Most current web browser applications (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari) allow the end user to store various login names and passwords for websites and other online services that require them. This functionality is provided for convenience and so that users do not have to remember multiple login names and passwords for various sites. You may want to think twice about storing more sensitive logins and passwords inside your Web browser - especially when you are using a Public computer. Be cautious about storing passwords for services like Online Banking, Credit Card management, Utility bills, and the like.

Specific to the SCE Email system, our IPSwitch software does not work well when storing passwords inside the Web Browser. You can store your username, but make sure you do not store your password in the browser. Many web browsers will prompt you to store a password:

Firefox:

Internet Explorer:

and one of the options on this prompt is either NO (IE7) or NOT NOW (Firefox.) Firefox offers an additional option of ‘Never for this site’ which means you will not be prompted on subsequent logins to save your password. Internet Explorer 7 offers something similiar with ‘Don’t offer to remember any more passwords.’ By storing your password in the browser for the SCE Webmail system, the risk is that your email account will get locked out and suspended. Once suspended, your account will need to be unlocked by someone from SCE Academic Computing. So if prompted to store your password in Internet Explorer or Firefox when using the SCE Webmail system, it is always best to choose the NO option and manually key in your password each and every time.

Too much time has passed since my last blog entry, so I figured another entry was LONG overdue. Some of you may know that I have agreed to be the first to have Windows 7 installed and configured on the computer I use for all of my daily work and technical support activities in SCE Academic Computing. Late last week I backed up everything on my SCE laptop, wiped the hard drive, and installed Windows 7 on my system. Initially, the installation took only about 35-40 minutes to complete. I pretty much used the default settings, and let the installer do it’s thing. I’ve had three full workdays using Windows 7 including last Friday, as well as Monday and Tuesday this week. So far, everything seems to be working pretty good. Aside from a few minor things I’m still working out due to changes in where Windows 7 stores User profile information, this new operating system works pretty good.

My laptop is no spring chicken, but it has a fairly decent Intel Centrino Dual Core processor running at 2.0 ghz with 2.5gb of 667mhz DDR2 ram. Windows 7 is pretty responsive on this computer, and so far I haven’t experienced any issues that would prevent me from doing my work. I’m not impressed at all with the Aero Glass visual enhancements, so that got disabled pretty quickly. Some people like visual enhancements, but I prefer a cleaner looking interface so transparent title and scroll bars are not important to me. The Start menu works a little different than on Windows XP, but I think most staff and students will be able to get accustomed to it given some time working in Windows 7. Some items that you may be used to using in the Start Menu are probably turned off by default, but they are easily enabled with a few clicks in the Customize Start Menu from the Taskbar properties window.

The Control Panel is really different, and will take time to find things you’ve used previously as many applets have been renamed. For example, the familiar ‘Display’ from Windows XP has been folded into a new Control Panel app named ‘Personalize.’ I also discovered that you can reorganize currently running applications on the Taskbar. I think I’ll find more stuff that’s been updated or changed as I continue using Windows 7 over the weeks and months ahead. So far so good.

Just this past weekend, I installed the latest version of the Imail Server email software onto the SCE Email server.  Quite a few improvements have been made behind the scenes for mail processing, server administration & management, and some tools from an older version of Imail were improved and brought back into the mix with version 11. There aren’t a plethora of new features for SCE Staff and Students, but a few that are worth mentioning here:

1. When using the Webmail client, you can now perform quick searches for contacts near the top right corner of the screen. 

<screenshot here>

As you type, the system does a quick search based on the first few letters you type and auto-suggests a contact.  This is a bit more optimized than before when the system had to perform a more lengthy search of the contacts

2. Any person you send an email message to can now be added automatically (or auto-magically as I sometimes say) to your web-based address book.

<screenshot here>

If you use the ICS Shared Calendaring system on your pc, and contacts that get auto-magically added to your web-based address book will at some point get synchronized to your Microsoft Outlook address book.

3. For managing web folders, when you use the CHECK ALL option

4. Word & character count for each message

Some older methods of generating and sending spam email messages are returning. Take a look at this article from Yahoo Tech and be on the lookout for some of these old methods as they resurface:

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/145642

I utilize an outside free service called Site Uptime to check our system periodically for availability of various email services running our system. For each month that passes, they generate a month end report which gives me a really good indication on the availability of our email services. In laymen’s terms, how healthy our system is and are there any periods of time when the system was down, at or above capacity, or un-available for any reason.

For the last two complete months of April and May 2009, the SCE email system has experienced 100% uptime! This is a major milestone for SCE’s email system as well as the virtual server project. I don’t recall us ever reaching 100% uptime prior to running our system as a virtual server. This is truly a testament to both the consistency and operational continuity of our system. Keep those emails rolling through the system, and stay tuned for the IMail server 11 upgrade!