Students frustrated with UNM Web mail will have another option next fall.
CIRT will be replacing its current Web-based e-mail application, Mulberry, with Stalker Software's Communigate Pro.
"It should be a good thing in terms of reliability and support that we get," said Steve Spence, Computer and Information Resources and Technology technical support analyst.
Instead of both Web mail and Mulberry, CIRT decided to replace just Web mail because it has a particular problem with the display of messages that has not been solved, Spence said.
"It is not as usable," he said. "The look and feel of it is more out of date."
UNM's Web mail was written and created by Mulberry, but because it is not Mulberry's primary development, Spence said not much development or work is done with the product.
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"We wanted to get something that would be supported by a vendor," Spence said.
Last summer, CIRT analysts started looking for new Web mail software. Throughout most of the fall, they met with about eight vendors who gave demonstrations to CIRT and University technical support teams.
Two products made it to the finals, Communigate and Mirapoint.
UNM students, faculty and technical support were invited to try out the products before a decision was made.
"Really, there were positives to both," Spence said. "It came down to infrastructure needs."
The new system will allow students to use their current Net IDs and it is not expected to have many problems.
"Everyone will continue using their same IDs and go on like nothing ever happened ... I hope," Spence said.
CIRT will not abandon Mulberry as an option for e-mail and may also consider making a new version available later on.
"We spent a lot of years supporting Mulberry and we don't want to leave the staff and faculty who want to keep using it without support," Spence said.
On a typical day, CIRT gets an estimated 200,000 connects to its infrastructure. About 10,000 virus-infected e-mails, many of which originate on campus, are blocked. The main gateways receive about 300,000 messages from the outside world, the majority being spam.
"The numbers won't change, but the new system will be more efficient at handling it," Spence said.
The new system will mainly be used for incoming freshmen to give them a better Web face, but will be available for anyone.
CIRT will begin implementing the new system May 24. From that point on, Web mail will be possibly be unavailable until the beginning of August. Spence said, though, it will more than likely be the middle of the summer when it is up and running.
CIRT administrators and key support staff were trained last week for the software.
Online training will be available to guide users through the new software to make the application as easy as possible, Spence said.
Spence would not disclose the amount needed for the software, but said some funds were set aside by CIRT and the University for the project. He added it would not affect student fees.
