Important changes to email access from outside the UK

Changes to IMAP connections from outside the UK and Switzerland means that some access to University emails will be blocked

The University is repeatedly open to cyber-attacks from overseas criminals trying to gain access to our network. In recent weeks we have experienced a significant increase in attacks on our email system; thankfully our network security system is able to identify and deal with these incidents, however, as a result some email accounts have been temporarily locked out causing some inconvenience to users.

This has prompted IT Services to take action to prevent these attacks from occuring. Therefore, on Thursday 25 October the IT Services will be making a change to our email access which will block IMAP connections to the University from outside the UK and Switzerland.

How will this impact me?

If you use any of the following University supported mail clients to access your emails when working outside the UK or Switzerland then this change will not affect you. 

• Microsoft Outlook 2010 and above on PC
• Microsoft Outlook 2011 and above on MAC
• Webmail via mail.bham.ac.uk or webmail.bham.ac.uk
• MobileIron on your mobile device

However, if you currently use any other non-supported mail client to connect to your University email then your access will be blocked after the change.

I use an unsupported mail client, how can I access my email from outside the UK?

You can access your University emails when working outside the UK either through Webmail at webmail.bham.ac.uk  or through the University’s virtual private network connection via the Remote Access Service. To register for the Remote Access Service please see the following Knowledge Base article Remote Access Service: Introduction (KB13628) 

Questions?

If you have questions regarding this change, please contact the IT Service Desk 0121 414 7171