E-mail is a vital part of most jobs at Bates as well as being an important part of people’s lives. Users come to campus with a variety of e-mail client preferences, and ask Help Desk Services for support in using their e-mail client to access the e-mail servers. They also use different e-mail clients and e-mail addresses at home and need assistance with remote access for these diverse clients. As the number of e-mail clients grows, the amount of work to support them grows. There are also requests to teach classes in how to use each e-mail client. It becomes apparent that Information and Library Services must provide a list of e-mail clients which will be supported, and which clients will be the preferred clients for which we will offer training.
The following e-mail clients will be supported and taught by Information and Library Services:
The recommended e-mail client for use on a personal desktop is Thunderbird. Webmail is recommended for access to e-mail from a public computer (on or off-campus).
Information and Library Services recognizes the large number of users using Outlook Express. Due to the proliferation of viruses written to attack Outlook, ILS recommends against its use. Help Desk Services can provide basic support for Outlook, which is limited to the basic server connectivity setting for the Bates College e-mail servers.