Moving from CMS to Mailserv

• The time has come.
• Do These Three Things Now:
• And Do These Four Things After:

You really have to do it. Sure, it's a pain to have to move, but you're going to be getting extra value for your trouble. WebMail and Eudora have a bunch of neat features that are new to people using CMS mail or note.

• Print individual email messages to your local or networked printer. (Both.)
  
  
• Send and receive attachments containing any type of Mac or Windows file including images, documents, video, audio, and so on. (Both.)
  
  
• Click to open a URL in a message. (Both.)
  
  
• Copy names and email addresses from incoming mail or from the UIC online phonebook. (Both.)
  
  
• Automated "I'm on vacation" messages. (Both; see the Email Tools Web page.)
  
  
• Automatically route messages into mail folders (notebooks) based on their headers or even content. (Eudora only, though we're planning on also making this available for WebMail.)
  
  
• Highlight message items with colors and text based on headers and/or content. (Eudora only.)
  
  
• Send and receive email in rich text format. (Eudora only, though you probably shouldn't use this feature.)

So now you know what, why, and when; the only question left is how. That's the subject of this article.

1. Get a netid.

If you're a faculty or staff member, get a netid if you don't have one. See Getting a UIC Netid.

2. Get a copy of the ACCC Network Services Kit for your Mac or Windows PC.

Eudora's in the NSKit, as is Netscape, which you'll will probably want for WebMail. You can purchase it on a Mac/Windows CD in the campus bookstores or, if you're on campus, you can download a copy of the NSKit from the ftp.uic.edu FTP service machine. There's more information about the Kit on the Web: http://www.uic.edunskit/

To get there through the ACCC Web home page, select Software -> Network Services Kit.

Either: 3a. Open your mailserv account yourself.

Follow the instructions on the Migration from CMS Mail to Mailserv and WebMail page.

1. Open your mailserv account: Click on the link on the migration page to the ACCC Computer Account Creation Web page then follow the instructions on the migration page to open your mailserv account.
   
   
2. Set your uic.edu email forwarding: Click on the link on the migration page to the ACCC Directory Update Web page. At the bottom of that page, type yrnetid@mailserv.uic.edu (use your actual netid, of course) in your netid's is forwarded to: box, then click .
   
   
3. Set up the mail duplication: Log on to CMS and enter: mailserv

Or: 3b. Wait, and we'll open it for you.

We'll send you a brief email message when we do.

After completing step 3, either 3a or 3b, the following will have been done:

• The default maildrop for your yrnetid@uic.edu email address will have been reset to your mailserv account. (In English this means that email addressed to you at yrnetid@uic.edu will be delivered to your mailserv account.)
  
  
• Duplicate copies of your new incoming email will be sent both to mailserv and to CMS, for 30 days or, if your account is opened after September 1, until September 30.

4. Convert your CMS names file for use with WebMail (or Eudora, if you're already familiar with it).

Use the ACCC Email Addressbook Conversion Utility Web page to convert your existing CMS names file address book for use with WebMail (or Eudora or Pine). Open the page and click on Login and Use this Utility to go to the bottom of the page. Click Login, and log in by entering your netid and your mailserv password in the fields provided. Select the conversion type you want from the table of contents, click the appropriate Convert whatever to whateverelse button and you're done.

You can also convert and move your CMS notebooks to mailserv; see Converting CMS notebooks to Eudora Mailboxes for instructions. Personally, I don't suggest that you do much of this, at least not in the beginning. When I made my email migration from CMS, I looked on it as an opportunity to get rid of some of that old email -- the stuff that I'd saved but didn't really need anymore. So I didn't move any of my CMS NOTEBOOK files right away; I figured I'd wait and see which I really needed. And that turned out to be just about none of them!

5. Setup your new mail program.

Only Eudora really needs to be set up; WebMail is ready to go as is. Step-by-step instructions, both on how to set them up and how to use them, complete with screen shots, are on the Web:

Eudora: http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/workshops/eudora/

WebMail: http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/software/webmail/webmail/

6. Learn to use WebMail (and/or Eudora) while using CMS as your backup.

You now should be able to become acquainted with WebMail (or Eudora), comfortably and at your own pace. All of your email will still be delivered to CMS for a 30-day grace period -- or until September 30, 1999, if your mailserv account was opened after September 1 -- so there is no need to panic if you don't figure it out immediately. But please do seek help when you need it -- a workshop, the CMS retirement Web page, your department's REACH representative, or the CMS retirement committee at vmomega@uic.edu.

7. Resubscribe to Listserv/Majordomo discussion lists.

In our brave new world, your outgoing email will be sent with your generic UIC email "return address" yrnetid@uic.edu. This can confuse Listserv and Majordomo email list servers, which may still know you only by your old CMS address, something like U12345@UICVM.UIC.EDU.

So to complete the change, you have to change your subscriptions to any email discussion group that you receive that are addressed you at your userid on CMS. The least obtrusive way is to first subscribe to the list again, under your netid, using WebMail or Eudora. (Either will do, even if you're going to be reading your email with both.) Then, after you begin receiving two copies of the list's messages, turn off your original subscription.

To subscribe under your netid, use WebMail or Eudora to send a subscription message to the list server that owns the list. (Not to the list itself!) The note should have no Subject: or signature and the list server command should be its only body text. For example, to subscribe to the WordPerfect for Windows list, Ada Byron would send this email message to listserv@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu:

Date: Thursday, June 17, 1999 2:15 PM
From: Ada Byron Lovelace <adabyron@uic.edu>
To: listserv@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu
   
subscribe wpwin-l Ada Lovelace Byron 

If the list server answers with a note asking you to confirm your subscription (and this one does), do it with either WebMail or Eudora. Not on CMS!

After you begin receiving two copies of the list's email, logon to CMS and send a message from there to unsubscribe from the list. You have to send this "unsubscribe" message from CMS because only CMS knows about your userid. To make absolutely sure that the note comes from your userid, use mail (not note) to send it, and specify its direct option:

mail listserv@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu (direct

The note should look like this:

Date: Fri, 18 Jun 99 14:36:58 CDT
From: Ada Byron Lovelace <U12345@UICVM>
To: listserv@listserv.acsu.buffalo.ed

unsubscribe wpwin-l     

The bad news is that this won't always work. Sometimes you'll need help from a real person -- the "list owner" -- to pull this off. You can often reach the list owner at the email address listname-request@listserv.the.rest.of.it -- for example, wpwin-l-request@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu

Comments are welcome; please send them to
Judith Grobe Sachs, judygs@uic.edu