Repairs Bring E-Mail Up to Speed

Sixteen days after students and staff began complaining that the "FAS" server was running slowly, Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) computer services officials on Tuesday finished revamping the system.

Director of FAS Computer Services Franklin M. Steen said the problems arose after technicians completed a system upgrade over the summer in response to numerous complaints about the system's speed last year.

The new server, however, was not properly configured and caused users to complain about the system's speed once again.

Steen said his office received "many complaints" about the speed of the system from various members of the Harvard community.

Computer Services spent the past few weeks trying to solve the system problems, Steen said.

Caleb A. Gibson '99 said he wasn't surprised by the delays on FAS.

"FAS is the system that most people use, so there's too big of a demand on the system, especially in the afternoons when a lot of people use e-mail," he said.

This high demand on the system, especially at certain "peak" hours of the day, was what Steen said system officials originally considered the most likely cause for the system's slow speed.

Instead, Steen said he discovered that the problems were configurations of the new, more powerful systems that were set up.

Steen said that his staff has been working on reconfiguring the new system for the past few weeks.

"On Tuesday we made a large set of significant changes that speeded up the system considerably," Steen said.

Students said they had been frustrated by the FAS server's speed.

"It is really frustrating to spend so much time trying to check your e-mail," said Emily N. Tabak '00, echoing the sentiments of many undergraduates.

Some students said they have already begun to notice a change for the better as they log into the FAS network.

"I actually have noticed that FAS has been faster in the past few days," said Joy S. Su '00, who added that she had previously preferred using other e-mail log-on systems because FAS was so slow.

"It has gone back to normal in the past few days, but I wouldn't exactly call normal an amazing upgrade," said Michael A. Cohen '98, who said he has been very frustrated with the system over the past few weeks.

Steen said that he has received plenty of congratulatory messages from his staff and other members of the faculty who have noticed a change.

"The system we now have is expandable and further adjustments can be made to meet an even higher demand," he said

"It has gone back to normal in the past few days, but I wouldn't exactly call normal an amazing upgrade," said Michael A. Cohen '98, who said he has been very frustrated with the system over the past few weeks.

Steen said that he has received plenty of congratulatory messages from his staff and other members of the faculty who have noticed a change.

"The system we now have is expandable and further adjustments can be made to meet an even higher demand," he said