IT Help

This is the nascent section housing some answers to frequently asked questions having to do with using computers at STH.  If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please look at BU’s new TechWeb site. If you still can’t find information you need, please email sthhelp@bu.edu.

Help Topics

Topics marked with asterisks (*) are only available to the STH faculty and staff for security reasons.

The Short Answer

Some questions don’t need long explanations!  But if you have further questions, please do email us.

What’s the difference between ACS and Exchange?

ACS (Academic Computing System) handles email for all current BU students, faculty and staff.  Exchange is a Microsoft product used by many schools’ faculty and staff.  With a few small exceptions, STH uses Exchange, which allows us (among other things) to delegate mailbox use to other people and share calendars.  More information on email is here.

I’m an STH faculty or staff member.  How do I know whether my email is on ACS or on Exchange?

What do you use to access your email over the web?  If it’s Horde, you’re on ACS.  If it’s Outlook Web Access, you’re on Exchange.

Another way to know is to see where your mail is forwarding.  Log in here, and see if it’s forwarding to your username@acs.bu.edu or username@ad.bu.edu.  The latter means you’re on Exchange.

I keep getting emails telling me that I’m about to reach my email quota.  What do I do?

The easiest option is to delete large attachments, which can quickly add up.  Remember to save the attachments you need elsewhere first.

In Outlook, go your Inbox and choose View -> Arrange by -> Size.  Look for “Enormous (>5MB)” or “Huge (1-5MB)” emails.  Double click each of those to open it in a new window, right click the attachment, and choose Remove.  Close the email window and choose to save the changes.  Repeat for any other folders you might have.

The procedure is almost the same for Entourage, except that when you double-click an email to open it, look for the Attachments window between the message headers and the body (main part) of the email.  If attachments are not visible, click the arrow to the left of the word Attachments.  Click once on each attachment and then click on the Remove button to the right.

What’s a server, anyway, and why should I keep my files on it?

A server is just a computer, but (usually) more powerful than what you have on your desktop, is located somewhere where you’re not, and is on all the time.  It stores files and serves, or delivers, them remotely upon request.

The STH server lives at 881 Commonwealth Ave, and is maintained by folks there.  Among other things, it keeps folders and files that are shared by STH community members.  Every faculty and staff member at STH also has a home folder on the server.  (That’s the folder named your-username$.)  Nobody but you can access your home folder — not even the support folks.

Keeping your files on it has two advantages.  First, it automatically backs everything up several times a day.  Second, you’ll be able to access your files from multiple computers, avoiding confusion with multiple versions of the same file being stored in different places.

If you have questions about keeping your work on the STH server, please contact us.