Housekeeping Your Incoming Mailbox

The Computer Centre often receives reports from our users that they have problems in receiving e-mail. In many cases, the cause can be attributed to the fact that the user's incoming mailbox on the host computer (hkucc or hkusua or graduate) has reached or exceeded the mail quota limit.

When users call the Computer Centre, our advice would usually be: "Delete some unwanted mail from your INBOX on the host computer and then you will be able to receive e-mail again".  However, our users' response would often be: "But I have deleted all the mails in my INBOX and I still cannot receive any new mail."  The simple reason for this problem is that the user has only deleted the mail on their own personal computer, but not those on the host computer.

Perhaps a detailed explanation of the client-server e-mail system will help clarify this issue.  The server is your host computer e.g. hkusua or hkucc.  The client is your PC running an e-mail program such as Eudora, Netscape or Outlook Express. The computer which receives your e-mail, as shown in your e-mail address username@hostname.hku.hk, is the host computer and not your PC.  However, the e-mail program on your PC can read the mail saved on your host if it is configured accordingly.

If the client e-mail program on your PC is configured to "leave mail on host", then a copy of your mail will be kept on the host even after the mail is downloaded to the PC. If the client email program is configured to "NOT leave mail on host", then after your mail is downloaded to the PC by your PC-based mail program, no copy will be kept on the host.

Currently, the soft mail quota limit on the host computer is 3 MB for everyone. When it is exceeded, a warning message will be sent daily to you telling you that you should delete some old mail. When the disk usage of the incoming mailbox  reaches 4 MB, you have reached the hard limit of your mail quota and will no longer receive any new mail.  A message will be sent by the system to the sender informing him that the mail was not delivered because your mail quota was exceeded.

The disk usage of your incoming mailbox is always displayed when you login to a host computer using "telnet". To avoid exceeding the quota limit, you should monitor this figure frequently and act to clean up your incoming mailbox on the host computer immediately when you receive any "mail quota exceeded" message.

If you are using Eudora to check your host mail, you can configure it to NOT leave mail on host. Below are the steps to select this option:

1. Start Eudora.
2. (For version 3.0.5) Under the "Tools" menu, select "Options".
3. (For version 1.5.2) Under the "Special" menu, select "Settings".
4. Under the "Category" column on the left side, select "Checking Mails".
5. On the right side, there is an option called "Leave Mail on Server". Un-select this option so that the mail messages will be deleted from the mail server once they are downloaded to the PC.

1. Start Netscape.
2. Under "Edit" menu, choose "Preferences".
3. Under the "Category" column, double-click "Mail and Groups".
4. Select "Mail Server" within "Mail and Groups".
5. On the right side, in the "Mail Server Type", un-select "Leave messages on server after retrieval".

For users using Pine or PC-Pine to check email, all incoming mail are stored in your incoming mailbox "INBOX" on the host computer. You are reminded to delete or move the messages from the "INBOX" to other mailboxes after they are read to make room for new mail.

As a general practice, you should adhere to one e-mail program of your choice and not switch between different ones as each e-mail program maintains it's own mailbox. It would be difficult to keep track of all your mail and to find anything if they are spread between different mailboxes.

Should you have any questions on the PC e-mail system, please contact the undersigned.

Tony F.K. Lai
Tel: 2829 7976
E-mail: lfk@cc.hku.hk