & Astronomy Department maintains a SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) service for outgoing mail & an IMAPS/POPS (Internet Message Access Protocol/ Post Office Protocol, the secured versions) for incoming mail. Email accounts are provided for faculty, staff and graduate students.
We serve 3 mail domains which are essentially equivalent: phas.ubc.ca, astro.ubc.ca & physics.ubc.ca. Users can choose to advertise their email address in any of these domains; all the mail will be delivered to a single inbox. Mail addressed to any of these domains is first directed to the UBC AntiSPAM/AntiVirus mail relays for cleaning (viruses) or tagging (spam). The mail is then forwarded to our IMAP/POP server, mail.phas.ubc.ca ("Incoming" server), for local delivery to user mailboxes.
A separate SMTP server, smtp.phas.ubc.ca ("Outgoing" server) handles all outgoing mail.
To use the local servers, one should create a mail account in one of many local mail clients on their local host (i.e. a desktop system, a laptop etc). A required feature is support for either IMAPS or secure POPS. Popular clients include ThunderBird, alpine, and Gnome's evolution. We strongly recommend against the use of Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express due to all their security and compatability problems.
Use the following information when setting up a mail account
Incoming Mail Server: mail.phas.ubc.ca
Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.phas.ubc.ca
Required Protocol:IMAPS or POPS
The IMAPS/POPS protocol make use of TLS/SSL (Transport layer Security/Secure Socket Layer) for encrypted transfers. For help in configuring a mail client to use the protocols see the comprehensive instructions on how to set up mail clients for several client and platform combinations on the ITServices Email Setup Documentation web pages. You should be able to substitute our server names (above) for the FASmail servers.
Email Forwarding
Staff and faculty considering forwarding email to a destination outside of UBC should be aware of policies set by University Counsel to ensure compliance with requirements laid out in FIPPA, the provincial Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Such forwarding is permitted only in very limited circumstances, and never to hosts located outside of Canada, such as gmail.
https://universitycounsel.ubc.ca/files/2012/11/Fact-Sheet-Privacy-of-Email-Systems.pdf
Instructions To Configure Email Forwarding
Getting Spammed? Please see our Unwanted Email/Spam page.
Want to Forward your email? Please see our Email Forwarding page.