Webmail using the same interface as your gmail account.
This webmail has many nice features like advances search, email labels, pop, ... You will also be able to train your spam-filter and white-list email addresses.
You WILL BE ABLE to view and send mails by using your normal email-software or by using http://mail.vandeplas.com (as before).
Calendar: you will now have a full-blown Calendar similar to the Google Calendar system. You can share/show calendar to friends, to your family or even combine it with your favorite calendar software.
You can NOW view and edit your calendar using http://calendar.vandeplas.com
Online Documents/Office: Documents and Spreadsheets can now be created on the web! You can even share it with someone else and edit the document at the same time! If you want you can export the document to Word, Excel, OpenOffice Writer, OpenOffice Calc, PDF, RTF, ...
You can NOW view and edit your documents using http://docs.vandeplas.com
Personalised Start Page: This is a place that you can completely personalise. It can contain things like weather, overview of your last emails, your upcoming appointments, news, notes, map search,...
You can NOW access your start page using http://start.vandeplas.com
Google Talk/Chat: You are able to use yourname@vandeplas.com as a Google-Talk and Jabber account. This enables you to chat and talk with your GoogleTalk/Jabber friends.
What does that mean for you? Question and Answer.
Q: When will this change?
A: On the 17th of March I will make the necessary changes.
Q: How can I notice the difference?
A: If the page http://mail.vandeplas.com shows a SquirrelMail logo, then the change hasn't been performed yet.
Q: Will I loose mails?
A: No. Before the change all mails will arrive at the old server. After the change the mails will immediately arrive on the google servers.
Q: How do I change my password?
A: The new system already uses your current password. You do not need to change it. When the migration has been performed, log-in to your new webmail using http://mail.vandeplas.com. On the top-right click on 'Settings' then select 'Accounts'. There click on the 'Change Password' link and follow the instructions.
Q: I am using an email-software to download my mails. What should I do?
A: When the migration has been performed, log-in to your new webmail using http://mail.vandeplas.com. On the top-right click on 'Settings' then select 'Forwarding and POP'. In the 'POP Download' section click on the 'Enable POP for all mail' radio button. Click now on the 'Save Changes' button. Now you need to change the settings in your email-program. For those instructions click on the 'Configuration instructions' link in the 'Forwarding and POP' page. Or click on this link http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?ctx=%67mail&hl=en&answer=12103.
Of course your username is not name@gmail.com but name@vandeplas.com. The pop and smtp server are pop.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com. Follow the instructions carefully.
Q: I was only using webmail. How do I migrate the mails from the old webmail to the new system?
A: You don't need to do a thing. Christophe was so kind to write something to migrate the mails automagically to the new server.
Q: All my mails have lost the sender-date on the new system.
A: This is true when you look at the inbox. If you click on the mail you will see the real date of the mail. It was not possible to solve this issue as the inbox looks at what time Google received the mail (aka when I imported the mail to your inbox).
Q: I still have a question. Who should I contact?
A: Just send a mail to Christophe and he will do his best to help you.