For about the last half-year, we have seen an inordinate number of Groupwise clients
for whom email bounces back from a University IMAP box with the message that
'User IMAP box is OVER QUOTA'.
Does the following sound like your situation?
I suspect you originally received email through the University's IMAP system, and
were switched over to Groupwise in the last several months. You probably do receive all
the emails we (the Sequencing Core) send, and may not even realize there's a problem
with your email. Other people who email you may be telling you that they see errors.
If that sounds like your situation, here's why I think it is happening:
When the Groupwise Administrators switched you over to their email system, they left
your IMAP box active, and in fact set up the University's email system to deliver
email to BOTH email boxes. You only bother reading the Groupwise box, so the IMAP
box overflows.
The Groupwise people have refused to respond to my queries, so I can only conjecture
as to what the problem is, but if my guess is correct, they have caused your problems:
they should not leave users with an email configuration that is guaranteed to develop
error conditions. I believe it is the responsibility of the Groupwise administrators
to (i) stop splitting the email into two separate boxes; OR (ii) follow up later and
fix the problem BEFORE the IMAP box goes over-quota; OR (iii) properly educate their
clients as to how to repair the problem themselves (this last option is a poor one,
in my opinion).
What should you do about it?
Print this page out and show it to your local computer expert, preferably a Groupwise
administrator. Ask them to fix your email. They should: (i) edit your X500 entry to
remove the references to the old IMAP box; AND (ii) call ITD and tell them to remove
the now-unused IMAP box from their email system. Both steps must be done.
If you are knowlegable about computers and know how to edit your X500 entry, you can
opt to make these changes yourself - it's not difficult. That does, however, leave the
Groupwise people using an inappropriate policy that causes problems for their users.
Notifying them about this might encourage them to change that policy.
When you believe your email address has been fixed, contact the Core Director via
email or telephone (4-8531)
and tell him what you have done. He will send a test message out to your address,
and if it does not generate an error message, he will re-activate your account.
Please note that some short-term fixes will still re-create the error condition a
few days later. If we receive more errors, you will again be disabled.
I apologize that we must be strict about having functional email addresses.
We send out 1,000-2,000 emails each day, and cannot handle that volume of error
messages.
The Core Director can tell you what the error is, and may be able to provide you with
an example error message.
If your email box is over-quota:
You are leaving too many messages on the University's servers, either because you receive
email faster than you read it, or you are storing large numbers of messages on their
system.
You need to read your email more frequently, and delete unwanted email more religiously.
Other email errors:
The Core Director may be able to explain how you should fix the problem. Otherwise, you
must contact your local computer expert and show them a copy of an example error
message.
When you believe your email address has been fixed, contact the Core Director via
email or telephone (4-8531)
and tell him what you have done. He will send a test message out to your address,
and if it does not generate an error message, he will re-activate your account.
Please note that some short-term fixes will still re-create the error condition a
few days later. If we receive more errors, you will again be disabled.