HMS Genetics Department Email

The Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School has its own email server. Most members of the department have email addresses @genetics.med.harvard.edu.

The actual email server is receptor.med.harvard.edu. Email can be read from on or off campus using IMAP or POP clients ( Eudora, Mac Mail, Mozilla/Netscape, Outlook, OutlookExpress, Pine, Thunderbird, etc. or WebMail.

Eudora on Macintosh or Windows
Mac Mail
Netscape/Mozilla
Outlook
OutlookExpress
Pine
Thunderbird on Macintosh or Windows

Do I have to use webmail to read email from home?

No. You can set up any of the email clients above to read email from home. The protocol is identical for on and off campus.

How do I set up a vacation/absence message?

Why is my webmail so slow?

Webmail is slower that the standard email clients for several reasons.

• First, webmail runs exclusively on the mail server, rather than splitting the work between your computer and the mail server. So everything it does competes with everthing else the server is doing.
• Second, webmail uses a webserver that runs a standard IMAP client (like Eudora, etc.). Therefore, each webmail session does twice the work of a standard email client.
• Third, webmail rebuilds the list of messages in your Inbox everytime you refresh.

How can I speed up my email?

• Clean up your Inbox. The mail server has to read your entire Inbox every time it checks for email. The bigger your inbox is, the longer this takes. Factors that affect the performance of your email are:
  • The number of messages in your Inbox
  • Move large messages that you don't immediately need to a separate mail folder. Then you don't have to read through them to get to your new mail. Messages with attachments tend to be large. Messages stored in other folders on the mail server do not affect the Inbox.
• Empty your trash periodically. Whenever you delete a message, it moves to the trash folder. The larger (fuller) the trash is the longer it takes to add a message to it.

How do I set up my SPAM filter?

SPAM filtering is automatically set up for all new accounts on receptor. If the default configuration doesn't suit you, you can alter the configuration.

How do I block unwanted mail?

You can blacklist specific email addresses in the SPAM filter in webmail.

Why didn't my email arrive?

• It may have been caught by your Spam Filter. Check the whether it's in the SPAM mailbox.
• Your correspondent may not have typed your email address correctly. Not all mail servers inform their users when they can't send an email. Causes include:
• Your email address was spelled wrong (mailtst@genetics.med.harvard.edu not mailtest@genetics.med.harvard.edu)
• The network address is spelled wrong. Common errors include
  • @genetics.med.harvrd.edu
  • @genetics.harvard.edu - this is a different mailserver in Cambridge. Email addressed to you there will bounce back with an invalid address message

How do I prevent emails from being spam filtered?

You can whitelist email addresses you want to correspond with.

How do I remove an address from my blacklist?

You can remove email addresses from your black- or whitelist in the SPAM filter in webmail.