SocSci Computing Services Help Pages

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====Email Overview====

Every active UCI employee and student is provided a UCI email account. The account is automatically created around the time your employment or student status becomes officially active. 

UCI email accounts are not managed within the School of Social Sciences, they are created and maintained by the campus office of Network and Academic Computing Services (NACS). Social Sciences Computing Services functions as the control point liaison with NACS. This means email questions and problems should be directed to Social Sciences Computing Services not NACS.

Email accounts for new employees are created via a joint operation between the UCI Human Resources office and NACS. Email accounts for students are similarly created jointly by NACS and the Registrar.

An email account is not created until the new hire is officially an employee on active pay status. This means the email account will not be created until Human Resources has processed the paper work and sent the email account creation request to NACS.

Unfortunately, Human Resources and NACS do not first check with a new hire to see if he or she has a preferred email account name. Instead, they choose some variation of the new hire's last name with the first name initial, and sometimes the middle name initial. However, once the account is created the new employee is able to request a change of the email name.

Email accounts are related to what NACS calls "UCInet ID's" (more on this follows). Once an account is created it must be "activated" before it can be used. Activation primarily consists of establishing the password for secure access to the account. NACS places stringent requirements on the type of password that can be entered to reduce the chances that it can be guessed by someone.

Activation of the UCInet ID can be accomplished at the NACS web page: http://activate.uci.edu. Your employee ID#, your birth date, and the last four digits of your Social Security number are required to authorize the activation. Assistance with this and all email related issues can be obtained from Social Sciences Computing Services at 949-824-5476. 

There are many details pertaining to email accounts. The following discussion goes into some of those details, and is provided in case you want additional background information.

====What is a UCInetID?====

Faculty and staff are assigned an employee ID number at the time their employment begins. When the employee ID number is assigned, each employee is also assigned a "UCInet ID." Your UCInet ID is your electronic identification for access to the electronic information services available here at UCI.

The UCInet ID is maintained by the Office of Network and Academic Computing Services (NACS) not Social Sciences. Your UCInetID is required for a variety of services that are available at UCI, as well as to provide controlled access to update your own personal information in the UCI Campus Directory.

The UCInetID is a 4 to 8 character code based on your name that uniquely identifies you at UCI. For example, "John T. Smith" might receive the identifier "jtsmith" or "jsmith." If there are two John Smith employees at UCI, John T. Smith and John H. Smith for example, they both cannot have a UCInetID of jsmith because a UCInetID must belong to only one person. Consequently, NACS will often use the middle initial so the UCInetID for each person is unique.

UCInetIDs are used to authorize you, as a UCI affiliate, to gain access to UCI electronic services such as the EA (Electronic Access) student system, the E4E (Electronic Information for Employees) faculty and staff email system, various UCI-only Web pages, and a variety of other services, including certain lab computers. A UCInetID will give you access to the Internet (World Wide Web, e-mail, etc.) and also to your own information in the UCI on-line directory database. The directory database defines who has access to UCI network resources and provides an e-mail address for everyone at UCI.

Your official e-mail address is created using your UCInetID in the form "UCInetID@uci.edu" and this is often referred to as your email "alias." The "John T. Smith" example mentioned above might have an e-mail address (email alias) of "jtsmith@uci.edu"

====Your UCInetID and Email Delivery====

This UCInet ID e-mail address must be associated with a location for delivery of your e-mail -- this means the location of the main computer system that will actually receive your e-mail (more commonly referred to as the "e-mail delivery point." This should not be confused with the computer you will use in your office or at home. The delivery point referred to here is the computer system that holds your e-mail messages for you until you use your office or home computer to access them. It is important to understand this distinction between your UCInetID email address and the computer system your email is delivered to.

There are several choices for your email delivery point. The default system for faculty and staff is the e4e system, and the ea system for students. Another possibility is the orion system. Information on these follows later.

A common misunderstanding is that your email is delivered to the pc in your office. Actually, you use your office or home computer only to look at or get copies of the email that is delivered to the UCInet ID delivery point. This is necessary since the delivery point computer is always on and available to receive the email people send to you, whereas your office computer is not necessarily on 24 hours a day and is not configured to function as an email delivery point.

It is also possible for your UCInetID email address to direct delivery of your email to some other email system. As an example, if you have a Yahoo email account it is possible for your UCInet ID email to be delivered to your Yahoo account if you prefer.

More information about UCInetID's is available at the NACS web site: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/ucinetid/

====Configuring Your Office Computer To Access Your Email====

Your office computer can be configured to access your email only after activating your UCInet ID and specifying your email delivery point. The best way to accomplish this is to contact Social Sciences Computing Services (SSCS) at 949-824-5476 to request configuring your office computer to access your email account. There are generally three email programs supported by SSCS: Eudora, Pine, and WebMail. Most members of Social Sciences use Eudora.

====Assessing Your Needs====

Your office or home computer must be able to communicate with the computers on campus. If you will be accessing your e-mail from off-campus, your computer will need a phone modem, cable modem or DSL connection and must be properly setup to access the campus computer systems. Configuration of remote computers is not the responsibility of Social Sciences Computing Services.

An employee's university-owned computer with a direct network connection in their office will be setup by Social Sciences Computing Services (SSCS) to provide access to the campus network. Your email must be delivered to some computer -- this is not your office or home computer, rather this is the computer system your email goes to, awaiting your retrieval via your office or remote computer. The two main computer systems to choose from are called "E4E" and "Orion." Descriptions of these two computer systems follow:

====E4E====

E4E is "Electronic Information for Employees" provides free, basic email services for any UCI faculty or staff member.

Included in your E4E account will be:

  * E-mail using Pine or POP3 access for use with Eudora, Netscape, etc.
  * Newsgroups with TRN
  * The campus phonebook using PH
  * Library services including enhanced services such as Meldoc
  * A text-based World Wide Web Browser (Lynx)
  * (If you are using a POP-mail application such as Eudora on your computer, the program will also allow you to send and receive files as attachments via E4E)

====UNIX Services (Orion)====

The NACSs "Orion" server provides general purpose UNIX access for the campus. It is a fee-based system. If you require an Orion account you must provide an account/fund that your Orion usage can be charged to. Application software available on Orion includes:

  * SPSS
  * BMDP
  * Mathematica
  * Maple
  * the complete DCSLIB software library

  * for a complete list contact NACS http://nacs.uci.edu

For professors it should be noted that your school-provided office computer can have virtually any statistical package installed on it. This means it may not be necessary to get an orion account if all you need is a stats package.

If you need only internet and e-mail access, then E4E should be your choice. If you require access to a general purpose Unix system with the applications listed above, then the Orion system should be your choice if you have funding. The E4E system is free, but the Orion system is an extra cost system.

When you have decided which type of account is more appropriate for your needs, please contact Dao Vuong at dmvuong@uci.edu (x 4-6345). He will confirm your UCInetID, and help you set your UCInetID password if needed. After this is completed, if you require an Orion account you will be directed to Pat Frazier (949-824-6808) to process your request for an Orion account. You will be required to furnish Pat the following information:

  * Employee ID number (located on your check stub and beginning with "090")
  * Date of Birth
  * Last four digits of your Social Security number

Additionally, for each individual desiring an account, it would be helpful to know:

  * Department
  * Office address and phone number
  * Administrative Assistant's name

====Group Email Accounts====

A group email account can be obtained for groups of people who need to access the same email account. This is particularly useful for departments. For example, the Econ department may want to make it possible for people to send email to the department using "econ@uci.edu" instead of having people send email to an Econ staff person's email account. In this case Econ could request a group email account "econ@uci.edu" (assuming that email name is available). NACS charges $5 per month for a group email account (recharges only). Additionally, a sponsor is required for the group email account -- this is someone who will be responsible for ensuring the group email account is used according to University policies. Contact Jerry Keys to submit a group email account request to NACS. For more information, see the NACS group email information page: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/ucinetid/group.html

Social Science Computing Services 

Room: SST 165

Phone: 949-824-5476

Email: sscs@uci.edu