The use of electronic communication (E-mail)
E-mail use in the department
As a department employee, through ZEDAT, we provide you with a groupware inbox on the exchange platform. With the groupware inbox, you can use functions beyond simple e-mail communication, e.g. such as maintaining not only one or more calendars but also using joint calendars. These may be used centrally by the department, scientific establishments and institutes/seminars, work areas as well as for coordination and agreement between you and your colleagues. In line with the joint calendars, you can create various address books and distribution lists and use these within the team.
The use of Microsoft Outlook (Windows) or Microsoft Entourage (Mac OS X) is required in order to benefit from the full scope. Naturally, you are also able to access and process your e-mails at any time by webinterface.
In the context of the IT migration currently in progress in the department, inboxes will be automatically set up for and communicated to employees with an address in the form forename.surname@fu-berlin.de. Should you have any queries or comments about the functionality or use, we are happy to help.
Basic E-mail service from ZEDAT
With your access authorisation for the IT services at Freie Universität, ZEDAT also provides all users with an e-mail inbox with a current capacity of 5 gigabytes. This is generally accessible via an address comprising your user name and the suffix @zedat.fu-berlin.de. Additionally, through the ZEDAT portal, you can also easily have an address allocated in the form forename.surname@fu-berlin.de. More information about so-called alias addresses is available here.
Retrieval of your messages is possible through two different protocols: IMAP and POP3. By saving and administering the messages on the ZEDAT mail server, the newer IMAP protocol allows you to read your (sent and received) messages not only on your work computer but also on the move via the ZEDAT portal. We highly recommend the use of the IMAP protocol, which is generally also preset accordingly on your work computers. More details about the ZEDAT mail system and different retrieval protocols can be found on the corresponding ZEDAT pages.
ZEDAT takes numerous measures to eliminate so-called unsolicited e-mails (spam). However, for technical reasons, undesired messages may sometimes be rejected incorrectly (so-called false positives). You should therefore occasionally check the contents of your spam folder. If you work with the IMAP protocol, the folder is automatically shown in the folder bar. If you still use the older POP3 protocol, you can view the folder via the ZEDAT portal. We have provided a guide about this for you:
Please note: if a groupware inbox has been set up for you on the exchange platform (see e-mail use in the department), messages to your ZEDAT e-mail address are automatically forwarded to the groupware inbox. Only the guidelines under e-mail use in the department are applicable for you in this case.
Department E-mail service (distribution lists and alias addresses)
We have produced information about the department e-mail service (in German only) for you on a separate page (in German only).
