29.3 Understanding Internet Addressing Formats

Reference these sections for information about required address formats for users:

29.3.1 Preferred Address Format

You must choose a preferred address format for your GroupWise users. GroupWise uses the preferred address format, along with the preferred Internet domain, to construct the email addresses that are published in the GroupWise Address Book and in the To and From fields of sent items.

GroupWise supports the following address formats:

  • user_name.post_office.domain@internet_domain_name
  • user_name.post_office@internet_domain_name
  • user_name@internet_domain_name
  • firstname.lastname@internet_domain_name
  • lastname.firstname@internet_domain_name
  • firstinital lastname@internet_domain_name

As with the preferred Internet domain, you must assign a preferred address format to be used as the default for your GroupWise system. The system’s preferred address format is applied to all users in your GroupWise system. However, you can override the system’s preferred address format at the domain, post office, and user/resource level.

The following sections explain some of the advantages and disadvantages of each address format:

user_name.post_office.domain@internet_domain_name

Advantages
  • Reliable format. GroupWise guarantees that each address is unique.

  • Identical user names can be used in different post offices.

Disadvantages
  • Addresses tend to be long and hard to remember.

  • Addresses might change over time as users are moved from one post office to another.

user_name.post_office@internet_domain_name

Advantages
  • Guarantees uniqueness if all your post offices have unique names.

  • Identical user names can be placed in different post offices.

Disadvantages
  • Addresses tend to be long and hard to remember.

  • Addresses might change over time as users are moved from one post office to another.

user_name@internet_domain_name

Advantages
  • Addresses are short and easy to remember.

  • Backward-compatible with previous versions of GroupWise. (Users won’t need to update their business cards.)

  • Addresses do not change as users are moved.

Disadvantages
  • When you first enable this address format, you might have duplicate user names in your GroupWise system. However, in the future, the GroupWise Administration Console prevents you from creating duplicate user names within the same Internet domain name. The same user name can be used in different Internet domains without problem.

firstname.lastname@internet_domain_name

Advantages
  • Addresses are intuitive and easy to remember.

  • Addresses do not change as users are moved.

Disadvantages
  • When you first enable this address format, you might have duplicate first and last names in your GroupWise system. However, in the future, the GroupWise Administration Console prevents you from creating users with the same first and last names within the same Internet domain name. The same first name and last name combination can be used in different Internet domains without problem.

  • The probability of conflicts increases if any user’s first and last names match any GroupWise domain or post office name, if any two users have the same first and last names, or if any two users have the opposite first and last names (such as James Dean and Dean James).

lastname.firstname@internet_domain_name

Advantages
  • Addresses are intuitive and easy to remember.

  • Addresses do not change as users are moved.

Disadvantages
  • When you first enable this address format, you might have duplicate first and last names in your GroupWise system. However, in the future, the GroupWise Administration Console prevents you from creating users with the same first and last names within the same Internet domain name. The same last name and first name combination can be used in different Internet domains without a problem.

  • The probability of conflicts increases if any user’s first and last names match any GroupWise domain or post office name, if any two users have the same first and last names, or if any two users have the opposite first and last names (such as James Dean and Dean James).

firstinitial lastname@internet_domain_name

Advantages
  • Addresses are intuitive and easy to remember.

  • Addresses do not change as users are moved.

Disadvantages
  • When you first enable this address format, you might have duplicate first initial and last names in your GroupWise system. However, in the future, the GroupWise Administration Console prevents you from creating users with the same first initials and last names within the same Internet domain name. The same first initial and last name combination can be used in different Internet domains without problem

  • The probability of conflicts increases when using first initials instead of complete first names.

29.3.2 Allowed Address Formats

The preferred Internet domain and preferred address format apply to user addresses as displayed in the GroupWise Address Book or in the address displayed on sent messages.

The allowed address formats, on the other hand, determine which address formats are accepted by the GWIA. There are five possible allowed formats:

  • user_name.post_office@internet_domain_name
  • user_name@internet_domain_name
  • firstname.lastname@internet_domain_name
  • lastname.firstname@internet_domain_name
  • firstinital lastname@internet_domain_name

If you select all five formats, the GWIA accepts messages addressed to users in any of the formats. For example, John Peterson would receive messages sent using any of the following addresses:

  • jpeterson.research@novell.com
  • jpeterson@novell.com
  • john.peterson@novell.com
  • peterson.john@novell.com
  • jpeterson@novell.com

You must designate the allowed address formats to be used as the default formats for your GroupWise system. The system’s allowed address formats are applied to all users in your GroupWise system. However, you can override the system’s allowed address formats at the domain, post office, and user/resource level.

For example, assume you have two John Petersons with user names of jpeterson and japeterson. The user_name.post_office and user_name address formats do not cause message delivery problems, but the firstname.lastname, lastname.firstname, and firstinitial lastnameaddress formats do. To overcome this problem, you could disallow the three problem formats for these users at the user level.

29.3.3 Alternate From Address

When this feature is enabled, GroupWise Client users can choose an alternate email address when sending or replying to messages, so long as there is more than one domain added in the Internet Domains list. The Admin Console setting is enabled by default. Uncheck the setting if you need to disable it.

For information about this feature in the GroupWise Client, see Using Alternate From Addresses in the GroupWise 18 Client User Guide.