Campus Technology Services

Featured Article: Campus Wireless Upgrade Scheduled for 12/29

On Tuesday, December 29, from 8am – 3pm, CTS will upgrade the campus wireless computing system to a new secure, more compatible system. During this time, wireless access will be unavailable.

The system is being upgraded to make use of newer technologies for authentication (802.1x) and security (WPA2). In addition, the campus is in need of a system that is compatible with more devices. The current VPN system does not function with 64-bit operating systems. The new system will work with 64-bit operating systems including the latest Windows 7. Snow Leopard as well as Apple iPhone and iTouch devices are also compatible.

As part of the upgrade, the names of the wireless networks, known as the SSIDs, will change. They will be the following:

Oswego-Secure: This network is for students, faculty, and staff and will be the network to connect to once your device has been auto-configured (see below).

Oswego-Setup: this network is for first-time users of the campus wireless system. The very first time you connect to the new system, you will need to select this network to have your device automatically configured.

Once the new wireless system has been implemented, you’ll need to connect your device to the “Oswego-Setup” SSID mentioned above and let the system auto-configure network settings. This is a one-time configuration needed the very first time you connect to the new system. Instructions for both Mac and PC laptops will be available from the CTS wireless website on how to do this

Once your device has been configured, you will simply connect to the “Oswego-Secure” SSID and login with your Laker NetID.

The VPN client for connecting to the on-campus wireless network will be decommissioned on the day of the upgrade. It will no longer function for wireless access. However, it will still be operational for off-campus connectivity for accessing office computers and/or secured servers.

The campus wireless network continues to be expanded each semester. It was recently added to Laker Hall. All common spaces of Laker including academic classrooms and the gym/pool area are wireless-enabled. For a full listing of campus locations, visit the wireless map.

Additional information about the new wireless system upgrade can be found on the CTS wireless web site, including links to FAQs.

Banner/myOswego Upgrade

The Banner team has scheduled the upgrade of Banner/myOswego to version 8.x, beginning on Saturday, November 21, 2009. Banner and myOswego will not be available during the upgrade, which is expected to take four to five days, if all goes as planned. Banner and myOswego will be made available once the upgrade is completed, sometime between Wednesday, November 25 and Monday, November 30.

The upgrade includes the UTF-8 character conversion of the entire database, “globalization of data” for best practices as well as changes in PIN processing that are more in line with industry standards. Administrative users are encouraged to review documentation regarding the new releases and adapt business processes accordingly. Documentation is available from network shared drives as well as the SICAS web site. The PIN enhancements will not be implemented until early December, at which time each myOswego user will be prompted to answer security questions, which will replace the current PIN Hint Question and response.

Phishing Scams

Have you been hooked lately? That is, have you responded to any phishing scams sent to your SUNY Oswego email account? We hope the answer is no, but we also hope you’ve noticed that the number of spam and phishing scams arriving in your SUNY Oswego inbox has decreased!

Phishing scams are emails where the sender tries to persuade you into responding with personal information, such as your credit card numbers, bank accounts, SSNs, your email username and password, etc. The sender is trying to get you to respond for either identity theft purposes or in the case of your username and password, to use your account to generate spam.

SUNY Oswego was receiving many phishing emails of the latter form, where the sender wants to use your Laker NetID to be able to generate spam from our systems. In fact, many of them have tried to impersonate CTS. Please remember, we would never ask for that type of information, especially via email!

For years SUNY Oswego has run systems designed to catch viruses, SPAM, and other malicious email and network traffic. As the battle against these criminal activities has increased, CTS found it essential to add a new weapon to its defenses. Within the last few months, CTS staff have been evaluating and testing a new email security appliance. The Cisco IronPort appliance has been in production for about a month now and has been catching many “bad” emails. In fact, for the month of October, approximately 110 million email messages were sent to SUNY Oswego email addresses. Approximately 2 million were legitimate emails and made it to inboxes. The other 108 million messages either had viruses or were spam/phishing related!

In addition to the IronPort appliance, system administrators have spent significant time analyzing email traffic flow to identify and implement limits on the number of email messages a single account is able to send per hour. These limits have been specifically designed to not impact valid users, but instead to limit the number of messages that a spammer can send to the outside world.

The combination of these two initiatives has reduced the number of spam and phishing scams entering your inbox. Rest assured, there will always be some that get through as hackers learn how to work around the devices in place to catch them. The important rule to remember is this: If you receive an email that asks for any kind of personal information, BE SUSPICIOUS! In most cases, it is probably a phishing scam and you should DELETE it!

Professional Development

CTS workshops have come to an end for the fall semester. Skillport is still available for online, on-demand training. There are 1500 courses you can choose from for your professional growth needs. Courses on Office 2003 and 2007, Windows XP, customer service, project management, communication skills, accounting, management and leadership, and more are available. All faculty, staff, and students can login to Skillport with their Laker NetID. Just go to www.oswego.edu/cts/training/skillport.html.

There are also a number of short demonstrations on completing specific technical tasks available on the “CTS Demo” site. Demos on recognizing phishing scams, saving Word 2007 files in compatible formats, compressing PowerPoint presentations, activating an email vacation message, and more are available.

Notes from the Help Desk

Recently, Apple released its newest operation system called Snow Leopard and on October 22, Microsoft released Windows 7, its newest operating system.

At this time, not all campus systems are compatible with both operating systems, especially the wireless computing VPN client and the Cisco Network Access Control agent used by students in the residence halls to get connected to the network (ResNet).

We highly encourage users to delay upgrading to these newest operating systems until campus systems are compatible. To keep up-to-date with the latest compatibility developments, please check the CTS website at www.oswego.edu/cts or join our Facebook group called "SUNY Oswego - Campus Technology Services."

The Technology Support Center will be open Monday through Thursday, 8am-7pm and Fridays 8am-4:30pm. The TSC is located in 26 Lanigan Hall and you can reach us by phone at x3456, email at help@oswego.edu or chat at www.oswego.edu/help.

Are you on Facebook? Want to receive updates from CTS on new services, updates, system outages, and more? We recently created a “SUNY Oswego – Technology Support Center” Facebook group. Become a fan and start receiving updates!

Did You Know?

Did you know that you can check the availability of certain campus rooms online? The space usage calendar at http://events.oswego.edu allows you to view the schedules of certain spaces on campus for scheduling purposes. For easier viewing, some locations are grouped together and can be viewed by using the filters in the right-side bar. Filters such as “Advanced Technology Classrooms,” “Computer Labs – Reservable” and more are available. Spaces can be viewed by day, week, or month by using the calendar in the right-side bar. When you are ready to schedule a space, just click on the “Event Request“ link in the upper left of the page. Please note: the events.oswego.edu web site can only be viewed from on-campus.

Looking Ahead

The following are major projects CTS is currently working on:

• Campus Email Replacement: CTS along with the Campus Technology Advisory Board are actively looking at replacing campus email with either a Microsoft Live@EDU or Google Apps solution. Both of these providers offer web-based email and calendaring services. Each service has provided members of the groups with test email accounts and the functionality and features of each product are being thoroughly evaluated.
• Wireless Computing in Residence Hall Rooms: CTS is in the process of setting up Hart Hall to allow students to use the campus wireless computing network from their residence hall rooms. Hart Hall students will be able to use this connection upon their return for the Spring 2010 semester. Following Hart, Johnson and Riggs Halls will be next in line to be upgraded with wireless access.
• myOswego Updates: The myOswego registration menu has undergone some changes for spring 2010 registration. Non-degree student links are now separated from degree student links. A link to request a prerequisite override is included in the non-degree student menu. The prerequisite override will allow the non-degree student to agree to terms on which he/she are eligible to take a course with prerequisites that prohibits his/her registration.
• Content Management System Update: The CMS software to replace the OU Campus web content management system for updating departmental web pages is currently in the procurement process. We are looking at purchasing Ingeniux and the Web team has started making plans for how to migrate content from the existing system to the new.
• Blogging Software: The blogging software is on hold as the new content management system has blogging capabilities. We will continue to offer blogging for anyone interested, but at this point we will be looking at the new CMS as a possibility of offering blogs.
• Construction Projects: CTS continues to assist with campus construction projects, including the design of the science building, the new townhouses near Glimmerglass Lagoon, and initial discussions of the Library renovation.

Tech Tips

Have you noticed your Mac running a little slower lately? Does the pinwheel spin when you ask it to simply open up an application? Webzine MakeUseOf.com has a great article entitled “5 Cool Mac Optimization Tips to Get the Most From Your Mac” and include the following:

1. Quit Inactive Applications
2. Disable the Dashboard
3. Look into Preferences
4. Make Room to Breathe
5. Update Frequently

The article reviews in detail each one of these tips. Check them out and see if you can squeeze a little more performance from your Mac.