Friday, March 21, 2008

Belvoir domain name, e-mail adresses to change

Today, Fort Belvoir’s Directorate of Information Management will complete an e-mail software transition and the old system will be shut down.

With the shut down certain e-mail domains will be eliminated, including but not limited to @belvoir.army.mil, @beml07.army.mil, @hqamc.army.mil, @secbmail.belvoir.army.mil and @cfsc.army.mil.

The transition from Exchange server 5.5 to Exchange server 2003 began in June, as part of a Department of the Army plan for all Army installation e-mail addresses to use the @conus.army.mil domain.

Fort Belvoir will now join many installations that have already made the change.

“The change to the return address is a direct result of the new system,” Rick Corl, a special projects officer for DOIM, said. “If your e-mail is not properly configured, you could stop receiving mail on March 20.”

The conversion is intended to reduce the number of excess e-mail accounts.

“For instance, if a user moved from one organization to another, or from one installation to another, his or her e-mail address would change, often resulting in lost e-mail due to errors with forwarding addresses,” Corl said. “By always using the @us.army.mil return address, combined with mail forwarding at Army Knowledge Online, the user can move anywhere without e-mail being interrupted.”

When your AKO is set up correctly, messages should be forwarded automatically to your local e-mail box.

To ensure your AKO account is set up correctly:
“ Logon to AKO
“ Click “My Account”
“ Click “Mail Options”
“ Select the “Forward E-mail” option
“ Enter and confirm your forwarding e-mail address
“ Click “Submit”
Only follow this procedure if you wish to combine your personal AKO e-mail and your work e-mail. Other options are available through AKO.
For assistance, contact or call 703-704-1644.
“Think of the new e-mail system as a city that has changed its name.” Corl said. “For a while, mail will still get to the residents using the old city name, but people should really start addressing letters using the new city name.”
Corl warns that the same domain issue will occur in the coming months with the Secure Internet Protocol Router network.