Access time especially suffers between 5 and 6:30 p.m., when faculty leave for the day and students check e-mail before dinner, Steen said. The second peak occurs around 11 p.m. and the gradually falls off at about 2 a.m. Server use increases again beginning in the morning.

Steen noted that if students kept smaller inboxes, the speed would be improved.

However, he was quick to add that HASCS "want[s] the system to accommodate users" and that it will adjust to allow large inboxes, if that is what students prefer.

Adjustment is a key component of HASCS's strategy for dealing with the stress on the server.

Facing a similar problem last year, HASCS increased the amount of space available to each student from 9 megabytes to the current 50, which has allowed students to save more on the server.

HASCS has thus been keeping tabs on the constant need for space. This year, though, "the growth curve was faster than we anticipated," Osterberg said.

Currently, HASCS is looking to some temporary solutions, including evening out the load on different servers and sometimes moving users' storage overnight to minimize disruption.

And now that HASCS has pinpointed the source of the system weakness, it can work on a more permanent solution. After a time-consuming analysis, HASCS calculated what equipment is needed and placed the order. The equipment is complex, and will take up to several weeks to arrive.