Wednesday morning, patches were applied to the operating system of the
campus e-mail server machines. These patches were recommended by the
vendor, Sun Microsystems, to fix some security related problems. We
later discovered that the patches have an undesirable side effect on
the way POP and IMAP based e-mail clients (e.g., Z-Mail for Windows,
PC Pine, Eudora, Pagasus) verify passwords. This resulted in an error
message, "ERR Bad Login", when these e-mail clients tried to connect
to the servers.  We've removed the patches and are working with the
vendor to ensure that they can be applied again without impacting our
e-mail client programs.

We regret the disruption this caused.

*** Note *** Only those POP and IMAP e-mail clients incorrectly
configured to connect to "<userid>.mail.yorku.ca" were affected. If
you are using a POP or IMAP based e-mail program, ensure it's
configured to use "postoffice.yorku.ca" for POP or IMAP
services. Contact CCS Help Services if you are uncertain or need
assistance.

--
Marshal Linfoot                            Phone: (416) 736-5257 x22691
Manager, UNIX Technical Support            FAX:   (416) 736-5701
CCS, York University                       E-mail: [log in to unmask]