Warding off Godzilla with bigger mailboxes

Updated 10:00 AM August 16, 2004

Warding off Godzilla with bigger mailboxes

By Katie Gazella

With the popularity of transmitting photos and other large files by e-mail, many computer users on campus have become familiar with Godzilla, the unwelcome messenger that tells a user he is over the size limit in his mailbox.

Now, faculty, staff and students will have fewer visits from Godzilla, thanks to increased mailbox sizes. In September, Information Technology Central Services (ITCS) e-mail mailboxes will increase from 50 to 200 MB for faculty, staff and students, and Institutional File System (IFS) online storage will increase 20-fold, from 50 MB to 1 GB.

"It's what the campus needs. E-mail is the way to communicate on this campus and on most campuses. The attachments that people are sending around with e-mail are getting bigger and bigger," says Ruth Addis, director of user services at ITCS.

Early reaction has been positive, she says. "The thought of not being Godzillad anymore has all kinds of people relieved."

Some researchers and faculty members had requested more IFS space because they were storing larger files or creating Web sites that required more space, says Gavin Eadie, director of the U-M Computing Environment. The increases were possible because disk space has gotten much cheaper in recent years, he says.

"The price of disk space is halving every six months," he says. The additional space will help faculty members who want to post information on a Web site for a class, or researchers who are gathering large amounts of data, he says.

In addition to the 1 GB, extra space will be available for $1 a month per GB. Before the change, users could have purchased more space, up to 500 MB.

Another change affects the printing allocation for faculty and staff. The number of printed pages continues to rise at campus computing sites and libraries, up to more than 24 million pages last year, Addis says. In order to maintain the allocation of 400 black-and-white pages a term for students, the allotment for faculty and staff will be reduced to 50 pages per term.

Other changes coming this fall include:

• Statewide MichNet dial-in access will be unlimited and free of charge for faculty, staff and students;

• IFS file space of 2-4 GB for classes will be available to faculty members upon request;

• Retired staff members will receive 50 MB mailboxes at no charge. They can purchase IFS home directories and dial-in access through U-M Online;

• ITCS no longer will charge units to create usernames and passwords for temporary employees and visitors.

U-M Online users will continue to have 50 MB mailboxes and 50 MB of IFS space for now, but that may change in the future, Addis says. Also, emeritus faculty will continue to receive the same Basic Computing Package amounts as regular faculty.

E-mail to shut down
for ITCS upgrade

To allow for the larger mailboxes and optional spam filtering, the ITCS e-mail system will be upgraded during the upcoming weekend.

As a result, ITCS e-mail will be non-operational from 10 p.m. Friday Aug. 20 to 6 a.m. Saturday Aug. 21. Mail sent during that time will be queued and delivered once e-mail functionality is restored.

Information about the status of the scheduled outage will be available on the (734) 764-HELP hotline and ITCS Service Status Page at
http://www.itd.umich.edu/outages/.

IFS online storage allocation increments will be completed by Aug. 16 with no interruption of service.

Several related improvements will take place during the next few weeks, and additional information will be provided as they occur. To keep current with the latest changes, see News From ITCS at http://www.itcs.umich.edu/.

Warding off Godzilla with bigger mailboxes

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