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GW Email Bonks
As longtime readers know, I've been supremely unimpressed with GW's computing regime since the day I was admitted, but today tops everything. This is the message you get if you've tried to access your GW webmail any time since 4:45 p.m. today:
3/17/2004 4:45PM System diagnostics have indicated an imminent hardware failure with the E-Mail system. System administrators are working to resolve the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Nice. But what makes it better is that GW allows no alternative to webmail. You can't use a mail client with GW's system because they've got everything locked down so tightly. Ok, you might be able to set it up to work with IMAP, but I haven't played with that in so long I can't remember how it would work. Bottom line: Since 4:45 this afternoon, GW students were w/out email. I won't pretend I hate saying "I told you so." I love saying "I told you so!" That's what happens when you rely on Micro$oft!
Posted March 17, 2004 09:02 PM | law school
Is this Microsoft's fault? If it's a hardware failure, I'd think it would more likely be the hardware vendors?
I'm running an IIS box with Windows 2003 server, and have a happily-functioning SMTP server, telnet access to the server (so I could run something like Pine if I felt like it), a working POP client... the works.
Just asking because I was wondering if this was a specific technical gripe with MS?
Posted by: A. Rickey at March 18, 2004 03:39 PM
Um, well, the email system came back up overnight, and I still have no idea what the problem was. Very likely you're right -- it had little to nothing to do w/Microsoft. But why split hairs? The school relies on MS software, so I'm happy to blame MS for every problem!
But see, my real gripe is that they won't enable use of Pine or anything else -- it's webmail or nada with them, and webmail just blows! Their excuse is that they have to keep "port 5755" or whatever shut down because if they opened it to allow people to use clients like Outlook or Eudora, then anyone could break in or something. Sounds ridiculous to me since so many other schools enable this kind of server access w/no apparent problem. And since they simply refuse to listen to student gripes about the situation, I figure they're asking for a little ridicule when things *really* mess up.
Posted by: ambimb at March 18, 2004 05:54 PM
Ah. I should have figured.
Well, if it makes you feel better, Columbia's webmail runs off HORDE, and gives every impression of being run off a UNIX box. (You can supposedly run HORDE off IIS/PHP4, but I've never actually seen it done.) We also allow POP access. But the internal law school network seems to host its webspace off of IIS, and they're not so worried.
While I guess blasting MS is an instinct in some parts, there's no reason it can't be administered safely and allow POP access. On the other hand, if your admins are paranoid, there's no reason to suspect they'd be less paranoid with another OS.
Posted by: A. Rickey at March 19, 2004 12:00 PM
