In order to optimize system performance and better align University of Minnesota e-mail services with industry best practices, the Office of Information Technology will make adjustments to selected University e-mail account parameters. The adjustments are consistent with recent conversations that have taken place in the technical community on this topic. In addition, the changes will help facilitate users' potential move to Gmail this fall.
Effective Monday, Aug. 17 the maximum e-mail message size will be 25MB, and Trash and Sent folders will be auto-filed after 30 days.
Any messages in your Trash or Sent folders that are more than 30 days old will be moved automatically out of those folders and filed in a folder called "AutoFiled," which will appear in your folder directory. Messages will be arranged by the date they were received in subfolders named by year. For example, a message received to your Sent folder Aug. 13, 2009 will be filed in the folder called "2009.Sent" inside the AutoFiled folder.
It is important to note that no e-mail will be deleted and that the auto-filed e-mails will be easily accessible with any desktop e-mail IMAP client, such as GopherMail, Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail.
If you've been in the practice of storing important information in your Trash folder, it is recommended that you take this opportunity to go through those folders, move any messages that you need to keep into your inbox or other folders, and delete any unnecessary items. OIT also recommends that you do the same with your Sent folder, moving older items to other folders and deleting any unnecessary items.
If there are no messages older than 30 days in your Trash or Sent folders, automatic auto-filing will not occur.
More information about auto-filing can be found at www.umn.edu/adcs/accounts/emailautofiling.html.
Use NetFiles to share large documents and files
An option to sending large files via e-mail is the University's NetFiles, a secure online file storage application with collaboration and sharing features. NetFiles provides up to 5 gigabytes of storage space for each user.
NetFiles also makes it much easier to collaborate with co-workers, as well as colleagues off campus and around the world. You can place large documents or presentations in NetFiles and give your co-workers access rights, so all of you are working on the same file and storing it in the same place. You can also lock files while you're working in them, preventing others from making changes before yours are saved. Document owners can be notified when any changes are made to their documents, and NetFiles can be used to keep track of various versions of a document.
All currently registered students, staff, and faculty with an active appointment may use the NetFiles service. Before using NetFiles for the first time, users must activate their NetFiles account at www.umn.edu/myaccount. Follow the link for NetFiles Account Options and agree to the information there to activate your account. After activating your account you can log in to the system, with your Internet ID and password at https://netfiles.umn.edu. After logging in, you'll see your home directory.
You can add a new file to your account using the Upload button in the navigation toolbar.
1. Navigate to the directory in which you wish to upload your file.
2. Click Upload in the toolbar.
3. Click Browse to locate the file you want to upload.
4. Click Ok and your file will be uploaded.
NetFiles also allows for collaboration and file sharing with people inside or outside of the University of Minnesota with "tickets." You can issue a ticket for a limited amount of time and/or create a password for added security. It is recommended that when you send a ticket to someone, you e-mail the password separately or call and give that person the password. To use tickets:
1. Click the Share icon.
2. Click Tickets in the top toolbar.
3. Click Create Ticket in the top toolbar.
4. You can use the Basic or Advanced options to create a ticket to send to other users for access to the file or directory you want to share. The Advanced options allow you to specify a password and also rename the ticket.
To notify someone that a shared file or directory exits:
1. Check the box next to the file or directory you want to share.
2. Click E-mail in the top toolbar.
3. Choose either Link or Ticket.
4. Click E-mail and a message will be created (using the default e-mail application) with the link or ticket information.
You also can use your NetFiles space as a Web site. You can use as much of your 5 gigabytes of space as is available for your personal Web space. Your Web space can either be publicly accessible to only a group of users you choose to access it.
Visit http://uttc.umn.edu/training/resources/netfiles/ for further information on using NetFiles. If you need further assistance or help activating your account, call the technology helpline at (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus), or send e-mail to the NetFiles support group at netfiles@umn.edu.
For additional information or assistance with auto-filing or NetFiles, contact the technology helpline at (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus) or help@umn.edu.
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