Last Monday, emergency maintenance was performed on the student mail server. The load on this system, responsible for the electronic mail of all UT students, has increased dramatically over the last couple of months and has prevented the prompt delivery of some mail. In some cases, it took over four hours for a message to be processed. According to Igor Ybema, Systems and Network Manager at the Institute of Information Technology, Library and Education (ITBE), the system now appears capable of handling the load.
The problems started right after the summer holiday. `We still have not been able to pinpoint the exact cause. I think it is because of the increasing use of webmail, an application that makes it possible to read mail from anywhere using a web browser. Webmail leaves e-mail on the server and thus causes a higher load,' Ybema explains.
The increase of spam is also a factor. `Six months ago, the system had to process only a hundred messages per minute. Now that number has doubled.'
Students can do their part in relieving the server pressure, according to Ybema: `A lot of new students don't know that apart from using webmail, at home you can also use Outlook Express, for example. This program retrieves the mail from the server and stores it on your own PC. You can set the program to retrieve new mail every fifteen minutes. That way the load is minimal, and you still don't miss a single message.'
With the magazine ROOTS we want to connect students and companies. We do this by bringing stories of starters on the labor market. They talk about living and working in the region. We also publish advertorials. In this way, companies come into the spotlight of students and students get an idea of the life that awaits them and what opportunities there are in the region.
