By Jonathan Tolman
Almost a year after its introduction, Route Y Post Office Version 3 is still in preview mode, with no improvements scheduled for the immediate future.
Russell Allred, BYU Information Technology product manager, said the new system has received a lot of praise.
'People sent messages saying ''finally, finally, you''ve given us the ability to do attachments,''' he said.
The Version 3 program does have many more features than the older e-mail program, including attachments, address books and sorting options. But there have been problems.
Version 3 is slower than Version 2 and it is more prone to crashing.
'The only downtime we have when a problem occurs is the time it takes for us to realize that there''s a problem,' Allred said.
BYU computer engineers usually 'reload a module' when a problem occurs. The process is roughly equivalent to turning a personal computer off and on again when it freezes.
BYU lacks the authorization to tamper with the Version 3 program itself because an outside vendor owns the software.
'We''re at the mercy of the vendor. We supply the problems to them,' Allred said. 'They haven''t been able to figure them out.'
So far this semester, 40,576 people have used the Version 2 email system at BYU. A total of 23,713 people have used Version 3, said Stan Peters, computing specialist for BYU.
Jennifer Joy, PR Coordinator for the Office of Information Technology, said it is for the convenience of the students that two email systems are available.