VON Membership Support:
Alumni Help Desk:
support@helpdesk.dartmouth.org
(603) 646-3202
Quick Fix for Password Problems: If you've already activated your VON membership but can't remember your password, click here to reset.
Vox Online Network services are provided free by the Dartmouth College Office of Alumni Relations Information Resources Unit in cooperation with Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and Tuck School of Business. Use of VON data is limited to faculty, staff, and alumni of Dartmouth College; unauthorized commercial use is prohibited (see VON policy). Dartmouth College reserves the right to terminate or suspend any graduate's membership in VON for any inappropriate use of the network.
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Getting Started
What is
VON email? How is it useful to me? In 1997 the Office of Alumni Relations launched the Dartmouth-exclusive Vox Online Network, providing alumni access to the online Dartmouth Alumni Directory and the Dartmouth Career Network. Membership in VON also includes a free lifetime email account for living Dartmouth alumni and current students.
What will my permanent VON email address look like? Your permanent VON address looks like <john.a.doe.66@alum.dartmouth.org>. You can change any part of your address before the @ sign by adding nicknames to your VON email profile. For example, if John Doe '66 added "Jack Doe" to his profile, messages sent to <jack.doe.66@alum.dartmouth.org> would arrive at the address of <john.a.doe.66@alum.dartmouth.org.> Please use this feature carefully. Dartmouth College is not responsible for use of the same nickname by more than one person. If you want to ensure uniqueness, your best bet is to use only your formal email address.
Why
aren't the years of my additional Dartmouth degrees included in this address? The system allows only your first degree from Dartmouth. The years of any other Dartmouth degrees you may have are listed in the Dartmouth Alumni Directory.
How
do I register for my VON account?
Registration is easy.
Help! I forgot my password. No problem. Go to VON password reset and get a new one.
I know my VON password but want to change it. How do I do this? At the VON password reset page, fill out the short form, and you'll promptly be emailed a new password . Because the system-issued password isn't very user friendly, the email will include instructions on how to change it to a simpler password at WebBlitz. At WebBlitz, you'll sign in using your alumni user name and password (choose "Dartmouth Alumni" from the site dropdown). Click "preferences" on the left. Click "change password." Type your password, type your new password, and click "change." Note: Passwords are case sensitive, must be at least five characters, and can't be more than eight characters.
How can I find out which alumni Blitzmail server my VON email account is on? You can find this information here.
What if I don't want a VON account? You can request not to have a VON account. Just send an email with your request to support@helpdesk.dartmouth.org, and we'll remove your name from the server.
I requested not to have a VON account, but now I'd like to reinstate my VON privileges. How can I do this? Please send an email with your request to us at support@helpdesk.dartmouth.org. A charge may be applied.
Accessing My VON Email
How do I forward my VON email to another account I have? Go to Forwarding Your Von Email. It's easy.
What if I want to change from forwarding-only to full access? You can change to full access via the Web or by sending an email to us.
I changed my forwarding email address online, but my email's still going to the former address. How can I fix this? Go to Forwarding Your VON Email and update your account.
I changed my VON password in WebBlitz, and now I can't log in to the other VON areas. Why? Passwords are case sensitive, must be at least five characters, and can't be more than eight characters. Please check to make sure your password doesn't exceed eight characters.
Can I access my VON email on the Web? Yes. Go to WebBlitz.
How do I configure Outlook, Netscape, or Eudora, to access my VON email? Find instructions at the sites for these popular email programs: Thunderbird | Outlook | Outlook Express | Eudora | Mail(Mac)
Using VON Email Tools
I downloaded
the BlitzMail program for Mac, but when I try to install it, the system says it doesn't know which application to open it with. What can I do? Please visit Stuffit and follow the directions there. StuffIt is the program necessary to decompress .sit files, and once it's installed on your system, it should recognize the BlitzMail program as a compressed file to be decompressed.
What does Blitzmail need to clear the firewalls at my local site? Your firewall must allow you to make outgoing connections to ports 902 (AND) and 2151 (BlitzMail). If you have a firewall enabled, the port (913) used by SideCar, which is a utility that works in conjunction with Kerberos, will need to be opened through your firewall.
Can I get messages back that I deleted or that were in a folder that expired? The VON email system is backed up to tape nightly, but the backups are not intended for individual recovery. In the event of catastrophic hardware or software failure, we'll restore VON email as completely possible. Individual mailbox/message restoration due to accidental deletion or normal expiration is not possible due to the load this can place on the system.
If you're using your permanent VON account, be sure to check your folder expiration dates: the default is 6 months, but you can adjust the dates to fit your needs; for example, you can set it to "never."
We recommend that you save important messages directly to your hard drive. Open your folders and double-click the folder containing the messages to be saved. Choose the location on your hard drive and click "save." With multiple messages, it will daisychain messages into one text file. Headers with the dates, sender, and recipients will be retained, but attachments will not be and must be saved separately. Be sure to follow these steps in the future to prevent accidental deletions.
Why won't my version of Blitzmail allow me to connect to my VON email account? BlitzMail is currently available in three versions, depending on what operating system your computer is using. To use BlitzMail on your computer, you need to be able to connect to the Internet, either by modem or over a local area network. If you're able to run a browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, or if you have America Online 3.0 or higher, you can run BlitzMail. If your computer is unable to run a Web browser or other Internet software, you'll be unable to use BlitzMail.
I can't send VON email through BlitzMail because I'm getting a message saying my 100MB of storage space is almost full. What should I do? Unfortunately, we can't provide more disk space for VON accounts. If you're almost at capacity for your account, we recommend saving some of your messages to your hard drive. See Instructions.
Why do some emails sent to my BlitzMail program come through as attachments or code? BlitzMail is a strictly text-based email program, so anything that isn't plain text (for example, HTML code) is often either converted into an attachment by the BlitzMail software or just comes through as the code itself.
How do I use spam filtering? Spam filtering is a two-step process: scanning and marking incoming messages, and delivering messages marked as spam to a different mail folder. Your VON email is automatically scanned by spam recognition software called SpamAssassin. Messages that are determined to be spam are marked with an X-MailScanner-SpamScore: line in the message header. If you're a Blitzmail user, you can also set up your filter level within that application.
No filter is perfect! Check your spam folder periodically in case a legitimate message has been inadvertently tagged as spam.
If the built-in filtering offered by the IMAP server isn't sufficient, some IMAP clients allow you to configure more elaborate filters. The mechanism for setting up your own filtering varies depending on what mail client you use.
If you're forwarding, you may use Spam Assassin on a limited basis. The added header "X-MailScanner-SpamScore: sssss" still appends to all incoming messages. However, you must use the filters in the account you're forwarding to. In Outlook Express it's called "creating a rule". This entails filtering manually, as described above.
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