2005 OIT News Archive

December

Help Desk Hours during Holiday Season

The help desk has changed its hours for the winter break beginning December 19th:
December 19-22: open from 8:15 - 5:00pm.
December 23-27: closed due to WVU Holiday.
December 28-30: open from 8:15 - 5:00pm.
December 31, January 1-2: closed due to WVU Holiday.
January 3-6: open 8:15 - 5:00pm.
Saturday January 7th: resume normal hours.

OIT Workshops: Spring Schedule Announced for January - April 2006 (Dec. 14, 2005)

The Office of Information Technology workshop schedule is now available online at http://oit.wvu.edu/support/training/schedule.html. New workshops include Intermediate Dreamweaver, Web Graphics with Photoshop, Acrobat Form Creation, Revising Word Documents, Word Mail Merge, Access Database Utilities, and WebCT Vista Learning Activities. The hands-on sessions are free to WVU faculty, staff, and students, but pre-registration is required. For more information, send e-mail to workshop@mail.wvu.edu.

November

Federal Credit Union Phishing Scam

Another fraudulent email phishing scam has arrived on campus. The email appears to be from federal credit unions with addresses such as service@cuna.org, acc-activate@ncua.gov, and acc-validity@ncua.gov asking for a confirmation of identity to restore access to an online account. Never respond to requests for personal information sent via an email message. The Office of Information Technology is adjusting the spam scanning system to prevent these messages from arriving in your mailbox. Tips on how to reduce the amount of spam that you receive can be found at http://oit.wvu.edu/support/tss/groupwise/spam.html For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at oithelp@mail.wvu.edu or call 293-4444 x1.

Vista Web Address Change

For increased security and to allow secure access to Vista from locations off campus, it is now necessary to access Vista using: http://vista.wvu.edu. If you have previously bookmarked another web address, such as http://vista.wvu.edu:8080, it will no longer work. Please remove any previous bookmarks from your computer. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at oithelp@mail.wvu.edu or call 293-4444 ext. 1.

New Hot Spots Added to Campus Wireless Network

The Office of Information Technology has added two new areas to the "secure.wvu" wireless network: Clark Hall and the outdoor benches at Woodburn Circle, across from the Mountainlair. For a complete list of hotspots as well as instructions for accessing the University wireless network, please visit http://wireless.wvu.edu. Access is free for all faculty, staff, and students. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at oithelp@mail.wvu.edu or call 293-4444 ext. 1.

Academic Affairs Information Security Calendar Receives National Award

There may not be any pinups, but the 2005 West Virginia University academic affairs information security calendar turned enough heads to bring home a prestigious prize. The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services selected the calendar as this year’s overall winner in the “General Service Promotional Materials” category during its communication awards program. For more, visit: http://intranet.wvu.edu.

October

Network Maintenance Planned Next Week (Oct. 8, 2005)

WVU Network Operations will perform necessary maintenance on the Downtown Campus Wednesday, Oct. 12, between 6-8 p.m. As part of this maintenance, it will be necessary to restart the equipment causing brief outages to the Downtown Campus. Each outage should last less than 5 -10 minutes. All data services on the Downtown Campus will be affected. IP telephone service should not be interrupted. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1.

Telephone Service Interrupted on Evansdale Campus (Oct. 13, 2005)

A buried telephone cable at a construction site near the Agricultural Sciences Building has been inadvertently cut, and telephone service to the National Research Center for Coal and Energy and the Evansdale Library has been temporarily affected. The staff at the Office of Information Technology Telecommunications are on site and Verizon repair technicians are enroute. Telephone service will be restored as soon as possible. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at oithelp@wvu.edu or call 293-4444 ext. 1

September

Fraudulent Email Attempts to Collect Personal Information (Sept. 28, 2005)

A fake e-mail, claiming to originate from “service@amazon.com,” is circulating around campus. The subject line of the email reads “Revision to Your Amazon.com Information.” The email states, “At the last reviewing at your amazon account we discovered that your information is inaccurate” and directs the reader to “Please login and reenter your personal information.” The link in the e-mail is a bogus Web site used to gather financial information from the unsuspecting recipient. If you receive this e-mail, or any similar illegitimate attempts to gather personal information, do not follow the instructions. Delete the email. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1.

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August

Faculty Need to Check Vista to Confirm WebCT Courses (Aug. 8, 2005)

WebCT Vista support is preparing Vista courses for the fall semester. Faculty members who have requested to teach a course in Vista should log into Vista at http://vista.wvu.edu, using their MIX ID and password to verify that their courses appear on their Vista MyWebCT page and that they have the necessary fall content in their courses. If any of the courses do not appear, faculty should ask their SLI coordinator to mark the course in STAR as a Vista course. Visit the Vista site at http://vistainfo.wvu.edu for more information. Those who have any questions or problems logging into Vista should contact the helpdesk at oithelp@mail.wvu.edu or 293-4444 ext. 1.

Telecommunications Rates Reduced $350,000 (Aug. 18, 2005)

The WVU Office of Information Technology recently negotiated a special purchase agreement with Dell Corp. for departmental purchases of the new Optiplex GX620 desktop computer. Through this agreement, WVU departments saved $223,215.76 on purchasing 687 computers. Dell has extended this bulk pricing to WVU departments for orders placed through July 15. For more information, see http://oit.wvu.edu/oit/ .

Various Network Systems To Be Down This Weekend (Aug. 23, 2005)

This weekend, certain power elements in support of the West Virginia State Capitol Complex will be upgraded, necessitating a power outage. This outage affects the entire state computer network. During that time, to minimize the number of local interruptions, a software upgrade on some WVU production systems and work on the new uninterruptible power system at the WVU Secondary Data Center will be completed. The MAP production system will be unavailable from 10 p.m. Saturday until 4 p.m. Sunday. Vista production will be unavailable from 11 p.m. Friday until 4 p.m. Sunday for a major software upgrade. Internet service will be unavailable from 4-10 a.m. Sunday. For more information, contact the helpdesk at oithelp@mail.wvu.edu or 293-4444 ext. 1.

WebCT Vista Experiencing Technical Difficulties (Aug. 30, 2005)

WebCT Vista is currently experiencing some intermittent performance degradation, which may result in such problems as web pages loading slowly (or not at all), and difficulty in completing timed quizzes. The WVU Vista Support Team is actively working with the vendors to correct this situation as soon as possible, and will also be making configuration changes between 2- 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning to improve the situation. We appreciate your patience. Please monitor http://vistainfo.wvu.edu for further updates

WebCT Vista to Undergo More Maintenance Thursday (Aug. 31, 2005)

WebCT Vista will be unavailable from 5:30-6:30 a.m. Thursday (Sept. 1) so the WVU Vista Support Team can perform some additional maintenance to address some performance issues with the system. Customer patience is appreciated. More on the WVU Intranet: http://intranet.wvu.edu .

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July

Internet Outage Planned July 31 (July 29, 2005)

In addition to the MAP and Vista production systems outage this weekend, Internet service will be unavailable for a shorter period - from 4 a.m.until 10 a.m. - Sunday, July 31. A new uninterruptible power system is being installed at the WVU Secondary Data Center. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at oithelp@wvu.edu or call 293-4444 ext. 1.

Downtown Campus Network Maintenance will be August 2 (July 29, 2005)

WVU Network Operations will be performing required maintenance on the Downtown Campus to upgrade network equipment Tuesday, Aug. 2, from 6-7:30 p.m. During the upgrade, it will be necessary to shut down the equipment, causing a short loss of service to Downtown Campus buildings. The outage will last 5-10 minutes per building. However, additional time may be needed if complications arise. The following services are affected: All data services on the Downtown Campus. IP telephone service should not be interrupted. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at oithelp@wvu.edu or call 293-4444 ext. 1.

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June

SEI Deadline is August 15 for Faculty (June 8, 2005)

The Student Evaluation of Instruction web site is now open for Summer I and II orders. The deadline for completing the SEI process is Monday, Aug. 15. If you have questions about the deadlines or process, please visit the SEI web site located at http://labs.wvu.edu/sei or order your forms at http://labs.wvu.edu/sei/order/evalnet.cfm Any questions, contact Brad Forbes at SEI@mail.wvu.edu .

OIT Saves WVU Departments $223,215.76 Through Bulk Purchase Agreement (June 17, 2005)

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May

OIT Announces Summer Workshop Schedule (May 3, 2005)

The Office of Information Technology workshop schedule is available online at http://oit.wvu.edu/support/training/schedule.html The schedule includes a variety of topics on Web page development, Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat and WebCT Vista. New topics include "Online Forms", "SPSS Intro" and "Word Styles". The hands-on sessions are free to WVU faculty, staff and students but pre-registration is required. For more information, send an e-mail to workshop@mail.wvu.edu.

Short Delay in Email Delivery This Weekend (May 20, 2005)

The WVU Data Center will perform a critical upgrade to the virus scanning and spam filter-managing software on the email gateway Saturday, May 21. The upgrade, scheduled between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m., will delay incoming and outgoing email to recipients outside the WVU GroupWise and MIX systems for the four-hour installation period. No incoming or outgoing email will be lost. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1

Fraudulent Email From WVU Credit Union (May 24, 2005)

A fake email, claiming to originate from the WVU Credit Union, is circulating around campus. The subject line of the email reads “Account Update - West Virginia University Employees Federal Credit Union.” The email directs the reader to a bogus website in an apparent attempt to gather personal financial information for identity theft. If you receive this email and you are a WVU Credit Union member, do not follow the instructions. Delete the email. If you are not a WVU Credit Union member, delete the email. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1.

OIT, Dell Reach Deal for Computer Buys With End-of-Year Funds (May 27, 2005)

The WVU Office of Information Technology has negotiated a special funding arrangement with Dell Corp. for campus-wide purchases of the new Optiplex GX620 desktop computer. OIT will accommodate purchasing this system for those departments forced to spend fiscal year 2005 reverting funds by today. The computer system will be available in four configurations. Details are available at: http://oit.wvu.edu/oit/ For more information on this special program, contact Cara Pietrowski, director of OIT Support Services, at cara.pietrowski@wvu.edu or 293-4444 ext. 2304.

Data Center Outage Scheduled for June 19 (May 27, 2005)

WVU Facilities Management will conduct mandatory fire suppression testing at the WVU Primary Data Center from 6 a.m.-6 p.m. June 19. The following applications and services will not be available during the test period: Access-A-File, AdvisorTrac, Axium, Birth Score Database, Citrix, CUFS, CyberSports, Endeavor/Voyager, eTD, Fitinfotech,Fix & Release, GroupWise, HSC Alumni Database, IDEAS, Intranet Web Servers, Kronos,Magic, MAP Test, Meeting Room Manager, MIX, Novell Administrative Network, Paciolan, Pyramed, QuickTime, ROADS Test, STAR Production, STAR Test, TicketReturn, TSM, Vista Development, Voice Mail for VOIP, WWW Web Servers and Wimba. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at oithelp@wvu.edu or call 293-4444 ext. 1.

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April

Tech Symposium Features Exhibits, Presentations, Giveaways (April 7, 2005)

Whether you're searching for high-tech tools for the classroom or looking for surefire ways to keep hackers away, faculty and staff will want to attend the WVU Computing and Technology Symposium April 12-13 in the Mountainlair. Hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday. Admission is free. In its 14th year, the premier technology event, sponsored by WVU's Office of Information Technology, showcases a variety of instructional, networking and computing technologies. Participants are invited to browse vendor booths in the Mountainlair Ballrooms and enter drawings for a computer, wireless network cards, laser printers, gift certificates and other prizes. More on the Net: http://labs.wvu.edu/cts/ .

Place Orders Before June 1 for Fall Telecommunications Services (April 28, 2005)

OIT Telecommunications typically receives a large number of voice service and equipment requests during July and August for the Fall 2005 semester. However, it can be difficult to schedule vendors so that all services are implemented in the period designated by the departments. To meet deadlines for the Fall semester, all requests for additions, deletions, and changes to voice services must be received no later than Wednesday, June 1. Services include installation of lines, phones, circuits, voice/data outlets and activation of voice mail. Any requests received after this date cannot be guaranteed to be in place by the first day of classes. Students who live off campus should schedule any new telephone services prior to their arrival in August. To place orders, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1. For information, e-mail questions to Joe.Shepherd@mail.wvu.edu.

Information Regarding Faculty use of Vista During Summer, Fall Semesters (April 28, 2005)

For faculty to use WebCT Vista for the Summer and Fall 2005 terms, course sections must first be marked in STAR. See the following pages for a list of VISTA course sections currently identified in STAR for Summer 2005: http://vistainfo.wvu.edu/summer_I_vista_courses.pdf and http://vistainfo.wvu.edu/summer_II_vista_courses.pdf. If your course is not on the list, a request must be submitted by your departmental SLI coordinator for each course section using Vista (http://vistainfo.wvu.edu/vistaprod_info.htm). If course content from a previous term is used, a request must be submitted to the Vista Support group (http://vistainfo.wvu.edu/resources/faculty_courserequest.html). For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1, or send e-mail to webct@mail.wvu.edu.

Reminder for Faculty: SEI Deadline is Friday (April 28, 2005)

The deadline for completing the Student Evaluation of Instruction process is Friday, April 29. Faculty Senate policy states that the evaluation should be completed prior to finals week and forms are due at Academic Information Services no later than 6 p.m. that day. Faculty can continue to order forms until that time, but they must be picked up in the AIS Computer Lab located in the ground floor of the Evansdale Library. Faculty picking up forms should have their course registration number so the staff can assist them. Those with questions about the deadlines or process should visit the SEI Web site located at http://labs.wvu.edu/sei or order forms at http://labs.wvu.edu/sei/order/evalnet.cfm. Contact Brad Forbes, assistant director, at SEI@mail.wvu.edu for more information.

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March

Network Alert for Main and Regional Campuses (March 9, 2005)

OIT Network Services will upgrade Internet routers on Thursday, March 10. Router maintenance is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and should be completed no later than 7 p.m. As part of this upgrade process, the equipment must be reset, resulting in a loss of service to the campus and outside networks for approximately five minutes. Services affected by this maintenance include: Internet, Internet 2, WVNET access, LexisNexis access, Community college connections, Regional Campuses. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1.

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February

Emergency Network Repair to Take Place Tonight (Feb. 9, 2005)

OIT Network Services needs to replace failed hardware in one of the backbone routers on the downtown campus. This maintenance will be performed tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 9) between 6 and 7:30 p.m. During this replacement, it is necessary to shut down the equipment, resulting in a short loss of service to downtown campus buildings. OIT expects the outage to last 5-10 minutes; however, additional time may be needed if other complications arise. Service to the data center should not be affected by this outage. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1.

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January

Fraudulent Email Attempts to Collect Personal Information (January 18, 2005)

A fraudulent email, claiming to originate from Huntington Bank, is circulating around campus. The email from security.notice@huntington.com claims that access to the recipient’s account has been blocked because the account “may have been compromised by outside parties.” The scam directs the intended victim to a phony Huntington Bank website in an attempt to collect private financial information for identity theft. If you receive this email and you are not a Huntington Bank customer delete it. If you are a Huntington Bank customer, you can report the scam by sending an email to identitytheft@huntington.com or call 1-877-932-2265. For more information on how to avoid Internet fraud and see examples of recent scams directed against Huntington Bank, point your browser to https://onlinebanking.huntington.com/ or contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1.

GroupWise Maintenance Tonight (January 19, 2005)

WVU OIT Network Services performs GroupWise system maintenance every Wednesday from 7 p.m. to midnight. In addition to normal maintenance this week, OIT Network Services will upgrade a hardware switch. WVU’s GroupWise configuration is designed to be redundant and this upgrade should not affect email. In the unlikely event that there is an interruption, Network Services will restore service as soon as possible. For more information, contact the WVU OIT Helpdesk at 293-4444 ext. 1.

Faculty: Student Evaluation of Instruction Web Site Open, Deadline Set (January 20, 2005)

The SEI Web site for the Spring 2005 semester is ready to accept orders from faculty. Forms can be ordered any time before the deadline, but it's suggested that faculty order them as early as possible to avoid any delay in delivery. The deadlines for the spring semester are: Deadline for ordering forms - Friday, April 29; Deadline for mailing orders - Monday, April 25 (orders placed on or after this date must be picked up by the instructor.); and Deadline for returning completed packets - Friday April 29. Plan ahead to complete your evaluation and submit the packets. Packets returned after the deadline will not be processed. Send your questions or comments about the SEI system to Brad Forbes, Assistant Director Academic Information Services, via e-mail at sei@mail.wvu.edu .

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Updated July 3, 2008

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