Guide to Services 2003-2004: Office of Information Technology

BamaMail

All University students are given BamaMail email accounts. The University administration uses students' BamaMail accounts for official correspondence, and student directories publish BamaMail addresses for all students who have not requested holds on their directory information. Faculty, staff, and retirees may also receive BamaMail addresses by request from the HelpDesk.

BamaMail accounts can be accessed by many e-mail programs, such as Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail. However, these programs must be installed on local com-puters and configured for individual accounts. BamaMail accounts may also be accessed from any computer that has a Web browser and Internet connection by going to the BamaMail Web site (bamamail.ua.edu). Students can find out their e-mail addresses by clicking the "get account information online" link on the BamaMail page. Other utilities are also accessible from that page, under the "Tools" heading. One of these, the "set automatic e-mail forwarding" tool, should be used by anyone who prefers to use a different e-mail address.

BamaMail underwent major upgrades during spring 2003 and now supports many new features, including improved message management and searching, a more powerful address book, and enhanced spam-filtering. It is also an "Open Source" product, so there are no annual licensing costs.

The new BamaMail consists of two parts of the Horde Project: IMP (WebMail) and Turba (address book). The Horde Project (www.horde.org) provides a framework for these programs to work together effectively. IMP is both mature and still being actively developed. It already provides more capabilities than the previous BamaMail and will continue to improve.