Tuesday Update

Greetings All,

Everything seems to be going as promised.  The first stage of the upgrade is complete and we are going to be transitioning people over shortly.  There are a few important things I want to mention.

Email addresses are not changing.  These settings are just server names and have no bearing on what your email address is.

 Web Outlook is working properly.  This means that you have access to your email no matter the state of other devices or mail access programs.  Not being able to access via your preferred method does not mean that you do not have access to your email.  Please see information for accessing Web Outlook below.

In the next week or so settings that work on smart phones that use ActiveSync or exchange accounts will change.  The information on what the new settings will be is contained below. 

On to the specifics for each setup:

Web Outlook:  mail.vcom.vt.edu and mail.vcom.edu should both take you where you need to go.  The login page is different and so is the method.  YOU NO LONGER NEED VCOM\ in front of your username.  Simply putting the first part of your email address, everything prior to the @ symbol, will be what you use for your username.  Your password is the same as you have been using to access your VCOM email.  There is a certificate error but if you choose to go through it, by click on continue to page, then you will have access to your email.  This certificate error will clear up as people are transitioned in the near term.

Outlook Clients:  So far these have been updating themselves appropriately.  You may get autodiscover or security prompts but if you answer yes then you should be connected.  So far I have seen almost no problems out of them. 

Android and iOS based devices or devices using ActiveSync or exchange accounts:  The current setting work for now but they will need to be updated once your transition occurs.  The future settings are not active now but will be once fully transitioned.  I’m trying to determine if I can send notifications when the current settings will break but I’m not sure if I can.  If you are working fine now and it ceases try the new settings. 

Current settings (NOT PERMANENT):

Exchange server: elros.vcom.vt.edu

Domain: vcom

SSL/Secure connection: yes

You will get a certificate error.

 Future settings (not currently active but will be as the transition moves ahead):

Exchange server: mail.vcom.edu

Domain: vcom

SSL/Secure connection: yes

BlackBerrys:  The one that I have seen need to have the email account deleted and re-added using the usual method.  One user reported that she needed to reboot her phone after removing the account before she could successfully add the account back.

Gmail POP access:  As reported by Edi B “I've been messing around with the gmail settings and wanted to let you know what my current setup is. With this setup I at least have a secure connection with outgoing e-mail. I hope this helps as well.

POP3:

POP server: elros.vcom.edu

Port: 110

SSL: Off

Outgoing:

SMTP Server: mail.vcom.edu

Port 587

TLS: On

Mac POP and IMAP clients:  You can look back over my previous posts.  There are some issues that are preventing me from being certain of what settings will work.  We are keeping you in mind but it may be until everything is fully migrated before we know for sure what your settings are.  If your clients aren’t working for you please use Web Outlook until things normalize. 

Thank you for your patience during the transition.  The end results of this are going to well justify the temporary headaches. 

Harth Tucker