Political Science Department Email Information

Are you getting your Email?

Important

Please be aware that political science personnel have at their disposal two email accounts: one from the university, and one from the department. Internal department memos are by default sent to the department account. These memos include meeting times, announcements, and information about other important events and it is the responsibility of the individual to make certain that they are receiving this information. A member of the PRL staff will be happy to assist you in receiving this information by means of one of the options indicated below.

Description of the Two Systems

The university and department email accounts operate somewhat differently, but they share some similarities from the individual's point of view. Both systems are accessible remotely (as well as in the department) using compatible email clients such as Netscape (click here for a page describing how to setup Netscape to access dept mail) or Eudora (Eudora setup page forthcoming). The central difference between the two systems involves how they handle the email messages.

The university email system is a POP system. With a POP system, messages are downloaded to the computer that is being used to access one's email. In contrast, the department email system is an IMAP system. This system was selected to attempt to best meet the needs of members of the department, who often need to access their email from multiple locations (e.g. the dept, Mershon, and home). In an IMAP system, all email stays on the server. Thus, one can create folders and organize one's email and see this same structure from all locations that one uses to access one's email.

Options

Basically, there are three main options. First, one can maintain the two accounts separately. Some people find this method useful for keeping high volume list traffic separate from their more critical emails. Also, note that the lastname.#@osu.edu email pointer can be directed at either of the university or department email accounts while still keeping one's accounts separate. The @osu.edu pointers are specifically not one's university email address, which is typically lastname.#@pop.service.ohio-state.edu, although they do point to that location by default. The department email addresses typically use the format lastname@polisci.sbs.ohio-state.edu. ⁽¹⁾

The second and third options are similar in that they involve forwarding one's email from one of the two accounts to the other. If you want all of your email to be received via your university account, contact the PRL staff to have this action done. Afterwards, any administrative tasks that you need done with your accounts will have to be serviced through UTS (note that for within department setup of client software you should talk to a PRL staff person). Alternatively, if you want all of your email to be received via your department account, you will need to contact UTS to get your university email forwarded such as at 688-HELP. Afterwards, all administrative tasks that you need done with your accounts are handled by the PRL staff.

Please note that you can switch between any of these three options at any time, although you should be certain to turn off forwarding at one account before asking for it from the other. Otherwise, you will not receive any email as a email loop is formed where the email endlessly bounces back and forth between the university and department systems.

Also, note that the university has been known to remove accounts on their systems after a person has been off the university payroll for a while. In the department, we will maintain your department account if we know that you are returning.

In addition, it is possible to setup Eudora specifically to access both accounts simultaneously while maintaining them separately.

Finally, please note that this document is not intended to describe all of the details regarding choices of how one reads their email; it is instead intended to make people more aware of the basic choices. For more detailed information, please talk to a PRL staff member. In the future, further informational documents will be posted on the department website.

1. Note that there are a few exceptions to the format of one's username for both university and department accounts. Older university addresses may have the format flastname@pop.service.ohio-state.edu (f here stands for the initial of one's firstname) and this same format may be found on a few department addresses. Also, one can use the format firstname.lastname@polisci.sbs.ohio-state.edu for all dept addresses.