Zimbra Tip: Exchange Set Up on Wireless

Are you using an Exchange account with your mail client - like Thunderbird, Mail, Outlook, etc. - to access Zimbra email? If you are, you may have noticed that sending on the wireless network does not always work properly. To ensure that your account is configured properly for wireless sending, be sure to set the sending port to be 465, ignoring all others.

An example from Apple's Mail application follows:

In this case, note Use custom port: is selected and I've keyed in 465 in the blank.

Zimbra Tip: Vacation Auto Reply

Much like your telephone has a toll-saver feature, Zimbra cuts down on the number of vacation auto replies that your friends and colleagues will receive while you are out of the office. To quote the Zimbra online help system:

You can set a vacation message that automatically replies to people who send you messages when you are out of the office for an extended period of time. That message is sent to each recipient only once every seven days, regardless of how many messages that person sends you during the week.

Zimbra Calendar Conversion Update

OIT is moving the Zimbra calendar conversion back to Winter break because of the additional burden on our Systems staff who must work with multiple ISPs (i.e. Gmail, Hotmail, Comcast, etc.) to remove WC from their list of blacklisted email providers. We'll send out specific details about the conversion in the coming weeks.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. If you have specific issues, please contact Billie Dodge.

- Sharon Sledge

Please Help!

Please help OIT to keep your user names and passwords safe.

Once again, OIT does not ask for this information - ever - by email or web links for account verification, quota alerts, or any other reason.

A significant number of Washington College account holders have responded to email requests to provide their user information. By doing that all of their online accounts at
Washington College, became freely open to the criminal elements outside of the college that simply asked for them. No hacking was needed because people just handed out their user names and passwords even though the emails came from random non-Washington College email addresses and made no mention of OIT nor of Washington College. Even if OIT and Washington College were mentioned - the emails would be fake. Why? Because we don't ask for that information by email or by web link, period.

Each time that someone provides a user name and password in response to one of the phishing emails, that user's account becomes "owned" by the spammer, which can result in:

• Thousands of spam emails being sent from each of those accounts which subsequently results in email sites such as GMail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, businesses, etc. blacklisting the college. Blacklisting the college means that the sites will not accept any email from Washington College and they will not send any here - you could lose important email.
• Giving the phisher your user name and password give them access to your information in WebAdvisor, Blackboard, etc. Those sites contain your financial information, grade information etc.
• Your email can be forwarded to another account - you won't see any new mail. You email can also be copied to an off-site location. These acts are trouble for you and give the spammer additional information about people who you email.
• As soon as OIT knows that your account has been compromised, it is immediately disabled. You won't be able to access the network, email, or other Washington College services that require your password.

These are just some examples. Other phishing emails have asked for birth dates and Social Security numbers. People who give out that information have much larger problems as their identities, bank accounts, etc., can be more easily stolen.

Please help us keep our campus network, and your private information and accounts, secure by not answering any request received via email for your password and user name or other personal information. If an email confuses you please send a copy to the HelpDesk without responding to it.

Thank you,

Billie S. Dodge

Zimbra Security: Password Lockouts

As part of Zimbra's in-built security measures, a password lockout will occur automatically after 5 unsuccessful attempts to login to any account.  To prevent this from happening, be sure to keep track of your password when accessing the web client at https://zmail.washcoll.edu.  If you have recently changed your password, be sure to update any desktop applications you may use with Zimbra like Thunderbird, iCal, Mail, Outlook, etc. as well as any mobile devices that might be using Over-the-Air Sync.  These login attempts will also count against your five total attempts and can cause repeated lockouts.  Instructions for setting passwords vary by application or device, so visit http://oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra/ for more information.

If you are having difficulties with logging in to Zimbra or think you account may be locked out, contact the HelpDesk at 410-778-7777.

Zimbra Tip: Clear Phantom Drafts

Does your Zimbra Drafts folder claim that you have messages saved, but none are visible when you click on it?  You could be haunted by phantom drafts!

No need to call the exorcist just yet, though.  Instead, right-click or control-click (Mac) on your Trash folder and choose Empty Trash.  Your Drafts folder should return to normal.  If it doesn't immediately, refresh your browser or click the Get Mail button.

The ghosts of drafts past should now be purged from your Zimbra sidebar.  If you are still seeing phantom drafts, contact the HelpDesk at 410-778-7777.

Get Zimbra on Your Mobile Device

Did you know that Zimbra is available for your mobile devices - from iPhones to Palm Pres and more? If your handheld supports the web, you can access Zimbra's wonderful mobile interface just by visiting https://zimbra.washcoll.edu from the device itself.

What's more, Zimbra supports over the air sync to keep your mail, contacts and calendars up to date no matter where you are. With a device that supports Microsoft Exchange, you can keep everything synchronized easily.

To learn more about Zimbra on mobile devices, visit:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra

Zimbra Calendar Training for Departments & Groups

In addition to email, the Zimbra collaboration suite provides a robust calendar application. Like Meeting Maker, the Zimbra calendar allows users to schedule meetings with staff, faculty and students alike. If you are a current Meeting Maker user, it’s important to get familiar with the new calendar before Meeting Maker is discontinued at the end of October.

To help with the transition, OIT is offering the opportunity to schedule “1-hour” hands-on training sessions for departments and groups that want to start using Zimbra's calendar now. These sessions will cover the basics of using the calendar including advanced topics like calendar sharing and managing roles and setting calendar specific preferences. Until Meeting Maker is discontinued, OIT encourages departments to attend calendar training together if possible. Doing so will make it easier to schedule interdepartmental meetings if everyone is using Zimbra calendar instead of a combination of Zimbra and Meeting Maker.

For your convenience we set aside the days and locations for training, as listed below:

• Monday, August 24 - Wednesday August 26 from 8:30 - 4:30 in Goldstein 202
• Monday, August 31 - Friday, September 4 from 9:00 - 1:00 in the Beck Instructional Lab (located on the Lower Level in Miller Library)

To schedule your department or group for a Zimbra Calendar workshop, please visit:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/trainingandtutorials.php

If you have questions about the training, please contact the HelpDesk (ext. 7777), Gene Sheehan (ext. 7168), Nick Smerker (ext. 7421), or Sharon Sledge (ext. 7450).

Hopefully, we’ll see you in a workshop real soon.

Change Your Inbox View in Zimbra

By default, Zimbra displays mail messages as grouped conversations, allowing you to easily see a particular topic. You can think of this like a threaded conversation on a discussion board.

However, conversation view can be confusing or you may just prefer a more traditional message list in your inbox. Luckily, Zimbra makes it very easy to switch between inbox views - just click the View button.

Using the View button, you can choose to display messages as either conversations or just a straight list of messages. When in message view, you can also sort using the From field, which is not possible in conversation view. Additionally, you can use the View button to turn off the Reading Pane, which allows you to preview messages without double clicking them.

All in all, a very handy button to have around!

View Message Status in Zimbra

Like Outlook, Zimbra also displays an envelope icon to show that an email has been answered (with an arrow on the envelope.) To make sure that it will be displayed, right click on the menu bar immediately above the most recent email message. In the pop up menu, select Status. Items with a check mark to their left will be displayed in the menu bar/field.

You may also want to click Preferences, then the General tab. Be sure that Login using Advanced (AJAX) is selected. Unless you have a very old browser/slow connection Login using Standard (HTML) will limit the capabilities of Zimbra, including the message status indicators.

Local Folders in Thunderbird (and other apps)

Now that we have transitioned to Zimbra, it's important to note that any of your local folders created in Thunderbird will not transfer over automatically to the Zimbra web client. Those folders exist only on your local machine. There are two options for dealing with your personal folders.

1. Set up your Thunderbird application to work with Zimbra and continue using Thunderbird. To do so, simply follow the directions OIT has created here:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra/pdfs/thunderbirdsettings.pdf

2. Move your local folders to Zimbra's online storage space. When you do that, they will no longer be local folders. They will exist on the Zimbra email server. This will enable you to use the Zimbra web client with those folders, as they will be moved to the server instead of your personal computer. If you have a lot of email stored in your local folders, you will need to move folders individually while watching the graph of your quota. If you near your quota, you need to stop moving email so as not to exceed the quota.

To move your local folders to Zimbra, follow these directions:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra/pdfs/personalfolders.pdf

If you run into trouble with either set of directions, please contact the HelpDesk at 410-778-7777.

If you use local folders in Thunderbird, or another email program that allows use of local folders, and have a very large amount of email, you might want to consider continuing to use that program for your main email client. You can copy folders that you might need when you are not at your main computer to Zimbra and keep most of your email in the local folders of your main computer.

You can still log into Zimbra when away from your own computer to read email, use its calendar, document storage and sharing info and other features.

Address Books and Other Email Updates

Email address books that existed in WebMail are being copied to the new Zimbra accounts. Unfortunately, they could not
be copied until all of the accounts were created.

The old WebMail address books are expected to be available in Zimbra by Noon, Eastern Daylight Savings Time, today for
all currently created accounts.

Currently we are having trouble with about 150 email accounts, mostly concerning people who are retired or Emeritus.

Those accounts will be made active as soon as possible, but that will likely be by Tuesday morning.

In all cases, as much as we tried to plan ahead, we did miss some information that it would have been good to communicate.

I guess that is "we-a" culpa.

Important Email Information - Please Read

Please read this entire message carefully!

Note – with email not in service WAC Alerts will not work on email. Alerts will continue to work with telephone, text messages, etc.

In preparation for the major move to the new Zimbra email and collaboration suite OIT suggests that everyone take a few minutes to clean up your current email boxes and empty the trash folder. That will help to speed up the process of copying the campus email to the new system. This is not necessary, but will be helpful.

If you use WebMail address books, please make a copy of the address book and save it to your desktop. That is an easy task: Open WebMail. At the top of the page click on “Addresses.” When the address page opens, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the button that says “Export to CSV.” That will put a copy of the address book on your computer. This is a precautionary measure because we plan to move the addresses for you, but you should keep a copy “just in case.”

Beginning at 7:00 PM on Friday, August 7, 2009 all Washington College email service will go off-line until Monday morning. There will be no copies during that time to Blackberries or to other external devices or accounts. If you are expecting important email from anyone, please ask the sending party to copy the email to an outside account such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc.

On Monday morning you will find that the existing “Log In” page on the College Web site will direct you to the new Zimbra email system. Your current network/email password will continue to work. Please don’t change your password at this time because that will prevent you from being able to go back to check that all of your email was copied correctly from the old system.

Even if you use Thunderbird or another email program, we suggest that you log into Zimbra and explore the features that you learned during the training sessions. Previous WebMail users, please check your address books and re-do your email signature in Zimbra. That is done in Zimbra by clicking on “Preferences,” and then on “Signatures.”

If you are a user of Thunderbird, or another email client EXCEPT Outlook, and want to continue to use the client external to Web-based Zimbra, you will need to your account settings in the client. Step-by-step instructions will be found at the following link:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra

Outlook users will need to install a small program that will allow Outlook to sync email with Zimbra. Please contact the HelpDesk on Monday for Outlook help.

If you currently use a Meeting Maker calendar - continue to use it. The calendar data will not be moved to Zimbra until Fall Break. Zimbra does include a calendar function. We suggest that you become familiar with the calendar, but do not make Zimbra your primary calendar before the Meeting Maker data is put into it because it might be overwritten when the Meeting Maker data transfers to Zimbra. OIT will provide Zimbra calendar training in the coming weeks.

On Monday morning, beginning at 8:00 AM, OIT will be ready to help with any problems that may be encountered because of this major change. Please go to OIT's Zimbra information site if you have questions before Monday:

http://oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra

Update: Please note that there will be no email lost during the process of transferring to the Zimbra email system.

Some questions have been raised about copies of email to Blackberry or other devices. Questions have also been asked about what happens if one's Washington College email is
forwarded to an outside address.

The answer to all of these questions is that the College's entire email system will be totally off for the weekend, starting at 7 PM on Friday through Monday morning. With the email system off, there can be no forwarding to any outside account or device.

OIT regrets any inconvenience caused by the transfer to the new system.

Zimbra Will Be Available On Monday, August 10

As many of you already know, OIT is moving the campus community to Zimbra. Zimbra is a modern and robust communications and collaboration suite that includes email, calendar, and document sharing. OIT is excited about moving the campus community to Zimbra and from your responses many of you are looking forward to using Zimbra. If you have already attended a Zimbra training session, this emails serves as a reminder that we are planning to migrate to Zimbra this weekend. If you haven't attended a Zimbra introductory session, please try to attend one of the three sessions (9:30, 11:00 or 1:00) on Friday, August 7 in Norman James to learn about Zimbra.

OIT wants to make the transition to Zimbra as easy as possible. To accomplish this the move will take place in two phases.

PHASE ONE: Deploying Zimbra

Beginning at 7pm on Friday, August 7, email services will be taken offline and will remain offline until Monday, August 10 at 6:00am. While email is offline, you will not be able to log in to your WC email account. However, no one will lose any email over the weekend. Email sent to your WC email account will be received and saved. On Monday, August 10, you can view all your email using Zimbra by clicking on the "Login" link on the home page.

Once Zimbra is available, you will not have access to Webmail. To continue using Thunderbird or another email client, you must first reconfigure the email client to work with Zimbra. OIT will provide instructions to help with reconfiguring Thunderbird shortly.

If you need help using Zimbra on Monday, please contact the HelpDesk.

PHASE TWO: Moving Meeting Maker Calendar Entries to Zimbra

To allow users time to get comfortable with Zimbra, OIT will not migrate your Meeting Maker calendars to Zimbra until October. If you are a Meeting Maker calendar user, please continue to use Meeting Maker. However, OIT encourages everyone to get familiar with Zimbra’s calendar. Do not put anything in Zimbra's calendar that you want to keep because it will get overwritten when we migrate your Meeting Maker calendar to Zimbra. Once the Meeting Maker migration to Zimbra is complete, OIT will discontinue Meeting Maker.

To learn more about Zimbra visit:

oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra

For questions about the Zimbra transition or training, please contact the HelpDesk at ext 7777.

More Zimbra Training!

OIT is offering additional "Zimbra: Introduction" sessions on Friday, July 31 and August 7. The dates, times, and locations of the seven Zimbra sessions are listed below.

Zimbra: Introduction
William Smith, Room 336
July 31 (F)

9:30 - 10:30
11:00 - 12:00
1:30 - 2:30
3:00 - 4:00

Zimbra: Introduction
Norman James Theatre
August 7 (F)

9:30 - 10:30
11:00 - 12:00
1:00 - 2:00

There's no need to register. To learn more about Zimbra visit oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra

OIT Training - An Introduction to Zimbra, WC's New Email & Collaboration Tool

Zimbra is coming soon to Washington College and we want to make sure you are up to speed on this powerful collaboration suite. Zimbra is more than just email, including calendaring, document sharing and other unique features. Next week, OIT will begin offering free "Zimbra: Introduction" sessions that aim to familiarize you with all that Zimbra has to offer. We also hope that these sessions will present a clear picture of the transition we will be making this Fall.

Zimbra: Introduction will be held in Norman James Theatre (William Smith Hall) on July 22, 23 & 24. The sessions will be from 9:30 - 10:30, 11:00 - 12:00, 1:30 - 2:30 and 3:00 - 4:00 each day.

Attendance is encouraged for all faculty, staff and students and registration is also strongly encouraged.

To learn more and register visit:

oit.washcoll.edu/trainingandtutorials.php

Zimbra: Good Things for Email, Calendar and You

By now, you've probably seen the signs around campus announcing the arrival of Zimbra this Fall. OIT just wanted to let you know where we stand with this exciting new collaboration suite.

1. We are on target to roll out Zimbra for everyone by the start of the new semester. Training will be available to support this goal.
2. Our incoming students have been given their own accounts and the response so far has been largely positive, which is encouraging.
3. We have made arrangements with Sumatra, Inc. to automatically migrate each active Meeting Maker user's account to Zimbra as the transition to the new service occurs. Your appointment will follow you to your new calendar!

Want to know more about Zimbra? Visit oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra for an overview of this new tool and for the latest updates. If you have specific questions, be sure to contact the HelpDesk at 410-778-7777.

Zimbra Email Client Access

If you are already set up to use Zimbra, the following tutorial created by Gene Sheehan will be very useful for you:

To log in to Zimbra:

• Go to the Zimbra link directly by going to https://zmail.washcoll.edu

OR

1. Go to the Washington College home page at http://www.washcoll.edu/ and click on Log In at the top right corner of the page
2. Then Click on the WC email button (labeled Zimbra Mail Client) at the left side of the window. Do not use the WEBMAIL LOG IN/Forward/New Password (old email) near the top center of the window

To change your Net ID password in Zimbra:

• Select the Preferences tab
• Select the General tab below Preferences
• Click on the Change Password button
• In the next window, enter old and new passwords, and press the Change Password button

Zimbra Update

Office of Information Technologies staff is currently in the process of testing the Zimbra collaboration suite and has been having great luck with this new service. Where issues have been found, work arounds and solutions have been uncovered and documented on our Zimbra microsite.

oit.washcoll.edu/zimbra

If you are already testing Zimbra for OIT and do uncover any problems, please contact the HelpDesk at 410-778-7777. If you would like to get started early with Zimbra, we would greatly appreciate your help as a part of this pilot period. Contact John Massey via the HelpDesk to get started.