CITES Survey - 2004 - Graduate Student Comments from Support Survey

What additional communications or computing support would you like to see CITES offer?

More FAQ's, especially on network issues. More software/freeware for university faculty/staff/grads.

None

Free candy flies out of you CD-ROM drive whenever you log on

larger quota. 15 MB quota is hit way to easily as a grad student doing research

Advice about home networking, internet service providers, firewalls, virus protection and virus cleanup

It is difficult to find software on the website.  It could be better organized.

Express emails should allow pine.

As a Unix user I am totally disapointed by the disparition of pine access to email when I was switched to exprees. I am really unhappy about that.

This may be a big ask: but integrate the entire IT mess that is U of I! Why do I need 6 different passwords? Give me one centralized facility where I can do everything! Cornell U. had something along these lines and I thought it worked a lot better. Also, why do I have to use telnet to access UIdirect for class registration. It's painfully slow and clumsy. Otherwise, I'm happy!

I'm sorry, but I hate the new e-mail system.  Before the switch I was using Norton Anti-Spam software at home to filter my Outlook inbox.  It was perfect.  It learned which types of messages I wanted and which types I didn't.  Only 2 or 3 spam messages got through each day.  Now that the system has been switched over I'm getting a ton of spam because Norton Anti-Spam isn't compatible with SSL's.  I have a lot of filters set up with the new system already but they don't catch even half the spam.  And now somehow my e-mail address is being used as the reply-to address for every bulk spammer out there and I'm getting all kinds of auto replies from all over the place telling me certain e-mail accounts are no longer in existence.  Therefore, I would LOVE to see better filtering capability added to the new e-mail system.  PLEASE something better than if-then-else statements.  I used to check my e-mail ~10 times a day.  Now I do it maybe only once a day since it's just so inconvenient to wade through the spam.

1. I'm not sure if it'll come through, but I'd like access to Usenet restored.

2. More support for Linux users.

3. Campus-wide wireless (802.11b)

wireless everywhere!

Make their services more apparent to students. Give freshmen a guide to everything they offer, send out once/semester emails reminding people about their services.

More Mac support and freeware.  Also, cheaper ethernet for people not on campus

Larger quota for e-mail.  15mb is too small.

training in web design that is beyond classroom technologies...email filtering to block out unwanted emails controlled by the user not just virus blocking by cites

give me back my unix based email interface you idiots!

booklets

I am not well aware of the services that are available to me.  Is there some way to communicate to the graduate community what you have to offer?

Maybe some ethernet connections in apartments (not owned by the university). 

currently i use dialup from home to get to the internet. it would be great if we could pay a nominal fee and use ehternet.

I would like the express mail web interface to support (and encourage the use of) X.509 certificates for encryption and digital signing.

SUPPORT PINE AND ELM FOR E-MAIL!  Your web based option is lacking.

What else do you currently do?  I encounter cities when I change my passwords and now when I check my e-mail.  Otherwise I don't know what you do?

Teaching you to use different software programs

consistent network availability in Illini Union Hotel rooms.  I've stayed there twice since last fall, and did not have network access either time.  I was informed by the hotel clerks that CITES runs those ports.

better email spam protection.

I would like access to my UNIX account and the use of Pine again.  The web based email is slow and cumbersome. 

Better support for linux computers.

I want to know whether I can check my express.cites.uiuc.edu mail from a non-windows machine, and how.

Better filtering of spam mail and viruses from emails. Information on CITES website sometimes difficult to find.

This my not be specific to CITES - Even after being here for nearly a year, I do not know which computing facilities are run by which groups. But anyway, I was surprised by the lack of common PC computing facilities here. If that's under CITES jurisdiction, I would like to see more common access  PC-based computer labs. (e.g. Grainger's PC cluster.)

better search capability in the cites web site.  it is difficult to find what you are looking for.

Also, more support for MacOS.

More wireless locations - some schools have the entire campus on wireless.  Why don't we?

We want the telnet e-mail back.  Was 'express' mail called that to make people think that it is fast?

Wireless internet access in MANY more locations

Text-based e-mail (such as pine).

- Telnet/SSL Based Email

- IMAP Based access to email, or the option to use non-SSL POP3 (Users should have the choice of the security they desire.  In my opinion, the security is worthless in that SSL POP3 only covers the 'last mile' of the email traffic and is not truely secure)  Many clients for portable devices do not implement this protocol and makes life difficult for your more mobile users.

- Pocket PC/Palm geared email access to webmail (pages are unmanagable on smaller form factor devices)

Unix logon so that I can do more feasible jobs.

I feel like whenever I try to use the CITES website, I only become frustrated.  It seems like I can never find answers to my questions, and maybe this is because they don't actually fall under the scope of what CITES can help me with.  One thing that is particularly frustrating, however, is the site map.  I expect a site map to show me all the major pages in a site at once so that I don't have to search each of the categories listed in the left navigational tool one by one.  However, the site map on the CITES page is basically worthless--all it does is point out the navigational bars.

More web hosting space, ability to run scripts.

CITES express email is slow and cumbersome.

Are there good non-web-browser ways in which to do e-mail?

I just want to tell you that I don't like the new express.cites email system. When I reply an email, the original messege did not show up in the reply. I have to copy the original content every time I reply. Another thing is express.cites is web-based and is much slower than telnet students.uiuc.edu. It is slow especially in deleting emails. Is there anything you can do to improve? Thanks!

There should definitely be an option to block the spam mails based on the email ID.

home service

I would like for someone over the age of 30 and who knows about mac computers to work there.  I imagine cites hires kids because they know the latest technology, but they only ever know how to use ibm computers (which is not at all useful to me) and they don't know anything about computers or computer programs that are more than a couple of years old!  Also, I am tired of them not being able to anser my questions and not referring me to someone who can.  My email account doesn't work, they can't figure out why, so I'm just stuck using a yahoo account.  the express email sucks!

If you send an email that my account is full then I look to see how much space I have left and it says morethan enough, tell me how I can stop receiving the messages over and over that my account is full.

more modern, simpler registration system, more information to new students about available services

The workers at the CITES lab in the Undergraduate Library need to be trained. Last night they told a patron that they only place that they could download the VPN software was from their dorm room. This is not the first time this has happened. The staff at this site specifically don't seem to know very much of anything that they should know.

I wish there were an alternative to check email such as telnet.  It's much faster to check email when one does not have to open a Web browser and wait for each individual page to load. 

I don't really know what they offer.  I'll check the website for more details... it's the first I've heard of it.  WOuldn't mind receiving emails about classes/seminars and such.

General directions for how to get up to speed or develop expertise with various services like the remote disk that everyone has access to.  I may not have the right title but it is storage

space everyone can use.

wireless network; lease computers to students

Would a web-based tool be completely self-service?  Honestly, I use web-based support for many things, and it's damn near impossible to find what I'm looking for in most cases.  The support systems I love are the ones where you put in an online ticket, and it's answered by somebody - you get an email when it's answered.  Slower than the phone, but still good for non-urgent support issues.

give ICS more money in their budget so they can reopen 24 hour computer labs all year round

I wouldn't mind if you took over DCS wireless in Siebel. Also, bigger mail quotas on Express Mail would be sweet.

linux support for gradebook , ui direct etc.

Support for class projects from lab computers is too limited: as a cs student, for many classes it is neccesary to have admin access to a machine with sufficient memory.  While certainly all lab machines can't provide this, it also seems unreasonable to expect students to provide such  resources on their own.  We were eventually able to work out an arrangement, but it does not seem like this is an unusual situation - there should be some protocol, and perhaps reserved machines available.

more/better assistance with outlook and eudora

More informational bullitines or a web link to give guided tour of CITES services. 

more space in the email account.

n/a

retention of student cluster/email as an alternative to silly webmail.

more pcs and fewer macs in labs (note that the pcs always fill up first)

when the e-mail quota is almost full the e-mail works very slow

Please allow us to use pine to check email.  I don't understand why switching to web-based email precludes people from being able to choose other email clients like pine.

a shell server

finding everything on the cites site is difficult.  i've had many instances when i needed comp support, but couldn't find the appropriate information very readily...i ALWAYS have to use the search engine in the end, which can be a bit annoying. 

I would like to see a larger in-box for the mail server here. 15MB is a rediculusly small amount, and it is almost unbelievable that the university allocates such a pathetic amount of space to students mail accounts.  I am often unable to email myself attachments to use in my teaching and my own coursework because the files are too big for my inbox.  This is especially true since I am a graduate assistant, and I often recieve email with papers attached from my collegues here and at other universities.

More adequate consideration of and changes in email save space for those who have legitimate needs. There are individuals on this campus who do not qualify for a staff title but require more computing and save space than those who do yet still don't even get a second look even when requested.

Express mail sucks, we want pine! we want pine! we want UNIX! express mail is terribly slow!

telnet - it allways works and 'express' allways has problems

fixing computers at the university quicker

putting a link to the webstore (with a description of what it is) on the cites homepage

Telnet services for e-mail AND a better web-based e-mail program

Computer consultant and service.

N/A

Can you speed up the 'express' email?  It is sloooow.

More info about what services you offer.

I'ts kind of irritating that Blackboard is going away since it is much more useful to my purposes as a teacher than Compass. I have to go through a lot training to use Compass which as a teacher is fairly inconvenient.

there is not a lot of support for Windows ME

I am so disapointed with the express mail.  I miss Telent.  A new system should be better and easier to use than the one it replaces.

It would be helpful if the CITES e-mail service could provide the options that can check out and display whether the mail I send is received or read by the other person or not.

None that I think of...

a unified network service. Now I am annoyed by the different passwords required by uiuc email, netid, student financial account, engineering workstation password, department, department

email, office machine, office windows machine (which I even cannot set to be the same. I don't like different passwords and I don't think it's more secure than only one password.)

I would like more support with Linux OS and Linux software.

Allow people to choose their own login ID when they enter the university.  Also, the Express Email web service has gotten noticeably slow in the past few days.

Stop bugging me about taking the damn survey - you're not important enough for me to care

Virus related stuff, networking problems

n/a

Switch the default on my email to list most recent emails at the top instead of the bottom.

Cites should support PINE!!!  We should be able to telnet into our e-mail accounts.

don't know if it would be possible, but certainly handy to offer a method for someone to allow another to admin their account(s) on the owner's behalf.  for example, my advisor calls on me whenever he has the slightest problem with his email, network access, etc. and I have to have him there to type his password everytime I do anything.  If he could officially add me as an allowed admin (or even give lower-level permissions) to his account(s), it would make life easier for both of us.

don't know

Being able to use telnet or pine to access e-mail account.  It was more faster that way before we switched to the new system.

I would like a resource to help me stop receiving 40+ spam emails each day.

One question that I think was ommited was 'is CITES meeting your needs'.....NO.

An e-mail system with a return receipt feature as webmail had.

I would like to be able to access e-mail via the telnet program.  The web-based mail tends to be slower in accessing, and trying to use the web-based program without frames causes additional windows to open for no reason at all.  Overall, it seems that the Pine program has more options and is easier to use.

A much faster web-based email program.  I have a good dial-up connection (45 Kbps) and CITES Express mail is painfully slow.

Cites offers the worst email service.  They forced me to swtich over from Webmail/Telnet and the new Cites service is very slow and unrelible.

Either make 'Express Email' work faster, or bring back the Telnet interface.

quick adress book

1. easier access and procedure to troubleshooting

2. More on line workshops

I would like to see CITES re-offer a text-based/Unix access to uiuc.edu email accounts. The current web-access is too slow and cumbersome for my particular needs. If you want to know in detail why the new system doesn't suit my needs, please feel free to get in touch with me.

confirmation from the student about whether they have successfully downloded programs made available by the university.

For starters, I'd like to know what cites offer right now.

none

I would very much like to see  UIUC subscribe to the newsgroups again.  I miss them very much and was VERY disappointed when you took our access away.  I would also like to see a respect for those of us who like to use Pine applications to check our e-mail instead of web-based applications.  Now I have no choice and I am forced to use a web-based e-mail system when I would be MUCH happier using Pine through SSH becuase it is faster, easier, and more intuitive for me.  People should have the choice to use whatever system they feel most comfortable with.  Thank you.

Change your stupid password requirements.

I'm not sure what CITES's role is and what it's responsible for to begin with.  Who's responsible for the network in general?

More spam blocking on the new express system

I've had good luck with 'chat sesseion' help with support staffers.  You might try this method.

I would like to see a tighter link between NetFiles and Express e-mail.  It should be extremely easy to save files from e-mail to NetFiles, or attach a NetFiles file to an outgoing e-mail.

Linux support:

hotline / database / ...

Spam filtering for express mail; faster interface for express mail; easy way to download email from express mail

Web based class registration. UofIDirect needs to be retired... just like other software from the VT100 terminal era.

MORE WIRELESS NETWORK COVERAGE

Faster e-mail

Lose the express e-mail,

PINE/telnet was much better

Newsgroups were good.

Continue to promote Linux support.

ph, sftp

more FAQs/problem solving tips on Website

short classes in Linux administration, software available through Webstore such as Mathematica, Matlab, etc. in support of scientific computing

Web technologies

1. More labs - there aren't many considering how many students we have here.

2. More software. IIRC, there isn't much of a choice for browsers. I recall using Netscape once - it was a very old version. As these software are free, there shouldn't be issues in getting them.

3. Printing - Can students print for free? If not, there should be a quota per semester.

actual answers when you email for help.  And anti spam support for the new god aweful expressmail system.

More redundancy in the hyperlinks of the website. Sometimes there is only one path from main page to a given solution.

something that would stop spam in the email

more information about webpages and viruses

1. More storage space (~ 1 gigabyte), which is accessable as a 'drive' on *every* computer on campus.

2. More email storage

3. Uniform software/experience across all campus computers

4.  Roaming profiles.

5. More software, especially on Linux/Unix

6. Fewer passwords.

7. Cheaper/easier printing.

8. Nice web based student services software.  (compare to U of I Direct)

9. More wireless access

10. Stardard (Win XP integrated) VPN client

11. Less quirks and problems.  For examples, see my past support emails.

Thanks for asking.  I hope that helps.

Anti-virus updates are timely and helpful

See above.

I asked to borrow AutoCAD a few weeks ago, and was told I would be on a waiting list. It has been at least 3 weeks now, and still no contact. I  doubt the waiting list was this long. Please

be sure to be responsive and not forget about matters that are a bit old.

I hate web mail!

I love PINE

Please add any additional comments—suggestions, complaints, etc.—regarding this survey or about CITES Help Desk Support.

Thanks for asking our opinions.

cites is very limited in its communications about the viruses out there...i recieved and have continued to recieved two of the major viruses through my university email yet cites does not seem to be catching it...

I've tried to check my e-mail several times today between 1 pm  and 5 pm and it was taking more thatn 15 min to open my mail box, and even mor ethan that to open individual messages.

Why did you get rid of Telnet?

Why did you take away the PINE email gui?  Why in the world would you assume at such a computer savvy university that every drooling trogladite demands an idiot-proof web interface for email?  GIVE ME BACK MY PINE YOU MOTHER F---ING MORONS!

for non expert, the lenguage used in the questions could be not clear enough

the switch from Webmail to Express mail is a joke -- the Express mail client is atrociously slow and unstable compared to Webmail.    Hopefully this is a minor problem involved with switching accounts, and not a long term problem.    Moreover, the interface for the Express mail in box is counter-intuitive. 

When CITIES became prominent running the email servers, my experience with email has been very negative. The reliability has been going down for the last 3 years, and its very disapoint.

The fact that I even had to migrate is silly in an of itself.

cites express mail doesn't seem quite stable. Sometimes I get wrong page when I choose 'view-encoding-korean' in windows. It keeps showing me previous or next page instead encoding the page.

Speedwise, it is very satisfying. Unlike Webmail, it is speedy.

Web based tools to help people solve their own problems would definitely be helpful, but you also need to keep a lot of people around to help with unforseen/novel problems.

Helps Desk is very helpful. Excellent.

I wish the Help Desk didn't seem so intimidating.  I also wish that the CITES website was easier to navigate.

CITES web page always seems bulky to navigate.  There is a lot of information and I am often short on time and attention, so I am not sure if it is the layout, which seems acceptable, or just the overwhelming nature of the information I am often seeking out.

the current CITES website (as of 3/17/04)is much improved over the one I have been avoiding since last summer.  The front page still has too many hyperlinks (it looks confusing), but it's simpler than it was before.

Make sure computer labs are always open during their regularly scheduled hours!

I don't like enterprise.  I don't like banner.  I also don't like the new email setup.  Basically I think that everything new that has been established recently is not an improvement but rather a regression.

They know nothing about newsgroups for courses. Perhaps they are not supposed to know, but I had a tough time trying to access a CS course newsgroup. They couldnt help me at all.

The transition to CITES express mail has been difficult.  The email is much slower than I am used to and my address book seems to have lost information in the transfer.  I also don't like having so many restriction on my password choices.

Things sent to my @uiuc account frequently wind up at my @math.uiuc.edu account, which is rather annoying. 

Also, while web-based e-mail is convenient (esp the sorting into folders), I would rather be using Pine, in part because it's immune to Windows viruses.

Express e-mail account is really bad at decoding the characters in non-western languages, such as Korean, which the Webmail was pretty good at. I would like to see this problem solved immediately since for several purposes, e.g., communicating with researchers from other countries, etc., it is essential to be able to read the e-mails in these languages.

Support for pine in the new email system.  It's very inconvenient to have to install/use a costumized email client when I'm logged into a UNIX/Linux system.

Maybe this falls beyond the purview of the survey, but I remain somewhat wary of the new CITES Express e-mail service.  For speed of access, ease of navigation, and security issues, I have been reluctant to switch over to a web-based e-mail service.  If there were a way to access the new server through Telnet, I would want to know about it.  I am relieved, however, that

the transfer went smoothly for my account.

Losing the Unix interface we had in students has been a drawback in some aspects.

They never responded to my emails. Please attend to the problems as soon as you could.

Question 31 is not very clear, it states: 'On a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is a novice and 5 is an expert, how would you rate your computer experience?' Computer experience at school, or life in general?? 

Personally, I don't like web-based customer support services. I prefer talking to real people rather than machines.

i do not like the web-based e-mail service as it is very cumbersome to click on each piece of spam and junk-mail with the mouse to delete it. please get a good spam filter, and an e-mail system that can accessed in its entirety using the keyboard, i.e. that is mouse independent.

I would like for someone over the age of 30 and who knows about mac computers to work there.  I imagine cites hires kids because they know the latest technology, but they only ever know how to use ibm computers (which is not at all useful to me) and they don't know anything about computers or computer programs that are more than a couple of years old!  Also, I am

tired of them not being able to anser my questions and not referring me to someone who can.  My email account doesn't work, they can't figure out why, so I'm just stuck using a yahoo account.  the express email sucks!

online realtime support because i use a dialup and cannot call when am hooked

One of my folders didn't migrate, and I'm not sure why. 

I would like to complain about the fact that I'm in the last two months of my college career and you made me change my email address after I've had it for 7 years, I believe that it was pointless and stupid to make people that are leaving the university in 2 months to change over to the new system, you could have just started that with the new fall semester instead of screwing up people's emails now.

I contacted the Cites help desk via email several times about having problems with outlook and express from an off campus location and it was very slow to get a response.  I don't know if this is atypical, but I would like for emails to be answered faster than several days.

1. I am very unhappy with you making me memorize another password. Since I have to memorize now 4 different IDs and passwords for this university only, I have them written over my desk. Is this the kind of security you are trying to achieve?

2. I cannot check my e-mail inbox as POP from my primary Yahoo.com account. I get this message (Unfortunately, there was a problem:  express.cites.uiuc.edu unexpectedly terminated the connection. Please try again.). What is the problem?

3. I would like to be asked to re-login less frequently than every 30 min (once in several hours). 

I worked their as an undergrad and overall I feel that the CITES Help Desk needs a more extensive training for the consultants. They are friendly but when an experienced user calls in for more information they usually have to wait quite some time, be transferred to several people or do not get their question answered correctly.

Terrible system.  At least I could telnet into the old system.  Complete waste of time.

I'm not very happy about the way the email transfer was handled--I don't like the new system (not convenient for those without access to highspeed internet) and it was a disruptive change in the middle of the semester.

question 28 needs a none of the above option.

It seems like whenver I finally learn how to use a specific program or tool it changes  (for example e-mail, blackboard)and that is REALLY frustrating. Because of the different changes and new programs I have half a dozen passwords and that can be very aggravating.

It will be nice to have only one account with password for all the university services.

I know a web based customer support system is better for the CITES people, but it's always easier to deal with a person directly.  The web based systems are always too vague.

n/a

make studetns aware of all resources available.

improve search feature

I am taking CHEM432 and a TA for CHEM337.  Often the projecter in the room for this classes is not working.  This makes it extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to effectively learn and teach.  The rest of my class mates are also very upset about the unprofessionalism of CITES.  We have worked extremely hard to get to this grad school, it doesn't seem like

something as trivial as a projector that goes weeks without being fixed, even with constant reminders, should be the limiting factor of how well we do.

more memory space

Too many passwords/ password changes (we are big boys and girls now and can protect our passwords)

Also, why do I need to go to a different website for every service offered by UIUC... it is really annoying

Thanks for trying.

Lately the express webmail has been incredibly slow, many have complained about it. I hope this can be fixed.

Yes, not everyone has a computer at home, and you don't give the option of zero computers at home in question 32! i don't have one, i use the computers in the computer room, or in my lab!

The webmail system is very slow especially during the day.

Express Mail was working quite fine, but after the most recent update it became really slower.

I really appreciate CITES Help Desk!

We want pine back! we want pine back! we want pine back! express mail is terribly slow! clumsy! Terrible!

The help desk has allways tried to help, but the problem is the set-up of the network.  W/out the simple telnet option, everyone has to use the slow web server which does not allways work, or cannot handle the client load.  It was a lot better before the switch.

-speed up express mail

-netfiles is very useful

The new e-mail program (Express) that CITES has forced me to use is worse than many text-based e-mail programs I've used (and please note answer to #31 regarding my considerable familiarity with computers).  CITES Express is basically unsuited for ordinary mail purposes where one refers to older e-mails.  I cannot overstate the terrible performance of the Express CITES system and I am researching alternative providers outside of the UIUC system.  Essentially CITES has forced me to find some other means of sending and receiving my

academic-related e-mail.

should be more concise.

This has nothing to do with CITES Help Desk support, but I wish to vent anyway despite the fact that it will be ignored.  I am extremely disappointed with the new express em ail system.

It's usually extremely slow.  Additionally, I have yet to figure out how to mark more than one email without clicking on each and every email.  This makes deleting my thousands of junk

emails difficult.

N/A

I was forced to switch from webmail to cites express mail.  It is so slow that I don't use it.  Instead, I have my emails delivered to a netscape mailbox where I can access them faster and more efficiently.

The new email system is WAY too slow so far.

The system is TOO slow...

The express email interface is not efficient enough. It is slower than telnet version and when one slecets reply it does not copy the original message below... Other than that I appreciate your efforts...

The email service is not very stable. Hope it can improve in the future.

I'm glad to see that CITES is all about customer support, but isn't customer support less nescessary in a system that already works well. The university I previously attended rarely if ever had such problems with viruses and system downtime for upgrades (with over 27,000 students). Perhaps a simple idea they had is to put all computers on a network such that in any computer lab (or anywhere for that matter) you must log in to use it and you then have access to a certain amount of storage quota and personalized settings. In the labs now, you just walk in and use them, it seems like the virus problem could be stopped immediately or at least traced by requiring students to log in, not to mention other great benefits. I am not sure of the logic that currently opposes this method, but I feel much more secure using a computer where I can log on/off to be sure the next person doesn't have access to what I just did (I understand that the university does). Also, my e-mail was slow all day today for no real reason, it just took a good 5 minutes to load, not counting opening messages. That is unreal and completely unworthy of such a highly touted computer school.

Netfiles is a wonderful wonderful thing.  You've created a truly intuitive interface that gets to the point.  No FTPing.  No CHMODing.  No problem.  =)  Just thought I would say thanks.

Stop bugging me about taking the damn survey - you're not important enough for me to care

I've had fabulous support this semester from CITES staff as I've been a pioneer for the Compass system.  In contrast, last week I had a problem with the new Express email service; I submitted an email request and have yet to hear back from anyone.

n/a

you should put links next to the descriptions of your projects that actually take you to the finished project

Actually answer emails -- let's say within 3 days.  Service for virus support was terrible -- housing (to whom I had to turn) was much better.

There have been several occasions when e-mail has been extremely slow.  I would say that 'express' is anything but express.

CITES express has been very slow lately, what's the deal?

navigation through cites is more difficult than webmail, and slower as well.  also, there a lot of my email are getting bounced back at people due to a full mail box on my side (although

there are only 9-12 email on the server at a time only).  increase the room for incoming emails, please!

I extremely disliked the facted I was moved from the student cluster email to express email.  I  do not like the web interface and perfered pine much more.  Accessing email through pine was faster, easier and more functional.  Express is slow and has terrible functionality.  Considering I only have two more months left, I felt the migration from clusters to express was unnecessary hassel that was not worth it. 

I am VERY dissapointed that I am being forced into using Express Mail. I (an MANY others) prefer the flexibility and speed of PINE. I do understand the driving forces for moving....but I do believe that there are valid reasons for not moving - or at least supporting both systems. I visited the CITES help desk today and was very UNSATISFIED with the help I got. I was not

able to sepak to anyone making the decision, and was not given any contact deatails, or alllowed to make an appointiment to meet them. In the end all I can do is mail consult@...

 

the new express.cite e-mail system is horrible! I would very much prefer using pine.

The express e-mail system is often so slow its frustrating.

Faster email service!

Little faith in web support

spend the money develop more live assistance

I usually see an error page  while trying to connect to the Express mail page. I don't know if it temporary since I recently moved to express mail but it is a annoyance.

I phoned the CITES Help Desk recently regarding my confusion over the cluster accounts. The young man answered the phone within 1 ring, and he was very helpful! He took all the time that I needed to be sure that I understood what to do. I was really impressed.

I dislike the express mail. I preferred my students account and since the change, I am not happy with CITES.

None

I did not get response from CITES Operations Center <net-trouble@uiuc.edu> for the past few weeks. Communication through CATS is terrible. It has been 2 months since I first post the question, and problem is unsolved so far. 

You should send out a survey about the conversion to the new e-mail clusters and all of the changes you have made in the past year, such as unsubscribing to the newsgroups.  A lot of people are upset about these changes.  Even though I wrote a letter when you began to make these changes, I didn't feel like my opinions were taken into consideration at all.  Thanks.

Create university-wide passwords. Not only are your passwords requirements annoying, the fact that I have seven, (7), SEVEN, VII, different passwords in order to access all of the resources campus-wide is a travesty. My previous undergraduate educational institution had one, (1), ONE, I password. They were successfully able to do this and maintain secure

computing, information, and e-mail resources.

I have a comment about recent transition from webmail to express mail.

The new system does not support SSH! It's so undesirable! I often need to have trips and I cannot trust the security using others' computer. SSH seems a great shell for me. But now it is not support!

It's such a wierd thing.

The CITES password requirements are RIDICULOUS!  I understand that you're trying to protect us, but come on...when you have to come up with different passwords every year for different tasks, all of which must meet very strict requirements, it's impossible to remember them all.  So they have to be written down and carried around, which is less secure than letting us come up with passwords that we can remember (that might have more or less than eight characters, for example).

I miss Telnet! Haven't grown comfortable with CITES e-mail yet and wish I hadn't had to switch.

I want to add that some members of the help desk are much better than others. My answers are an average of that.

In general I'm happy.  I also have a good departmental (SOLS) computer help desk, so I'm pretty well covered.  Have had some good help from you in the past.

I'm not sure if this one is for CITES or not, but all computer/class/e-mail/payroll data should be accessable to students via one central login location.  Other schools have a single website students can visit to access their e-mail, change their course schedule, access their class webpages, or monitor their payroll information.  With the advent of the Banner system, this type

of integration should be quite manageable.  Implementing this type of user-friendly system should be considered essential at a world-class technical university such as the U of I.

Please add more disk allotment to express mail.   

The express mail system is horrible after transferring all the accounts to it. How can it be so slow?

I HATE THE EXPRESS EMAIL SERVICE THEY FORCE PEOPLE TO USE. THAT SIMPLY SUCKS! DO YOU CALL THAT HORRIBLY SLOW SPEED AN IMPROVEMENT

OVER STUDENTS.UIUC.EDU? FANCY IS 'NOT' WHAT PEOPLE WANT. CLEAR, EASY AND FAST IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING!!!

Why is my email always over storage but when I check my quota, it is never filled?

Before the complaints, let me say that overall cites does a pretty good job.

Complaints:

1) I hope that cites express functions better than webmail - the latter tended to be painfully slow.

2) I would rather have a larger quota on a UNIX machine than be forced to use NetFiles.

3) The 'maximum number of users reached' error message that prevents access to the timetable is very annoying to graduate assistants, since if we don't register within the first two days it can delay our paycheck. This is a problem that should be fixed.

I have had exceptionally good experiences with the Cites help desk.  Although they cannot always address my problems immediately, they do a fantastic job of researching the problem and getting back to me

great job

All these complaints pertain to the new emial system.  The spell check is terrible.  It doesn't recognize common words and almost never gives suggestions of correct spellings.  Also, not being able to use the back and forward button makes things harder than they need to be.  Lastly, the draft fuction is nowhere near as easy as in Webmail.  It changes who is the receiver and puts carrots in from of everything so you can't just open the draft and send it; you have to spend some time re-editing it first.

Express is better than webmail but it's still slow and difficult to navigate using the back button

Lose the express e-mail,

PINE/telnet was much better

Newsgroups were good.

I do not get much support with computer problems within the college. I am never sure if I am able to contact CITES if I have a problem with the desktop I use for work. 

Just a general complaint: I just got switched over to the new email although the CITES email clearly stated that staff accounts wouldn't be moved until the summer. I am in the middle of an

important study and do not really appreciate this.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GIVE US OUR UNIX ACCOUNTS BACK. This web-based email is useless. USELESS!

Please let us use Korean language on Epxress mail. We can't read Korean mails.

Not so much regarding support, but I find it very sad that CITES decided to:

1) Remove the news server. It was an excellent resource for obtaining hard to find information.

2) Planned removal of shell accounts. Some things just can't be done easily with a Web interface. With the shell account, I could easily pipe my email to a script I had written, etc. 

the new expressmail filter support is horrible.  The mail is being tagged by anti spam software, but the filter interface is so basic you can't define filters to take advantage of it.  I very much despise the new system.

I have called cites a couple of times in need of assistance and 2 of those times the individuals I spoke too were extremely rude and condescending.

The only complaint that I have with CITES is that it took a long time to set up my ux6 account.  There is no reason for this to take longer than a day.

 

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