Information and Technology

Story posted June 07, 2009

Bowdoin has outgrown its email server (Exchange 2003) and will upgrade to Exchange 2007 in August 2009. The upgrade will not require any changes to your mail client (e.g., Outlook, Entourage, MacMail, Thunderbird).

Link to known issues

The new Exchange server will bring many benefits to campus, such as:

• Search in Webmail for all browsers (Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer)
• Faster Search in Outlook and Entourage
• Set an end date for your "Out of Office" message in Webmail
• Improved Smartphone support - if your Smartphone is lost or stolen you can use Webmail to do a complete "wipe" of your device

What to Expect During the Upgrade

• Mailboxes will be moved one at a time, rolling 24 hours a day from Sunday August 9th - August 30th.
• You will have access to email, calendar, and contacts during the 3-week migration period EXCEPT for the time your individual mailbox is being moved.
• The smaller your mailbox, the faster it will move to the new server (1 GB = 1 hour).
• While your mailbox is being moved, you will not be able to access your email, calendar, or contacts on your Smartphone (iPhone, Blackjack, Treo, etc.) or your email client (Thunderbird, Outlook, Entourage, MacMail, Webmail).
• Any emails sent to you while your mailbox is being moved will be delivered to the new server.

Schedule

• August 3th–7th All Student mailboxes moved
• August 9th–15th All faculty and staff that report to the Dean for Academic Affairs or Dean of Student Affairs
• All other Divisions to follow
• August 30th – All Mailboxes on Exchange 2007

What to Expect After your Mailbox has been Moved

• You will not have to change any mail settings.
• The first time you login to Webmail you will see a new screen asking you to set your time-zone and preferred language.
• Webmail will have a new, easier to use interface. For a demonstration, go to http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/code/OWA/index.html

Known Issues

Issue: iPhone is not getting new mail after mailbox is moved to new mail server.
Resolution: Stop and start mail from syncing. From the home screen click on Setting/Mail, Contacts and Calendars, click on your Bowdoin account, change the setting next to "Mail" from "On" to "Off" and then back "On"

Issue: Errors when deleting and sending email in Thunderbird (Mac and Windows).
Resolution: In Thunderbird click on the "File" menu and "Subscribe." Uncheck the "Sent" and "Trash" folders. Click the "Unsubscribe" button. Recheck the boxes next to the "Sent" and Trash folders and click Subscribe. Click OK.

Issue: Gmail is popping in all of my old Bowdoin email that I already deleted.
Resolution: There is no automatic fix. Gmail sees all the mail in your Bowdoin Webmail as new messages. Mail that you delete in Gmail does not get deleted from your Bowdoin Webmail. To prevent this from happening in future mail server upgrades, within Gmail Settings for your Bowdoin account uncheck "Leave messages on the server". New mail will continue to go to your Gmail account but will not leave a copy in Webmail.

Issue: The message waiting light on my phone will not stop blinking and I have no new messages or my message waiting light is not blinking and I have new messages.
Resolution: The voicemail system is integrated with the email system. While mailboxes are being moved voicemail may become "out of sync" with the email server. You can wait until midnight when voicemail and email are synchronized or call us at the Help Desk and we can put a ticket in to fix the problem.

Issue: New appointments do not show up in the Entourage calendar after mailbox has been moved. This affects people using entourage who accept new meetings using Outlook or a Smartphone.
Resolution: Empty the cache for your calendar. With your mouse ctrl+click the calendar icon on the left side of Entourage. Click on "Folder Properties". On the "General" tab click on "Empty" to empty the cache for your calendar. Your calendar will empty out and rebuild itself - this may take a few minutes!

Issue: If a folder has quotation marks in the name ("work stuff") it will not show quotes and the mail in that folder when using Macmail or Thunderbird.
Resolution: This is being investigated. In the short term you can change the folder name in webmail.bowdoin.edu. Using webmail from Safari or Firefox click on "Manage Folders" and then look for the "Rename folder" option." From Internet Explorer just "right-click" on the folder and click on "Rename"

Issue: Entourage gives me an "Unable to establish a secure connection error" when I open a new message.
Resolution: Click "Ok" to go past this message. This is being worked on by our System's team and will stop eventually.

Issue:When using Thunderbird to send a .doc (Word) attachment the e-mail message is rejected by Exchange 2007 with the response: " #554 5.6.0 STOREDRV.Deliver; Corrupt message content ##rfc822;"
Resolution:

1. Close Thunderbird.
2. Navigate to the following folder based upon your Operating System:
   • Windows 2000/XP: c:\Documents and Settings\userprofile\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles
   • Mac OS X: Macintosh Hard Drive/Users/Username/Library/Thunderbird/Profile
3. Open the folder named with a random set of characters like "yo6luyl8.default". There may be multiple folders if you have multiple Thunderbird profiles. Delete the file named 'mimeTypes.rdf'.
4. Reopen Thunderbird.