November 7, 2011

Today's topics:

Outlook and Exchange problems

Cornell's central Exchange email service has had many problems during the past week. Although they've been reduced, problems still persist. CIT's current recommendation is that if you encounter problems, please wait a few minutes and try again. Outlook and Outlook Web App (https://exchange.cornell.edu) use different central servers to access the shared mail storage, so problems with one do not necessarily mean that there will be problems with the other. With the assistance of an on-site visit by Microsoft engineers, they've made software and hardware configuration changes which have helped somewhat, but caused additional problems while they were being implemented. They anticipate making more changes over the next few days.

Once we've configured Outlook and it has been working, almost all of the subsequent problems with Outlook have been due to issues with Cornell's central mail service, which are beyond our control. Please report any problems you have to CIT's helpdesk -- either by email to helpdesk@cornell.edu or by calling them at 607-255-8990.

Please let us know if you've contacted the CIT helpdesk, but please do not use a CC. That often causes the two trouble-ticketing systems to get into a mail loop talking to one another.

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General network and server maintenance will occur every Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. The CLASSE-IT group will always announce any expected disruptions in our NewsLetter and via CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L, but with the size and complexity of our network there is always the potential for something to go wrong. We will do our best to contain all network maintenance and planned outages to Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM.

Unless other arrangements have been made, CLASSE-managed Windows systems may be updated and rebooted on Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM, so please avoid critical or lengthy operations at that time. For more details, please see SystemExpectations.

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Questions or problems? Submit a service request (or email service-classe@cornell.edu).

Other resources:

• CLASSE-IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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