How to use Email in the VU Math Department

Members of our department can get two Vanderbilt email accounts for free. (You can also get additional email addresses from non-Vanderbilt providers, such as America Online, Comcast, BellSouthNet, Microsoft Hotmail.)

Most new members of our department will find that it is more convenient (and less confusing) to have just one of these two email accounts; the table below may help you decide which account to use. Older members of the department may have two email accounts largely due to historical accident -- i.e., because of the way that the services have changed as time has passed. Email from one account can be set up for automatic forwarding to the other account (but don't try forwarding both ways!). Caution: If you have both accounts active, and you're only aware of one, then unread email may be piling up at the other account!

*SERVER:*	Math department computer (currently it's on "Atlas", in our room 1427)	VU Mail (on a computer in the ITS offices, in the Hill Center on VU's Peabody campus)
Typical email address	schectex@math.vanderbilt.edu -- it includes the word "math", which most of us like, but you only get 8 characters before the @ sign.	eric.schechter@vanderbilt.edu -- you can get your name spelled the way you want it
Administered by	Math department (chiefly, Eric Schecter) and the College of Arts and Sciences	ITS (formerly ACIS), a part of the university
Who can have an account	Members (faculty, other staff, graduate students, visitors) of our department	Members of the Vanderbilt community, as soon as the university has completed your administrative paperwork
For which members of our department is this type of account recommended?	Administrative accounts (such as the Director of Graduate Studies or the 11th Annual Conference on Universal Algebra); visitors who have delays in their administrative paperwork; people who love Unix. (Also, see list of clients below.)	Most individuals in our department. (Particularly, those who like Eudora, Netscape, or other GUI clients; see list of clients below.)
How do you get an account?	Contact Eric Schechter	Go to the VU Net web page.
How long can you keep the account after you leave?	6 months for computer usage and 3 years for email forwarding; renewals are possible with authorization from current faculty. (Those deadlines are a new policy, instituted in January 2002. Note that the AMS gives permanent email forwarding to its members.)	4 months for computer usage and 9 months for email forwarding; alumni can get permanent email forwarding
Storage limitations:	No limitations, until we run out of space (which may be soon).	20 megabytes per person, and you can buy more (it's not expensive).
Which client programs can you use? Note: You can change client programs as often as you wish, and you can access one email account from several computers (e.g., both at home and at the office).	Pine, "mail" (Berkeley Mail), any other Unix commands that are already installed on Atlas. Mostly text-based. For beginners on this type of email account, I recommend Pine; see the web page brief introduction to Pine. The older program "mail" is for experts only; it cannot handle attachments as well as Pine can. When you're travelling and you have to log into a guest account on an unfamiliar computer, I recommend that you try the Unix command "telnet math.vanderbilt.edu". If a Unix prompt isn't available to you, but a web browser is, try getting to our Java Telnet web page; that's slow but it may work. (Before May 2002 you can also use conventional POP/IMAP clients such as Eudora, Netscape, Pegasus, etc. But that capability will disappear in May 2002, which is why many users of @math accounts will switch over to @vanderbilt before May 2002.)	Conventional, popular POP/IMAP clients such as Eudora or Netscape, etc. Mostly graphical interface. (For configuration instructions see the Other Clients web page. ITS suggests that you use Mulberry, which can be downloaded from the VUMail Mulberry page; this is intended as the replacement for Simeon (which some people here have been using for several years). Caution: When you install one of these programs, make sure that it isn't set to download all messages and then delete them from the server. That is, unfortunately, the default on many of those programs. If you delete your messages from the server, then you can't read them later from another location. For beginners and for travelling, I recommend using Webmail, which doesn't require any program installation at all; just point your favorite web browser at the VU Webmail page.
Other advantages of this server:	It's on our own departmental computer, under our control. So you can apply "grep" and other Unix commands to your mail files. Also, if you know Unix shell scripting language or perl or something like that, you can write your own customized email scripts, for purposes such as mailmerge. (Useful for conference organizers.) You can also implement a variety of other programs -- e.g., spam filters. (Type "man filter" to learn about filters.)	File-backups, antivirus filtering, and a little less work for Eric.
How can you set up this account to forward all its mail elsewhere? (Caution: Don't set up both your accounts to each forward to the other!)	Create a textfile named ".forward" in your main directory on Atlas. The file should contain just one line -- the email address to which you want the email forwarded. (Note that the filename begins with a period, so it won't show up in a file list with an ordinary "ls" command, but it will show up with an "ls -a" command.)	Go to the modify VU Net options web page.
Where can you find out more about this email account?	Ask me (Eric Schechter). I might know. If I don't know, I'll try to find out.	Start with the VU Mail website, particularly the VU Mail FAQ. If that doesn't get you the answer you want, you might ask me (I might know), or you might try asking ITS; start at the Help Desk webpage.

A VU Math web page, updated 5 Jan 2002 by webmaster@math.vanderbilt.edu.