Email Improvement Project

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Email Improvement Project

• Netadmin Consultation
• December 2002

EmailProject_at_dundee.ac.uk
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1. This Meeting

• 1. Meeting organisation (review voting)
• Two way exchange
• Faculty consultations mainly listening
• 2. Brief overview of future developments
• 3. Current email Systems
• Notes on interim measures
• 4. Email Improvement Project
• 5. Discussion

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2. Brief overview

• Email of increasing importance
• Recognised in Network Review
• Interim measures required
• Email too important to be left alone!
• Proposed Timetable
• Consultation, Selection, Installation, Deployment
• Available end summer 2003
• Biggest issue might be training
• Web site /netimprovement/projects/email

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3. Current Email systemsOverview

• Most staff and students use Pegasus
• Many staff (and some students) use alternative
  systems
• Mailboxes stored on NetWare servers
• Email distributed by Mercury
• using NetWare and NDS
• Access via POP3 and IMAP is shaky
• Gateway email system PP

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3. Current Email systemsTraffic levels

• 1/4 Million messages handled per week
• 9GigaBytes
• 35,000 per hour at peak time (4-5pm)
• About 20 of message are junk
• Undeliverable and unreturnable
• Spam or unsolicited bulk emails
• Over 22,000 mailboxes

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3. Current Email systemsGateway email systems

• Known as PP
• Runs exim software
• Popular, robust, powerful, effective
• Open Source
• Services include
• Mail redirection for _at_dundee.ac.uk addresses
• Discards undeliverable messages
• Filters vulnerable attachments
• Soon virus scanning, spam labelling
• Consistency checking,
• Storage of messages if destination unavailable

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3. Current Email systemsCurrent Email system
Internet
Received message
Sent message
NetWare
PP
MH
FS
exim
Mercury
MH
Via IMAP (or POP3)
Outlook Pegasus Web
Pegasus
Message Store
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3. Current Email systemsReplacement Email system
Internet
Received message
Sent message
UNIX/2000/NetWare
PP
Mail Server
exim
Via IMAP (or POP3)
Outlook Pegasus Web
Pegasus
Message Store
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3. Current Email systemsNotes on interim
measures

• Cannot replace Mercury
• without major disruption to end-users
• Gateway systems being upgraded
• Vulnerable attachments blocked
• Constant work on enhancing spam labelling
• Introduction of virus checking
• Resilient systems being procured
• Software upgrades (to exim v4)

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3. Current Email systemsGateway Systems (exim)
Department email system
mike_at_itservices.dundee.ac.uk
From
PP (exim) email system
From
M.J.Whitehead_at_dundee.ac.uk
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3. Current Email systemsGateway Systems (exim)
Department email system
mike_at_itservices.dundee.ac.uk
To
Mike_at_maths.dundee.ac.uk
MJW43_at_cancer.org.uk
PP (exim) email system
To
M.J.Whitehead_at_dundee.ac.uk
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4. Email Improvement Project Presentation on
Project

• Established as a result of Network Infrastructure
  Review
• To deliver Review recommendations on email
• Controlled by Network Improvement Programme Board
• High priority project
• Success essential
• Must link to VLE, SMS, etc.
• Solution unclear as yet
• Standards based solution
• IMAP, SMTP/TLS, POP

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4. Email Improvement Project Network
Improvement Programme Board

• David George (Convener) (Director of Planning
  Information)
• Mike Coughtrie (Molecular Cellular Pathology)
• Grant Cunningham (ISIS)
• Richard Murphy (ITS)
• Rob Watt (English)

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4. Email Improvement Project Project
Organisation

• Email Project Advisory Board
• Strong Academic representation
• Email Project Technical Team
• Mainly ITS implementers
• with faculty moderators
• Project Leader - Mike Whitehead
• Project Liaison - Mary Walsh

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4. Email Improvement Project Email Project
Advisory Board

• Mike Whitehead (Convener)
• Prof Martin Chalkley (Economics)
• Andy Cobley (Applied Computing)
• Dave Cunningham (Principals Office)
• Nigel Johnson (Television Imaging)
• Joe McLuckie (Education)
• Prof Mike Rennie (Life Sciences)
• Rob Watt (English)

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4. Email Improvement Project Email Project
Technical Team

• Mary Walsh (Convener)
• Bob McGregor
• Tobi Wood
• Kevin Shrimpton
• Ian Angles
• Kiran Oza
• Andy Cobley
• Mark Williams
• etc. (likely to expand)

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4. Email Improvement Project Project Timetable

• This is subject to revision
• Term 1 Consultation
• Term 2 Selection
• Term 3 Installation
• Summer 2003 Deployment training

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4. Email Improvement Project Some available
options

• Clients could be flexible
• May be what matters most to staff students
• May be multiple options
• Server Options
• Commercial or Open Source
• This is where the reliability lies
• Gateway systems
• Expect to retain exim gateways

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4. Email Improvement Project Client Options

• Must support multi-platforms
• PC, Mac, Unix, Linux?
• Many possibilities
• Outlook
• Outlook Express
• Web browser
• Pegasus
• Mulberry (IMAP)
• etc.

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4. Email Improvement Project Server options

• IMAP with Web Access
• Open Source - e.g. IMP
• Commercial - e.g. Novells Netmail
• Commercial Packages
• FirstClass
• Lotus Notes
• Microsoft Exchange
• Oracle Collaboration Suite
• Novell Groupwise
• etc.

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5. Email Improvement Project Discussion
What do you want from email?
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All comments and suggestions welcome
EmailProject_at_dundee.ac.uk
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Thanks
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