Upgrading to MSU's new e-mail system won't be a possibility for students coming to the university this fall.

The e-mail home base, mail.msu.edu, officially launched in March. But after more than 28,400 people made the switch, university officials closed down all upgrades in June until further notice.

Since its debut, the e-mail system has stumbled across several service interruptions, including a breakdown that lasted from June 27-30.

Computer lab officials have cited problems in the e-mail's storage subsystem as the main cause for frustration since the upgrade. University officials created a link to the e-mail Web site so users can understand the status of the system during outages.

"The folks that run the service are looking to make a few more adjustments in a few weeks," said Richard Wiggins, senior information technologist for the Computer Center. "We're being pretty conservative about the new system.

"We felt like until we had stabilized the problems. We didn't want to add more load to the system and subject other people to that."

E-mail users were going to have to switch to the new system by fall, but because of system glitches people using MSU e-mail may use Pilot and Telnet. E-mail use increased 30 percent since the 2001-02 academic year.

"Most of the students that are new have been launched on Pilot," Wiggins said.

Added features to the new Web site enticed many students to make the switch as soon as the e-mail system change was announced. But many users found themselves subjected to various system failures.

"Sometimes around the middle of the day it's busy or slow," economics junior Dan Dysinger said. "I keep trying and eventually it works."

Some students said they're forgiving while the new system's kinks are being worked out.

"There was one day, I think during finals week, it was down for more than two hours," communication junior Graham Leslie said. "With a new system there's bound to be errors."

Once computer lab officials open upgrades back up to users they will see a variety of new features, including a different direct browser and faster response time. But students don't have to worry about changing their Pilot IDs, passwords or addresses because those will stay the same.

Junk mail filtering will not be provided by the university for the time being, but students wanting to add enhancements to the new e-mail system will be able to set up a "wish list."

"Spam filtering costs a lot of money," Wiggins said.

But many students said switching to the new e-mail system hadn't even crossed their mind.

"I don't even know what it is or how to switch over," elementary education senior Katie Brim said. "I don't like to deal with all the hassles of e-mail. I like it simple."

Other students said they don't even bother with any MSU e-mail system and prefer to use e-mail through Yahoo or Hotmail.

"It's just easier that way," said communication senior Jasmin Imami. "I've had my Yahoo account since high school and all my friends know it."