Because of the number of users with email accounts on the chemistry server, and because of the volume of email messages in these users' accounts, and the fact that we do not have infinite storage capacity on the server, it is important for users to keep the size of their mail spools on the server to a reasonable level by deleting old, unneeded mail messages.

When the size of a user's mail spool is getting too large, an email message will be sent to the user informing him of the fact, asking him to reduce the size of his chemistry account's mail spool. He may do this by deleting emails on the server he no longer needs &/or moving some of his messages off of the server to his local machine or elsewhere for storage/use.

If you use Eudora (pointed to your email account on Chemistry), here's some information/settings options that may be of value to you.

Many Department personnel do use Eudora as their primary email application. Most of these users also have Eudora set up using POP protocol; that is the program default. (It is also possible to set up Eudora using the IMAP protocol.) For purposes of this FAQ, we'll deal with the POP mail setup.

An email program like Eudora runs a POP client & "talks" to a POP server (our Chemistry server runs both POP & IMAP servers). When you run your Eudora program (properly configured to point to your account on the Chemistry server*), and you ask Eudora to check your mail, Eudora's POP client on your local machine queries the remote POP server on Chemistry, and copies of any new messages sent to Chemistry are placed on your local machine. Please note: Unless you have changed certain Eudora settings, the messages sent to your account on Chemistry REMAIN ON THE SERVER INDEFINITELY. If you delete messages that are in your Eudora mailboxes, you are deleting them from your local machine ONLY and NOT from the server (again, these are the default settings in Eudora).

You can see how over time the volume of emails in your Chemistry account would grow, causing slowdowns in the time it takes for you to retrieve new messages, and eventually causing the size of your mail spool on the server to grow to an unacceptable size, prompting a note from Computer Support sysadmins to reduce the size of your mail spool.

Keeping lots of messages on the server can noticeably slow down the time it takes for you to retrieve new messages, since Eudora must go thru the entire list of messages in your account on the server, and get past the ever-growing number of old already-read ones (copies of which were previously sent to your Eudora's InBox) to the new ones ready to be marked on the server as read with copies of these latter ones now sent to your InBox.

So what can you do to make sure old, unneeded messages get removed from your Chemistry account's mail spool? Consider using some of these Eudora settings, &/or other methods:

1. There is a checkbox setting in Eudora (exact location varies a bit, depending upon the Eudora version/platform being used) "Leave on server" with another fill-in box that lets you decide how many days to leave messages on the server (assuming you leave them on the server at all).



• Checking the "leave on server" checkbox, but leaving the how-many-days fill-in box blank leaves all of your messages on the server indefinitely. Please do not do this!



• Leaving the "leave on server" checkbox unchecked means all messages on the server will be deleted after you check your mail and copies of the messages have been placed in your local Eudora InBox. If you are comfortable with this option, use it.



• There is a middle way many users opt for, checking the "leave on server" checkbox and specifying a certain number of days -- leaving messages on the server for a few days, a week, maybe 2 weeks. This is a good plan -- especially if you read your email with Eudora (or other POP clients) in more than one place with more than one computer (like office and home).
  
  
  • When you choose to leave messages on the server for x number of days, and check for mail with Eudora, you should notice an icon next to the listing for a given email message in the "Server Status" column in (initially) your Eudora InBox's summary of messages that indicates that the "original" of this message still resides on the server. Should you decide you wish to delete the "original" message from the server before x number of days are up and the server copy would be deleted anyway, you can do so, by setting the message summary's "Server Status" action to "Delete from Server" (the icon will change), and then check mail again (now the server copy of the message is deleted, and in your Eudora mailbox there is now no icon in the "Server Status" field next to the Eudora copy of the message in the summary of messages listing).
  
  
  Also this way, should you accidently delete a recently-received message from one of your Eudora mailboxes, since the "original" still resides on the server, it's possible to get another copy of the message back to your Eudora InBox. How?
  
  
  • You could first access your Chemistry account some other way (e.g. using Telnet or SSH to log into your account, then ELM or Pine to bounce (resend) the message to yourself, then have Eudora recheck your mail to fetch it from the server); OR
  
  
  
  • You might choose to use the "Check mail specially" feature (with Eudora 5.x, hold down the option key and go to File->Check Mail Specially..., then in the Mail Transfer Options window, choose "Fetch all message headers to In mailbox" and hit OK). You cannot fetch just one already-marked-as-read message this way, but you'll get a copy of that one you wanted (that you had already deleted from your Eudora mailbox) and a copy of any other messages still on the server (new and old mail).



2. Another useful Eudora setting is the "Delete (message) from server when emptied from trash". You might want to use this setting in addition to the "leave on server x days" setting outlined above. Or perhaps not. As implied, using this setting means that when you move a message in one of your Eudora mailboxes to the Trash and then delete the message from the local machine, the server copy of the message will also be deleted.

If you use PINE or TWIG, see How do I save messages in PINE or TWIG?.

If you have further questions, please contact Computer Support.