System Downtime

A number of the SHSU administrative computing systems (including SamMenu, Nell, SamWeb) will be unavailable this evening, October 16th starting at 6 pm as we continue upgrading the servers.

Password Expiration Time Decreasing

If you read our IR Update that is sent out to all Faculty and Staff at the beginning of each month, you will have noticed in the August 2009 edition that we will be changing the length of time for password expiration from 1 year to 180 days (6 months). Here is an excerpt from the IR Update:

PINs and Passwords

Passwords: The campus expiration for passwords has been 365 days for Windows and Macintoshes. On Nell, the expiration has been only 90 days. Auditors have alerted us that since so many administrative duties are now accessible within SamMenu and SamWeb, the Windows password expiration has to be shortened.

We know that every three months just feels too frequent, so we negotiated a compromise of 180 days.

• You can reset your password when logged in on a campus PC. Press CTRL-ALT-DEL and then Change Password.
• You can reset your password from SamWeb. Select Computer Services, then Account Password Change.
• You can reset your password in Outlook Web Access. Click Options, then Change Password.

Starting on September 1st, we are going to begin slowly working our way through accounts to implement the new password expiration policy. This will be a phased approach, so we will decrease the time by one week every week. 9/1 the expiration time will be set to 358 days. 9/8 the expiration time will be set to 351 days. 9/15 the expiration time will be set to 344 days, and so on until we reach 180 days.

Email reminders will continue to be sent during this time so that you should not be caught without notice that you need to reset your password.

Residence Hall Network

Residence halls open for occupancy starting Thursday, August 20th. One of the first things you will need to do after moving in is register your computer onto the SHSU network. Each dorm has at least one port per student. All residents in Bearkat Village, Sam Houston Village, and Raven Village, will plug into the back of the phone that is provided. Follow this guide to make sure you are plugged into the correct port in the phone: BKV, Raven Village SHV Ethernet Setup. These three dorms also have a port located in the living room. All other dorm residents will use the red Ethernet ports located in the walls of their dorm. You will need to make sure your computer already has a built in Ethernet card, or you will need to purchase one. Also, you will need to provide an Ethernet cable.

Once you have set up your computer and plugged it into the proper port, open a web browser and follow the instructions below.

1. Read and agree to the SHSU Computer Resource Acceptable Use Policy.
2. Type in your SHSU username and password
3. Click SUBMIT. Once your computer has been successfully registered you will be redirected to a Microsoft webpage.
4. If you are not directed to the SHSU Netreg page when you first launch your browser, follow the link listed below. This link will take you to various tutorials that will help you get connected to the network. You can also stop by the Helpdesk or any of the computer labs to pick up printed copies of these tutorials.

Residence Hall Setup Guides

If you are still unable to connect after following the tutorials, please call the Helpdesk at 936-294-1950.

Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS)

UPDATE: In order to run DARSweb, you must now use Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer 8.

If you're on campus and using a university-owned computer, your current option is to use Mozilla Firefox.

You can access Firefox by following these instructions:
For Windows users:
1. Start > All Programs > SHSU Programs > Browser(s)> Mozilla Firefox > Mozilla Firefox

For Mac users:
1. Macintosh HD > Applications > Firefox

Off campus users can download Firefox or IE 8 from their respective sites.

If you'd like to found out more about DARS, visit the DARS website.

Gearing up for Fall 2009

We are only 3 weeks away from the new Fall semester. Now’s the perfect time to make sure you have everything up to date and ready for the new year. Below are a few reminders and tips that will make the transition into the new academic year go as smoothly as possible.

S Drive Quota
First, we would like to remind everyone of the S drive quotas. The quota set for Faculty/Staff is 1 GB while the students’ is 200 MB. If you have any old material that you need to save, archiving it to a flash drive or CD is recommended. This way you can stay below your set quota and still have access to all necessary files. Note to Faculty/Staff: Any work related material that is shared with your department should be stored on the T drive. Also, any class related material should be posted on Blackboard and not on the T drive.

Exchange Mail
Your Exchange email account also has a quota. Faculty/Staff have a quota of 150 MB, and Students have a quota of 80 MB. If you are having space issues in your email, it would be best to setup Personal folders using Microsoft Outlook 2007. Outlook is available on all campus computers as well as Remote Desktop Connection.

Blackboard
Fall 2009 classes will begin showing up on Blackboard starting August 10th. The Blackboard system updates three times daily. Due to heavy traffic at the beginning of the year, it could take up to 24 hours for your class schedule changes to show up on Blackboard. If you have changed your class schedule and the classes are not available in Blackboard by the following day, please contact the Helpdesk.

Password Expiration
The password to your account expires on a yearly basis. It is important that you keep an up to date password so that you always have access to your Exchange email, Blackboard, and computer account. You will be notified via email up to 60 days before your password expires. If you are unsure of what your password is, go ahead and reset it now. To reset your password, log into SamWeb using the alternate log in. Proceed to Computer Services -> Account Password Change. If you are a new student you will need to click on Account Creation instead if you haven’t set up your account already. If you are unable to log into SamWeb through the alternate login, please contact the Helpdesk and request a PIN reset.

Lab Hours
Follow the link below to look at the Lab hours and locations. Take note of the labs that are closest to your classes. You never know when you might need to take a quick trip to print something off before class.
http://www.shsu.edu/~ucs_www/lab/#


Hopefully this will get you started on the right foot for the new year. If you have any questions or issues please contact the Helpdesk at either 936-294-1950 or email us at helpdesk@shsu.edu. Our regular hours for walk-ins are Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm, and phone/email support is 24 hrs a day. Good luck with the Fall 2009 semester!

Temporary Helpdesk Station - UPDATE

We have moved all of our assistants back up to our normal location, AB1, room 208. We now have some lighting and the floor has been cleared to allow traffic back through the area. Please still be careful as there is furniture in the hallway while they complete the renovations.

Temporary Helpdesk Station

We have set up a temporary station in the AB1, first floor, hallway due to remodeling that is progress outside of our office. Please look for the station set up on the Smith-Hutson side of the hallway.

Redundant GigaMAN

As you may be aware, we've had a few Internet outages these past few months due to cut fiber. Please be aware that we are working on implementing a redundant GigaMAN which facilitates our connectivity to the Internet. Our initial changeover date was set for October 2009. Since then, we have moved up the date to August 25th! Please note that we may experience slight outages during the changeover.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the helpdesk at 936-294-1950.

SamNet Wireless

SamNet Wireless

SHSU Computer Services has completed the initial conversion of the new SamNet wireless service. This conversion was implemented to increase your wireless coverage throughout the campus and to maintain SHSU data security and integrity while it is being accessed wirelessly.

SO how can you get connected to SamNet? Just follow these simple steps:
1.) Connect to the wireless network (or establish a wireless connection)
2.) Open any web browser and authenticate to the network using your SHSU user name and password
3.) After authentication, you can browse the Internet,access the SHSU home page, SamMenu, and SamWeb without having VPN!
4.) To print to campus networked printers, you must use Remote Desktop, if the printer you are looking for is not there, please see Adding a Printer

REMINDER: Server Room Maintenance 5/23

As mentioned in the IR Update this month, we will be performing maintenance in our Server Room. Please see the article from this month's IR Update below.

Semester Break

As we mention each month in the Update, the weekend after graduation is set aside for major maintenance for the information technology infrastructure. Outages may occur from Friday, 5/22, at 6 p.m. till Memorial Day, 5/25, at 8 a.m.

The AB1 Data Center will be down Saturday, 5/23. This planned outage will include Blackboard, Nell, SamWeb, SamMenu, Exchange mail, telephones, and all other campus-wide IT systems. We will be working with McCaffety Electric and Strike ProTech: to complete a number of items, such as:

* Installation of new Data Center firewalls
* Testing of Emergency Power Off system
* Testing of fire suppression system
* Server IP addressing changes

Please just enjoy your holiday weekend and take a break!

PIN Changes

As of today, if your PIN is still currently set as your birth date, you will see the following message when you next log into SamWeb.



We are making this change to make our system and your personal information more secure. Remember that if you forget what you set your PIN to during this process, you can change it at anytime in SamWeb.

Don't know your PIN?

We receive a LOT of phone calls about PINs at the Helpdesk. We had 101 just this last week. If you don't know your PIN to reset your password or to log into DARS you can easily reset it on your own. Just log into SamWeb (ww2.shsu.edu) using the preferred login, click on Student Records, and then click on PIN Change.

Reminder: Your PIN will take some time to update for the DARS system, so don't panic if your new PIN doesn't work immediately.

Hurricane Ike Preparations

The following notice has been sent to the entire SHSU community:

University Community

The University will be closed Friday, September 12, 2008. All Parent's Day weekend activities are cancelled and will be rescheduled for later in the semester. We anticipate reopening on Monday, September 15, 2008 unless we notify you otherwise.

Jim Gaertner, President
SHSU

Faculty & Staff: When you leave today, please make sure that you POWER OFF your computer, peripherals such as printers and scanners, and any other electronic equipment. Please also UNPLUG the equipment from the wall. If you are plugged into a surge protector, you can just turn off the surge protector. This is to ensure that your computers are not powered back on for any rolling power outages that we may have.

We are also running a full back up of our computer systems so response times may be a little slower while the backups are running.

If you have any questions, as always, please ask us.

New Computer Accounts

Any computer account that is created starting today will automatically have an Exchange email account and will not have access to SamMail or IMAP email. Email will need to be checked by clicking on the "Exchange Mail" link from the main page of the SHSU website when off campus.

Please contact the Helpdesk with any questions you may have.

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.

Next Phase of Exchange 2007 Migration

Anyone who currently has a Voice over IP phone (a Cisco handset) and are still on IMAP/unxmail will be converted to Exchange 2007 on Tuesday, June 24th. An email was sent out over the weekend to those who will be a part of this next phase of the Exchange 2007 migration.

For those on PCs, you can find instructions on setting up your new Exchange account online at: http://www.shsu.edu/exchangesetup

For those on a Mac or using another email client other than Outlook, you will need to use the following settings.

Incoming Mail Server: cas.shsu.edu
Port: 993
Use SSL

Outgoing Mail Server: The outgoing mail server will remain the same (smtp.shsu.edu).

When checking your email from an off campus location you will need to select "Exchange Mail" from the University Fast Links or click on the "Exchange Mail" link in the orange section on the SHSU main web page.

If you need assistance after your mailbox has been moved, please place a workorder or contact the Helpdesk at x4-1950.

Exchange 2007 - When will my mailbox move?

The schedule for moving current Exchange 2003 mailboxes to Exchange 2007 is as follows.

Faculty/Staff with last names beginning with:
A - D: Monday, June 16
E - K: Tuesday, June 17
L - R: Wednesday, June 18
S - Z: Thursday, June 19
All Students: Friday, June 20
Alumni/Retirees/*Secondary Accounts: Saturday, June 21
*Secondary accounts are organization or departmental web and email accounts.

Please keep in mind your new quota limits.

UPDATE:
The first two groups (A-D and E-K) have been moved with very few problems. We are working on the third group (L-R) now. As always please contact the Helpdesk if you have any problems.

Conversion to Exchange 2007

The time has come for moving current Exchange users to the new Exchange 2007 system. In preparation for this move we ask that you clean out your current mailboxes so that the move will go quickly and as smooth as possible. If you need assistance in setting up an Archive folder on your S drive, please contact the Helpdesk at x4-1950. You can also find the instructions in our Software Guides.

Since Exchange 2007 will be the campus email system for all faculty, staff, and students we have had to set up quotas. We have given each as much space as we can offer at this time.

New Quotas are as follows:
Faculty/Staff:
150MB you will be warned that you are over quota.
185MB you will no longer be able to send email.
200MB you will no longer be able to send OR receive email until you are back under quota. Any emails that come in during this time will be bounced back as undeliverable.

Students:
80MB you will be warned that you are over quota.
90MB you will no longer be able to send email.
100MB you will no longer be able to send OR receive email until you are back under quota. Any emails that come in during this time will be bounced back as undeliverable.

Alumni/Organization Accounts:
40MB you will be warned that you are over quota.
45MB you will no longer be able to send email.
50MB you will no longer be able to send OR receive email until you are back under quota. Any emails that come in during this time will be bounced back as undeliverable.

Check back here for more information on when your email will be moved. As always let us know if you have any questions or concerns by posting a comment or sending us email.

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.

Registration Schedule

Registration will be opening this Friday at 5:30PM. As a reminder here is the schedule.

Advance Registration for the Following classifications starts 5:30 p.m. on the following dates. In trying to alleviate some of your previous registration problems we will be using a new registration schedule. This new schedule will be alphabetical by each classification. Please find where your name falls in the alphabet to determine your registration period.

ADVANCE REGISTRATION BY CLASSIFICATION
CLASSIFICATION	SEM. HOURS	DATES
Honor Students		March 28
Doctoral, Grad, Post Bac, Seniors 5:30 p.m. SI-ZZ 6:30 p.m. GP-KL 7:30 p.m. CJ-GO 8:30 p.m. KM-NO 9:30 p.m. A-CI 10:30 p.m. NP-SH Open to ALL at 10:30 p.m.	94 Plus	March 31 - April 1
Juniors 5:30 p.m. SI-ZZ 6:30 p.m. GP-KL 7:30 p.m. CJ-GO 8:30 p.m. KM-NO 9:30 p.m. A-CI 10:30 p.m. NP-SH Open to ALL at 10:30 p.m.	64-93	April 2
Sophomores 5:30 p.m. SI-ZZ 6:30 p.m. GP-KL 7:30 p.m. CJ-GO 8:30 p.m. KM-NO 9:30 p.m. A-CI 10:30 p.m. NP-SH Open to ALL at 10:30 p.m.	32-63	April 3
Freshmen (Including Beginning Freshmen) 5:30 p.m. SI-ZZ 6:30 p.m. GP-KL 7:30 p.m. CJ-GO 8:30 p.m. KM-NO 9:30 p.m. A-CI 10:30 p.m. NP-SH Open to ALL at 10:30 p.m.	01-31	April 4
Open Registration Period

Internet Outage: March 14, 2008

The Internet outage that was mentioned in the last IR Update will take place beginning at 8:00 AM on Friday, March 14th and will last for approximately 8 hours during the day.

The Internet outage is required for the first phase of work with AT&T to move their services to Academic Building 1. UCS Networking will also be using this time to move some important network equipment to the new location.

All SHSU campus computer Internet and modem access will be unavailable during this outage. Off-campus locations will not be able to access on-campus resources. This access includes, but is not limited to: Blackboard, remote access, SamWeb, SamMail, Exchange e-mail, Nell, and SamMenu. The targeted time is to be back up by 4:00 PM on Friday afternoon.

You may call the Helpdesk at 294.1950 for an update on Friday afternoon.

Upcoming System Maintenance and Power Outage

March 7, 2008
The T drive server will be rebooted at 6:00PM. This due to maintenance for our backup software. The T drive should be unavailable for no more than 30 minutes. Contact the Helpdesk at x4-1950 if you have any questions regarding this maintenance.

March 8, 2008
There will be an electrical outage on Saturday, March 8, 2008 from 6:00 a.m. to approximately 8:00 a.m. The buildings affected are the following:

Smith Hutson and Smith Hutson Addition
Music Building
Academic Building 1
Newton Gresham Library
University Theater Center
Teacher Education Center
Counselor Education Center
Sam Houston Parking Garage
Recital Hall
Lowman Student Center
Dan Rather Communications Building
Administration Building
Sam Houston Village

Please POWER OFF your computer and peripherals before you leave on Friday if you are located in any of the listed buildings.

Please contact Physical Plant Facilities Planning & Construction at 936-294-1912 with any questions you may have regarding the outage.

SHSU's connection to the Internet is down

AT&T has reported to us that they have a fiber cut this morning on the curcuit that provides SHSU's Internet service. All off-campus e-mail, Internet, and Internet-based credit card transactions are unavailable until AT&T has repaired the damage.

We are activating our disaster recovery plan to bring up a minimal web presence on our servers.

As it's AT&T that is handling, we cannot answer as to the length of time----but experience has indicated that a "cut" can take several hours to locate and repair. Hopefully it will turn out to be something simpler. We will keep you posted as we hear back from AT&T.

-------------------------------------------

UPDATE: The fiber was restored just before 10:00 AM today. You should now be able to access outside sites.

Computing/Phone Systems Downtime

Telcom Center Move Project

Progress continues on the many events that have to occur prior to the removal of the Telcom Center from the campus mall area. The next scheduled event will have a major impact on our entire campus this weekend.

The long-anticipated power, computer, VOIP phone outage that was mentioned in the last two IR Updates will take place the evening of Friday 2/15 and the morning of 2/16. AB1 will be without electricity for several hours on Friday night while this work is in progress.

The power outage is required for the electrical work for the AB1 Server Room. Contractors will start the process at 6 pm Friday night, February 15th; it is anticipated their work will take several hours. The electrical work will include breaker changes and generator related upgrades. After the contractor has completed his work, the UCS-Systems Department will begin rewiring the servers and will work throughout the night with the expectation of completing the process Saturday morning.

All SHSU campus computer and VOIP phone systems will be down during this outage. This outage includes, but is not limited to: Blackboard, remote access, SamWeb, SamMail, Exchange e-mail, Nell, and SamMenu. We anticipate all systems will be back online sometime Saturday morning, the 16th of February.

You may call the Helpdesk at 294.1950 for an update on Saturday.

=================================================================

AB1 Users: Please shut down your workstations and turn off your peripherals before you leave for the week. The electricity in AB1 will be turned off Friday, February 15th at 6 pm.

Other Campus Users: It is especially critical that you remember this week to log off your workstations before you leave for the weekend. You can help protect your profile by making sure you are not logged in when the servers are taken offline.

Remote Servers

The new remote servers have been in production for about a week now. We have scaled back and streamlined the software that is available through the remote access system. This will help to ensure that we are in compliance with licensing along with increasing the performance and reliability of the system. Those of you who have logged in have hopefully noticed that increase in performance and reliabilty.

Here is a list of software that is currently available via the remote system.
Microsoft Office 2007
Adobe Acrobat
SecureCRT (for logging into Nell)
Internet Explorer (Firefox has previously caused problems and so was not installed on the new system.)
SamMenu
Profile Backup Utility
SAP (for connecting to COBA SAP server)
Secure Shell Client (Software that will allow logging in to Nell and UNX1)

The installation of SPSS is still being evaluated. We are working with vendors to see what options are available to us to make this work. Keep an eye on the IR Update for any new developments.

As always, please contact us with any questions or problems you may have.

Letter to Students

Students,

Here is a copy of the email that will be arriving in your inboxes today.

============================================================

TO: SHSU Students
FROM: Mark Adams
Associate VP for SHSU Information Resources


We are very appreciative of your support and patience with the campus technology this semester. A good year in the job market has resulted in a large number of vacancies in Computer Services, and has resulted in an unusually high number of problems this semester with technology resources. We realize how often the computing systems have been slow or unavailable. We'd like to fill you in on what's happening:

• We are aggressively advertising, interviewing, and recruiting additional staff. We have twelve open positions at this time, and we encourage you to recommend and refer applicants to us. http://www.shsu.edu/ITjobs
• We are working almost daily with Blackboard to assist us with system improvements. Blackboard consultants will be on campus in January to further improve reliability and response.
• Additional, and more reliable, server systems have been purchased and will be installed during the semester break.
• A new database is being purchased which will help with the high-volume traffic during registration and finals.

A number of other initiatives are being carried out as we strive to expand the computing systems. We're very proud to be part of one of the fastest growing universities in the state; we are just currently experiencing some really agonizing growing pains!

Thank you again for the many positive comments of empathy and concern that you've expressed. Have a great holiday season as we look forward to Spring 2008!