Since Barnard students and faculty returned to campus, the increase in email volume combined with the effects of much larger mailboxes and a larger attachment allowance has created a load on the system that periodically exceeds our hardware capacity.  In order to alleviate the current problem, additional hardware will be added to the system as soon as possible.  Even as MINS continues to plan for sustained growth of the email system, users themselves can do a number of things to help maximize the efficient operation of the system and enhance their own email experience.

• Keep your Inbox smaller than 1,500 messages; file messages you want to keep in email folders

• Set your email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.) to check for new messages every 10 minutes or more, not every 2 or 5 minutes; or, preferably, turn off automatic checking completely and get new mail only when you click on the appropriate command in your client

• Empty your Trash folder

• If the server is slow, do not click repeatedly on the Send button; the server will respond as soon as it is available

• Stay within your overall email quota (Faculty and Staff = 500 MB; Students = 350 MB)

• Save documents received as attachments on Artemis (Faculty and Staff) or your local pc, and then delete them from your Inbox

• Delete documents sent as attachments from your Sent mail, retaining the message text but storing the attachment on Artemis or your local pc

Please contact the Help Desk (help@barnard.edu or x4-7172) for assistance with any of these options or for other suggestions.

• Why should I worry about the number of messages in my email inbox?
  Every time you click on the inbox, the system reviews all of the message headers.  A smaller inbox will be processed faster.  It helps to move messages into folders, resulting in a smaller inbox.   Aim for a limit of 1,500 messages.   Of course, an inbox of 1,000 messages is even better.
  For an easy start, you can create folders named  "Inbox 2006", "Inbox 2007", "Inbox 2008".   

• Does the system really keep all of my old sent mail?
  Every time you send a message, a copy is automatically placed in your sent mail folder.   The system does not automatically delete old sent mail.  Remember, files sent as attachments take up the most space (even within your sent mail folder), so be particularly attentive about deleting these.

• How much space do I have on the email server?
  Faculty and Staff email accounts on the BC server have 500 MB of space.  They also have space on the file server named Artemis.
  Students have 350 MB on the server named eclipse. 
  If you exceed you allocation, incoming email messages will be rejected by the email system.

• How can I check how much space I am using in my email account?
  Login to eBear, go to the Email tab, and the percentage of your disk storage quota being used is displayed in the left column.  This graphic is updated once a day. (Note that if you maintain a personal web page, that also is part of your disk usage.)  

• My Barnard Staff email inbox is filled with versions of a document that must be edited by several staff members in my department.  Can I avoid this clutter?
  Instead of sending documents to colleagues in your department, save the document on Artemis and then send your colleagues an email with the location of the document.  This is particularly useful when a department team is jointly editing a document since Artemis will always have the current version.

• Why is there a quota on email?
  Email systems are not designed for long term storage. The more mail (especially with attachments) each of us keeps on the mail server the larger the email database, this in turn results in longer backup and database maintenance run times. 

• What happens to messages in my trash folder?
  Normally the system purges messages that had been in trash more than 30 days. This was disabled on 9/3/08 to improve server performance. It will be re-enabled later in the fall. In the meantime, remember to purge your trash folder.  

• Why do email messages travel through a Barnard spam filter? 
  Spam filters are necessary to protect the College: incoming - protect our users and systems; outgoing - protect Barnard from being blacklisted.

• How can I identify "large" email messages?
  Each email client allows you to sort a folder by the size of the message.  In Thunderbird, you can click on the top of the column labeled Size".  This identifies the largest messages for your review.  If the message has an important attachment, you might want to copy that file to your pc and delete the message. Call the Help Desk for advice about your situation.

• How do I empty the trash folder and set the frequency of checking my inbox?
  see the Email Tips page.

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last update 11/05/08