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Setting an E-Mail Auto-Response

The following instructions should help you set up an e-mail auto-response using the UNIX vacation program. Although these instructions make use of a Windows 98 system, the same instructions should also work with Windows 95, ME, 2000 and XP. Be aware that the screenshots on this page may not match up exactly for these other operating systems, but they should be very similar.

Some things to remember before following these directions:

Make sure that any mailing lists you are on can handle auto-responders. If you auto-respond to a mailing list that isn't properly set up, you will be sending out a lot of e-mail and a lot of people probably won't be too pleased. If you're unsure whether any mailing lists you are subscribed to can handle an auto-response, we recommend contacting the mailing list's administrator.
The vacation program uses a .forward file to send auto-replies. If you've already set up a .forward file, it will be erased by using vacation and your e-mail will no longer be forwarded to the outside address.

Click on the Start button.

Click Run on the Start Menu.

Type telnet mail.bcpl.net in the white box.

Click OK.

A telnet window should now open on your screen.

After a few seconds you should be prompted for your login name, which is the same as your username. For example, if your e-mail address is jdoe@bcpl.net, your username is jdoe.

Type your username at the login prompt and then hit Enter on the keyboard.

Now type your password at the Password prompt and then hit Enter on the keyboard.

Note: Nothing will show up when you type your password - this is normal.

After logging in, you should see a welcome screen with some contact information. You should then be asked for a terminal type.

At the terminal prompt, enter your desired terminal type.

If you don't know what terminal type to choose, type the number 1 and hit the Enter key.

You are now logged into your UNIX shell. You should see a prompt similar to /u1/jdoe $

The $ prompt signifies that UNIX is ready to take your commands.

At the $ prompt, type vacation then press Enter.

The UNIX text editor pico will open if you haven't set another editor to be the default. This is the program that we will use to edit the e-mail that will be sent as your auto-response.

While leaving the From: line alone, use the editor to change the Subject: (which will be the subject of the auto-response e-mail) as well as the body of the message below that.

The word "$SUBJECT" is a variable which will print out the subject of the message that the other person sent to you.

When you're finished customizing the auto-response message, press the CTRL key and the letter O at the same time to save it and then hit Enter. Use CTRL and the letter X to exit the editor.

After exiting the editor, some questions will pop up in the terminal window.

When asked:
Would you like to see it?
Type a letter n for "no."

When asked:
Would you like to edit it?
Type a letter n for "no."

When asked:
Would you like to enable the vacation feature?
Type a letter y for "yes."

At this point, a message will appear telling you that vacation has been enabled.

Turning E-Mail Auto-Response off

After logging into UNIX, simply delete the .forward file with this command:

rm .forward

This will save the auto-response message that you created so that the next time you set an auto-response vacation will only remake the .forward file.