The hermes email service

As from September 2005, DAMTP computer accounts for new users are set up to use the University central email service, Hermes, which is managed by the University Computing Service.

DAMTP has its own mail service which for many years has provided email facilities when the central service was under-resourced and overloaded, and which still works well for a large number of existing members of DAMTP. However, the central Hermes is now is much improved, and can provide a service which is in some ways superior to the DAMTP one, for example inboxes can be much larger. Also, many computer systems in colleges and other departments are configured to use hermes by default.

Users of the DAMTP network are given standard campus-wide login names (account identifiers, or CRSids), so that a user with account id in123 on DAMTP computers receives email addressed to in123@hermes.ac.uk. Incoming messages are held on the hermes mail store where they can be accessed by using appropriately configured email software, or by logging on to the hermes server directly (but this is rarely done).

The standard mail software used on DAMTP linux computers, pine, is configured to access the hermes mail store by default. Users with login accounts on the DAMTP network are given mail aliases in123@damtp.ac.uk and (for example) I.Newton@damtp.ac.uk, and mail to these addresses is automatically forwarded to hermes. Mail sent to in123@cam.ac.uk is normally forwarded to in123@hermes, but this can be changed to a different address if required, or caused to be rejected (bounced).

Thus mail sent to addresses @damtp and @cam are forwarded to hermes. Fullname@damtp (e.g. I.Newton@damtp.ac.uk) is the preferred way of publishing your email address as it does not divulge your login name to others who might try to hack into local systems using your identifier.

Note that when you are logged on to a DAMTP computer and start up the pine email program (or any other email reader), you will be asked for your hermes password. This is issued by the Computing Service and will not be the same as your DAMTP password (and they should not be both the same, to improve security).

Some details about using pine and other programs to access you email can be found here.

New postgraduate students are automatically given a hermes email account before arrival in Cambridge, and instructions on how to collect the password are available on Jackdaw.

Each new staff member of the department is given an account on DAMTP computer systems on receipt of a DAMTP application form. A request for the user's hermes account to be activated is sent by one of the DAMTP Computer Officers to the Computing Service who then send details of the password by letter to the new user. The Computing Service require a completed application form requesting a hermes account, but, for accounts requested by DAMTP Computer Officers, will issue a password in advance of the form being received. Please send the completed form to the Computing Service as soon as possible.