Managing Your icarus Email Account

Chances are you came to this page because you got a message from the ACCC saying that you either have or almost have too much email on the server on your icarus email account. This Web page explains what these warning messages mean and how to reduce the amount of mail you have on the server so you won't have problems in the future.

Depending on how you do your email, fixing your email quota problem might be as simple as just logging in and downloading your new incoming messages. (See (2) Haven't checked your email in a while? Log in and take care of your new incoming email below.)

Note on mail folders and mailboxes: Some email programs and tools talk about "mail folders" and others talk about "email mailboxes" -- they are exactly the same thing. We use "mailboxes" on this Web page because that's what Eudora calls them. (Even though the ACCC Email Diagnostics Web pages uses folder.)

To keep the ACCC email servers running smoothly and to conserve on our limited disk space, there are limits -- called quotas -- on the total size of the mail files that can be in kept each person's "spool space" on the ACCC email service machines. Nobody looks at your email files to enforce these quotas -- it's all done by automated programs and standard UNIX quota procedures.

There are two types of Inbox quotas on icarus:

• The soft quota is the smaller quota; it represents space available for your email Inbox in the long term. But you can go over your soft quota for a short while -- seven days. (That's why it's called the soft quota -- because you can exceed it for a while.) Nothing bad will ever happen so long as you keep your online storage below your soft quota. But if the size of your Inbox exceeds your Inbox soft quota for more than seven days, new incoming email will be returned to its sender.

 
• The hard quota is the larger quota. It represents the absolute maximum online storage available for your email Inbox. Tigger will not allow you to go over your Inbox hard quota. If the size of your Inbox ever reaches your Inbox hard quota, new incoming email will be returned to its sender.

The icarus Inbox allotments are given in Email Space limits for ACCC Servers.

• In addition to the hard and soft Inbox quotas, icarus accounts also have another set of hard and soft quotas, which applies to the space taken up by all the other other files you keep on icarus, including all your IMAP mailboxes other than your Inbox and the files in your personal Web pages.
  
  
  
• This pair of quotas are your standard UNIX disk quotas.

You will receive warning email messages as the size of your Inbox on icarus approaches and exceeds your Inbox soft quota and as it approaches and reaches your Inbox hard quota. You must take these Inbox warning email messages seriously; the consequence for staying over your Inbox soft quota for 7 days or for reaching your Inbox hard quota is that new incoming email messages addressed to your account will be "bounced" -- returned to their sender with an error message that says that your account is over quota. You will not begin to receive new incoming email until you go back down below your Inbox soft quota. Resumption of the delivery of new incoming email is automatic, however, and occurs as soon as you go below your soft quota.

When might you go over your Inbox quota?

• If you have just a few really large email messages -- perhaps ones with attachments that you either don't need or that you have already downloaded. Take care of these and you should be OK. (One average-sized attachment is about the same size as 10 average-sized email messages.)
• If you use POP* and haven't read your email in long while, or if you use Leave Mail on Server (don't -- the ACCC doesn't support LMOS) and don't have it set up to automatically delete the messages after a certain period of time.
• If you use IMAP* and you leave too much email in your Inbox.

*POP and IMAP are two different ways that email programs use to manage email that's on a remote server such as icarus. If you use Eudora or another personal computer email program and you've never heard of POP or IMAP, then you probably use POP -- it's generally their default. If you use WebMail or pine, then you use IMAP. See Do you use POP or IMAP for more information.

The ACCC recommends that you use IMAP.

Why does it matter if you do? Only email that is on the server -- icarus, in this case -- applies to your icarus Inbox or disk quotas. More specifically, the total space taken up by the email that's in your Inbox on icarus applies to your icarus Inbox quota, and the space taken up by your other mailboxes on icarus applies to your icarus disk quota.

Exactly which email is "on the server" depends on how you do email -- do you use POP or IMAP or both? POP and IMAP are two different ways that email programs use to manage email that's on a remote server such as icarus, mailserv, or tigger.

POP is the older of the two protocols. POP was designed to be used when you always read your email from one computer, using one email program, and you can use it if that is how you do email.

IMAP, on the other hand, was designed to be used when you want to read your email from multiple machines, using different programs if you want. If this is how you want to do email, then you should use IMAP. When you use IMAP, it won't matter how many machines or how many different programs or machines you use. The ACCC recommends that you use IMAP for its flexibility.

If you don't know whether you use POP or IMAP, the ACCC Email Diagnostics Web page will tell you what you used last.

Figure 1: Ada last used IMAP on both her icarus and mailserv accounts. See the Mail last accessed line below the table. (Though she can't check her mail on her icarus account except with pine and WebMail anymore; see Strong Security for Email at UIC: mail.uic.edu and SSL. That is why she used the Move to mailserv utility to forward her icarus email to mailserv.) This tool is described in Using the ACCC Email Diagnostics Tool.

Do you use pine on icarus or tigger to read your email? The Email Diagnostics Web page does not know when you use pine, but it is IMAP-compatible.

ACCC Email Diagnostics Web page will also allow you to unstick a stuck POP or IMAP session, if yours is stuck (Mail Diagnostics: line).

You only have to be worried about email messages and attachments that are on the server, in this case icarus.

• Regardless of whether you use POP or IMAP, you have at least three mailboxes on the server:
  • Two mailbox that you use all the time:
    • Your Inbox (Eudora ) or INBOX folder (WebMail or pine).
    • The space taken up by your Inbox applies to your Inbox quota.
    • Your Spam mailbox, where your automatic ACCC antispam filter puts your incoming messages that were identified as spam. You can manage the messages in your Spam mailbox from the spam notification email that you will receive regularly, so you do not have to worry about its being on the server if you use POP.
    • The space taken up by your spam mailbox applies to your disk quota.
  • The third mailbox is your reportspam mailbox. The ACCC asks that you move the email messages that you *receive in your inbox* that are spam -- the ones that the ACCC spam filtering misses -- into your reportspam mailboxes. We have a program that will take the email from your reportspam mailbox every few hours and uses these messages to update our anti-spam filters. Nothing stays in your reportspam mailbox for very long, but it does apply to your disk quota while it is there.
    
    
  
  
• If you use Eudora (or another personal computer email program) with POP or if you don't know whether you use POP or IMAP, which means you most likely use POP:
  • If you use POP, when you read your new incoming email, it is downloaded and deleted from the server and moved to your local In mailbox.
  • Email that is in your Eudora In mailbox -- at the top of the Mailboxes tab, or any other mailbox above <Dominant>, if you have that -- is on your personal computer and does not apply to your icarus quota.
  • The above is not true if you use Leave Mail on Server (which we don't support and strongly recommend that you do not use). Then you will have email left in your Inbox after you download it to read it.
  • While email is in your Inbox, on the server, it applies to your icarus Inbox quota.
  • Even if you use POP, you will also have email on the server in your Spam mailbox; it applies to your icarus Disk quota.
  
  
  
• If you use IMAP (with Eudora or another personal computer email program, or any time you use pine or WebMail):
  • If you use Eudora with IMAP, all of the mailboxes listed under <Dominant> in the Eudora Mailboxes tab are on the server, including your Inbox mailbox. The equivalent is true for all personal computer email programs when used with IMAP.
  • If you use WebMail or pine, which use IMAP, all email in any mailbox that you see when you are using WebMail or pine is on icarus.
    
  • Downloading and deleting email:
    • If you use IMAP, the messages in your Inbox stay on the server until you delete them from your Inbox/INBOX on the server.
    • If you use IMAP, downloading a message from the Inbox or another mailbox to your personal computer to read it will not delete it from icarus.
    • On the other hand, deleting an IMAP message from the Inbox/INBOX or an other mailbox on the server will also delete the copy from the Inbox or that other mailbox on your personal computer. Do not think that you can delete IMAP email on the server and keep your local copy of it.
    • To keep a local copy of a message that you want to delete from the server, you must move the IMAP message into a local, non-IMAP mailbox on your personal computer. (In Eudora, one that is above the <Dominant>.)
    • Email that is in your Eudora In mailbox -- at the top of the Mailboxes tab -- or in any other mailbox above <Dominant> is on your personal computer and does not apply to your quota.
  • All email in any email mailbox that is on the server applies to an icarus quota.
    • The space taken up by your Inbox (Eudora )/INBOX folder (WebMail or pine) applies to your icarus Inbox quota.
    • The space taken up by all other mailboxs applies to your icarus Disk quota.
      
      
      
• Also, regardless of whether you use POP or IMAP, the email you keep in all local mailboxes that live on your personal computer are not on the server.

If you don't have antivirus software with real time file protection running, download and install Norton AntiVirus now and make sure it's running and that it's scanning all file types before you download any email with attachments.

The quota email message that you receive will include a link to the Mail tools email diagnostics Web page that you can use to list the ten largest messages in your Inbox. Download these messages if you want to keep them (to your Eudora In mailbox, or to another mailbox on your personal computer, or, if you still have space in your icarus home directory disk space, to any mailbox on icarus other than your Inbox) and delete them from your Inbox on icarus and you should be OK.

For instructions, see:

If you use Eudora (or whatever) with POP:

How to fix Inbox email quota problems with Eudora (or Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever) with POP

If you use Eudora (or whatever) with IMAP:

How to fix Inbox quota problems with Eudora (or Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever) with IMAP

If you use WebMail:

How to fix Inbox quota problems with WebMail

If you use pine:

How to fix Inbox quota problems with pine

If a message has an attachment:

If a message has an attachment, then if you know the person who sent you the attachment meant to send it to you (it's not at all obsessive to ask them) and only if you really want to keep the attachment, download the attachment(s) and then delete the message. Just downloading the attachment isn't good enough; that can still leave a copy of the attachment on the server.

Want to keep a copy of the email message that came with the attachment? Forward the message back to yourself without the attachment. There are instructions in the how-to pages above.

Can't find the messages that your warning message complained about? See What if the short answers don't work?

Be sure to check your quota again after you download and delete to make sure you're really back under quota.

People often have quota problems when they are away from work or school and don't check their email for an extended period of time. In this case, just logging in and taking care of your new incoming email -- downloading it and deleting it from the server, or, so long as you have room in your standard UNIX disk quota for it, moving it to other IMAP/WebMail/pine mailboxes on icarus -- should be enough to bring you back under your Inbox quota. (Want step-by-step instructions for deleting messages? See the links in What if the short answers don't work?)

Hints on how to avoid having too much new incoming email:

Are you going on vacation? We can keep Inbox quota problems at bay while you're gone (and for a few days beyond) if you plan ahead. Send the dates you'll be gone to systems@uic.edu. We ask, however, that you suspend your subscriptions to email discussion lists before you leave. (You probably will not want to read all the old mail in an active email discussion list when you come back anyway.) That's easy to do for UIC Listserv lists; use the UIC Listserv Subscriber Utility Web page.

Or you can set up an ACCC Mail Tools email filter that deletes incoming email from your email discussion lists -- that way it'll never make it into your Inbox. While you're at it, you can set up a spam filter or set up a filter that automatically sends copies of important email to a colleague so they can take care of it while you're on vacation and perhaps other filters that move selected messages into other mailboxes on icarus. (If moving email into other mailboxes on icarus makes you go over your UNIX disk quota, your Mail Tools filters will simply stop moving the email into the other mailboxes. You won't lose email, unless you go over your Inbox quota and your incoming email begins to be bounced.)

You might also want to turn on our automated vacation reply message. It's easy to set up -- you can even have it turn off automatically -- and it won't embarrass you by sending "I'm on vacation messages" to email lists or other sources of automated email. And it doesn't require you to leave your personal computer email program running while you're on vacation. (Even if your personal computer email program does vacation messages, they aren't of any use unless it's running and you're logged in. I'm sure that sending a bunch of vacation messages when you login on the day you come back is not what you intended.)

Be sure to check your quota again after you download and delete to make sure you're really back under quota.

If you don't have just a few really large messages or lots of new incoming email that you can delete from icarus, then perhaps the easiest way to solve your quota problems is to download complete copies of email mailboxes -- including your Inbox -- to your personal computer or to a diskette, and then delete all or most of the messages in those mailboxes from the server. You can use the ACCC's Email Diagnostics Web page to download and delete entire mailboxes from the server; see the Using the ACCC Email Tools Quota, Download, and Delete Web Page for instructions. (For step-by-step instructions for deleting individual messages, see the links in What if the short answers don't work?)

This option should be particularly useful for you if you use IMAP. It's tempting when you use IMAP to leave all your old email in various mailboxes on the server, but you should really only keep newer email on the server -- email that you need to see from everywhere you do email. You should download older mail and mail that you don't need immediately anymore and delete it from the server. If your mailboxes have gotten really big, downloading them all at once will be much faster and easier than moving them message by message.

Be sure to download any attachments that are in the mailbox that you want to keep before you delete the mailbox or the messages the attachments came with.

How to use a downloaded mailbox:

1. You can use a mailbox that you download with the ACCC Email Tools Quota, Download, and Delete tool in Eudora or another personal computer email program as a local mailbox. To do this inn Eudora you must put the downloaded mailbox files in the same directory that your other Eudora local mailboxes are in, and, for Windows only, you have to give the files a specific extension.
   • For Windows, give each mailbox file the extension .mbx
     To find the directory on your PC that your local mailboxes are in:
     • If you have a Eudora shortcut (look for a Eudora Pro icon in your Network Services Kit mailbox, if you have one), right-click on its icon and select Properties; put the downloaded mailboxes in the directory in the Start in: field.
     • Otherwise, use Start->Find (Windows 9x/Me) | Search (Windows 2000)->Files or Folders..., search for your eudora.exe file; put the downloaded mailboxes in the directory that it's in.
   • For Macs, just put the downloaded mailbox in your Eudora Mail mailbox, which is probably System Folder->Eudora Folder->Mail Folder.
     
     
2. And/or you can use your favorite personal computer file viewer -- WordPad, SimpleText, or a word processor such as Word or WordPerfect -- and browse or print a mailbox file that you've downloaded. (Email mailboxes are simple text files; this is a great way to print a copy of all the messages in a mailbox, too.)

You don't have to worry about attachments when you download complete email mailboxes -- they will be included in the downloaded mailboxes, but they'll be MIME encoded and they can't hurt you. (Nor can you easily extract them from the downloaded mailbox, which is why you should download any attachments in the mailbox that you want to keep before you delete it/them from the server.)

Be sure to check your quota again after you download and delete to make sure you're really back under quota.

So, how do you read your email? Do you use POP or IMAP or both? If you don't know, see Which email applies to your Inbox quota? POP vs. IMAP; it explains how to tell. It's important to know because it determines what you need to do to get yourself back under quota.

How can you fix your icarus Inbox quota problem?

Do you use only POP, on only one computer and don't use Leave Mail on Server?

Then the only way you should get into quota problems is if you let too much new incoming email accumulate in your Inbox. Open Eudora (or whatever personal computer email program you normally use), login, and check your email. Then everything should be downloaded and your quota problem will be solved. For more information, see How to fix icarus, mailserv, or tigger email quota problems with Eudora (or Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever) with POP.

• If you still have quota problems after POPing down your new incoming email, then you must use IMAP to fix them. See the next item.

Do you use POP with Leave Mail on Server?

Then you should switch to use IMAP or IMAP-compatible programs, and you must use an IMAP program to fix your quota problems.

• If you want to continue to use Eudora (or the other personal computer email program you're currently using) and still read email from other places, with other programs, your best bet is to convert to using IMAP. See How to fix icarus or tigger Inbox quota problems with Eudora (or Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever) with IMAP; it has links to step-by-step instructions on how to convert to IMAP and hints on how to get started using it.
• If you want to continue using Eudora with POP, you can do it. But you should stop using LMOS. We used to also say to stop using WebMail, but we have a new POP daemon that is compatible with IMAP. But you must use an IMAP email program now to fix your Inbox problems. If you don't want to convert Eudora to using IMAP, your best bet is to use WebMail or pine.
  • How to fix icarus or tigger quota problems with WebMail
  • How to fix icarus or tigger quota problems with pine

Do you only use IMAP or IMAP-compatible email programs? That is, do you use Eudora or other personal computer email programs always with IMAP, or do you use WebMail or pine, or do you use any combination of these?

Then see the instructions for whichever email program you're most comfortable using:

• How to fix icarus or tigger quota problems with Eudora (or Outlook or Thunderbird or whatever) with IMAP
• How to fix icarus or tigger quota problems with WebMail
• How to fix icarus or tigger quota problems with pine