Last revision November 5, 2010
Use of electronic mail is universal among computer users. For many people, email has replaced the telephone and postal service as the primary telecommunication medium.
Stanford University operates email servers (the @stanford.edu addresses) for all students, faculty, and staff.
The School of Earth Sciences operated its own email server for general use beginning in the early 1980s, but merged into the university central systems in 2008. It still operates an email server named "sesmail.stanford.edu" strictly to deliver mail to system management aliases.
The School's research groups also operate many Unix and Linux workstations that are capable of functioning as separate email servers. Even the MacOS X operating system, due to its Unix base, has that capability built-in. The School prohibits individuals and research groups from operating their own email servers, and enforces this with network firewall rules. Improperly configured servers can be exploited by hackers and "spammers" to harass others on the network. Anyone in the School who believes he/she has a special need to operate a separate email server needs to get approval from the system manager.