Next 12.A:  Where to Send Mail Prev 11.B.6:  Transferring and Restoring Files  Contents Contents

Basic

§ 12: Email


A popular feature of a computer connected to the internet is electronic mail or "email". Unfortunately, there is significant overhead involved with maintaining a modern and always-working mail system, and once you start using one you really do rely on it and demand that it works well.

For you to get the most reliable mail service, and for us to concentrate more on academic computing, you are requested to have your mail sent to and from the central computer ucs.orst.edu. (We assume you already have started a ucs account.) Note, there's no problem using the Departmental cluster to open a window to ucs.orst.edu and doing your mail business in that window; we really do want you to keep in touch.

There are a number of programs you can use to read and send email. Some popular ones are:
pine very friendly, works on many terminals, recommended
mailoriginal Unix mailer, crude, not friendly, but reliable
elm uses vi commands, "pine" replaces "elm"

Whatever mailer you pick, it's a good idea to stick with it. Each mailer stores your letters differently, and so mail saved with one mailer may not be readable by another.

We recommend you read section A and then at least one other:

  1. Where to Send Your Mail
    1. Forwarding Your Mail
  2. Using Pine
    1. Composing a Message in Pine
    2. Reading a Message in Pine
  3. Using Mail
    1. Composing a Message in Mail
    2. Reading a Message in Mail
  4. Using Elm

Next 12.A:  Where to Send Mail Prev 11.B.6:  Transferring and Restoring Files