Technical Issues FAQ

1. FAQ Overview

This informal FAQ is designed to assist OUCS Helpdesk and IT Support Staff across the University in resolving issues with the Nexus service. It also contains additional detail on supported protocols to inform and assist ITSS.

For historical information concerning the migration to Nexus, please see Historical notes relating to migration from Herald to Nexus.

2. Email Service

Supported Protocols

The following methods of access are supported:

3. Unsupported Protocols

The following methods of access are not supported:

Any current POP or IMAP connections to wildcard.herald.ox.ac.uk are being deprecated and will not be supported beyond the end of 2011. The use of all Herald addresses should cease before this time.

4. Resource Mailboxes

I would like a resource mailbox for room booking

We have put in place the appropriate procedures to do this. Please see the Resources section for more information.

5. Distribution Lists

 I have noticed I appear in various distribution groups!

 These groups were system-generated. They were designed for use in SharePoint/Exchange for authorization. They do not appear in the Global Address List and currently these groups can only be emailed by members of the appropriate department/college ITSS group. So, group_unit_undergrad can only be emailed by group_unit_ITSS.

Can I make my own distribution lists?

 You can make personal lists in your mailbox. System level lists will be considered where appropriate and OUCS has a project known as the GroupStore which will offer ad-hoc, user generated groups for use across OUCS services, and more generally around the University. This project will include synchronising those groups with Nexus.

6. Global Address List (GAL)

Where did the information come from?

 The entry was automatically built from the information OUCS knew about you.

Where did you get my address from?

 The address was the main address of your primary department.

What is the difference between Company and Department?

 The company field held your primary department/college, and the department field held a list of all your departments/colleges. The field was quite small and this list was truncated (indicated by "/ ..." on the end) when necessary.

My email address is wrong?

 The email address was migrated from Herald where possible. If it is wrong, you have the option to change it via: https://register.it.ox.ac.uk/self/index/

 I have a second (project) account that does not appear in the list?

 By default secondary (project) accounts are ex-directory. The reason that project accounts are hidden is we had a large number of project accounts with people's personal names as their display names. We also had a large number whose names did not make sense in a University-wide list, "IT Office" for example. If you want your project account to appear in the address list we advise you to contact: help@oucs.ox.ac.uk.

For each account you needed to supply:

• The account username

• A sensible display name

• The email address

NB: You are not able to access a project account via Outlook until it is in the address list.

My account does not appear in the Global Address List

Users recorded as Ex-Directory with OUCS Registration will not appear in the GAL. Also, by default accounts matching the following criteria were hidden:

• Project accounts

• Accounts belonging to individuals with status of pgoffer, ugoffer, leaver, cardholder and virtual

• Accounts that have expired

 Accounts can be unhidden on request

7. Project Accounts

I have a second (project) account that does not appear in the global address list (GAL)?

 See GAL section above

I cannot connect Outlook to my project account

 See GAL section above

Cannot log in (project account)

 See Other Problems section above

I would like to send email from my project account address using my main account

 SendAs/FullAccess rights can be set on project accounts to allow someone to use their main account to send mail with an alternative address. These rights are controlled centrally and cannot be set using Outlook. We setup SendAs/FullAccess rights on request where a user account can send as/access a project account. We will not apply rights the other way, a project account over a user account, nor a user account over another user account. Authorization to setup SendAs/FullAccess rights must come from:

• The registered Department/College ITSS of the user who owns the project account

• The owner of the project account

 Note: A "user" of a project account is not authorised to request SendAs rights unless they own the project account.

8. Junk Email/SPAM Filtering

How do I change my SPAM settings?

These settings can be changed on the self-registration web-site: https://register.it.ox.ac.uk/self/index/

My SPAM filtering does not appear to be working

First check that SPAM filtering is enabled on your Nexus account by visiting the self-registration web-site: https://register.it.ox.ac.uk/self/index/. If the SPAM filtering is enabled here but filtering is still not working then login to OWA via https://nexus.ox.ac.uk/ and double check the "[Automatically filter junk e-mail]" setting in the [Options] -> Junk E-mail screen is enabled.

I appear to be getting more spam than I used to

The Junk mail filters on Nexus cannot be set to automatically discard email that passes a certain threshold (as Herald did). To compensate for this, the Nexus Junk E-mail folder automatically deletes emails from the Junk E-mail folder (and ‘deleted items’) after 90 days. Some users are annoyed that some persistent spam, or irksome personal messages still arrive in their Junk E-mail folder. These people can be helped by either creating a rule on the Junk E-mail folder to delete certain emails immediately, or in the judicious use of Blocked Senders. See: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nexus/web/light_guide.xml?ID=filtering

How does spam filtering work?

The spam-filtering process is explained in detail here: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nexus/itss/message-flow.xml

9. What happens to a user's mailbox when their University Card expires?

When someone's University Card expires and they leave Oxford (and this notably includes "student leavers") their mailbox is usually deleted after 3 months. Departing users can usually extend this period if they ask for an extension at the OUCS help centre.

Users can set up forwarding that works for 2 months following departure/card expiry.

N.B. 00F = Out of facility message = Out of Office = Vacation Autoreply

Consider 3 categories of departing users: (A) Users who have forwarding set; (B) users who have a vacation message set (OOF); (C) users who have neither OOF nor forwarding set.

On card expiry, all 3 groups of users cease to have access to their mailboxes. For users in groups A and B, nothing else happens until the end of month 2. Users in group C have an OOF created saying that, "This account is scheduled for deletion. It is unlikely that your message will be read." (Also, if a mailbox belonging to group B has its OOF expire or switch off before the end of two months, that change should be detected within hours and the standard message applied.) At the end of month 2, mailboxes are 'detached' (or 'disabled'), and the routing tables are changed so that mail will not enter Nexus from outside. After a further one month, the mailboxes are deleted, but remain on tape for about 60 further days. (Tape retention policy is subject to change, however, and should be detailed in the Exchange SLD).

See also http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/registration/finish/index.xml?ID=email