Oakton Email Information

Getting a network/email account

All College employees and credit class students are allowed network and email accounts. Students accounts are created automatically upon class registration. Employee accounts are created upon request.

Responsible Use

Oakton email provides an important means of communication amongst the College's employees and students. To preserve the viability of email, we ask that you abide by Board Policy 8330.2 for Responsible Use of Information Technology at Oakton (available online at http://www.oakton.edu/resource/it/policies.htm).

On-Campus Access

Oakton email is accessible from any networked campus computer. While Netscape Messenger  is the preferred program for accessing email on campus, WebMail through Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer are supported email programs. Detailed instructions for Netscape Messenger are available online at http://www.oakton.edu/resource/it/mailgide. WebMail instructions are also linked from the WebMail login page under the heading “Welcome to IMP” (New User Introduction).

Off-campus Access

·          Dialup: College employees may dial into the school mail server to access email. An installation CD is available from the IT Help Desk. Once installed, Netscape Messenger will be configured for your Oakton mail. Other mail programs, such as MS Outlook, may be used but you will have to configure them on your own.

·          WebMail: Employees and students may access their Oakton email via a web mail interface that is compatible with most recent web browsers. The URL is http://www.oakton.edu/webmail. Instructions for using WebMail are linked from the WebMail login page.

·          IDs & Passwords: Your ID & Password is the same on-campus as off-campus. If you change your network password, remember to update it on your dialup connection.

Account Management & Message/Spam Filtering

Employees may set up features such as mail forwarding and vacation notices. For more information on how to do this see http://www.oakton.edu/resource/it/mailgide/acctmgt/acctmgt.htm. Users may setup their own message and spam filters by using the instructions linked from http://www.oakton.edu/resource/it/mailgide.

Important User Guidelines

College business is dependent upon Oakton’s email. To ensure the viability of the system, please follow these guidelines.

·          The use of College technology, including email, for personal gain is not allowed.

·          Email storage is limited to 60 Mb for all folders. The system will warn you when you approach your limit. Exceeding your limit will result in bounced mail; if IT must correct the problem, you may lose all saved mail.

Please:

·          Check your mail often

·          Delete unwanted messages from your Inbox and Sent folders (under your Inbox and also Local mail)

·          Empty your Trash folder regularly

·          See the online email instructions (http://www.oakton.edu/resource/it/mailgide) for procedures for saving and archiving old messages.

Mailing Groups

There are six major mailing groups at the College (in addition to those you may create in your own address book or listservs which IT may set up for a specific purpose)

faculty@oakton.edu

Received by Full time and Adjunct faculty only

FTfaculty@oakton.edu

Received by Full time faculty only

staff@oakton.edu

Received by Classified staff only

administrators@oakton.edu

Received by Administrators only

everyone@oakton.edu

Received by All members of the above groups

*RHC@oakton.edu

Received by All people that work at RHC and by request

.................................* Contact Julia Gray, IT/RHC to be added to the RHC mail group

You must have a valid Oakton email account to be able to send to any of these groups.

You must send from your Oakton account either on campus, through Oakton's dialup connection, or via webmail.

Those who go over their email quota for more than 10 days in a row will be automatically unsubscribed

Use of these addresses should be carefully considered and generally restricted to college-related activities. As a community college, College-related activities may include a broad range of business, professional and personal development, and community-related issues. However, we do ask you to follow these guidelines when mailing to any of the major "@oakton" groups.

 

·          Do not use the mailing groups to advertise personal items for-sale.

 

·          Do not use mailing groups to advertise personal business or other for-profit activities

·          Do not use mailing groups to distribute chain letters or jokes

·          Avoid sending mail "Highest Priority." This priority is generally reserved for critical use as determined by the administration.

·          Do not use mailing groups to distribute virus warnings. Send virus warnings to helpdesk@oakton.edu and it will be forwarded to appropriate IT personnel for evaluation and possible general distribution.

·          Do not send the mailing groups messages with large attachments. The automatic limit for the groups is approximately 300K including the message plus the attachment.

Large messages can adversely impact users' individual accounts and the mail system as a whole.  The file size of an email increases greatly with the inclusion of attachments and embedded images.  If you are unsure of the total size of an email with attachments and images, send it to yourself first. Consult IT for further advice. A guide for optimizing the file size of images is at http://www.oakton.edu/resource/it/optimize/optimize.html