GoogleApps@Brown - Google Applications for Education

Frequently Asked Questions

New! How-to FAQs, mobile device configuration, documentation, training videos and more can be found on our GoogleApps Help Site.

The Move

Is my email address going to change when we move?

No, you will continue to receive and send your mail from the same address.

I have an email alias. Will it continue to work?

Yes, email aliases will continue to work.

What happens to my old email when I move to Brown's GoogleApps for Education account (GoogleApps@Brown)?

The email currently in your Brown Exchange account will be imported to your GoogleApps@Brown account. Exchange accounts will be left open for a short time to allow you to verify that everything has been imported correctly. After the whole campus has been migrated, the Exchange server will be closed. You will be notified before this occurs. If you have email archived in Outlook .pst files, you will be able to import these as well. It's also possible to migrate messages from MacMail, Entourage, etc.; documentation will be available at the time of migration.

What will happen to my folders when my mail is migrated?

Folders in Exchange will be represented by labels in Gmail.

Will Brown move my calendar and contacts as well as my email?

Your Exchange contacts and calendar will be moved. Any contacts and calendar created locally (on your computer) will not. Please note that this includes distribution lists - your distribution lists will NOT be moved.

How do you know if it's in Exchange or local? If you are using Outlook, your calendar and contacts are mostly likely in Exchange, and will be moved. If you are using Entourage and created a calendar under "On My Computer", the calendar is local and would not automatically be moved. Any calendar and contacts accessible in the current webmail (email.brown.edu) are on the Exchange server.

If I have archived email, can I import it into my new email account?

Yes you can. Since archived emails are stored locally, the mail cannot be automatically transferred during the move. If you have been using Outlook, you can import your .pst files using Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook. If you have been using a mail client other than Outlook, you will in most cases have to set up your new account within your existing mail client and move your local mail into the new account.

In either case, you should check the size of your archives to make sure that the archived mail you are importing does not cause you to exceed your quota. If your archives are larger than the quota, here are some alternatives.

Do we have a contract?

Yes, we already negotiated a contract when moving student accounts to Google.

I am a student who is interested in becoming involved in providing Google training for the university. How do I get involved?

We will be posting jobs on the Student Employment web site. Look out for an announcement in Morning Mail.

I'm a computing specialist in a department. How can I get resources and training to help my department with the move?

We will be reaching out to departmental computing specialists soon. If you have any questions before you hear from us, please email GoogleApps@brown.edu.

How will my department get help with this transition, especially if we do not have a DCC?

A contact will be assigned to each department to help faculty and staff through this transition.

When is my department scheduled to move?

Please check the migration timeline at http://www.brown.edu/cis/GoogleApps/migration_timeline.php

I want to start using GoogleApps@Brown as soon as possible. How can I get started?

As an individual, there are two ways to schedule your migration to the new service:

Through the Individual Opt-In Form, which is processed on a rolling basis on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Many faculty are using this method to opt-in if they are leaving campus before their department is scheduled to migrate, and graduate and medical students are also encouraged to use this method. Staff should pay special attention to the limitations of moving before the rest of your department (noted on the form).
As part of your department's migration. This is the best way for staff to migrate, especially if they calendar with their department or book resources like conference rooms. If you would like to migrate with your department, wait to hear from your departmental computing staff or your department head. You will be receiving a link that is specific to your department.

I filled out the individual migration form and now I can no longer see it. Can you remind me of the caveats of migrating before the rest of my department?

Support:

Early adopters who move before others in their department should have DCCs that will provide first line of support for conversion of their respective departments, or be DCCs themselves. Please speak with your DCC before you fill out our web form to start your migration to Google!

Email:

Brown's global address list will not be fully populated until the University migration is complete. This means you will have to manually type most email addresses when you initially compose emails.
Early adopters will not yet have access to shared mailboxes via the Google Apps interface
Early adopters will not be able to send mail to Exchange-enabled AD groups
Members of the Brown community still on Exchange will only be able to send email to you at @brown.edu. Note that email client autocomplete entries that contain the value @ad.brown.edu will NOT work

Calendars:

The free/busy time on your calendar will not be viewable to those who have not migrated to Google
Those users who do a lot of interdepartmental calendaring should be aware that once you've moved to Google, you will not be able to see the free/busy time of non-Google users.
Early adopters will not be able to access shared departmental calendars

Mobile Devices:

Please note that calendar functionality is limited from certain mobile devices. Instructions for mobile device access is available from Google, and Brown-specific information will be available soon, but not immediately.

Mail Servers:

If your department is running its own mail server, moving to Google may not make sense for you. Please check with your DCC to ensure that a migration to Google is appropriate.

Email Forwarding:

If you are currently forwarding your email (eg. to a personal email account), filling out this form will discontinue your forwarding. A GoogleApps@Brown account will be created for you and all new mail will be routed to your new account.

Privacy and Security

Where will the email servers be located for GoogleApps@Brown?

Servers are housed in Google's data centers - Google does not disclose the exact locations of their servers for security reasons. The content of each email or document is spread around to several different physical data center locations so that in the unlikely event that one of Google's data centers is compromised, Brown's data will still be protected. This is actually much more rigorous than the security of our existing service.

What about data Security?

The Brown Information Security Group has reviewed and approved of the data security position at Google. Their favorable review and decisions were based upon:

a review of the contract presented to the University by Google
a review of the Privacy and Security policy of Google (http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html) which includes the following:
- "We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data. We restrict access to personal information to Google employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our services. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations."
The terms and conditions of Google Apps aligns, supports, and complement current Brown security and privacy policy, found at http://brown.edu/cis/policy/email.php
A teleconference discussion with Google representatives, which indicated that the same privacy standards used for Google employees is utilized for customers on the Google Apps platform
Answers provided by Google relative to hiring standards, physical and logical security, access controls, authorization, and authentication

It should be noted that there is a contractual statement by Google in the Terms and Conditions which states that Google will not guarantee that University data will be housed in servers based in the United States. This is of importance to any faculty member who will be working with data sponsored by government grants, as such grants may specify for the data to remain in the United States.

Is my privacy and the confidentiality of our email protected?

Google may be compelled to disclose Brown's confidential Information when required by law but only after it, if legally permissible: (a) uses commercially reasonable efforts to notify the owner; and (b) gives the owner the chance to challenge the disclosure. This is at least as much protection as is afforded by existing Brown policy.

What if something needs to be totally private?

One should remember that no email system is completely secure, and privacy in email cannot be assumed. With this in mind however, Google utilizes best of breed hardware, software, and security architecture to maintain confidentially and privacy. If something needs to be totally private, email is perhaps not the best method for storage.

Do I need to use a VPN anymore?

With Google Apps you will no longer need to use VPN to receive/send email from off campus.

What about SSL?

SSL is a secure protocol for sending and receiving mail. Google's mail service requires you to turn on SSL for both your incoming and outgoing mail servers if you are going to be reading your mail using a mail client.

Will Brown's adoption of Google Apps give Google access to student/faculty e-mail communications, addresses, identifiable browsing histories, etc? Will this information be used to target advertising at us?

Contractually, Google is not allowed to exhibit advertising to active Brown faculty, staff, and students. They do not "mine" Brown's stored data - it is still owned by the University. Google has agreed to protect the confidentiality of Brown's private information with the same standard of care in which they protect their own private corporate information, and they are known for the level of security with which they protect their own data.

Because Google is handling spam filtering, does this mean that our Proofpoint spam digest will be going away?

Yes, we will be using Google's built-in spam filtering instead of Proofpoint. Google also lets you review your spam via a link on the left of your mail. One benefit of the way spam is handled in the new system is that it is easily searchable.

Services Provided/Functionality

I am not a current student, faculty or staff member but I am actively affiliated with the University. Can I use GoogleApps@Brown?

Not at this time.

How does GoogleApps@Brown differ from the GoogleApps@Brown service that was rolled out to students in September?

It is essentially the same service, but the transition will be handled differently. Any new features we add to our GoogleApps@Brown service will benefit students as well.

Can I log on to other Google-sponsored services with my GoogleApps@Brown username and password (e.g. gmail.com, blogger.com, etc.)?

Your GoogleApps@Brown username (your NetID) and password will only work with the services that have been deployed within the GoogleApps@Brown domain. To access other Google services, you will need to obtain a personal account through Google.

How do I access a departmental or student group email account now that I am using GoogleApps@Brown?

We will be adding instructions for this - please stay tuned.

What are the limitations on email sizes for my GoogleApps@Brown account?

You can send and receive mail messages up to 25 MB in size including attachments - however, until our university's Google migration is complete, it will remain 15 MB due to other infrastructure constraints.

What is my new email quota for my GoogleApps@Brown account?

Currently, the email quota for each account is 7.2 gigabytes, a number that Google increases by the second as part of Google's "Infinity + 1" plan. The exact number is displayed on at http://mail.google.com - please note that this is NOT where you log in to your Brown Gmail account.

What happens if I have more than my quota's worth of archived mail?

If you have more than 7.2 GB of email in your archives, then you can leave your archived mail where it is and continue to access it in your client (eg Outlook). You can just use your client for viewing your archive, or you can also enable it to read and send for your new email account using IMAP or in Outlook's case, the Google Sync Client. For more information, see this FAQ about using Outlook with the new service. We recommend that you keep your archived email on a backed-up network drive and not dependent upon a desktop.

CIS is also exploring use of Google's Postini mail archiving service. Postini offers mail archiving and e-discovery, so that every message sent to you can be automatically archived for a specified number of years. This optional service, which may be desirable for some administrators and faculty, will likely have a yearly per-mailbox fee, with details still to be worked out.

Are there limitations on file sizes within the GoogleApps@Brown services?

Documents: The maximum permitted size is 500 Kb plus up to 2 MB per embedded image. Additionally, your account has a limit of 5000 documents and 5000 images.
Presentations: The maximum permitted size is 10 MB with a limit of 5000 documents and 5000 images.
Spreadsheets: Each spreadsheet can be up to 10,000 rows, or up to 256 columns, or up to 50,000 cells, or up to 20 sheets -- whichever limit is reached first. Imported spreadsheets cannot exceed 1 MB. Your account is limited to 200 spreadsheets.
Sites: There is a 10MB file size limitation and 10GB for all sites combined on Google Apps (e.g. you could have a site of 9GB and 1GB)

What services are included with my GoogleApps@Brown account?

Your GoogleApps@Brown account includes e-mail, IM/Google Talk, calendaring, website, and document, spreadsheet, and presentation applications. Other services may be added in the future as they are available and appropriate.

Will GoogleApps@Brown be the only email solution offered to active Brown faculty, staff and student community members?

Yes. The Exchange system is being decommissioned once everyone has transitioned to GoogleApps@Brown. The option to forward to an external email address will still be available on the MyAccount page, but this is strongly discouraged because it limits collaboration such as calendaring and document sharing.

How do I activate my GoogleApps@Brown services?

Stay tuned for more information about account activation.

I currently forward my email away from Brown's servers. What mail delivery options will I have with this new service?

You will still be able to forward your mail, but this is strongly discouraged because it limits collaboration such as calendaring and document sharing.

I currently forward my mail, but I want access to non-mail GoogleApps@brown services. Is this possible?

Yes, you will be able to have a GoogleApps account which you can use to access Docs, Sites, etc, while still being able to forward your email.

Can I continue to use Outlook with the new service?

Yes, there are ways to use Outlook. If you are just reading mail and not using calendaring and contacts, Outlook can be set up to access your mail using IMAP or POP. If you need more functionality, you can use the Outlook Sync plug-in which also supports calendaring and contacts. Use of Outlook might be recomended in some cases, such as if you have unusually large mail archives or if you need to do mail merges.

However, if you want to continue using Outlook because you don't want to re-learn email, we encourage you to attend a demo or training (which will be posted soon) and try the new service. Using Google's mail interface will give you a more consistent experience in and out of the office, and also give you access to many great features of this new service not available through Outlook. A lot of people find they are more productive using Google's mail interface.

Will I be able to use my handheld device with GoogleApps@brown?

Yes.

Does Google Apps offer tasks?

Yes, there are tasks available in your Google Mail. You can access them by a link on the left menu.

Brown vs. Personal Gmail

What is the difference between Brown's Google Apps for Education account (GoogleApps@Brown) and my regular Gmail account?

Although the experience will be very similar, your GoogleApps@Brown account is customized for optimal educational collaboration and also has more security and privacy than a regular Gmail account. The service that Brown is using is not the same as the commodity Google email service, it is the same service that Google uses to conduct its own corporate business and the same service that 20,000 corporate customers use to operate their businesses. This means a higher level of security, among other things.

What if I already have a personal Google/Gmail account?

Your personal account is totally separate from your GoogleApps@Brown account, so nothing will change about your personal Google account. At this time Google does not provide a way to integrate/merge the accounts together. Please see the FAQ entry on combining personal Gmail account information with your Brown account for more information: https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/CISDOC/Combining+a+personal+Gmail+account+with+Google+Apps+for+Education+%28Brown+Gmail%29

How-Tos, Tips and Tricks

What are the key functions and how do I convert from the way we've been working before?

We will be scheduling sessions with departments as well as campus-wide trainings during this transition. In addition, we will be adding online resources for those of you new to Google's tools.

What is the best way to handle spam that I think I might want to look at later?

If you have spam messages that you might want to look at later, you should not leave them in your spam filter for too long. The filter is automatically emptied after 30 days. If you want to keep a message that is in the Spam folder, either move the message to another folder or select it and press the 'Not Spam' button.

What if I delete something accidentally?

Please see this Gmail FAQ: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78353

When I reply to a message in a conversation thread, how do I know who will be copied?

You will see their addresses in the To: or CC: areas as you compose your reply.

Are there any shortcut keys to make things faster?

Yes, you have to go to settings and enable them, then refresh your mail window before the change takes effect. Here are our current favorites:

When in a message or after doing a search, type 'u' to go to inbox
When viewing a message, type '!' to label it as spam
When reading a message, type 'r' to Reply ('R' to Reply in a new window)
When reading a message, type 'a' to Reply All ('A' to Reply All in a new window)

What does archiving do? Where does it go and can I get it back. Is it backed up?

Archiving items keeps your Inbox tidy. The items are not deleted, but they will no longer appear in your Inbox. The items will appear in search results and can also be accessed by clicking the "All Mail" link.

Please contact help@brown.edu if you have an urgent issue.

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