Yale University

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Yale ITS Home Email Services

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Help Desk
203.432.9000
203.785.3200

ITS Office
Yale University
175 Whitney Avenue
P.O. Box 208276
New Haven, CT
06520-8276
USA

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Setting up a Vacation Message

(a generated response when you are away from your email)

When should I use the Vacation Message?

When you leave your email for several days, you should change your voicEmail message on your telephone and you should also add a "vacation message" or bounce for your email to let people who are trying to reach you know you are away from your email.

Automatic Response can also be used to send what are called "auto-reply" messages for a wide variety of purposes. One of the most common auto-reply functions is to inform others that your email address is about to change with a Change of Address message.

You can also use the vacation program during semester breaks, if you are away for training or traveling on business, or if you will be on sick or maternity or disability leave for a period.

Activate your Vacation Message:

To turn on this feature use the website at: https://config.mail.yale.edu/
There is additional information about this feature on the website once you've logged into your account there.

NOTE ON EMAIL LIST DISTRIBUTION AND THE AUTOMATIC RESPONSE PROGRAM:

If you are on a number of listserv or email lists, the Automatic Response Program will send a response to the listserver in your name. Depending on how the list is setup, this may result in 1000 people being notified that you are way from your email, or mail only to one person. It also may on some lists, have the effect of "unsubscribing" you either automatically or in retaliation. Each list has an option for "nomail" or "hold-mail" or "unsubscribe" so you should consider these options if you are on one or more lists.

NOTE ON SPAM AND THE AUTOMATIC RESPONSE PROGRAM:

You should never reply to spam messages but most spam is "spoofing" the from field of the message. Since this application sends a response to the from field of the message, you can be relatively certain that your vacation message will not generate more spam for your account.

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Last modified: Thursday, 13-Sep-2007 15:55:09 EDT. (rb)