Email service is now functioning normally, but for individuals using the University's online email service Webmail, problems may continue, according to the latest update from OIT.
Problems include downloading Microsoft Word documents, using the address book feature and filtering junk mail, OIT officials said.
Students barely had access to their email for several days last week after OIT upgraded the University's messaging software on Saturday, Oct. 23.
Normal operations have resumed, but technology officials warned Friday that the University's IMAP and Webmail servers might continue to experience problems.
"We believe there is still some instability occurring on the undergraduate email server," said Donna Tatro, manager of OIT's collaboration services group.
OIT announced a shutdown of the IMAP system for most Oct. 23 to upgrade the Sun Microsystems Corp.-provided server software to the newest version — Sun ONE Messaging Server — on faster computers.
The replacement hardware has more than double the capabilities of the University's almost four-year-old hardware.
OIT chose Saturday for the server upgrade to minimize the impact of the scheduled outage on student's work, since classes ended Friday for Fall Break.
During the upgrade period, University email users were unable to read or send email through programs such as Outlook and Eudora or through Webmail.
But unexpected problems occurred after the upgrade to the server that handles undergraduate email accounts.
Students had difficulty sending messages, receiving attachments and writing emails.
In particular, a corrupt system configuration file led to the unexpected outage a day after the upgrade, Tatro said.
The file was fixed, but Sun and the University are still searching for the underlying cause of the problem, she said.
"I don't think we are out of the woods yet because we've asked Sun why this is occurring and have yet to receive an explanation from them," she said.
"It is not uncommon for databases to be tuned and tweaked and certain elements in them to be reconstructed."
Tatro could also not rule out future outages as software has a tendency to have bugs and careless coding even within the most stable programs, she said.
"Looking at our inbox and sent mail, everything seems like such a simple and wonderful system, but under the covers there is quite a lot going on managing many mailboxes," Tatro said. "Vendors strive to provide extremely reliable and robust software systems and we strive to, in turn, administer those systems and provide good service."
Status of the current problems can be found at helpdesk.princeton.edu.
OIT has said that any additional problems should be reported to the Help Desk at 609-258-HELP.
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