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UCLink conversion postponed; do-it-yourself migration added

– Responding to departmental requests for more time to make needed software changes, Information Systems & Technology is postponing plans for a mass migration of UCLink accounts to the campus's new e-mail system.

Rather than move all UCLink accounts to the new CalMail system on Sunday, Jan. 11, as planned, IS&T has pushed the mandatory switchover back to Saturday, Jan. 17. In the interim, UCLink users will be able to opt for voluntary self-migration, allowing them to switch to CalMail at their own pace beginning Monday morning, Jan. 12. It also means the UCLink-wide outage previously scheduled for Jan. 11 will now occur on Jan 17.

Under the self-migration process, users will follow links from the UCLink and BearMail home pages that will allow them to set up their new accounts on CalMail.

Users will log into the UCLink "Manage Your Account" section, using their current UCLink account name and password, and then will be able to begin the conversion to CalMail. Once the new account is established, users will be prompted to change some configuration settings on their e-mail clients, and then will be able to make full use of the new CalMail system.

The change to voluntary migration also will allow departmental tech support staffs to make configuration changes for users who are unable to do so themselves. And it will buy time to upgrade e-mail clients for those UCLink customers whose older software will not work properly with the new CalMail system unless reconfigured or upgraded. (The main such problem client identified so far is Eudora version 5.1 and 5.2.0 for PCs running on Windows; Eudora for the Macintosh, as well as Eudora 5.2.1 and newer for Windows, are not affected.)

After the weekend switchover was announced late Wednesday, the CalMail team was peppered with requests for a delay, accompanied by complaints that the tight timetable didn't leave enough time for IT staffs to check and potentially modify all the machines in their departments before the Sunday deadline. The CalMail team, which had put the conversion on the fast track in order to keep potential problems from extending past the beginning of spring term on Jan. 20, devised the self-migration path as a way to balance both needs.

The voluntary migration period will last for only a week; all accounts that have not been converted by their owners will be switched over to the new CalMail system en masse on Saturday, Jan. 17. UCLink and CalMail accounts will be unavailable from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day while the conversion takes place.

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