Migration of departmental email system to CalMail

On April 6 (as currently planned), the Mathematics Department will switch over its email system to the campus' email system, CalMail. This is being done in order to free up departmental staff time for other duties, and because increasing volumes of spam, clever spammers, and changes in the way that email is used, are making it increasingly difficult for us properly to manage an email system in-house.

Advantages for users are that the CalMail system will be more reliable than the departmental mail system, spam may be more effectively reduced, and disk storage for mail on the CalMail server will be substantially larger. (Note, however, that some mail clients may move incoming mail from the server to your home directory right off the bat, so this consideration may not apply to you.)

The main change for users is that the way that they read incoming mail will change. The extent of this change depends on which mail client they use for reading mail.

• Users of mutt, alpine (formerly pine), Thunderbird, Apple's Mail.app (also known as Mail) and other IMAP-capable mail readers will see minimal changes. Although Eudora may work, its use is strongly discouraged. In fact Eudora has been abandoned by its developers and does not meet the minimal security standards required by IS&T, so you should not be using it on campus at all. There is an article by Tom Holub here with a discussion of this, including pointers on how to switch. (FIXME: Steve or Tom, please flesh this out.)
• Users who read mail using the department's SquirrelMail interface will need to point their browsers to CalMail's web client instead, at https://calmail.berkeley.edu/ .
• The Unix mail program does not directly support the IMAP protocol. Users can either switch to one of the above mail clients, or make some changes in how they read mail. See the wiki page on CalMail conversion and Unix mail.
• The mail client dtmail will no longer be supported. (This is the client that you get when you click on the mail icon in the Solaris CDE environment). Users of dtmail will have to switch to one of the mail clients listed above.

Watch this space for further information on procedures to follow during the transition (e.g., there is now a FAQ for setting your CalMail password).

Questions

Here are answers to some questions you may have about the transition.

Will my math.berkeley.edu email address go away after the transition?

No, you will still have the same math.berkeley.edu email address as before. The only difference is that incoming and outgoing mail will be handled by CalMail servers instead of by Math Department computers.

Will I need to create my own CalMail account?

No, you will not need take steps on your own to create the CalMail account. Note that if you go to CalMail's web site and create an account for yourself, you will have a different email address, username@berkeley.edu, instead of username@math.berkeley.edu. Of course, you can do that, but it is probably not what you want to do, since you will then have two CalMail accounts after the transition.

New accounts have already been created for staff and faculty. You may access them now. Accounts will be created for all eligible users well before the transition date.

Do I already have a CalMail password?

No, not unless you have independently created one. Your CalMail account username@math.berkeley.edu may have already been created, or if not, will be created for you soon, but will not be receiving any email until after the transition.

How do I create my new password?

Once your new account has been established, you should use a web browser and go to the Calmail home page, https://calmail.berkeley.edu/. Click on the "Change Password" link, on the left side of the page. That will allow you to authenticate via Calnet ID, and return you to the password page. Enter your Login, which will be username@math.berkeley.edu, and then create a new password.

Will the "quota for incoming mail" still be in effect after the transition?

The existing mail quota system will no longer be in effect. Incoming mail will no longer be stored in the directory /var/mail presently used for incoming mail and subject to the 25 megabyte departmental quota. Mail will either be stored in your home directory, where it will be subject to your usual quota, or on the CalMail server, which has its own quota of 1GB per user (with provisions for larger quotas).

What will happen to the current contents of my inbox?

Nothing will happen to your inbox on the Math server without your explicit action. You should move the contents of your inbox (the file /var/mail/username) to your new account, using your IMAP mail client. Instructions will be provided for various clients. You may also have mail folders stored in your home directory. The departmental imap server, as well as some mail clients, may immediately move incoming mail into the file mbox in your home directory. Most people store mail in folders within their home directories. The transition will not affect the mbox file, other mail olders, or anything else within your home directory. These can be moved at your leisure, after the transition.

What about mail forwarding?

It will be possible to forward mail from your CalMail account, either keeping a copy also on CalMail or not. Forwarding will no longer be managed by editing a file .forward within your home directory, however. Instead, you will need to log in to the CalMail web page to set this up. By default, your .forward settings will not be transferred to the new account; however, we can do that for you if you specifically request it.

What about outgoing mail? Will the process of sending mail change?

When sending mail from one of the Math Department workstations or servers, you will not see any difference. If you've configured your own email client for remote access, you'll need to change the server settings, specifically the SMTP server.