Inside:

Activate Your New E-mail Account Now

“Activating my new e-mail account was probably the easiest thing I’ll do in grad school. You guys rock!” wrote one incoming University of Maryland graduate student this summer.

More than 6000 new UM students have been given accounts on the new Mail@umd e-mail system and the feedback has been very positive. The new system gives students 50 MB of storage space, which is twice the amount allotted per student on WAM and Glue. The system also allows you to access your e-mail over the Internet using a Web browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape. Also, virus protection at the server level prevents most virus-infected messages from reaching your inbox.

You have two options for activating your new Mail@umd e-mail account. You can activate a new account or, if you have old e-mail on WAM or Glue that you’d like to move into your new account, you can activate your new account and migrate your old e-mail files using the tool at www.oit.umd.edu/new. E-mail service on WAM and Glue will be discontinued in the future, however, other services will be continued. If you plan to migrate old e-mail files to your new Mail@umd account, please read the instructions at www.oit.umd.edu/email.

You will need to know your University Directory ID and Password before migrating old mail or activating your new account. You can find out your University Directory ID and Password at www.directory.umd.edu. These will be your login and password for the Mail@umd e-mail system as well. You will be able to access your e-mail on the Web at www.mail.umd.edu.

After you activate your Mail@umd e-mail account, be sure to update your e-mail address in Testudo. The university will use the e-mail address you have listed in Testudo to send any official university communications to you.

More information about the Mail@umd e-mail system is available at www.oit.umd.edu/email.

Student Tech Fee Improves Connectivity

A bill for your education can present a dizzying array of numbers and fees. As an undergraduate, all the benefits you’ve received by spending your tuition dollars at the University of Maryland may not be immediately apparent by scanning that confusing piece of paper. However, any student noticing the Student Technology Fee on their bill should know they get serious bang for their buck.

The Student Technology Fee costs full-time

undergraduates $100 and part-time undergraduates $50 per year. With this funding, the university has committed to increasing the Ethernet connections in residence halls and Greek chapter houses through 2005. Eventually, students will be upgraded from a connection of 10 megabits per second (Mbps) shared between multiple students to a switched 10 Mbps per resident. The funding will also improve student access to university networks and services both on and off campus. Commuter students will find remote access easier while students in residence halls and other areas will see increased bandwidth.

The Student Technology Fee also ensures that university classrooms and lecture halls have basic technological capability,

including overhead projectors and projection screens, appropriate lighting, capacity for videos and presentations, and access to the Internet. Among other projects, the funding will also keep WAM lab computers and software current for students.

For information about the Student Technology Fee, visit www.oit.umd.edu/techfee.