You are receiving this message because your USF email account %NETID%@mail.usf.edu is being forwarded to this address.
Email sent to AOL, Yahoo & Hotmail (and possibly other domains) is being delayed — in some cases messages are taking 2-3 days to be delivered. USF has been listed on a “blacklist” by these domains because of the volume of spam they have received from virus-infected PCs in the USF dorms. This only involved a few infected computers, but it has affected the entire university’s ability to deliver messages to those domains. Many other colleges and universities are reporting similar problems with AOL, Yahoo & Hotmail. Here are some things you can do to help prevent message delays in the future:
Install a virus-scanner and keep it updated
USF has a site-license for Mcafee Virus Scanner, which is available for all student, staff, and faculty at USF. Go here for details. A virus-scanner is only as good as it’s latest update, so make sure that the auto-updates are running every day
Don’t forward your mail to an ISP that delays incoming mail (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc)
Some universities have taken the approach of banning the use of off-campus Email forwarding all together. We don’t want to punish everyone who forwards their mail off campus because of the handful of domains causing this problem. We also don’t want to prevent anyone from using one of these domains if they want to. However, to avoid the problems that can occur because of these delays, we may need to change our Email forwarding policies in the future. As the Email administrators of mail.usf.edu, it is our job to make sure that you receive ALL of your messages in a timely manner. We do not want you to miss important information because of another Email services problems.
If you DO forward your mail to one these addresses, make sure it is the correct address!
Compounding the problem of virus-infected PCs is the problem of “broken” forwarding accounts. Many of the forwarding addresses that are in use are not valid AOL/Yahoo/Hotmail accounts. This has happened because the account has gone unused and has been removed by the ISP or because the student entered their forwarding Email address incorrectly. If you are receiving this message your forwarding address is set correctly, but please be sure to update the forwarding address if you change your Email address.