Mugs Guide to Email

Below are a few general points which are intended to be helpful to anyone who is unfamiliar with the use of email within the School of Physics. If you are in any doubt about any of these points please contact the computer support staff within the School by phone Ext 13426, or 12639. Or by email at support@physics.usyd.edu.au .

Click here if you need help dealing with email attachments sent from desktop systems.

• All email to and from the School of Physics is handled by the main server "suphys".

• Your mail is stored in a file called a "mail spool file" on suphys.

• The location of the mail spool file is /var/mail/username.

• There is limited space in this, and all other partitions. It is therefore important to limit the size of your spool file.

• Do this by reading your email often and storing any messages you wish to keep on a desktop computer or in your own filespace.

• If you are away for a substantial length of time, ask support to remove your user account from the general mailouts. You can be reconnected easily when you return.

• An email exploder is a single email address which siultaneously sends email to a number of locations determined by a file which contains a list of valid email addresses. In the School of Physics several general email exploders exist. They are meant for sending email regarding administrative matters which affect many people. They are not meant for use in sending email about matters which are not concerned with the operation of the School. Some examples of exploders used within the School are here.

• One of the most annoying problems worldwide which has arrisen since the advent of the internet is the amount of unsolicited email which is sent. This mail is generally referred to as SPAM.

• A very important point of ettiquete in the use of exploders which should always be observed. Sending an email message with a large attachment to a large number of people in the School will very quickly add large amounts of data to the /var/mail partition. If this partition fills up the email service is disabled for all users until such time as sufficient space is made available in the partition for any writes to be completed.

• If you wish to share large amounts of information, especially images, with members of the School consider placing the information on the internet from within your own filespace, and then using an exploder to inform everyone about the location of your page.

• Email attachments are a continuing source of difficulty for various members of the School, in particular, those who use only UNIX systems, either directly or through an X terminal. If possible, do not send attachments through exploders. Include the text of a word document if possible.

• If you read email from a desktop system there are several email applications which are supported within the School. Eudora, Thunderbird, Outlook or Mac Mail.

• Attachments are most commonly sent in the form of Microsoft Office documents of one form or another. If you know that the intended recipient of the email uses a desktop system this is usually ok. People using unix/Linux systems have Cross over office installed and can run MS Office natively