In our last user survey results published in Computer News (March/April 2001), Webmail was shown to be the most popular email program used in HKU.  About 48% of all HKU members use Webmail as their tool for managing e-mail. There are around 400 to 450 simultaneous logins to Webmail during office hours and a peak of more than 850 simultaneous logins during the busiest hours from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.  On the average, access to webmail is more than 14000 times daily. 

In order to improve the response rate of the webmail service and to cope with the increasing number of webmail users, the Computer Centre has upgraded the Webmail server. The new Webmail server is a server class PC with dual Pentium III 1GHz CPU, 2GB of memory and a mirrored 36GB hard disk storage. Our Webmail users should have noticed a significant improvement in speed when using Webmail.  This server doubles the capacity of the previous one and should be able to better cope with the heavy demands during peak hours. 

Besides upgrading the Webmail server, the Computer Centre also has plans to upgrade the staff email server, i.e. the HKUCC system, which is one of the back-end email feeders for Webmail.  If the back-end server's capacity cannot cope with user demands, the response of Webmail will remain slow as email is fed to the Webmail server from the back-end email servers. The upgrade is expected to be implemented in September/October of this year. 

Suggestions in Using HKU Webmail: 

1. Always use the URL http://webmail.hku.hk   to access the Webmail server.
2. File important emails into folders instead of leaving them in your inbox.
3. Clean up your inbox at regular intervals, removing unwanted emails especially those with large attachments. A lot of email left in your inbox will slow down the response from Webmail.
4. Always logout or close the browser after using Webmail. This prevents others from hacking into your email account by clicking 'Back' button on the browser.
5. There is no 'Deleted' folder in Webmail, therefore, if you delete an email from Webmail, you cannot recover it.
6. Customize your Webmail using the 'Options' button.
7. If you find that your address book or user's options revert to previous settings after you have changed them, it is because you are accessing the backup Webmail server instead of the main Webmail server. Clear your browser's cache and use the URL http://webmail.hku.hk to access the Webmail server.
8. If you encounter the error message  “An error has occurred communicating with the IMAP server”, you have probably exceeded your allocated disk quota on the email server (hkusua,  hkucc or graduate).  

Kenneth Yip 
Tel: 2859 7973 
Email: kkyyip@hkusua.hku.hk