Sandy Warvi Retires
Sandy
Warvi, longtime IT employee and IT’s Business Manager, Executive
retired April 30, 2004. Sandy was a tremendous asset to IT and
UW. Her extensive contributions and her focus on customer
service significantly improved IT’s operations. She will be
dearly missed. The IT staff wishes her the best and the fondest
farewell.
IT Plans Upgrade of Exchange Email
In recent years, usage of the MS Exchange servers at the university has grown significantly. Both the number of users and the number and size of the messages has increased exponentially. As email has become an integral part of most faculty and staff work and as the size and volume of email grows, many users have found that the disk allocation for email is no longer adequate. In addition, the workload of the Exchange servers has grown to the point where problems with response time are regularly observed. In order to address these problems, IT plans to install more powerful Exchange servers with increased disk space. It is expected that the 30MB base disk space for Exchange users will be roughly tripled once the upgrades are completed.
For specific steps you can take right now to improve the performance of Outlook, visit the
How To section (www.uwyo.edu/askIT/default.asp?parentid=1) of
the Ask IT Web site and browse the
Outlook-specific titles under “Email” and “Software/Microsoft
Outlook," including
How to Setup Microsoft Outlook to Increase Performance (www.uwyo.edu/askIT/displaydoc.asp?askitdocid=157&parentid=1).
Phishing, another E-mail Scam
What is Phishing? WebopediaTM (www.webopedia.com) offers the following definition:
Pronounced “fishing” [it is] the act of sending an e-mail to a
user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise
in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private
information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail
directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to
update personal information, such as passwords and credit card,
social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate
organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and
set up only to steal the user’s information.
Variants of the spam-borne phishing scam, also referred to as
“carding” or “brand spoofing,” are on the rise despite increased
public awareness. In past months, fraudulent e-mails appearing
to be from eBay, PayPal, AOL, MSN, Citibank, and other highly
recognized and legitimate online organizations have shown up in
inboxes world-wide, warning that a person’s account may be
disabled unless he or she provides or updates his or her account
information. Many individuals continue to be scammed by these
e-mails. They do look very authentic, often including a
recognizable format and corporate logo from the actual
organization.
As phishing e-mails increase and as their perpetrators use
ever-more deceptive methods, it is necessary for individuals to
determine whether an e-mail or Web site is legitimate. Following
are a few tips to help you avoid being “taken in” by an e-mail
scam:
- Even before e-mail phishing became so popular and wide-spread,
legitimate online businesses and institutions rarely would ask
you to send personal information via e-mail. If you get an
e-mail asking for this information or warning you that your
account is going to be disabled unless you respond with your
personal information, do not reply or click on any links within
the e-mail. Contact the real company directly by phone or using
an e-mail address you know to be legitimate to enquire about the
notice.
- Look for misspellings and language errors in the e-mail.
Though a single error may be an honest mistake, more than one
should alert you to a possible scam.
-
When it is necessary to provide personal information through a
Web site, verify that the site is secure – look for the “lock”
icon in your browser’s lower status bar. If there is no lock
icon, or if the icon is shown as unlocked, do not submit your
information.
- Report suspicious activity to the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC). You can send the actual spam e-mail to
uce@ftc.gov.
Additionally, if you believe you have been scammed, go to
www.ftc.gov to file your complaint, then visit the FTC’s
Identify Theft Web site at www.ftc.gov/idtheft for information
on how to minimize your risk from identity theft.
The following Web sites provide information and tips on
protecting yourself from phishing and other e-mail scams:
Video Conferencing
Through a U.S. Department of Education grant, the
University of Wyoming has recently acquired infrastructure
to support H.323 (Internet) multipoint video conferencing.
This system will be used for a number of research, academic,
and administrative purposes that require, or benefit from,
live video conferencing among remote locations. It is
expected that the new H.323 system will eventually replace
the current H.320 (or “compressed video”) system.
The new system was recently installed at UW;
implementation and testing will proceed throughout the
summer. Creating connections with the older H.320 systems is
somewhat difficult and requires the use of expensive leased,
dedicated or slow dial-up telephone lines. Creating
connections with the new H.323 systems is easier. H.323 uses
simple Internet connections. The connections are made using
Internet addresses in a similar fashion to connecting to a
Web page.
In the future, it will be possible to connect to a video
end-point just as if you were dialing another telephone
extension. In fact, video end-points will function just as if
they were normal telephones, except that they will have video
capabilities. If someone calls an H.323 end-point from a normal
telephone, a voice connection will be established between the
telephone and the video end-point. If one video end-point calls
another, both a video and voice connection will be established.
Additional video end-points can be connected in a “conference
call” in the same way voice conference calls are made today.
Watch for more announcements on UW’s new H.323 capabilities and
demonstrations. For more information, please contact Robert
Morrison, IT Director, 766-4880,
morrison@uwyo.edu.
Email Viruses
The university receives a substantial amount of email that
contains virus attachments. Virus attachments are removed by the
central email gateway, and “[VIRUS REMOVED]” is appended
to the message subject. Information Technology has considered
simply discarding email messages that arrive with attached
viruses; however occasionally such emails come from legitimate
senders. Currently, there is no method to verify the validity of
a sender’s email address. Because there is no consensus about
whether to deliver or discard email with viruses, all such
emails are delivered, after removing the virus, letting the user
decide what to do with the email. Often such messages are also
tagged as “SPAM” depending on the content of the message.
Users may want to consider using filters in Outlook to
automatically move SPAM and messages with removed viruses to a
“holding” folder for later review or have Outlook move the
messages directly to the Deleted Items folder. See How to
Create a Rule in Microsoft Outlook to Manage SPAM E-mail (www.uwyo.edu/AskIT/displaydoc.asp?askitdocid=155&parentid=1) for
instructions, or call the IT Help Desk at 6-4357 (6-HELP) for
assistance.
Have you ever received a returned message you never sent in
the first place? Many people receive email from remote mail
systems that indicate messages are being returned for various
reasons. Most of this email was never sent by those who received
the “returned” message. People get these returned messages
because their email addresses were used (that is, forged) as
“sending” addresses when the messages were originally created,
usually by a virus residing on someone else’s computer. This is
a common problem and requires no action by the recipient of the
returned email other than to delete the email. Unfortunately,
email standards currently provide no method of verifying that a
sender’s email address is legitimate; so the central email
gateway cannot identify such illegitimate emails.
In the future, you may also receive email with the subject “[WARNING:
ATTACHMENT NOT SCANNED FOR VIRUSES].” This subject will be
added to email received with attachments that for various
reasons can’t be scanned. Often, unscanned attachments are
untrustworthy. Users should carefully consider whether to open
them. It is becoming quite common for a virus to be attached as
an encrypted Zip file that can’t be scanned. Unless the user
knows the sender and expects to receive such a file, it’s likely
the attachment is dangerous and the message should be deleted.
PeopleSoft Projects Update
Due to the hard work and long hours of many people across
campus, both PeopleSoft applications, HRMS and Financials, have
been successfully upgraded. HRMS version 8.3 was put into
production in October 2003. Financials, or PISTOL, version 8.4,
was put into production at the end of April 2004. HRMS and
PISTOL are now Web-based applications available from anywhere
(although a VPN connection is required if the user is
off-campus). Both the HRMS and PISTOL teams continue to work
with customers to perform post-production support and to work on
enhancements to the systems.
The PISTOL conversion process required a two-week downtime
and moved all past data to the new system. Many people wondered
why PISTOL was not available for the two weeks during the
conversion period. There were a number of reasons for this:
- IT had to pick a particular point in time to start the
upgrade. During the upgrade, we could not allow data entry
into the system as the newly entered data would not have
been converted, and June information would have been lost.
- The conversion process required data review and cleanup,
which could not be done easily while people were entering data
or running processes.
- It took a long time to run over seven years of financial
data through the conversion processes.
- Due to a number of critical system patches and fixes, we had
to do a triple upgrade (7.02 to 8.4, then to 8.4 Service Pack 1,
and finally to 8.4 Service Pack 1 Fix Pack 2). This required
much more time than just a single upgrade.
- The conversion required significant data checks to ensure
successful and accurate conversion. Queries were run against
both the old and new systems, totals were checked, and
individual transactions were spot-checked.
Unfortunately, as can be expected with most major system
upgrades and replacements of this scale, there have been some
performance and reliability issues, primarily in PISTOL, since
the new software was made available to campus. Those issues are
being aggressively tackled by the implementation team in
conjunction with consultants from PeopleSoft and, at the time
this article was written, significant progress has been made
towards their resolution.
The PeopleSoft at
UW (www.uwyo.edu/peoplesoft) Web site has information on both applications. If you
require additional information, please contact Chad Marley, IT
project manager, at 766-4874 or
cmarley@uwyo.edu.
NOTE: A special “thank you” is extended to all those across
campus who put so much time and effort into the upgrade process.
Your work is greatly appreciated.
IT Announces Support for FrontPage 2003
If you plan to upgrade to FrontPage 2003, please be aware
that you must also upgrade all of your Microsoft Office products
to the 2003 version. If any of your Office applications are not
upgraded to 2003, you may encounter security setting errors when
trying to use an Access database within your FrontPage 2003
site. If you have any questions, visit the
WebNews site (www.uwyo.edu/WebNews)
for more information.
IT’s FrontPage-extended Web servers currently support Front-Page
2000 Server Extensions and will be upgraded to the 2002 version
this summer. Server extensions automate Web development tasks,
such as site indexes, site searches, interactive Web forms, and
database integration. SharePoint Services are a new and expanded
set of tools that replace FrontPage Server Extensions and
operate not only with FrontPage 2003 but also with the Office
2003 suite of products. SharePoint Services require special
permissions and administration. As a result, they will not be
supported initially; however, IT will be evaluating their
feasibility in the fall.
Wireless Access Points
Because of security and management issues, all wireless
access points installed on the UW data network are required to
be registered and approved for use by Information Technology.
Numerous problems arise when unplanned and/or improperly
configured wireless access points are connected to the
university network.
One of the main concerns with unregistered access points is
security. To a large extent the security of access points
depends on the configuration of the hard-wired network jack to
which those points connect. Therefore, it is important that all
wireless access points connect to the network through a data
port specifically configured to accommodate them.
Improperly configured access points disrupt network access to
wireless network users within the signal range of the mis-configured
unit. In some cases this problem has even disrupted network
service to wired users. Also, wireless access points must be
configured to use frequency spectrums that do not conflict with
other wireless units in the same general area. Without central
management and registration of wireless access points, the UW
wireless network will not function properly. Consequently, all
unregistered (“rogue”) wireless access points will be
disconnected from the network.
To register new wireless access points, go to the
New Wireless Access Point Registration Form (www.uwyo.edu/infotech/services/network/wireless/waprequest.asp) on the UW
Wireless Web site.
IT Considers Results of Home Computing Survey
Information Technology distributed the “UW Home Computing
Survey” in January of this year. Some of the results indicate
our customers may not be aware of all the services available to
them. Please visit the
Personal Services Available to Home Users Web page (www.uwyo.edu/infotech/services/support/homeservices.asp)
for an overview of IT’s home computing services and more
detailed information about the following topics:
IT provides low-cost or no-cost software solutions for a few
general “productivity” software titles that can be used at home.
For example, users can take advantage of the Work-At-Home
program to acquire Microsoft Office or the Windows operating
system. Additionally, IT provides free email services as well as
free antivirus software to faculty and staff to protect their
home computers.
Users may also connect to the university via our dialup modem
pool (a free service), low-cost UW DSL, or other, third party,
Internet service providers. A VPN session (see
www.uwyo.edu/infotech/services/network/vpn/) may be required to access
specific university computing resources.
UW students, faculty, and staff are eligible to receive
special discounts on the purchase of Dell computer hardware. UW
recently became part of Dell’s Educational Purchase Program so
that we could extend benefits of this partnership to the UW
community.
For assistance with any of the above personal services,
please contact the IT Help Desk at 766-4357 (6-HELP), option 1;
email Userhelp@uwyo.edu,
or contact your assigned IT user consultant.
Information Technology will be reviewing the possibility of
expanding home services and access options. We sincerely
appreciate all those who took the time to give IT their
feedback.
IT Offices Move to Ivinson Building
During the week of March 29, the Office of the Vice President
& CIO for Information Technology, along with the Business
Services Dept., moved from Old Main to the second floor of the
Ivinson Building. IT is now assembled mostly in the same
building. New locations include:
| Robert Aylward, VP & CIO for Information
Technology: |
202 Ivinson |
| Telecom Help Desk: |
206 Ivinson |
| IT Billing Office for Departments, Affiliates,
Students and Employees: |
207 Ivinson |
| |
|
eNews Extra:
IT Adds Dell to Computer Sales and Repair Services
Information Technology PC Sales and PC Maintenance currently provide sales and warranty service for HP Compaq computers. We are pleased to announce that we have added Dell desktops, laptops, and servers to the list of computers that can be purchased and repaired on campus.
Computer sales information, baseline or standard configuration information, and current pricing may be reviewed
on the IT
Computer Specials Web page (www.uwyo.edu/InfoTech/services/support/compspec.asp).
Discounted prices have been secured for standard computer lab, office, and laptop equipment. Options are available to meet the
various needs of users.
For computer hardware repair of Dell and HP Compaq systems
please submit a
hardware service request by going to the
Ask IT Web site (www.uwyo.edu/AskIT) and clicking on the
Service Request Form link at left; or contact our Help Desk at 766-4357 (766-HELP), option 1. Please have the make, model, serial number, and property number available. If the
hardware is still under warranty, please inform the Help Desk consultant or indicate that
in the IDR Number field on the Web form. PC Maintenance will pick up the computer, run diagnostics, order necessary parts and repair or return the unit for replacement under warranty if required. Once the item is repaired it will be
delivered back to your office.
If you have questions regarding model standards, pricing, or placing orders for Dell and HP Compaq computers, please contact Kirk Brown by phone at 766-2875 or via email at
kcbrown@uwyo.edu.
UW has been working to decide on a replacement for its aging
Student Information System, or SIS. Previous newsletter articles
have chronicled this effort and are available at