Email, Information about Mailing Lists, Distribution Groups, Group Email accounts and Unit Aliases
This page contains frequently asked questions about the campus Illinois Directory (ID) service.
What's the difference between a mailing list, a group email account, and a group or unit alias?
A
mailing list is a system that distributes email
to a range of subscribers. Email sent to a mailing list address can be controlled
and verified in various ways before it's distributed to the subscribers'
personal email addresses.
A mailing list is not associated
with any Illinois Directory information, such as telephone or fax numbers or
street addresses. Searching for a mailing list's email address in the directory
is unlikely to return results.
A
group email account is a single
email account that can be accessed by a range of people.
A
group (or unit) alias is an entry
in the Illinois Directory with a range of information about a particular group
(or unit). A group or unit alias can have telephone number, fax number, street
address, email address, web, and other information associated with it.
A group or unit alias can have only one email address
associated with it. That associated email address can belong to an individual,
to a mailing list, or to an email account that a group accesses. However, a
group alias cannot directly handle email distribution services to a range of
people.
Summary:
If you want
to distribute email to many people at once, you need a mailing list or distribution group.
If you want
several people to be able to send and receive email from a single email
address, you need a group email account.
If you want
to create an entry for your group that can be found by searching in the
directory, you need a group or unit alias.
How do I create a mailing list or distribution group?
See
Campus Mailing Lists, Request a new list . or
Office 365, Email, Exchange, Distribution Groups, What information is needed to request a mail-enabled Exchange Distribution group
How do I create a group email account (also known as a resource account)?See
Office 365, Email, Creating a Resource or Group Mailbox How
do I create a group alias?
Visit the
Group Alias Creation page.
Once the
alias has been created, you will use the Illinois Directory Editor to add and
maintain information in the entry.