CIT: CU's e-mail problems will be solved by a new e-mail system

By Beth Goelzer Lyons

On the average day, a million e-mail messages buzz through Cornell Information Technologies' system. E-mail is so popular and works so smoothly that many people rely on it as their primary means of communication, even for time-sensitive matters.

So the recent delays in sending and receiving messages have understandably raised concern among the Cornell community. What's happening? And how will it be fixed?

The bottom line is that CIT's original e-mail system (hosting postoffice and postoffices 2 through 5) is old and heavily overloaded, particularly the part that hosts postoffices 2 through 4. All together, the system hosts 35,000 e-mail accounts. Although nearly all messages continue to be delivered in seconds, when the system is under stress, some messages (a few thousand out of a million) can be queued for later delivery.

Unfortunately, in recent weeks, this queuing happened frequently, and tweaking the system's performance was not sufficient to handle the huge increase in messages, both legitimate and spam. The traffic significantly outstripped CIT's projected increases, CIT officials say. At times, spam alone nearly doubles the typical volume.

The university also recently needed to send 16 "bulk mail" messages to large segments of the community. Although CIT controls how quickly mail is delivered, that process still has some effect on performance. Other influences include directory services, network connectivity, the domain name system and world events.

The good news is that CIT has a new, powerful e-mail system, available now to anyone who wants to use it. The new system offers not only superior performance, but also a new suite of services requested by the community and better security for Cornell's campus network.

To provide choice and convenience in switching to the new system, CIT is encouraging faculty, staff and students to voluntarily move. Between late July and early August, the old e-mail system will be upgraded to the new system.

On the new system, everyone automatically receives PureMessage, which blocks virus-infected messages and flags spam so that it can be easily deleted or filtered. People can continue using Eudora as they currently do, which is via POP. Or they can try IMAP, a new way of storing and organizing messages on CIT's e-mail system. IMAP works with Eudora 5.2 and the all-new WebMail, which lets people securely check e-mail from any computer with a contemporary Web browser.

Security is better on the new system, too. Because network security, along with personal and university data, is put at risk whenever NetID passwords are sent across the network without Kerberos (or other security) protection, the University Audit Office recommended that CIT prevent applications from transmitting NetID passwords insecurely (specifically, in "clear text").

So CIT has initially set up the new e-mail system to require that NetID passwords be protected by Kerberos or SideCar/CUWebLogin. For now, the e-mail applications that work are Eudora 5.2 and the new WebMail (both CIT-supported), as well as Apple's OS X Mail and Cyrusoft's Mulberry. Travelers Mail (telnet) and the old WebEmail are not allowed and will be discontinued later in 2003.

Recognizing that some people cannot use Kerberos -- or prefer e-mail tools that don't, such as Microsoft Outlook -- in June, CIT will add another way to handle NetID passwords, TLS. It is the next generation of SSL that protects credit-card and other sensitive information on the Web.

Switching now to the new e-mail system is fairly simple for people who will continue using Eudora as they currently do (via POP). They need only change a preference in Who I Am, upgrade to Eudora 5.2 and change some Eudora settings. Getting started with the new option of Eudora via IMAP is similar but also entails learning new e-mail management skills.

Guidance on how to switch, as well as on the new e-mail options, is available at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/email/. Also, many technical support providers can help faculty and staff, and CIT's HelpDesk can offer guidance (255-8990 or helpdesk@cornell.edu).