While all faculty, staff and students at UCLA can have a BruinOnline account (username@ucla.edu), SSC offers department name based email services to Social Sciences faculty and staff (e.g. username@econ.ucla.edu, or username@geog.ucla.edu, etc.). Some of the features include:

• spam filtering
• virus blocking
• access via any POP or IMAP email client such as Eudora or Outlook
• access via webmail
• access via SSH and Pine
• vacation or out-of-office messages
• automatic forwarding

To get an account, send email to newmail@ssc.ucla.edu. For questions about your account, contact the Support Desk.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is an email service offered by Social Sciences Computing to provide an alternative email delivery. Exchange 2003 is different than POP because email is synchronized with a centralized server; this means that email, contacts, and calendar can be accessed through the web, through a mobile device, and allows synchronization of email between home and office. For example, email folders updated on your office computer will be updated on your home computer.

Exchange 2003 offers the ability to share your calendar and other resources with other Exchange users. If you share your calendar with your colleagues, users can quickly schedule appointments and update meeting times.

Exchange 2003 also offers out-of-office access through Outlook Web Access or Outlook Mobile Access. Mobile devices, such as the Palm Treo, allow users to access email from their Exchange account when they do not have access to a computer. Outlook Web Access can be utilized through any web browser and an internet connection. Outlook Web Access has a similar look to Outlook, all through the web. Email folders and mailboxes, contacts, and calendar that are synchronized with Exchange can be viewed through the web.

• Staff and faculty associated with a Social Sciences division are eligible for an Exchange account.
• Exchange email is synchronized and stored on a centralized server; therefore, email accounts have a maximum size of 1 GB. This only applies to email stored on the server.  Users that are approaching their limit will receive an email and instructions on how to reduce their email that is stored on the server.
• Exchange attachments have a maximum size of 25MB.
• Exchange messages are limited to a maximum of 50 recipients per message. Mailing lists count as one recipient.
• Email or folders that have accidentally been deleted by the user can be recovered by Social Sciences if the email has been deleted within seven days. If you have deleted an email, please contact your department tech or the Support Desk.

For more information and answers to many questions, see our How Do I section on Exchange.

Differences between Microsoft Exchange vs. POP/IMAP

Microsoft Exchange key features

• Access to email, calendar, contacts, notes, folders, and tasks from multiple computers
• Integrated calendaring with email and contacts
• Sharing of calendar, contacts, tasks and notes with other Exchange users
• Ability to schedule meetings with other Exchange users
• Outlook Web Access has similar feel to Outlook and gives access to calendar, contacts, folders, and all emails synchronized with the server
• Ability to delegate mailbox access to other Exchange users so other users can accept meeting requests sent to you and send emails on your behalf
• Email, calendar, contacts, notes, and task list access from mobile devices (requires Wireless data plan and Goodlink software subscription)

Key differences between Exchange and POP/IMAP

• Exchange allows many groupware features that POP does not such as sharing of calendars, contacts, task lists and notes.
• Outlook Web Access allows access to users' mailboxes, calendar and contacts whereas Webmail for POP users allows access to emails still residing on the email server.
• Exchange has a hard limit of 1GB for email, calendar, tasks and contacts synchronized with the server. Additional mail can be stored locally. POP users' email space is only limited by the size of their local hard drive.
• Requires latest Micrsoft Office software and OS: Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Microsoft Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Entourage 2004