Texas A&M Technology Services provides email security services for Texas A&M University. All email delivered to or from @tamu.edu, or any other domain on campus, passes through these security services.

Getting Started

Mail clients such as Outlook, Outlook Web App (OWA), Gmail, and Outlook for IOS/Android should automatically detect mail delivery configuration settings when you set up your account.

For mail servers and devices which require more configuration, Technology Services recommends using the following relays:

relay.tamu.edu

• Must be used for servers configured with “private” IP addresses.
• Recommend for printers, scanners and other equipment sensitive to latency.

smtp-relay.tamu.edu

• May be used for any servers with “public” IP addresses.

Virus Scanning

The mail relays will scan inbound attachments for viruses, malware, and other malicious content. Attachments which are deemed malicious, or which can not be scanned, will be quarantined.

The mail relays also have the ability to detect zero-day virus outbreaks. Messages that correspond to a suspected virus outbreak are quarantined for up to 24 hours to allow antivirus vendors time to issue a new signature. After 24 hours, suspect messages are scanned and released to the original recipients if they are not deemed malicious.

To learn more about virus scanning, visit:

• Virus Scanning and Blocking
• Malicious Code Protection Requirements

Spam Filtering

The relays utilize several layers of protection including reputation filtering, anti-spam filters, impostor detection, sender policy framework, (SPF) and more. Texas A&M central email servers use Proofpoint to identify and block or quarantine unsolicited email (spam).  Recipients with quarantined messages will receive a bi-daily quarantine digest. From the digest, messages can be released or deleted, and senders can be whitelisted or blacklisted. In addition, recipients can access their profile and change their spam detection from the default to more or less aggressive spam detection.