Mailing Lists, Group Email Accounts, Group Aliases, or Unit Aliases

This page contains frequently asked questions about the campus Illinois Directory (ID) service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers

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.

Note: 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.

Note: 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.

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 a group email account?

If you would like to set up a mailing list, see CITES Listserv (Mailing Lists).

If you would like to create a shared/group email account, you may request an Exchange account through Departmental Services.

How do I create a group alias?

Visit the Nameserv Request form for details about how to request a group alias.

Once the alias has been created, you will use the Illinois Directory Editor to add and maintain information in the entry.

Questions and comments can always be addressed to the CITES Help Desk (consult@illinois.edu) or to nameserv@illinois.edu.

How do I arrange for group alias email to be sent to several people?

First, choose whether you want a mailing list (where email is sent to many people at their individual addresses) or a group email address (where many people can visit one mailbox).

Then create a mailing list or a group email address, as described above.

Once you have one of these account types set up, you can put the email address of your mailing list or group email in the "email" field of the group alias entry.

At this point, when a user sends email to youralias@illinois.edu, it will be sent to the mailing list or group email address you specified.

How do I update the information in a group or unit alias?

Originally, unit entries were updated using information from the University paper phone book. CITES no longer automatically updates these entries with the phonebook data; instead, someone within the unit is authorized to be the "proxy" for the entry.

Anyone who is given proxy authorization for an entry can edit the entry using the Electronic Directory Editor (https://ede.cites.uiuc.edu/ede.cgi). More than one person can be given proxy authorization for the same entry.

The following fields are editable by the proxy; any other fields will need to be updated by nameserv@illinois.edu.

email
fax
other_phone
other_address
proxy
nickname
www
pager
text

Some fields cannot be edited by the proxy-authorized user and will need to be updated by nameserv@illinois.edu, including the "phone" and "address" fields (which will be removed from the entry and replaced with the proxy-editable "other_phone" and "other_address" fields) and the "name" field.

How does someone receive proxy authorization to edit group or unit aliases?

If you would like to become the proxy or designate someone as the proxy, please provide the alias of the unit entry (or entries) and the NetID(s) of the individual(s) that will be authorized to edit these entries.

If you need to have a non-proxy editable field updated, include this information in your request.

Email this information to nameserv@illinois.edu or contact the Help Desk at consult@illinois.edu.