AFNet migration, are you ready?

  • Published
  • By Airman Leah Young
  • 62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. --  On Jan. 17, work will begin at McChord Field to migrate its computer users into the central Air Force Network.

"In today's environment, each Major Command owns and operates individual network and e-mail service and has help desks located at every installation," said Lt. Col. Robert Povlich, 627th Communication Squadron commander. "By consolidating these networks and centralizing services, the Air Force can significantly increase the level of security it provides the war fighter, while at the same time, reducing operational costs."

McChord Field will be the ninth base in Air Mobility Command to migrate, with a goal of the migration is to collapse all "individual" or "stand-alone" Air Force networks into the AFNet under the operational control of a single commander.

To the majority of McChord computer users, most of the changes will be transparent and should not cause any interruption to network access or normal day-to-day operations.

"The most visible change to network users will be the format of e-mail addresses," said Colonel Povlich. "Users will see their 'first.last@mcchord.af.mil' e-mail address replaced with a standard 'first.last@us.af.mil' e-mail address."

Another change users will notice is the new addresses will be kept for the duration of a career, as opposed to changing with each new base.

"The migration will provide log-on capability to any connected Air Force computer without having to re register for computer access when deployed, on temporary duty or during a permanent change of station," said 2nd Lt. Justin Kulm, 627th CS AFNet migration project officer.

Migrations will occur in two phases. Phase one will be the migration of the computer and phase two will be the actual transfer of the mailbox. Computer migrations will occur between the hours of 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Users may continue working during this period, but it is strongly recommended to periodically save work while the migration is in progress. When the migration is complete, users will receive a pop-up notification followed by an automatic computer reboot.

"To prepare for the migration, users should read all AFNet related messages and eAdvisories," said Lieutenant Kulm. "They should also ensure all computers remain plugged into the network throughout the duration of the migration."

In addition, users should reduce the size of mailboxes by deleting unnecessary files and moving others to personal folders. Mailbox sizes can be viewed in Outlook 2007 by clicking tools, mailbox clean-up, view mailbox size.

Be on the lookout for the yellow and red eAdvisories for more detailed information. For any questions concerning the migration, contact the Communication Focal Point at (253) 982-2666.