District Email Systems

For your convenience, here are links to our mail servers:

• Chilliwack Senior Staff
• Sardis Senior Staff
• All other District Staff

The IT HelpDesk receives many common (Frequently Asked) Questions regarding our new district email system. These questions (and their answers) are listed below.

Use the same username and password that you log into your district computer with. However, you also have to prefix your username with your network domain. As such, your username needs to be entered in the format DOMAIN\first_last. Select your domain from the list below:

So… if your name is Bob Smith and you work at Rosedale Middle, you'd enter rms\bob_smith as your username.

The “Public/Shared” option should be used on computers that aren't your primary workstation or one that other people may have easy access to. I.e. your home computer, a classroom computer where students might have access, an Internet Cafe, etc. This option will automatically log you out after a few minutes of inactivity to help ensure nobody else gains access to your email account.

Use the “Private” option if you're sure nobody else has easy access to your computer in case you step away for a few minutes and forget to log out or lock your workstation.

Contact your Lead Tech Teacher, Principal, the technician assigned to your site, or the Tech Department HelpDesk at helpdesk@sd33.bc.ca or 604-792-4357.

If you're getting reports from non-district staff that they're getting your emails, but not your attachments, it's likely because you're using Outlook - and they're not. Further, your local Outlook mail software is configured (under Tools… Options… Mail Format) to send messages using Rich Text Format. This option only works when sending attachments between Outlook users. Other mail programs (Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Eudora, etc.) don't fully “understand” Rich Text Format - they can read (and show) the body of the message, but can't properly handle any file attachments. Attachments either don't show up at all, or show up as WINMAIL.DAT - which isn't recognized and can't be opened. Very frustrating!

To resolve this issue, simply set your local Outlook software to use HTML (or Plain Text) formatting for your email messages. (Set this in Outlook under Tools… Options… Mail Format.)

NOTE: This issue was resolved for District-owned/connected computers on Apr 21, 2009, via a network-wide computer configuration policy that forces Outlook 2003 (and Outlook 2007) to use HTML message formatting, and disables this option from being set to any other value. (See Attachment #18 in the April 22, 2009, edition of the Superintendent's Memo.)

No, they’re both the same. kevin_traas@sd33.bc.ca and kevin_traas@sd33.net are both the same email account and messages sent to either address will end up in the same Inbox. As a district, though, we’ve chosen to continue using sd33.bc.ca our standard email address suffix – the sd33.net addresses were only necessary through the transition process and may even “disappear” at some point in the future.

The “Public” option will automatically log you out after a several minutes of inactivity. Use the “Private” option if your computer is physically secure (from the public, students, etc.) and you can safely walk away for a few minutes.

Our new email system is now completely integrated into the district computer network. As such, the username and password you use to access each system is now one-and-the-same. If you’re using Windows, you can press Ctrl-Alt-Delete (all three keys at the same time) and choose “Change Password”. If you’re logged into district webmail, click the “Options” button and choose “Change Password” from the menu.

As you’ve likely noticed, the old version of Internet Explorer on the Mac does not handle our new webmail system very well – and there’s no newer version available. Your only alternative is another OS 9 web browser called iCab. Talk to your school’s Lead Tech Teacher and he/she will connect with the Tech Dept to get it installed for you.

Outlook (Windows) and Entourage (Mac OSX) are software programs that need to be individually installed and configured on every computer you want to access your email from, whereas Webmail is instantly available from any computer that has an Internet connection – it’s much more convenient. On the other hand, some of the more advanced functionality of our new system is easier to access and use via Outlook or Entourage (such as Shared Calendaring, etc.). In the end, though, unless they have a laptop, most people prefer the convenience of Webmail. One final note: our old email system basically forced people to make a choice and then stick with it, however, this new system has one, unified “Inbox” that you can access using any of the methods above – and you can even switch back-and-forth without missing a beat! Anything you do via one method is instantly accessible within the other, so if you have the option, feel free to experiment!

Yes! If you’re using Internet Explorer 6 or 7 (Windows), simply click the little “ABC” checkmark box in the toolbar at the top of the New Message window. Any misspelled words will be underlined in red. Right-click any word and select the proper spelling from the drop-down – or add it to the dictionary, or manually correct the spelling as necessary. If you’re using Firefox (version 3.0 – on Windows, Mac, or Linux), your spelling is automatically checked as you type! (If it’s not, you may need to enable this feature under Tools–Options–Advanced–General. You may also need to install the proper language pack. If so, simply right-click (Cmd-click on the Mac) in the body of the message and choose “Add Dictionaries…” from the menu. Select and install the language(s) you want, restart Firefox when directed, and you’ll be good-to-go!)

Unfortunately, no. Doing so would significantly impact our ability to effectively support our electronic communications infrastructure – configuration issues, troubleshooting problems, providing training, performing backups & recovery, etc. would all be far more difficult and time-consuming. All of us would also end up having messages coming in from hotmail, yahoo, gmail, etc. which would be very confusing. (“How do I really know that ilovecheesepizza@hotmail.com is actually Frank from the IT Department?” )