1. When I look at my mail forwarding (in Who I Am) or mail routing (in the Electronic Directory), I see an address I didn't put there. It looks like NetID@tar.mail.cornell.edu; what's it doing there?

2. In Who I Am I said I wanted to receive mail at my Cornell postoffice address (the first of three radio buttons), but when I look, it's been reset to the third radio button. I can't seem to change it back. What's up with that?!?

3. What happens to mail coming to me when I turn TAR on?

4. Will TAR cause problems for electronic mailing lists?

5. Will TAR remind me to turn it off? What happens if I leave it on forever?

6. Does using TAR affect the security of my e-mail messages?

1. When I look at my mail forwarding (in Who I Am) or mail routing (in the Electronic Directory), I see an address I didn't put there. It looks like

NetID@tar.mail.cornell.edu

What's it doing there?

It means you have turned TAR on. We add this address so that TAR can keep track of who it has already sent your "I'm away" message to. Don't worry about it; we'll remove it automatically when you turn TAR off.

 

2. I told Who I Am that I want to receive mail at my Cornell postoffice address (the first of three radio buttons), but when I look, it's been reset to the third radio button. I can't seem to change it back. What's up with that?!?

Not to worry. When you turn TAR on we add the NetID@tar.mail.cornell.edu address so that TAR can keep track of who it has already sent your "I'm away" message to. Don't worry about it; we'll remove the address and return your Who I Am settings to their previous state automatically when you turn TAR off.

 

3. What happens to mail coming to me when I turn TAR on?

It'll keep on coming. Messages sent to you are handled EXACTLY the same whether TAR is on or off. The only difference is the "I'm away" message that people who send you messages get when you've turned TAR on.

 

4. Will TAR cause problems for electronic mailing lists?

Nope. It's smart enough that it won't create any infinitely repeating loops of replies. That would be a bad thing.

 

5. Will TAR remind me to turn it off? What happens if I leave it on forever?

No, TAR won't remind you if you leave it on, but it is impossible for you to leave it on forever. When you turn TAR on you must specify an ending date, and we've arbitrarily restricted that date range to the next two years (more or less). If you do happen to return earlier than expected and forget to turn TAR off, you'll continue to receive all your messages and, eventually, someone will ask you why they get your "I'm away" message about once a week.

6. Does using TAR affect the security of my e-mail messages?

Absolutely not. When you turn TAR on you are merely enabling the system to keep track of who has sent you mail (and when) so it will know whether or not to send your "I'm away" message. The body of the message (and the rest of the headers) are not tracked, stored, examined, read, etc.