The current GroupWise service will be replaced by Office 365 over the weekend of January the 9th.

Aim

To partially support and encourage use of the University email service for campus and external communications.

Service Description

The University provides a campus-wide email service comprising a central mail gateway that acts as a single point of ingress and egress for email from or destined for standard University email addresses (see below for format). A central directory of email addresses is maintained to convert the @dundee.ac.uk format to specific system addresses as required. The University-provided email service comprises:

• Novell Groupwise offering native client access to mail and calendaring facilities for Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.
• Novell Groupwise IMAP service at imap.dundee.ac.uk supports secure connections using LDAP (Groupwise) username and password for authentication.
• Novell Groupwise WebAccess service at https://webmail.dundee.ac.uk supports secure connections from web browsers on Windows, Macintosh, Linux and may also work from cellphones and PDA devices.

If not using a Groupwise client, users can send email using the SMTP service at smtp.dundee.ac.uk, which support encrypted connections using LDAP (Groupwise) username and password both on campus and from home or when travelling.

Supported clients are the Groupwise Windows client, Macintosh and Linux Cross-Platform clients, WebAccess from a supported web browser, as well as connection support for IMAP/SMTP clients.

Each staff and student user is provided with a standard email address in the form initial.surname@dundee.ac.uk. Clashes are resolved by introducing dummy initials (Z, Y, X, etc.), e.g. initial.Z.surname@dundee.ac.uk. The account creation process is automated and based on nightly data feeds from the HR and SITS systems. Visitors and other temporary staff can apply for Associate Staff registration to HR-LifeSciences@dundee.ac.uk and their application must be sponsored by their supervisor from the College.

Initial staff mailbox quota is 300MB; student quota is 50MB. Users can apply to increase the initial quota but should first consider deleting mail that is not necessary and also archiving mail using the Windows Groupwise client where possible.

The University provides a mail list server at lists.dundee.ac.uk and email distribution lists are also maintained within the Groupwise system. The latter offers significant benefits, including more reliable mail delivery, visibility of membership, list use for email and meeting requests. We are looking to have a number of the College's Groupwise lists automated based on more accurate HR and SITS data feeds in 2008. Generic email accounts can be created using Groupwise “resources” which allow multiple users to be granted Proxy access to the generic mailbox, when using a Groupwise client.

All email passing through the University mail gateway is checked for viruses and quarantined as necessary. Email is also checked against the spam filters and tagged by inserting [SPAM ?] into the subject line as well as inserting appropriate information in the email headers. Inbound mail that is so-tagged is automatically filtered into users' Junk Mail mail folder and auto-deleted after 14 days.

A vacation mail service is available and can easily be configured by users from any of the Groupwise clients. For more information on the University email service, please visit the ICS website, (http://www.dundee.ac.uk/ics/email)

In addition to the University provision, Life Sciences Computing provides a basic email service for expert users. This provides for very large mailbox quota (in excess of 10GB) and is charged based on storage used. Email addresses are of the format username@lifesci.dundee.ac.uk, where username is the same as the University-provided Groupwise username. Additional mail aliases can be configured if required.

User Responsibilities

• Users must read their University email.
• In the event of experiencing a problem with sending a message, provide LSC staff with error message, and if using IMAP/SMTP, the header information in the returned message, to help with problem diagnosis.
• Users should be careful to send email to the correct address, particularly when using Groupwise clients where the recipient address may be auto-filled from all names in the University-wide Groupwise Address Book. There may be multiple people (including students) who share the same firstname and surname.
• Users should comply with the Acceptable Use Policy and related documents (http://www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk/services/lsc/services/security/security-policies).
• Users should have access to their equipment when reporting email problems.
• LifeSci mail users are responsible for configuring their email client correctly and understanding the benefits and risks of using multiple email addresses

Service Targets

• Monitor the availability of the University email service and liaise with users and central ICS as required.
• Aim to record major faults on the LSC website within 1 hour.
• Aim to alert users of significant service-affecting issues within 1 day of identification, either directly via cls-all distribution, or via ICS-ServiceDesk routing.
• Triage between the College Office and ICS to ensure that distribution lists are created in a timely manner and following College conventions. List maintenance is carried out by College Reception and the Divisional Secretaries.
• To respond to individual email problems within one working day if relating to supported software and systems.
• To decline assistance for individual email problems if relating to unsupported software or systems.
• To liaise with ICS regarding email problems relating to the University email service
• To respond to major LifeSci email service problems within one working day
• To respond to other LifeSci email service problems within one week
• To restore deleted LifeSci mail within one week, where the mail exists in the backups