What are the problems with the CWEM?

In April-May 2003, if you experienced 'slow response', 'time-out' and 'unable to connect' problems with the campus-wide e-mail system (CWEM), you might have asked "What is the problem with the CWEM?".

The answer is the resources including the CPU, memory and input/output of the CWEM were exhausted.

Certainly, adding more resources to the CWEM is one of the solutions to this problem. However, this solution may not be effective for very long without your assistance and cooperation:

A. Keep the Number of E-mails in Your Inbox Small

Statistics show that the "Inbox" for many users has hundreds to thousands of e-mail messages. Getting hundreds to thousands of messages from CWEM to one's desktop uses a lot of resources of CWEM.

We suggest keeping the number of messages in the "Inbox" minimal by constantly deleting and removing out-dated e-mail. CWEM users who are using web-based mail programs such as CU Web Mail should be more cautious about the number of messages in their Inbox if they cannot afford to wait a long time for the index of their Inbox to be displayed.

Information providers who have been disseminating information to students and staff through e-mail should consider using the mass mailing service provided by the ITSC. Furthermore, if information is disseminated through mailing lists more information should be consolidated in a batch instead of sending individual messages. By adopting both of these suggestions, CWEM users will receive less e-mail and use less time to maintain their mailboxes.

B. Keep the Size of Your Inbox Small

Quite often people send e-mail with attachments. Sometimes we also ask people to send us files through e-mail. Because files and attachments are usually larger in size than an e-mail message, an "Inbox" can become very large even though the number of messages is small. Getting a huge "Inbox" from CWEM to the desktop uses a lot of resources of CWEM.

We recommend saving attachments of e-mail to your local disk to reduce the size of your "Inbox". Do not use your "Inbox" as file storage.

What are some other solutions or alternatives to CWEM?

Of course there are alternatives to CWEM. Departments can set up their own e-mail server. In fact, many departments have already done so. Departments or units with a smaller number of staff that cannot justify setting up their own e-mail server may consider subscribing to the e-service provided by the ITSC.

While e-mail is a very convenient means for sending and receiving information, other means such as the web can serve the same purpose. One possibility is developing a web application to allow submission of information such as student course work, conference papers, application forms, etc. Another possibility is developing a web application such as a portal to allow users to pull - or download - the information that they want.