E-mail

E-mail is an important tool of communication, even though in VSHN it’s primarily geared towards "the outside world;" internally we prefer using our chat system. We do however use our calendars extensively, and usually every team has its own calendar exposed, so you can be notified of meetings and special events.

Webmail

We use SOGo Groupware as our mail and calendar provider. You can use the web interface to read your mail and browse calendars. * Your username is firstname.lastname

Using an e-mail client

You can use your preferred mail client as well.

Recommended e-mail clients

Setup

These are the settings you need for that:

  • Your email address is firstname.lastname@vshn.ch

  • Your username is firstname.lastname@vshn.net

  • IMAP (receiving): imap.vshn.net, SSL/TLS on port 993

  • SMTP (sending): smtp.vshn.net, STARTTLS on port 587 (requires authentication)

  • In Evolution, in the Account Editor, select "Server requires authentication" and then select "Login" as the type of the authentication. You will be prompted for your password on first connection.

  • Create a GPG key and publish it to a key server.

You can perform these steps with GPG Suite on the Mac. And of course you can use your keys with Evolution instead of Thunderbird.

Note: In the past Enigmail was recommended for Thunderbird/Betterbird but OpenPGP is now supported out of the box so Enigmail is end of life and no longer needed. Simply use the inbuilt tool to generate a new key or to import an existing one.

E-mail signature

The official email signature of VSHN looks like this:

--
Firstname Lastname
Title according to homepage or business card

VSHN AG | Neugasse 10 | CH-8005 Zürich
T: +41 44 545 53 00 | M: +41 XX XXX XX XX | https://vshn.ch

  • At the beginning: two hyphens and a space.

  • Only give your cell phone number if you want.

Signature in SOGo

Please define the signature also in the SOGo webmail (without the 2 hyphens "--"). It’s a plain-text signature.

  • After you have logged in, select the "Settings" wheel to the right of your name.

  • Click on "E-Mail" in the "Settings" menu on the left.

  • Select the menu item "IMAP Accounts" on the right.

  • Select the mail for which you want to create the signature.

    • Use the pen on the right to edit the settings.

  • In the lower area you can enter the signature.

  • Confirm with OK.

After confirming with OK click on the save icon in the upper right corner of the menu. Only then the process is finished.

Default e-mail address

Your email address has many aliases available. To choose your default email address, follow these steps.

  1. Click on the preferences icon (top-right, next to the name).

  2. Click on Mail.

  3. Click on IMAP Accounts.

  4. Click on the edit icon.

  5. Type in your default E-Mail address (firstname.lastname@vshn.ch) in the field "Email."

  6. Click on OK.

  7. Click on the save icon on the top right.

Out of office replies

Before going on holiday (or any other prolonged absence) please set up your e-mail with the proper out of office message in the web interface:

  1. Click on the preferences icon (top-left, right next to the name)

  2. Select menu::Mail[Vacation]

  3. Click on "Enable vacation auto reply"

  4. Fill in the fields with the following text:

    Hi,
Thank you for your message.
I'm on holiday and will be back on DAY, DATE. If your request is urgent, please send it to support@vshn.ch
Best regards,
[YOUR NAME]
--
[YOUR SIGNATURE]
out of office

Finally, remember to click on the save icon on the top right.

There is a whole section in this handbook about absences and holidays handover, make sure to read it too!

E-mail filters

The mail filters defined in the web interface won’t be migrated automatically to your client, and they need to be created from scratch.

In Thunderbird, follow these instructions:

  1. Click on the preferences icon (top-left, right next to the name)

  2. Click on Mail

  3. Click on Filters

  4. Create your filters as you like

    • Hint: They’re disabled by default

  5. Enable the filters with a tick

  6. Click on the save icon on the top right

Address book sync for local email clients (like Thunderbird)

If you also want to have your personal and the global VSHN address books synced from Sogo to your local email client then this can be done via CardDAV.

Technical documentation for how to do this can be found on the VSHN Wiki.