OIT News – June 2011 – Office of Information Technology

OIT News

Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 44, June 2011

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For up-to-the minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State Help Desk

03: NC State participates in World IPv6 Day
04: OIT has student position open for SAS installation support

05: OIT conducts survey on cell phone signal strength on campus

06: OIT Lunch & Learns: “iPhone Photography and Videography” and “Collaborating—There’s an App for That!”
07: SAR training scheduled for July 13
08: Fake antivirus programs are a growing problem on campus

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01: ComTech begins second phase of IP telephony rollout
OIT Communication Technologies (ComTech) has begun phase II of the campus IP telephony project. The project, slated to be completed in summer 2012, will switch NC State’s telephony service from AT&T-supported Centrex to ComTech-supported Cisco Call Manager, resulting in on-going savings for the university.

ComTech has selected six campus buildings to be converted in a pilot phase in July: Holladay Hall, the Avent Ferry Technology Center, Peele Hall, the Hillsborough Building, Bureau of Mines and the West Dunn Building. This pilot will enable ComTech to refine its implementation strategy as well as gain customer feedback.

During phase II, more than 5,000 AT&T digital telephone lines will be converted, and the actual telephone sets currently used by customers will be replaced by Cisco Internet Protocol (IP) telephone sets. Customers will receive a new VoIP phone if they now have a Meridian telephone or if someone who answers their calls has a Meridian telephone. OIT is funding this effort, and customers will not have to pay for the replacement telephone sets. Future project updates will be available on the ComTech IP Telephony website.

02: OIT to rollout new Web Hosting Service July 1
OIT will roll out its new Web Hosting Services (WHS) July 1, 2011. The service will provide campus units with a more cost-effective option to host their Web presence and will increase their flexibility and speed of deploying dynamic, database-driven website applications such as WordPress and Drupal.

Currently, the WHS project team is testing the concept of basic NC State-branded themes with centralized management, which will reduce the resources required to set up, maintain and upgrade websites. If the concept proves useful, themes will be introduced in phase II of the project. OIT will continue to offer AFS-based Web services support to those units and activities that require it. For more information, visit the Welcome to Web Hosting Services website.

03: NC State participates in World IPv6 Day
NC State University participated June 8 in “World IPv6 Day,” an event sponsored to help organizations prepare for the transition to the new Internet Protocol, IPv6. Current Internet Protocol (IPv4) addresses are projected to run out at the end of this year.

Organized by the Internet Society, World IPv6 Day was a 24-hour test during which service providers, content providers and other organizations enabled IPv6 on their main websites. Using the new IPv6 protocol, NC State received 26,908 hits on its homepage and completed the test with no reported problems.

OIT Communication Technologies is currently testing IPv6 in a controlled lab environment and is developing plans for its future campus-wide deployment.
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04: OIT has student position open for SAS installation support
OIT Software Licensing Management, which administers NC State’s $2 million SAS Grant, seeks a part-time student worker to provide SAS and JMP installation and documentation support. If you know of a student who would be interested in this position, please direct him or her to the Office of Information Technology Jobs website for more information and to apply.
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05: OIT conducts survey on cell phone signal strength on campus
To determine the current state of cell phone coverage across campus, OIT Communication Technologies recorded signal strength readings for a six-week period this spring. Approximately 53,165 readings were taken at 10,633 locations in 210 campus buildings, using phones provided from AT&T, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. To review survey data results, visit the Cell Phone/Mobile Device Service Web page.
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06: OIT Lunch & Learns: “iPhone Photography and Videography” and “Collaborating—There’s an App for That!”

OIT’s Brown Bag Lunch and Learn series will present the following upcoming workshops:

“iPhone Photography and Videography” will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, June 28 in 216 Scott Hall. The iPhone 4 features a much improved camera that rivals and perhaps surpasses the quality of entry-level digital cameras. Hal Meeks of OIT New Media Consulting will provide a brief overview of alternative photo and video applications that allow you to squeeze even more functionality out of your iPhone’s camera. You will learn how to take better photos, how to take a variety of pictures beyond the iPhone default application and how to emulate traditional film cameras. Take your iPhone 4 camera from a decent point-and-shoot camera to a truly useful device for artistic expression. To register for this workshop, visit Classmate.
“Collaborating—There’s an App for That!” will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday, July 28 in 216 Scott Hall. There are a number of apps available for the iPad and iPad 2 to facilitate collaboration — sharing files from your computer with mobile devices, designing with others in real-time on an advanced virtual whiteboard, or simultaneously connecting to create, draw, share pictures, play games, or just have fun.Jason Maners of Information Technology and Engineering Computer Services (ITECS) and Nathan Stevens of the College of Education Media Center will lead a discussion on useful applications, such as iFiles, Groupboard Designer and Share Board. If you have an idea, but don’t know “an app for that” idea, you can discuss it in this class! You may also bring along apps to share. To register for this workshop, visit Classmate.
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07: SAR training scheduled for July 13
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 Wednesday, July 13 in ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. Please visit Classmate to view available classes and to sign up for training.
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08: Fake antivirus programs are a growing problem on campus
With their realistic appearance and scan animations, the latest antivirus Trojans (or viruses) are more difficult to distinguish from the real antivirus software. And hackers are now using them to distribute viruses via pop-up advertisements and portable document format (PDF) email attachments.

According to OIT Security and Compliance, the number of new antivirus Trojans on campus has increased to 30 per month. Within the past three years, 561 variants of antivirus Trojans have been detected on campus computers. Security and Compliance warns campus computer users that most pop-up ads concerning virus infections are fake. Some of these Trojans also have names that seem real. For example, AVG-Antivirus, AntiVira and Internet Security Essentials target the Windows platform, and MacDender, Mac Protector and MacGuard target the Mac OS X platform.

If you have encountered an antivirus Trojan, please contact Security and Compliance at abuse@ncsu.edu or call the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP (4357).
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For help with computing at NC State, visit the NC State Help Desk website, phone 515-HELP (4357), or visit Room 101, West Dunn Building.

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