By Paul TakahashiThe Daily Northwestern
Northwestern’s new version of WebMail crashed sometime between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Wednesday, about an hour after being implemented, prompting administrators to revert e-mail service to the old version for an undetermined amount of time.
“This was absolutely unpredictable,” said Wendy Woodward, director of technology support services at Northwestern University Information Technology. “This is a situation which will not be easily resolved.”
As of Wednesday evening, a cause for the problems was not clear, Woodward said. She said she didn’t know how long it would take to repair the new version of WebMail.
“We will investigate the causes of this snafu to better analyze it before its re-implementation,” Woodward said.
The new version of WebMail was supposed to improve stability and functionality, and also added an extra navigation bar, collapsible menus and support for text in other languages.
The old system was unreliable and unstable, and users would sometimes find their inboxes cleared out, NUIT officials said.
An e-mail sent by NUIT on Wednesday afternoon to some campus bodies, such as Norris University Center staff, said users might encounter e-mail problems and delays throughout the day.
Another e-mail explaining the situation to the entire NU community is forthcoming, Woodward said.
Students who tried logging onto the updated version of WebMail on Wednesday morning said they encountered a variety of problems.
They said they couldn’t access their e-mails, while others said they were logged off when they tried sending them.
“It took 10 minutes for me to open up an e-mail, and when I tried to send one, it timed out,” said Chelsea Thompson, a Weinberg sophomore. “I’m not sure if my e-mail was sent.”
Thompson said she ended up forwarding her e-mails to her Gmail account, which she said seemed to work.
Chris Paolelli, a SESP graduate student, said he was able to log into the new WebMail but encountered problems soon afterward.
“It seemed to work fine at first,” Paolelli said. “I was admiring the snazzy interface when it suddenly returned me to the login screen.”
Paolelli said he was able to access his WebMail two hours later, when NUIT switched to an older version.
The new version of WebMail came after five weeks of testing, Woodward said. The trial feedback from NUIT’s technology support committee was satisfactory, she said.
In June, students’ e-mail service is scheduled to switch again to a Gmail-based, Google-run system, but faculty and administrators will stay with the new WebMail.
The current problems will not affect that planned switch, Woodward said.
In the meantime, although Paolelli encountered some trouble, he said he was still optimistic about the new WebMail.
“It sure looked nice when I first logged in,” he said. “I’m looking forward to using it.”
Reach Paul Takahashi at [email protected].
