School of Medicine

SoM Mail servers

The School of Medicine MSIS Department runs a Microsoft Exchange mail system for housing mailboxes, and a Sendmail system as the med.wayne.edu email gateway. The Exchange system provides access to SoM Exchange Mailboxes using Outlook, and any pop/imap protocol clients such as Entourage for Macintosh. You can also gain access to your SoM Exchange Mailbox using a web browser via the Outlook Web Access page. If you have a cell phone or other handheld device, you can use Outlook Mobile Access from the following web site - https://owa.med.wayne.edu/oma/.

Exchange/Outlook

Exchange is Microsoft's premier "messaging" product, encompassing not only e-mail but also shared scheduling and other special features.

Unlike Eudora and similar mail programs that speak the widely-recognized POP protocol, Exchange works by communicating with a special Exchange server that is available only from Microsoft. Compared with most other mail programs, Exchange is both uniquely capable and relatively expensive to license and operate.

The original end-user mail program for Exchange was referred to simply as "Exchange" or the "Exchange client," but recent versions have been given the name "Outlook." For most purposes these terms are interchangeable. School of Medicine Exchange users are advised to use Outlook XP or Outlook 2003. Macintosh users are advised to use Microsoft Entourage 2004 which is the Macintosh equivalent of Microsoft Outlook.

Outlook is a powerful groupware product that allows easy, automated, ways of managing many of the time consuming tasks of communicating with others and managing time. Outlook Public Folders offer an innovative way to collaborate with other Outlook users by allowing not only document sharing and course information, but also provides threaded discussion views that gives an organized way of viewing posted information. This information can also be viewed while you are away from the WSU campus during spring/fall breaks, study abroad or at home using Outlook Web Access, also known as "OWA".

Below are just a few more of the features in Outlook to make managing e-mail and your time more effective:

• Outlook allows you to gain full access to all of the integrated features available on your Exchange account such as the calendar, contacts, notes, tasks and Public Folders.
• With Outlook XP/2003, you are able to view your personal schedule by the day, week or even month.
• Track on-going or routine projects using tasks and create your own computerized "sticky notes" with the integrated notes feature.
• Calendars can be used to keep track of your personal and professional schedule. Your calendar can be set up set up so that people you choose can read, create or edit your appointments. Appointment reminders can be "popped" on to your computer screen. 
• Schedule meetings with other School of Medicine Exchange users. If everyone that you want to schedule a meeting with has their personal calendars updated, Outlook will find the next available meeting time for the group automatically, send them a meeting request and they can then accept or decline the invitation. By accepting, the meeting is automatically placed on their personal calendar. Updates to the meeting time or information can be sent to the participants so their calendars stay updated. As the meeting organizer you can even see what the acceptance status is for everyone that has been invited.
• Book resources such as classrooms, public and private labs, and equipment.
• Access to a Global Address directory.  When new people come on board, they are already in the Global Address book.  When they leave, they are automatically removed from the Global Address book.  This reduces contact management.
• With your contacts, create your own personal distribution lists to include friends, family or fellow students in your classes.
• Public Folders is an exciting feature that is available only when connecting to the SOM Exchange Server using either Outlook XP/2003 or Outlook Web Access as your client. Public Folders can be used to disseminate information to those enrolled in specific classes and members of departments.