Another Phishing Scheme

If you receive an email like the one below, please do not respond with any information. This email is not coming from SHSU. Our Security Officer is working with Gmail's abuse team to have the account disabled that is generating the emails as well as blocking any inbound and outbound mail from that account.

-----Original Message-----
From: ADMIN HELPDESK [mailto:ahelpdesk3@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 7:15 AM
Subject: VERIFY YOUR SHSU.EDU EMAIL ACCOUNT NOW.

Dear SHSU.EDU Email Account Owner,

This message is from SHSU.EDU messaging center to all SHSU.EDU email account owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center. We are deleting all unused SHSU.EDU email accounts to create more space for new accounts.

To prevent your account from being closed, you will have to update it below so that we will know that it's a present used account.

CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW

Email Username :
EMAIL Password :
Date of Birth :
Country or Territory :

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Thank you for using SHSU.EDU
Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ

SHSU.EDU Team

WWW.SHSU.EDU

Accounts will be disabled for anyone who may respond with the information requested.

Winmail.dat attachments

Are you getting winmail.dat attachments in your email?

The quick reason why you are getting those attachments is because the person sending you the attachment is using Microsoft Outlook as their email client. The sender can still use Outlook but will need to make a couple of modifications on their side before sending you an attachment.

First they will need to make sure that their message is formatted in Plain Text or HTML. In a new message window, they will need to click on Options tab and then select Plain Text or HTML from the Format section.

Next they will need to make sure that they enter in your full email address in the To or CC field (ex: username@shsu.edu) instead of just your username and letting it auto-correct from the Global Address List.

Doing these steps should correct the problem you are seeing. As always, please contact the Helpesk if you need assistance in this matter.

For more information check out these Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/138053.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278061

Email Tip

How do you tell if a message is hoax or fraudulent?

• Do a quick web search or check out sites such as Snopes. Snopes lists a lot of emails that are commonly passed around and will list why it is false and sometimes the origin or the small truth that started it all.


• The email asks you to forward it to all of your friends or a certain number of people in a certain amount of time.


• There are a lot of misspellings or punctuation where there should be none (L I K E.This).


• Typos in URLs easily overlooked (like micosoft.com)


• It is from a company or bank that you don't do business with.


• It is asking you to verify bank account numbers or passwords.


• If it sounds too good to be true it most likely is.

These are just a few tips, but if you have even the smallest of question on an email, delete it or contact the Helpdesk for further assistance.

Corrupt Profiles

A little background before we get started...
A profile is what allows you to access the same printers, software, and settings no matter where you log in. That information travels or "roams" with you. What makes that happen is that your profile is stored on a server (FS1 for Faculty/Staff and FS3 for students). When you log in the information is downloaded to the computer you are using and then when you log off the information is then uploaded back to the server.


First of all, what is a corrupt profile?
Some of the tell-tale signs of a corrupt profile are:

1. The left side of your Start menu is empty.
2. When you try to add a printer, you get a message about having insufficient access or your access is denied.
3. A lot of your settings that you have for your programs are no longer there. For example, you may have to set up your email account again or your wallpaper image has changed.
4. You may get a message that not all network drives could be connected.
5. Things just generally look weird or not right.

What causes a corrupt profile?
The short answer is that something happened during the download/upload process that caused the problem. This could be a network "hiccup," a hardware failure on the PC, or even the server is having trouble. This is why we strongly suggest that you reduce your profile size to as small as it can be. The larger the profile, the longer it's going to take you to log in and out and therefore a greater chance of corrupting. The optimal size is for a profile is for it to be less than 75MB.

How do I reduce the size of my profile?
The main thing to do is to not store files on your desktop. Make sure that you are storing the actual files on your S drive or the T drive. You can create shortcuts to those files, but the actual files need to be stored in a place that is more stable. If you need assistance in this process, we encourage you to check out the software guide or contact the Helpdesk at your convenience. We'd be happy to help you.

Cache loader and extra worksheet issue in Excel

Does an extra, blank Excel worksheet appear on top of an existing spreadsheet that you have just opened? Do you get an error message about a cache loader when attempting to open Excel files? Do you get the error message AND an extra, blank worksheet? If so, here's what you need to do.

1. Make sure that you have closed Excel completely.


2. Open Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the Start button and then clicking on Explore.


3. Navigate to the XLSTART folder in your profile. (C:\WINNT\profiles\your_username\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART)


4. Delete any files that happen to be in that folder. (It's OK, you won't lose any information.)


5. Open your Excel file again, it should open without any errors or extra worksheets.