“You should already be able to see the difference,” he said of the improvements undertaken so far.

Computer services are also adding more storage units. Reading, delivering and deleting email messages is a resource intensive process which slows down mail access for both Webmail, and for Pine and Eudora users.

But even as Computer Services irons out some wrinkles, many users are satisfied with the service.

The Freshman Dean’s Office (FDO) has already asked that incoming first- years recieve their email user names and passwords over the summer, rather than when they arrive on campus, so that they can begin using their FAS accounts earlier than in the past.

Previously this was not possible, because telnet was generally thought to be too complicated for incoming students to download and use on their own without the technical support offered by Harvard.

Webmail itself was installed at the request of FAS students and faculty, through surveys conducted by computer services every fall.

Along with wireless ethernet, Webmail was by far the most popularly requested service.

Davis estimated that all Houses will be equipped with wireless ethernet by the end of the next academic year.

—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.