Plans are under way for Microsoft Outlook Webmail to be the university’s main e-mail system, meaning students would no longer have access through the Eudora program, a networking official said.

Paul Diedrich, associate director of Computing and Networking Systems, said the university would like to use Webmail as its main mailing system because of its ease of accessibility.

“It doesn’t matter where you are,” Diedrich said. “If you have Internet access, you have access to your university e-mail.”

Before Webmail was setup, to access university e-mail a student had to be on a computer with the Eudora program, making access very limited, Diedrich said.

“With Webmail, you just need any old browser, it doesn’t matter if it is Netscape or Internet Explorer,” he said.

To access Microsoft Webmail, simply open up a Internet browser and type in the webmail.uwec.edu in the address bar. A box will then pop up asking for your user name and password, which is the same as the one used for the Eudora program.

CNS began work on getting Webmail access about a year-and-a-half ago, Diedrich said, but in January all students at the university could access their university e-mail account through Webmail.

The feedback about Webmail has been good so far, he said. It takes everyone time to get used to a new program, but once they do, everyone he has talked to has been happy with it.

Many people were sorry they couldn’t have used a web access e-mail earlier, Diedrich said, especially those going on study abroad programs who normally have to set up a forward account.

They like the ease of the program, he said. It also has added features that Eudora does not, such as a scheduling calendar.

It’s because of these reasons and the accessibility that CNS decided to make the switch, Diedrich said.

Sophomore Kelly Bothun said she used Eudora last year to check her e-mail, but this fall she began using Webmail after her roommate told her about it.

“It’s just so much easier,” Bothun said, adding that Webmail makes it much easier to check e-mail from your dorm room, because you don’t have to go through the steps of loading the Eudora program on your computer.

The Eudora program hopefully will be gone by this fall, Diedrich said. But there are a few technical difficulties that need to be resolved before that can happen.