For quite some time (well over 25 years in some cases!), we've been providing "name@nwcs.com" email addresses to folks. Of late (read: over the last few years), there've been several limitations that have developed with that service as technology has moved on and folks have moved around - we used to have webmail at one point, for instance, but that became infeasible to support. And I still get needled now and again by certain folks (*cough*cough*dave*cough*) about the inability for users to change their own email passwords. :D

I'm happy to announce that that's now changed. And there's a file-sharing system thrown in as a special added bonus.

As part of some ongoing upgrades to the server infrastructure here*, we are now** providing NextCloud service to everyone who's got a nwcs.com email address. NextCloud is theoretically capable of being many things, but its primary function is that it's a private equivalent to file sharing services like Dropbox or OneDrive - file sharing and synchronization you can use to keep files stored in the cloud. Only it's managed by NWCS (Papa and myself), rather than a company you may or may not trust with your data.

The other functionality provided via NextCloud? Webmail. We've got NWCS webmail back - and if you used it in the past (back when we had Squirrelmail), your folders from way back then have been restored and are available.

To get to this service, go to: https://cloud.nwcs.com and log in with your email username and password.

If you don't remember what those are, the "Forgot your password" link should work. Note also that I've tried to use current email usernames where possible - for example, Dave's is "dve", Michelle's is "msj", and so forth. If there's any questions, don't hesitate to ask me.

The whole thing works together, so there's no longer any awkward tracking of separate passwords or the like - and if you feel the need to change your password, you can do so through your Nextcloud settings. (Some of you may wish to do so, seeing as though it's gone unchanged for, um, a long long time.) If you want to do two-factor authentication, you can do that too (although it'll only apply to NextCloud file and webmail access, not pop3 email pickup or smtp email delivery).

One other "bonus item": certain folks who used to live here at NWCS HQ (or in at least one case still *do* live here) may remember that we used to have "network shares" where your files could be kept and readily accessed. That kind of went away as folks moved out and there was no way to get to them remotely. The contents of those shares have been preemptively added to your personal NextCloud filestores (under "Old Network Share" in each case), so you can go through them at your leisure.

Again, if you have any questions about any of this, please don't hesitate to ask me. I will endeavor to be prompt in replies. Hope this helps! -jo

*: Papa is working on a new server setup that's using fast SSDs instead of old slow spinning drives. Not only does that make the computer go vroom, once we have it going it'll cut our power bill for that system by 80%. Really.

**: Technically speaking, our NextCloud service has been ongoing for the last several years, but only Papa and I used it or were particularly aware of it.