Yuck! Viruses and Worms!

Not a pleasant way to start an academic year! The University firewall and continuous monitoring did help prevent a disaster with the three recent worms: Blaster, Sobig.f and Welchia. Even though our campus certainly wasn't damaged as badly as some (the University of Edinboro described it as "a nightmare"), it definitely managed to severely overload our resources.

Our apologies to all of you that reached voice mail (instead of a live person) at the Helpdesk this past two weeks. With hundreds of SHSU students plugging into our network without the necessary Microsoft patches, we were more than a little overwhelmed. We appreciate your patience as things slowly return to normal.

If you are in doubt as to whether your computer has been patched, assume the worst. That means DO NOT PLUG IT in to the network on-campus; also, DO NOT DIAL IN to to the University modem bank. Come by the Helpdesk at AB1, 147 and get the Microsoft patch and the worm fix. It is critical for our entire campus that you understand that Blaster, and even worse Welchia, will infect an unpatched computer in a matter of seconds! All that is required is for it to be on the network. We are still receiving 20,000 hits per second from off-campus; we cannot afford to be hit with the virus from on-campus too! It is always vitally important to the campus network that you continuously update your laptops and home machines with the latest security fixes that Microsoft provides. If you need assistance, just call 294-1950 and request a work order appointment.

One of the methods of infection for this recent outbreak of worms is through the same entry as you would access your personal S: drive or the common area T: drive. Therefore, to protect the campus network, we have had to remove access to your S: and T: drives from your home computers. At this time, you may not map any drives from off-campus. Hopefully, this inconvenience will be short term; we will re-evaluate this as things come back under control.

Outlook Exchange Users: A similar hole exists with mapping to your Outlook Exchange mailbox directly from your home computer. To control the spread of this virus and others like it, we are no longer permitting you to access your SHSU Exchange mailbox via your home computer with the Outlook Exchange program. You can simply use the Web version of Outlook for your e-mail. This can be accessed from the main university web site, with the fast link drop-down box, Exchange. If you'd like to know other options, you may contact the Helpdesk.

The newly-named Sam Menu

Last month we asked for ideas on renaming the GUI Menu, and promised a memory stick to one of the people submitting suggestions. The winner is Marilyn Butler from Economics and International Business. Congrats to Marilyn and thanks to all that responded.

Instead of referring to it as the GUI menu in the future, it will simply be the Sam Menu. We'll give it a new icon soon.

Media Circus

The Department of Academic Instructional Technology and Distance Learning will be sponsoring a technology mini-conference on September 24, 1-4pm and September 25, 8-12pm in the LSC Ballroom. There will be several groups; including University Computer Services, Newton Gresham Library, Criminal Justice, and Radio and Television; demonstrating different technology applications available on campus and how these tools are being used to create content. Faculty members who would like to demonstrate their use of technology are invited to present.

And best of all for faculty, you can sign up for the drawing! The AIT&DL office is providing an extra incentive for you to attend. The giveaway will be for a Latitude Dell Laptop for use in your academic department.

Staff: You're certainly encouraged to attend too. This is a great opportunity to see some of the "cool" things now available that could help enhance your department---and it will also enable you to help "sell" SHSU to incoming students. Lots of terrific things are going on; come see for yourself!

Invite your students too! Come one, come all!

Contact James Van Roekel for more information.

Blackboard

Lots of classes are offered this month to help you easily and fully use the course management system, Blackboard. Check out the Training Calendar.

You've Got Mail!

The University has just purchased a new mail server. It provides a 4 fold cpu increase and a 30 fold disk speed increase. This has just recently been installed, and with tweaking, will allow us to do more content filtering (better spam checking), provide more secure means of access, and larger quotas in the future. Last week, we reached a peak of 200,000 e-mail messages processed in one day; a normal day is 100,000. The extra load was caused by the e-mail virus precipitated by the Sobig.f worm. Fortunately, with our new system, the

The SamMail software will be replaced soon with a new system. It will provide more functionality than the old version, giving you folders and address books. The new SamMail should be a better solution for you now when you're checking your mail from off-campus. For security reasons, the only mail server that the new SamMail will check will be SHSU's server.

Telephone Directory

Thank you to each of you that responded with your departmental changes in telephone numbers. The new directory is scheduled to arrive October 1st. The cover was provided by Paula Vernick from the President's Office.

While you're waiting for the hard-copy phone book, remember you may use the online version with the Google Search function from the main University web site. Just type in the last name, a comma, and the first name. Select the People (rather than Web) button, and then press the small arrow. It will quickly give you office location, department, username, and phone number.

Training

The Library is offering several training sections this month. Check out the Training Calendar for times and details.

• Turnitin: An introduction to a plagiarism detection tool, this workshop will provide instruction on how to create a Turnitin account and check papers. Turnitin can help teach students how not to plagiarize; faculty can keep papers from being recycled every year and identify papers obtained from Internet sources.
• ILLiad: Learn how to set up an ILLiad account, place an interlibrary loan request and check the status of a request. Entering and editing patron information will also be covered.
• Research Databases in Business and Research Databases in Humanities: Hands-on introductions to electronic indexes and fulltext sources for research. Topics covered included database selection criteria, construction of search strategies and statements, interpretation of search results, and locating information found.

Account Creation

When filling out a computer account request form for Nell, please make sure that it is complete with SamID, signatures, etc. If you are switching to a new department, be sure to note the date in which your old account can be deleted. Also please download the most recent form so you'll ensure you include all the needed details.

Zips

The only time you use the zip code 77341 is when you're having USPS mail sent to your box here. Otherwise, for deliveries to your office physical street address, you should use the 77340 zip code.