Frequently Asked Questions

Subscriber Questions (students, faculty, staff, etc.)

Q: What is e2Campus?
A: e2Campus gives you info on the go™. Signup and then receive customized, up-to-date school information such as news, sports, weather, emergencies, special events, reminders and more.

Q: How do I sign up for e2Campus alerts?
A: If you are a student or employee, please visit your school’s web site or call the administration office to sign up for e2Campus. You cannot sign up for e2Campus through this web site.

Q: Can I change my contact preferences?
A: Yes. You can change your account settings to add different email addresses or phone numbers.

Q: How do I Opt-Out (remove myself) from receiving e2Campus alerts?
A: Please log into your account to opt-out for e2Campus alerts for your school. You may opt-out of email alerts only, SMS alerts only, or the entire service. If you cannot log into your account, you can simply reply to any text message from us with the word "STOP" and only the word "STOP".

Q: How do I control what shows up on my phone?
A: You are given an opportunity to choose the kinds of messages you wish to receive on your mobile phone through a checkbox listing of groups. You can adjust your preferences from your Group settings.

Q: Will I receive unsolicited messages ("SPAM") on my mobile phone or email account?
A: NO. e2Campus enforces a ZERO SPAM policy which clearly prohibits unsolicited messages, and e2Campus does not sell the contact information of our subscribers to third party marketers.

Q: Does your service work on multiple cell phone networks?
A: Yes. e2Campus is a cross-carrier service. See a list of wireless carriers supported here.

Q: Do I need to install software on my phone?
A: NO. e2Campus uses the industry standard SMS text messaging protocol to send messages to your phone. Your mobile phone plan will need to accept text messages to work properly.

Q: Will this cost me anything?
A: Maybe. Depending on your wireless carrier provider and the plan you have, you may be charged a nomimal fee (like ten cents per message) to receive SMS text messages. Many students have unlimited text messaging plans, so there would be no additional charge.

Administrator Questions

Q: What exactly is e2Campus?
A: e2Campus is a patent pending selective mass notification system that allows designated school administrators to send time-sensitive messages to the mobile phones, email, and/or pagers of their subscribers (students, faculty, staff, radio stations, TV stations, and others). Think of it as a new way to communicate to students and others - instantly, wherever they are geographically located.

Q: What is a selective mass notification system?
A: A selective mass notification system is defined as a platform to deliver a notification to an entire audience by all means necessary; therefore creating comprehensive coverage to increase the odds that a particular subscriber received the notification in a timely manner. Subscribers can get notified immediately of news and events on the device they select to be notified by.

Q: What is a notification?
A: A notification is defined as a form of communication that delivers descriptive information about news or an event, unlike a bell or siren that communicates little information.

Q: Do I need to install software and/or hardware in order to have e2Campus?
A: NO. e2Campus is a 100% web-based software system, so you do not need any additional software or hardware. All you need is a web browser with an Internet connection and you are up and running! You can look at e2Campus as a Public Safety "Utility"- always on and ready for action.

Q: Will any person receive unsolicited messages ("SPAM") on their mobile phone?
A: NO. e2Campus enforces a ZERO SPAM policy which clearly prohibits unsolicited messages, and e2Campus does not sell the contact information of our subscribers to third party marketers.

Q: Does your service support multiple cell phone services?
A: Yes. e2Campus sends SMS text messages through the Omnilert gateway to the wireless carriers via standard protocol. e2Campus is a cross-carrier service. See a list of wireless carriers supported here.

Q: Does your system work on Macs or Linux?
A: Yes, e2Campus is all web-based, so any computer (PC, Mac, Linux, smart phone, BlackBerry, etc.) with a web browser can control the system.

Q: How many email accounts and cell phone numbers are allowed per user?
A: Each "user" is defined as one username. Each username is allowed up to two mobile devices (i.e. cell phone and pager) and two personal email addresses. Plus, the S.E.E.D. feature covers EVERY school email address in your institution's email server without counting towards your user limit.

Q: Does your system allow database uploads of students phone numbers?
A: No - For a number of reasons. First, we don't want to interfere with Telemarketing or SPAM laws. If someone receives an unwanted message that was sent from our system, the recipient could call us a txt spammer. This would lead to lawsuits and blacklisting from the wireless carriers. Then, no one would get text messages. Because cell phones and other mobile devices are the personal property of your recipients, we do not allow data to be imported into e2Campus. Participants must OPT-IN to e2Campus.

Second, you probably want authentic users and not users who enter false numbers like 123-456-7890. Third, it's hard to uncover accidental data until it's too late. If someone misreads a number, mistakenly types a wrong number, or changes numbers or providers, how will you know? Our past experience has shown that customer-supplied lists can be 60% inaccurate.

Fourth, our Validation step ensures the user's phone will accept text messages. We have seen instances during the Validation step where users discover their service plan or phone is not text ready. A database dump would not uncover this.

Fifth, by allowing users to opt-in, you are testing their abilities to retrieve and read text messages. Not everyone is an early adopter like you. Plus, you are engaging them. They will make a mental connection to your communication tool - like the pride someone receives after voting. Users will be less likely to appreciate a service that is forced on them. If you don't believe us, just look at the adoption rate of your school-issued email accounts.

And with the flexibility of e2Campus SmartCode, you can place the e2Campus registration form within your class registration process to collect "opt-in" and "opt-out" statistics.

Q: Does your system integrate with LDAP or Active Directory?
A: No - We have designed e2Campus to act as a failover communications tool, so if your campus experiences a power failure, virus, or network overload due to high volume in a crisis situation, you can still send a campus-wide instant alert using a BlackBerry, Treo, or any smartphone with a web browser. Many cell phone towers have power backups, so you can still get the word out quickly even if your campus network is down.

IF e2Campus was plugged into your LDAP server and required authentication before sending a message, then e2Campus would not work during your emergency situation and no messages would be sent.

Assuming that everything is okay on campus, consider 18,000 queries a minute hitting your LDAP server on top of normal traffic. True story: One customer used e2Campus to alert their IT staff that their LDAP server was down.

To maintain authenticated users, put the User Signup Form behind your intranet. Then insert a custom SmartCode Extension into your web page which will cause the User Signup Form to have an unchangeable pre-populated username from the university "Net ID" and not the standard empty Username field.

Alternatively, you can make it a requirement that students use their student ID or school email account as their e2Campus username.

Still have questions? Contact us or call 800-936-3525.