Warwick now has a site licence for a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook called "Template Phrases for Outlook". This allows you to quickly insert commonly-typed phrases or blocks of text into e-mail messages, without having to type the same text over and over again. For further information please see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/servicessupport/software/outlooktemplates

As you may be aware, we are currently in the process of outsourcing the current Student Email service (Squirrel Mail) to Microsoft’s Live@edu service.  As a result of this, many staff have already enquired whether we will be outsourcing the Exchange/Outlook service to provide similar functionality for staff.

Outsourcing staff email is under consideration, but before any decision is made, the university wants to gather feedback from staff, consider and respond to any questions or concerns which colleagues may have, and decide whether this is an appropriate strategy to pursue.

There will be an opportunity to view the Live@edu email service and to ask questions at one of the Roadshows running across campus.

More information

As you may be aware, we are currently in the process of outsourcing the current Student Email service (Squirrel Mail) to Microsoft’s Live@edu service.

As a result of this, many staff have already enquired whether we will be outsourcing the Exchange/Outlook service to provide similar functionality for staff.

Outsourcing staff email is under consideration, but before any decision is made, the university wants to gather feedback from staff, consider and respond to any questions or concerns which colleagues may have, and decide whether this is an appropriate strategy to pursue.

There will be an opportunity to view the Live@edu email service and to ask questions at one of the Roadshows running across campus.

The existing Student Email Service (Squirrel Mail) is due to be replaced during this academic year.  Any staff currently using this service will need to transfer to an alternative system and move any email they have stored in Squirrel Mail.  Any forwarding or rules currently in place on Squirrel Mail will stop working as the system will be decommissioned. For advice on moving your account, please contact Lynne Lockwood at l dot lockwood at warwick dot ac dot uk

Further information on the replacement of Squirrel Mail

The existing Student Email Service (Squirrel Mail) is due to be replaced during this academic year.  Any staff currently using this service will need to transfer to an alternative system and move any email they have stored in Squirrel Mail.  Any forwarding or rules currently in place on Squirrel Mail will stop working as the system will be decommissioned. For advice on moving your account, please contact Lynne Lockwood at l dot lockwood at warwick dot ac dot uk

Further information on the replacement of Squirrel Mail

To ensure that the University’s IT infrastructure is kept at a fully supported level, and to reduce the risk of a prolonged outage, there is a requirement to upgrade many core IT systems.

Unfortunately this work can only be completed when the systems are offline and as such some disruption is inevitable, although IT Services will try and minimise this by carrying out the work in the evening and outside of term-time whenever possible.  

A brief summary of the systems affected is below, for more detailed information please follow the appropriate links. 

Tuesday 8 December – 09:30 until 11:00

The server PRIMROSE is being replaced. During these times it will not be possible to access any files or applications held on this server. For further information please see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/newschanges/815dec    

Friday 11 December – 17:30 until 18:30

Essential electrical work in one of the ITS Machine Rooms means that there will be a brief outage on web applications, such as Ad-Hoc Room booking, People Search and Exam timetabling. For further information – http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/newschanges/11dec    

Monday 14 December – 17:00 until 00:00

During this time it will not be possible to access the majority of home directories (H drives) or shared departmental drives. Squirrel Mail, the Student Email service, will also be unavailable.  For further information please see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/newschanges/1416dec   

Tuesday 15 December – 09:30 until 11:00

The server MIMOSA is being replaced. During these times it will not be possible to access any files or applications held on this server.For further information please see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/newschanges/815dec    

Wednesday 16 December – 17:00 until 00:00

Exchange email will be unavailable during this time, either via Outlook, Outlook Web Access or POP & IMAP access. Squirrell Mail (Student email) will also be unavailable.  The majority of home directories (H drives) and shared departmental drives will also be unavailable. For further information please see http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/its/newschanges/1416dec

The existing Student Email Service (Squirrel Mail) is due to be replaced during this academic year.  Any staff currently using this service will need to transfer to an alternative system and move any email they have stored in Squirrel Mail.  Any forwarding or rules currently in place on Squirrel Mail will stop working as the system will be decommissioned. For advice on moving your account, please contact Lynne Lockwood at l dot lockwood at warwick dot ac dot uk

Further information on the replacement of Squirrel Mail

There have been reports that some internal email is being delivered to the ‘Junk’ folder rather than the Inbox.  This is as a result of a local setting for Outlook, rather than any central filtering. To avoid this happening again, it is suggested you set change the Junk Email setting to be ‘No Automatic Filtering’

This can be done in Outlook by clicking on ‘Tools’, ‘Options’ then ‘Junk E-mail’ and selecting the appropriate option.

Email coming into the University is still filtered centrally, for further information on SPAM emails please see http://go.warwick.ac.uk/email/spam_phishing

A number of people are receiving emails purporting to be from the University, requesting that the user confirms their email account details – username and password.  This is a “phishing” email and is an attempt to capture personal information.

IT Services will NEVER ask you to confirm Username and Password in this way.

Further information on protecting your account

On an average day the University receives in excess of 160,000 emails, of which approximately 30% is SPAM. There are a number of actions you can take to reduce SPAM and to protect yourself from ‘phishing’ emails – for further information please see  http://go.warwick.ac.uk/email/spam_phishing