R/V Atlantis Shipboard Computing: Electronic Mail

Scientists joining the ship are provided with an account name and password allowing general use of the ship’s ethernet system and associated services, including electronic mail. Email transmissions are made via INMARSAT and some of the associated costs are billed directly to the users. Woods Hole must be provided with information on how billing is to be handled. The onboard SSSG Technicians can take credit card information directly upon your arrival on the ship, or you can contact Larry Flick, lflick@whoi.edu or (508) 289-2450 to make prior arrangements. Accounts will not be activated by the onboard technicians until a method of payment is arranged. Email for inactive accounts is NOT transferred to or from the ship.

Account names are of the form “first initial last name@atlantis.whoi.edu”, with names taken from the ship's crew list for consistency. For example, the shipboard address for Gomer Pyle would be: gpyle@atlantis.whoi.edu.

Once an email account is activated, there is a size limitation of 10 kbytes per message. For messages over 1 kbyte the shipboard account must be active; smaller traffic will be transmitted regardless of account status. If the size limitation is a problem, the onboard technician can adjust this figure. No prior arrangements on shore are needed, but once onboard if you wish to change this filter you must notify a technician prior to sending or the message will be rejected.

The ship email system maintains a log of the number and length of each message sent or received by each user. The number of bytes transmitted and/or received forms the basis for apportioning costs. Experience to date indicates that INMARSAT email runs approximately $.05 per kilobyte, but this may vary with available INMARSAT equipment and the operational area. The technicians will attempt to ensure that individuals are informed when their usage appears abnormally high and may result in an unexpectedly high bill. In addition, simple software running on the mail server allows the user to check their bill at any time (mailbill, msgbill)

All ship's General Use computers are set up to telnet to linus, the mail server, and use a software package called Pine as the mail program. If you would like to use a mail program other than Pine, please use your own computer to do this. Pine is the ONLY mail program we allow to be used on General Use computers. Be advised that your computer MUST be configured to make a POP or IMAP connection to linus when you use Eudora, Netscape or other mail client. Be sure to ask one of the shipboard technicians for assistance if you are unsure of the proper configuration.