8. Important changes for Davmail users

Users of DavMail (for example Thunderbird/Lightning users) accessing Oxford Nexus should have experienced a change on 14 February 2012. In order to continue to access calendar information for your Nexus mailbox you will need to do one of the following:

  • Use Outlook Web App, or a calendar client such as Microsoft Outlook (Windows or Mac). and, once your mailbox has been upgraded, check that your DavMail client is set to use Exchange Web Services (EWS, see below).
  • reconfigure your DavMail client twice (once on 14 February and once following the migration of your Oxford Nexus Mailbox).

Instructions for re-configuring DavMail at the start and end of the coexistence period

On or after 14 February 2012, re-configure your DavMail client by amending the "OWA (Exchange) URL" from
  • https://nexus.ox.ac.uk/owa
to
  • https://legacy.nexus.ox.ac.uk/owa
Also, this may be a good time to ensure that EWS is being used (see below).

When you are informed that your mailbox has been migrated to Exchange 2010, this process must be undone, but to a new URL that should be somewhat more future-proof. Change from:
  • https://legacy.nexus.ox.ac.uk/owa
to
  • https://davmail.nexus.ox.ac.uk/owa
However, if you have already made it, do not reverse the EWS change. EWS is a requirement for Exchange 2010 as support for WebDav has been dropped.

N.B. In some newer versions of Ubuntu, within the Default Unity desktop for instance, there is no system tray to launch Davmail. It may be necessary for you to manually edit your Davmail properties file to configure the correct URL and Exchange protocol settings. The settings probably looks something like this:

davmail.enableEws=true

davmail.url=https\://davmail.nexus.ox.ac.uk/owa

Alternatively, you can configure the Unity desktop to display the notification area.

A note about EWS

In order for DavMail to work with Exchange 2010, the Exchange protocol used must be EWS. EWS is a requirement for Exchange 2010 as support for WebDav has been dropped. Find the Exchange protocol settings in your DavMail configuration and ensure that EWS is used and "WebDav" is not. This change can be made on 14 February alongside the "legacy." addition, or you can choose to make the change when your mailbox is upgraded (i.e. when you remove the "legacy." and add "davmail.").

Instructions for configuring Nexus Calendars in Thunderbird using Davmail and Lightning are given on the OUCS web site.

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