August 18, 2003

New system to allow access to campus e-mail from anywhere

Computer users wanting to check on campus e-mail when they are away from their offices will be in luck starting this fall.

Communications and Technology Services (CATS) is rolling out CruzMail, an enhanced e-mail system that will be the standard for UCSC e-mail accounts and will provide secure access to e-mail from any location.

The roll out of these services will be phased over the fall quarter, but for the beginning of fall users can expect to see web-based e-mail and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) services available. (Users can watch for updates in Currents, web postings, and e-mail notices over the next several weeks.)

Under the new system, e-mail stored on the CruzMail server can be manipulated from a desktop computer at home, a workstation at the office, a notebook computer while traveling, and from the WebMail client via any browser, all without the need to transfer messages and files back and forth between these computers.

"In the past, if you wanted to check your e-mail from multiple places (such as on campus, at your home, or while you're abroad), and have all of your messages in one place, you had to log in to one of our Unix timeshares and use pine,” said John Rudd, senior systems engineer at CATS. “With the new system, you can either use the new WebMail service, or you can use any IMAP-enabled mail client from any location, and your message folders will all be there waiting for you," he said.

IMAP-enabled clients include Eudora, Outlook, Netscape, and Apple's "Mail" client, though CATS directly supports only Eudora.

CruzMail includes several other frequently requested features, which will be phased in during fall quarter. Among the new options are:

• Automatic vacation replies and other autoresponse capabilities. Under the current setup, this has been either a cumbersome process for some users, or not available at all.

• Incoming mail filtering and mailbox management that can be customized to each user’s needs.

• Enhanced e-mail list management.

• Subscription-controlled, moderated and private e-mail lists, offering some of the benefits of a list-serve.

• Optional web-accessible archives for e-mail lists

• 50 megabyte capacity on the central mail storage system for each user—a major increase over current default storage quotas.

• Encrypted e-mail receiving and sending to provide additional security.
While CruzMail will offer new options, it will not require any change in e-mail addresses and the present antivirus filtering and spam scanning systems will continue. Like the current CATS POP e-mail services, CruzMail will be compatible with Eudora, Netscape, Outlook, and many other mail clients.
For more details about the system, inlcuding the timeline, server software, hardware, features, and overall development of the service, see the CruzMail Project web site.

Return to Front Page