e-mail

[flirty41]

A colleague and I are virtually the only ones without e-mail facilities at work. We are told that the server is overloaded and that there is 'no room' for us. Tell me, would adding 2 extra people into the system really be such a problem, or are we just being fobbed off? I'm sorry but I don't have any technical details about the server or anything else! Thanks.

[archbishop]

If you don't have E-mail facilities how do you know when you get an answer here? OK you have a private E-mail address, so all you have to do is create another E-mail address for work/business and as you have access to the www at work just log on to that server for your work stuff or have you tried that and been blocked?

[Hippy]

Most email servers are licenced for a fixed number of client users and it could be that the boss has allocated the limited numbers of accounts to what he considered the really important people first. Short sighted penny pinching boss eh?

[j2buttonsw]

Exchange 2000 (the newest email server program) has a mail store limit of 16 GB. You could easily buy more client licenses but if the current users hog all their mail plus large attachments you will be out of luck (it fills up remarkably quickly). If they upgrade to the Enterprise Edition they can add more mail storage but this is prohibitively expensive. Alternatively, the server managers could implement a maximum mailbox size policy to force people to manage their mail better. Why not suggest this?

[flirty41]

Thank you all! What I forgot to say was that neither of us have access to the net either! Where we work there is an 'internal' web, an intranet it's called, which means those who have it can't actually use the internet, as far as I know (unless they are the 'chosen ones', of course!), but my colleague and I can't even get that so, unfortunately archbishop, as good an idea as yours is, I can't even do that! What's frustrating is that we really need the email facility for *work*, rather than just wanting it for personal use! Hippy, I think you may have hit the nail on the head though - it all comes down to money in the end! And j2, a good suggestion of yours about the maximum mailbox size - I might try that one, but don't hold your breath! But really, would 2 extra people in the system cause a problem? We have had a new 'manager' just started, and you can bet your life he's been added in as an extra (rather than as a replacement for somebody else) with no problem at all!

[lisaj]

I doubt your organisation has a problem with their Exchange database size. Any org that runs to the 16Gb limit is not likely to be worried about licensing costs!! (I've had clients with hundreds and thousands of users who don't run anywhere near 16Gb!) They might just not think email is a critical business support tool for you; unfortunately since the IT department rules, any reason they give is legitimate whether you like it or not.

[flirty41]

Thanks lisa. Well, I can't think we can be told that email/intranet isn't critical for us, seeing as other people doing the same job have it! And this is our Manager telling us we can't have it, rather than IT. I suspect, if truth be told, our Manager just can't be @rsed to sort it out as, surprisingly, our IT Dept seems pretty accommodating most of the time. Trouble is, we have to get the say so from her before it can go further. Don't worry. We're working on it! Thanks again everyone.