Use a Reliable Email System
by Uriel Wittenberg (uw@urielw.com)
March, 2002
Many Tsinghua students use an unreliable email service. When someone (like their teacher) sends them a message, they will receive it ... if they are lucky. If they are not lucky, they will not get the message -- the message will simply get lost.
Isn't that ridiculous?
It's particularly silly considering that Tsinghua students can get an email acount on the Tsinghua email system (for example, henry@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn), which is relatively reliable. And it costs almost nothing.
In the Fall, 2001 semester, 177 of my 274 students (or 65%) had "@263.net" in their email addresses. 263.net is one of the worst email systems. (For details, see 263.net Users are Making a Mistake!) How, in the 21st century, can university students tolerate a horrible email service that loses their messages?
The message below from one of your fellow students explains how to get a Tsinghua email account. It's easy and very cheap. (Please let me know if you have any problem following these instructions.) Unless you are already using a system that is reliable, I recommend you get a Tsinghua account promptly.
Note: If you change your email address, be sure to notify the Student List volunteer for your class. Ask me in class (not via email) if you don't know who this is.
Message from Student Hong Ye
From: Hong Ye
Sent: Saturday, December 15, 2001 2:33 AM
Subject: Recommendation for Email Server
Hello Students,
As you might have known, when Uriel sends a message to 263.net users, many of those will be rejected by the server saying that it is an invalid user but it isn't actually (i.e. the email addresses are correct). It happens frequently and you could see the failure notice forwarded by Uriel. Some other servers such as 163.net and sina.com also reject emails sometimes but 263.net does this much more frequently and also have the largest number of users among Tsinghua students.
Now I'd like to recommend Tsinghua's student Email accounts, which I am using to send this message and which I have used for over one year. It is not perfect, but it is much more reliable and credible than 263.net. I have never lost any emails except that when the server's system was updated all the messages in the sent-message box were lost, and I didn't have any backup. That's not a very serious problem for I will not miss any information which might be of great importance. Concerning the service price, Tsinghua's is not free, but is pretty cheap: 1.5 RMB per month, and I think it worth paying that to attain a reliable Email service.
Below is the procedures for applying Tsinghua's Email account service:
1) Visit https://usereg.tsinghua.edu.cn and input your own TUNET account name and password respectively. If you don't have any TUNET account, you should apply one first. See help on that page on how to apply it. If you don't remember you password, bring your student credentials and go to Room 209 in the Main Building to get or change your password.
2) Click the *Account Management* button.
3) Click the *Apply User's Authority* link.
4) Click the *Apply an Email account* link.
5) Input any infomation if required and submit. //I don't know the details here because I can't apply another one.
Once you have applied the email service, you can visit https://mails.tsinghua.edu.cn to receive and send messages. You can also use Outlook Express or Foxmail, which means you will use a POP3 server to receive and a SMTP server to send messages. Note that Tsinghua's SMTP server need Identification Validation when you send messages. You have to input your account information for that besides some common settings. To accomplish that, for example, in Outlook Express, choose Account item in Tools menu, click Mail tab, and then choose Property; in the new dialog, click Server, check My Server Needs Identification Validation and click Settings; choose Log On Mode and input your account name and password. Close any dialog.
Yours sincerely,
Hong Ye
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