MAIL QUOTAS: LIMITS ON USE OF SHARED INCOMING E-MAIL AREA

Many people at Boston University use the mail server on ACS to receive their e-mail. Mail received by ACS is stored on disk in an area reserved for incoming e-mail. This shared disk space is used by others who also read their e-mail on ACS.

If you do not delete or move mail to your private directory after it is read, the shared area will soon become full and no one will be able to receive new mail. To help ensure that this does not happen, an automated system of e-mail quotas keeps track of the amount of shared space in use by each account on ACS. The default e-mail quota is currently 2MB.

The quota system has been designed to allow maximum flexibility for most people, placing restrictions only on those accounts which consistently occupy large amounts of space in the shared incoming e-mail area. The system will issue a series of warning messages to anyone whose use of the shared area reaches 100 percent or more of the 2MB quota. If your use of the shared area reaches or exceeds the quota, the system will automatically set a 10 day grace period; if you do not reduce your use of the shared area below the 2MB limit within this time, a permanent, absolute limit of 2MB will be established and all new mail to your account will be rejected whenever your use of the shared area is above this quota.

You can check the current status of your e-mail quota on ACS with the mquota command. Type mquota at the ACS system prompt.

To help keep mail flowing smoothly, you should regularly delete unwanted mail messages from the shared area or move them into your private directory. If you are using a personal computer mail program, you can download your mail to your personal computer. Details on how to do this follow.

HOW TO MOVE MAIL OUT OF THE SHARED INCOMING E-MAIL AREAS

UNIX-BASED MAIL PROGRAMS

If you use Elm or Pine, you can type "d" to mark messages for deletion. Use "q" to quit from these mail packages and press "y" when asked if the messages marked for deletion should be removed. You should also type "y" when asked if messages you've read should be moved to your "received" folder. This will store the mail in your private directory rather than leaving it in the shared incoming e-mail area.

If you use the UNIX "mail" program, please be sure always to use "q" rather than "x" to exit mail and save changes. Using "q" should move your mail into a file named "mbox" in your home directory each time, rather than leaving it in the shared incoming e-mail area.

If you need help using UNIX based e-mail (e.g., "mail", "elm", or "pine"), send e-mail to help@acs.bu.edu or call the 111 Cummington Street Help Desk at 353-2784. A free handout on using e-mail is available at the Help Desk or at the front office of Information Technology, 111 Cummington Street.

PERSONAL COMPUTER-BASED MAIL PROGRAMS

If you are using a personal computer mail program such as Eudora, Netscape Navigator, Netscape Communicator or Outlook Express, you should make sure your mail program is set to download your mail to your personal computer *and* to remove the mail from the ACS server.

In your Mac or PC mail program, make sure that you have *not* selected any option that says "Leave/Keep mail on server." In most versions of Eudora, you will find this option under "Special-->Settings" on the Macintosh and "Tools-->Options" on the PC. In Netscape 3 you will find this option under "Options-->Mail and News Preferences-->Servers". In Netscape 4, you will find the option under "Edit-->Preferences-->Mail and Groups-->Mail Servers". You can find detailed instructions and further discussion of the various settings on the PCSC handouts page at http://www.bu.edu/pcsc/handouts.

Help on Eudora, Netscape, and some other PC and Macintosh based e-mail programs is available from our Personal Computing Support Center (PCSC) handouts Web page or from the PCSC consulting office at 111 Cummington Street Room B19, 353-7272, pcsc@bu.edu.