OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 34, August 2010
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For the up-to-the minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews:
http://sysnews.ncsu.edu
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State University Help Desk:
http://help.ncsu.edu
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01: Task force recommends Google Apps @ NC State for faculty and staff e-mail
02: ComTech to implement new campus voice mail system
03: Stinson Collaborative Commons open house is Aug. 25
04: WolfWise team continues work on GroupWise 8 fall deployment
05: IT Student Advisory Group gears up for fall
06: OIT implements new e-mail archiving and antispam and antivirus services
07: OIT changes Google Apps @ NC State account authentication
08: SIS team implements new class scheduling option in MyPack Portal
09: SAR training scheduled for Sept. 9
10: Share network access to your PC files and printers safely!
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01: Task force recommends Google Apps @ NC State for faculty and staff e-mail
A task force to explore the next generation of e-mail systems for NC State faculty and staff has made its recommendation: “Google Apps Education Edition sufficiently meets the needs of faculty and staff.” Currently, faculty and staff use multiple e-mail and calendaring systems, such as WolfWise/GroupWise, Unity (Cyrus)/Webmail and others supported by individual colleges or departments. These systems do not interoperate, which causes inefficiencies and unnecessary costs. Also, with the recent student e-mail migration to Google Apps, a number of faculty and staff have expressed the desire to use Google Apps to collaborate more effectively with their students.
The task force, formed in April 2010 by Dr. Marc Hoit, CIO and Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, evaluated Google Apps Education Edition using a combination of individual use, numerous campus focus groups, and an analysis of the strategies and decisions of other colleges and universities that have evaluated a similar move. Concerns raised were acknowledged and documented. A team to further investigate employee inclusion in the Google Apps @ NC State student service will be formed. For more information, please see the NexGen E-mail Task Force Final Report.
02: ComTech to implement new campus voice mail system
OIT Communication Technologies (ComTech) has purchased Cisco Systems’ Unity Connection voice mail and unified messaging suite to replace the two campus Octel voice mail systems. This move will consolidate both the Main Campus and the College of Veterinary Medicine’s voice mail systems on to one highly redundant, feature-rich platform. The new system has the potential to enable users to manage their voice mail by their e-mail, Web and mobile devices. Within the next 30 days, ComTech will begin working with the colleges and campus departments to map individual users to their associated telephone numbers and Unity IDs in preparation for the migration. The migration should be completed by January 2011.
03: Stinson Collaborative Commons open house is Aug. 25
The campus community is invited to attend an open house for the new Stinson Collaborative Commons, formerly known as “The Laundry Lab,” from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 25. The Commons is located at 2341 Stinson Drive.
OIT staff will showcase renovations that facilitate the sharing of information and the collaboration of ideas. Amenities such as the media:scape collaborative area, which integrates furniture and technology; a whiteboard whose contents can be saved to a flash drive; and a charging station for various mobile devices are all a part of this newly refurbished space. There will also be Google Apps demonstrations highlighting tips and tricks for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs.
04: WolfWise team continues work on GroupWise 8 fall deployment
In preparation for the fall deployment of GroupWise 8 (GW8), the WolfWise Implementation Team has moved the WolfWise domain and post offices 5 and 9 from the legacy Netware servers to the new WolfWise Linux servers. The team will be moving the remaining post offices (1-4, 6-8, and 10) during Friday night maintenance windows through September. Details will be posted in SysNews. WolfWise is NC State’s implementation of Novell GroupWise for its single centrally-supported calendaring and e-mail solution.
The team also reported that GW 8 pre-testing is complete, and GW 8 will be loaded in the test environment within the next two weeks. The GW 8 deployment will apply back-end fixes for known bugs, improve IMAP stability, allow for ActiveSync (for mobile devices) and improve the performance of Windows, Mac, Web and Linux clients.
05: IT Student Advisory Group gears up for fall
OIT’s Information Technology Student Advisory Group is back for the fall semester, and all students are welcome to join the IT conversation!
Started last spring, the Student Advisory Group is a forum for students of all affiliations to share their thoughts and ideas about the way technology is implemented at NC State. As part of his efforts to review and improve governance at NC State, Dr. Marc Hoit, CIO and Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, created this group and participates in all meetings.
This fall, the group will meet from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 21; Tuesday, Oct. 26 and Thursday, Nov. 18. A meeting location will be announced soon. Topics will include the implementation of Google Apps for students, the campus Portal, mobile technology, plus whatever topic students bring to discuss. Please encourage students to take this opportunity to have their voices heard and help shape the future of IT at NC State. For more information, visit the IT Student Advisory Group Web site or join the group’s listserv. If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Riehle at jen_riehle@ncsu.edu.
06: OIT implements new e-mail archiving and antispam and antivirus services
On Monday, Aug. 9, OIT implemented the Google Postini e-mail archiving and antispam and antivirus services for designated users (employees) of its centrally-supported e-mail systems – Unity/Webmail and WolfWise/GroupWise.
Before accessing the new e-mail archiving and antispam and antivirus services, users will need to sync their Unity password. Information about these new services can be found at the E-mail Archiving and Retention Services Web site and the E-mail Security Web site.
Questions should be directed to the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP (4357) or via e-mail at help@ncsu.edu.
07: OIT changes Google Apps @ NC State account authentication
To alleviate the log-in problems students experienced while trying to access Google Apps @ NC State, OIT has changed the service’s authentication method to the native Google log-in process. The new log-in process will be very familiar to students who have used a personal Gmail or Google account.
Meanwhile, OIT is working to enhance the campus Shibboleth services. The Shibboleth system is being used widely in higher education to enable users to have a single signon for multiple Web-based services.
To authenticate to Google Apps @ NC State via the new log-in process, students must change or synchronize their password at least once after Aug. 9. Students with questions or concerns about this change should contact the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP (4357) or via e-mail at help@ncsu.edu.
OIT recently migrated the majority of student e-mail accounts from Unity/Webmail to Google Apps @ NC State with the exception of a small population of students. Those include permanent employees who were also students or students with WolfWise accounts; late registrants for fall 2010 classes; or those who had their accounts disabled during the summer session. Students can use the SysNews User Lookup Tool to find out if they are eligible for a Google account or if one has already been created for them.
All students who are eligible to move to Google but have not moved yet are expected to be migrated towards the end of August 2010. More information will be communicated to those users as OIT confirms the exact migration dates and times.
As part of the new Google Apps services, students receive more than 7GB of storage space for their NCSU e-mail accounts, all from their university @ncsu.edu e-mail address. In addition to Gmail, students receive Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Talk. Many of these tools are also accessible via various mobile devices.
The university chose to outsource student e-mail services to improve technology services for students and reduce costs. For more information about NC State’s implementation of Google Apps Education Edition, visit the Google Apps @ NC State Web site.
08: SIS team implements new class scheduling option in MyPack Portal
The Student Information System (SIS) Implementation Team recently announced a new feature in the MyPack Portal to save students time during class registration. By selecting a new check box, “show only classes that fit my schedule,” students can now preclude any class being offered during a time for which they already have a class scheduled. Students can navigate to this new time-saving feature by logging in to the MyPack Portal, then choosing “Enrollment” under either Student Self Service or the “For Students” tab. Once in the Enrollment section, students can find this new search feature on any page that includes the “class search criteria box.”
09: SAR training scheduled for Sept. 9
Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Thursday, Sept. 9 in the ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. Please visit Classmate to view available classes and to sign up for training.
10: Share network access to your PC files and printers safely!
Microsoft Windows offers a networking feature called “Windows file and printer sharing” that allows others on your “local network” access to files on your computer and attached printers.
When you enable Windows file and printer sharing, it automatically creates an exception in Windows Firewall on your PC. By default, this exception gives anyone on your local network access to file and printer sharing on your PC. Keep in mind that your local network is also determined by the configuration of other networks to which you are connected, and can be very large. If you incorrectly configure Microsoft Windows Firewall settings, you can open Windows file and printer sharing to individuals beyond your local network.
At NC State, your local network for file and printer sharing is likely to be available to many people at the university, known and unknown to you. So in general, OIT Security and Compliance does not recommend Windows file and printer sharing without additional firewall restrictions that allow access to your computer by known users only. You should contact your department’s local area network (LAN) administrator for assistance.
If you would like to use this function on your home computer, Microsoft recommends that you use a router that has a Network Address Translation (NAT) to limit access to your local network to only those computers in your home. Microsoft also recommends that you disable Windows file and printer sharing when your computer is connected directly to other networks outside the home; that you keep Windows Firewall turned on and correctly configured on your personal PC to guard against viruses and security threats; and that you use strong passwords to prevent unauthorized access to your user accounts, files and printers.
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