Service Overview

The Electronic Support Services Environment (ESSE, pronounced "easy") is a distributed services environment composed of service centers.

The ESSE Library Serviceprovides an Electronic Library and an E-Mail Forum service.

The ESSE Post Office Service provides a Postal Box, Mail List and Directory Assistance service.

The ESSE Help Desk service. provides assistance for any E-Mail question.

To view or download a text copy of the GSA ESSE services overview, click here.

Please note that this page is still under construction and may change formats before its final phase.

ESSE LIBRARY SERVICES

ESSE E-Mail Forum Service

The ESSE E-Mail Forum service works like an open mail list. Any forum member can send a message to the forum address, and the message is distributed to all members of that forum. Forum members can share messages, enjoying an easy and efficient means of communication.

Each forum will have a moderator who is the manager of the forum. The moderator determines how the forum is setup; open or closed membership, and how messages are distributed; openly or approval required before distribution. A forum can be an open conversation between members, or a closed moderated distribution channel.

ESSE E-Mail Forums are available to anyone with an email address. Forum membership can be setup manually by the moderator, or a forum can be open, permitting members to subscribe by sending an email message to the forum service address with the appropriate command in the message body.

ESSE's E-Mail Forum service is an easy email based messaging service that is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Most of the changes and/or maintenance (when needed) is done through email messages.

If you would like to establish a forum with ESSE, send a message to:

Manager@Library.fed.gov, or call (202) 501-1337.

In the message subject type: NEW FORUM REQUEST. Direct questions or comments on ESSE's Forum service to the Library Manager at the same address above.

ESSE Electronic Library Service

The ESSE Electronic Library service is a document storage facility that stores documents and makes them publicly accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Libraries can be created to facilitate most of your document and database storage needs. A library can have multiple directories so documents are grouped by categories, and documents can be updated so library items are always current.

Documents stored in an Electronic Library can be accessed via Anonymous FTP, archie, Gopher, WAIS, an Electronic Mail interface and a Telnet Client Tutorial. ESSE's Electronic Library service is an efficient and easily accessible document storage and retrieval tool, enhancing any business environment.

If you would like information on establishing your own Electronic Library, send a note to:

Manager@Library.fed.gov, or call 202 501-1337.

ESSE POST OFFICE SERVICES

Mail List Service

The Mail List service is a mail distribution service which provides few-to-many e-mail distribution. The service provides text only message distribution to X400, Internet and Facsimile recipients.

The Mail List is created based on the request by the List Manager of a particular mail group or organization. The List Manager provides the addresses of the recipients in the Mail List. The List Manager also identifies the Message Contributors to the list. The Message contributors will be provided with an e-mail address at the host postoffice.fed.gov. All the messages received at this mailbox, from the authorized contributors will be processed for distribution to the list.

The List Manager can also specify a Message Moderator for the List. This is a service option. All the mail that is sent to the Mail List service for distribution to a particular Mail List, will be forwarded to the Message Moderator. The messages will be distributed only on the approval of the Message moderator of the List.

To establish a Mail List, requests should be directed to: manager@postoffice.fed.gov or call (202) 501-0162

Postal Box Service

The Postal Box Service provides a general delivery box for groups or an E-mail address for someone not connected to an E-mail service. Messages to postal boxes will be auto-forwarded to the specified Internet address.

The Postal Box address will be of the form:

@postoffice.fed.gov.

The owner of the Postal Box provides the postal box name and the Internet E-Mail address for forwarding. The Postal Box name can be a string up to 32 characters in length without a comma or period.

Send requests for a new Postal Box to:

manager@postoffice.fed.gov or call (202) 501-0162.

Directory Assistance

Information such as the E-Mail address, fax number and telephone number of working group members is currently available through the ESSE's Directory Assistance facility.

To obtain directory information via telephone call (202) 501-0162.

To obtain directory information via E-Mail, send a message to:

Help@PostOffice.fed.gov

The Subject of the message should contain only the word "Directory".

The message body should contain one of the command lines below.

1) For information on a person: "name=FirstName LastName"

To request information on multiple members separate the names by commas, "name=John Doe, Jane Doe, Dave Smith".

2) To obtain directory information for a working group: "group=GroupName".

Help Desk

The ESSE Help Desk can:

- assist with Service Provider problem resolution.

- answer User Agent questions

- assist with X.400 and Internet addressing.

- assist with accessing the Internet via; Telnet, FTP, Gopher, Archie or World Wide Web agents like Mosaic and Cello.

- Provide shareware UUENCODE/UUDECODE utilities. for Windows or DOS.

If you have a questions about something not listed, please give us a a call or send a message and we will assist you.

Further Assistance

Direct general service questions for Library Services to:

Help@Library.fed.gov, or call (202) 501-1337.

Direct general service questions for Post Office Services to:

Help@Postoffice.fed.gov, or call (202) 501-0162.

For Customer Support send a note to:

ESSE@Postoffice.fed.gov, or call (202) 501-1337.

For Technical Support contact:

Help@Helpdesk.fed.gov, or call (816) 926-3068.