DoIT News

Students: Using Clickers in Class

Faculty: Preparing to Use Clickers & Reporting Problems

DoIT is actively working with eInstruction to improve the support process and improve the performance of the clickers in the classroom. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions, contact Steven Anderson or leave a comment on this announcement.

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August 18, 2008

FA2008 Blackboard Update

UMBC Blackboard update is provided by the Office of Information Technology for
students, faculty and staff using Blackboard at UMBC. If you have questions or
suggestions, contact John Fritz (fritz@umbc.edu or 410.455.6596) or Bob Armstrong
(rarmstro@umbc.edu or 410.455.3885). For more information about using Blackboard,
login via myUMBC or visit http://blackboard.umbc.edu.

HEADLINES

1. FA2008 Bb Course Shells Created and Enrolled

2. Seven Classrooms, One Lecture Hall Get Tech Upgrades; Mobile AV Requests Due 8/22

3. "Clicker" Hardware & Software to be Upgraded in Lecture Halls

4. Changes to Turnitin Interface--Not Status @ UMBC

5. Bb Version 8 Pilot Server to Help Prepare for January Upgrade

6. Using Clickers to Control Online Access to Recordings of In-Class Lectures

7. DoIT and CIRC Sponsor 9/18 Mathematica Demo

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August 17, 2008

Using Clickers to Control Online Access to Recordings of In-Class Lectures

If you record in-class lectures and make them available online, why would students still come to class? If they don’t—but can pass exams—does it matter? While faculty have mixed feelings about recorded lectures, a combination of new technologies makes it possible to allow ONLY students who attend class to access recorded lectures online, for the purposes of review (not discovery).

Problem

For several years, UMBC has been providing a lecture-capture taping service whereby student videographers are paid by professors or departments to trek across campus, set up tripods and cameras, capture a variety of lecture content (and formats), and bring them back for light editing, digitization and distribution online through open and (sometimes) closed access websites. While the process doesn’t scale particularly well, it is relatively unobtrusive to the faculty member, who can go about the process of lecturing pretty much the way he or she has always done.

In recent years, lecture capture demand has grown as have a variety of solutions that include dedicated, wall-mounted, pan/tilt video cameras with remote control and automated, scheduled recording. These are attractive (and expensive) solutions, but still don’t address faculty concerns about whether students will come to class if the lectures are available online.

Tamara Mendelson

A view of the lecturn at the start of Mendelson's Spring 2008 Biology class.

Last spring, after seeing a photo of 15 personal digital audio recorders aligned along the podium of a large biology class, we talked with the instructor, Tamara Mendelson, who explains her rationale for allowing them: “Everything I say is fair game for a test, so I tell the students ‘If I were you, I’d record it all.’ And they do.”

Just like our labor intensive lecture capture service, Mendelson didn’t have to do anything and apparently the students were content to have only her PowerPoint presentations online and their own audio recordings. When we suggested she could make the recordings herself and post them on Blackboard, Mendelson wondered if she could limit access to only students who were in the class. In other words, she wanted to provide the online, recorded lectures for review by students who were present, not for discovery by students who were absent.

Combined with our own lessons learned about simple screencasting software solutions, clickers and the use of a function called “adaptive release” in Blackboard, we realized it is possible to use a daily record of attendance collected by the clickers as a "precondition" for who can access recorded lectures that the instructor posts to his or her Blackboard site.

While we are using MP3 digital audio recorders only, the same process can be used for recorded screencasts made with Camtasia and published in Blackboard, which we have been supporting for years.

Essentially, any faculty member can adapt this cookbook “recipe” to use clickers to control access to any file or function in Blackboard:

1. Record the audio of your lecture with an MP3 digital recorder (we’ve found a good one for $80) accompanied by a powerpoint; or make a screencast which combines audio and any actions or screens on the instructor’s vga display into one synchronized file (we like Camtasia).

2. Ask at least one clicker question during the class period or (ideally) the lecture yourself so you don't get clicker-only "drop ins" (you might even want to ask questions at the start & end of the period/lecture).

3. Upload your clicker grades into your Blackboard gradebook.

4. Create a folder where your lecture materials (e.g., PPTs & audio or screencasts) will reside; make it unavailable to students so you can take your time uploading lecture materials.

5. Upload your lecture materials

6. Use Blackboard's "Adaptive Release" function to limit access to only those students who have ANY score (e.g., activity) for that day's clicker question(s)

7. Make the lecture folder available.

8. Send and/or post announcement that the day's lecture materials are available for REVIEW to students who were present and "clicked."
   

For more information, DoIT has prepared a help sheet, which also uses short screencast videos to "show and tell" the process Mendelson will be piloting this fall:

Posting/Controlling Access to Recorded Lectures
http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/blackboard/help/audio/audio_directions.html

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Bb Version 8 Pilot Server to Help Prepare for January Upgrade

To help prepare for a January upgrade to version 8.0, the first installment of Blackboard’s “Next Generation” course management software, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has set up a pilot server and welcomes faculty interested in using it for Fall 2008.

The new version includes a completely redesigned grade book that allows instructors to drop the lowest of several grades, email students when they fall below a certain pre-determined standard, divide the grade book based on class sections if several are included in the same course shell, and other features that were requested by Blackboard users.

An online manual developed by Southwestern College can be found at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/blackboard/help/version8/Grades80.pdf.

Additional features in version 8.0 include the ability for students to self and peer review assigned materials and the early warning system for notifying students when they fall below standards set by the instructor.

Instructors from several courses, including some sections of Science 100, English 100Y, MLL 406 and Psychology 100 will be participating in the initial pilot and will share feedback. If you would like to participate, contact Bob Armstrong at 410.455.3885 or rarmstro@umbc.edu.

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Changes to Turnitin Interface--Not Status @ UMBC

While the interface to Turnitin has changed, the status of the plagiarism detection software's use at UMBC remains unchanged.

As announced last spring, there remain unresolved issues with Turnitn possibly "crashing" inside Blackboard versions 7.2 or higher (which UMBC runs).

While there were minimal reports of this happening at UMBC, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) still wants faculty to be aware of these potential issues as well as other alternatives (e.g., using Turnitin oustide of Blackboard or using SafeAssign, which is Blackboard's plagiarism detection tool).

In the meantime, DoIT will continue to support both Turnitin and SafeAssign for the Fall 2008 semester, but faculty should weigh their own concerns about interruptions in deciding which tool they should use.

FYI: Once you use the new Turnitin interface, there is a "switch back" option to return to the original interface.

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"Clicker" Hardware & Software to be Upgraded in Lecture Halls

Following a recommendation from eInstruction.com, makers of the Classroom Performance System (CPS) "clickers" used on campus, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), will be upgrading the clicker hardware and software in all lecture halls for start of semester.

So far, DoIT has upgraded the CPS receivers in all of the lecture halls to the new receivers that are similar to the “stick” USB flash drives that many of us use to transport data. Testing has shown they accept the inputs from clickers faster and more reliably then previous versions.

In addition, new PC versions of the CPS instructor software will be installed in all of the lecture halls. As a result, to remain compatible, DoIT strongly recommends that all instructors upgrade their PC or Mac CPS software on their computers as well. The download for the software can be found at http://www.einstruction.com/Downloads/index.cfm.

FYI: One of the best features of the new CPS software is the ability to take attendance without having to start a Teacher Managed engage session.

For more information, visit the eInstruction CPS support site or visit UMBC's "clicker" support site.

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Seven Classrooms & One Lecture Hall Get Tech Upgrades; Mobile AV Requests Due 8/22

For the second straight year, the Provost's Office has funded a classroom technology plan to permanently install presentation technology upgrades in all of UMBC's 73 general purpose classrooms.

Specifically, seven ACIV classrooms (006, 011, 108, 145, 150, 151 and 305) now have permanently installed data projectors, which now means 53 (or 73 percent) of UMBC's general purpose classrooms are permanently "fixtured." In addition, projectors in Physics 107 and 201 have been upgraded this summer.

NOTE: For faculty teaching in classrooms without a permanently installed data projector--you can check the classroom tech inventory here--please submit an AV request by Friday, August 22.

The new screen in LH7 is nearly twice as high as the previous one, making it easy to see any slide, web page, image or video from the back of the room.

1. Use The Portable White Board

DoIT has purchased a portable, double-sided white board that can be moved anywhere at the front of the room--including 25 feet closer to where students are sitting compared with the permanent white board.

NOTE: The portable white board must NOT be stored or placed directly underneath the new, larger projector screen. If the screen is lowered or raised, any sharp edges on the white board can damage the screen fabric, which is very expensive to replace.

2. Convert to Digital Annotation & Writing

If you only want to use one display (the larger screen), then consider switching to digital annotation, writing or drawing, using a tablet PC or the built-in "star board" annotation pad built into the instructor station. In addition to just switching between applications like PowerPoint, a website and a video or image, you can record your digital annotations (and voice) for later review by students.

For more information, view the taped archive of DoIT's 3/10 "Digital Alternatives to Chalk" brown bag presentation or contact Steven Anderson, manager of classroom technology, at 410.455.3680 or sanderso@umbc.edu.

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August 16, 2008

FA2008 Bb Course Shells Created and Enrolled

OIT has created new Blackboard course shells for all courses in the Schedule of Classes as of 8/1/08. By default, a Bb course shell is unavailable (to students) until the instructor of record makes it "available."

INSTRUCTORS: If your course was not listed in the SOC on 8/1/08 OR a cross-list with another course was not officially indicated in the SOC, please submit a Bb Course Creation Request. Students who officially drop courses will be disabled inside courses. Instructors can tell who has been disabled in a course by seeing a red circle with a slash in the Blackboard course roster.

STUDENTS: You MUST be officially enrolled in a UMBC course via myUMBC to be "auto-enrolled" in a Bb course "shell."

Please consult the Blackboard Help tab or contact OIT at blackboard@umbc.edu if you have questions.

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July 9, 2008

Limited Blackboard Support Staff 7/14 to 7/21

Please note: All of of UMBC's primary Blackboard support staff will be attending the BbWorld08 Annual Conference next week, Monday, July 14, through Friday, July 18.

During this time, all but the most urgent requests (e.g., server down, account or enrollment problems) will be handled as soon as possible after we return on Monday, July 21. So that we may learn from the conference and improve support, routine course or community creation requests, or support of specific functionality, will not be addressed while the staff are away.

If you have urgent questions or concerns, please contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@umbc.edu or 410.455.3838 or stop by at Engineering Room 020. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

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July 2, 2008

Name Change for UMBC's Wireless Network

The Division of Information Technology is upgrading UMBC's wireless infrastructure to better improve performance for the campus community. Beginning on July 8, 2008 we will begin migrating buildings that contain OIT managed wireless access points. Each building will take approximately 15 minutes to migrate.

IMPORTANT: New Wireless Network Names
- 'UMBC Campus' Replaces the old 'Tsunami' network
- 'UMBC Visitor' New Network for Visitors and Wireless Devices (e.g. iPhones)

One important change to note is there will be two new wireless network names (i.e. SSID). The first one is called ‘UMBC Campus’ which will be replacing the old ‘Tsunami’ name. The majority of our campus wireless users will use the new ‘UMBC Campus’ wireless network. This network will require a myUMBC Account.

The second wireless network is named ‘UMBC Visitor’. This network does not require a myUMBC Account. This new wireless network should be used by customers that have wireless devices (e.g. iPhone, iPod Touch etc.) which don’t typically work well with the UMBC wireless authentication page.

The ‘UMBC Visitor’ network will not allow access to campus resources such as Active Directory. We recommend that customers use the ‘UMBC Campus’ network, which requires a login, to access these type of resources.

Access to the old ‘Tsunami’ network will be removed from service on Monday, July 14, 2008. At that time all wireless users should be using the new ‘UMBC Campus’ or ‘UMBC Visitor’ wireless networks.

Help in configuring your wireless can be found on the wireless support site..

Migration Time Line

Tuesday July 8th:
Engineering Building as the initial test

Wednesday July 9th:
ITE
Physics
Library
Sondheim
University Center
The RAC
Chemistry
Central Plant
Alumni House

Thursday July 10th:
ACIV
Administration
AcServ
Fine Arts
Math/Phy
PPlant
Stadium

Friday July 11th:
Biology
PPolicy
SouthCampus
TRC
Multitenant

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June 26, 2008

New Media Studio Wins 2008 Center of Excellence Award

UMBC's New Media Studio (NMS) has won a prestigious Centers of Excellence Award, presented annually by the New Media Consortium (NMC) during its summer conference.

Pictured L to R: Paul Iwancio, Bill Shewbridge and Aaron Weidele.

Patterned after the MacArthur "Genius Grants," recipients of the NMC Centers of Excellence award are nominated and selected anonymously by one's peers. "This is the biggest award a center like ours could receive" says Shewbridge, who has led the Studio since its creation in 2002. "We are very honored."

In recent years, the Studio has partnered with the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) in Berkeley, California, to host digital storytelling workshops on campus, as a way to promote and support its use as a form of creative expression as well as a teaching and learning strategy. In fact, the week before receiving the award at Princetown, Shewbridge and his colleagues completed another digital storytelling workshop with CDS staff, and extended the usual three-day program to a five-day "train the trainer" agenda for participants from last year's workshop (click here for a brief video about the workshop process).

In addition, two UMBC instructors (Jason Loviglio and Beverly Bickel) joined Shewbridge in a separate conference presentation on how they used digital storytelling techniques to incorporate visual assignments in their Spring 2008 courses.

In addition to Iwancio and Weidele, other UMBC conference participants who attended the Centers of Excellence award ceremony gathered for a group photo and included (L to R): Adriana Val and Ed Beimfohr (back row); Heather Linville, Polina Vinogradova and Jack Suess (middle row); and Beverly Bickel and Jason Loviglio.

This year, UMBC joined the Rochester Institute of Technology as 2008 recipients. Past recipients have included Case Western Reserve, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, UT Austin and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

For more information about digital storytelling at UMBC, visit www.umbc.edu/stories. In addition, an email listserve has been created for announcements, tips and FYIs.

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May 20, 2008

OIT Publishes SP2008 Most Active Blackboard Courses

OIT has again published UMBC's "Most Active Blackboard" courses reports for the Spring 2008 semester, based on an "average hits per user" approach. For the second straight semester, one department (Information Systems) and one class (PSYC 100 "Introduction to Psychology) have taken the top spot for most active discipline and undergraduate course, respectively. For more information, visit www.umbc.edu/blackboard/reports.

Highlights (based on student activity ONLY):

Most Active Graduate Course: IS 634 "Structured Systems Analysis and Design" taught by Heather Holden, Carlton Crabtree, Carolyn Seaman (avg hits per student: 2,685).

Most Active Undergraduate Course: PSYC 100 "Introduction to Psychology" taught by Linda Jones, Eileen O'Brien, Brian Jobe (avg hits per student: 1,632).

Note: PSYC 100 was also the most active undergraduate Bb course for Fall 2007.

Most Active Discipline: Information Systems (84 Blackboard courses).

Note: Information Systems was also the most active discipline for Fall 2007.

Most Active Community: Geography and Environmental Systems Department managed by several GES faculty (avg hits per user: 533).

Total Number of Blackboard Courses (including those with multiple sections): 1,034

While activity alone is not a measure of quality, OIT publishes these reports so faculty can seek each other out about what does (or doesn't ) work in using Blackboard. Toward this end, faculty may also want to try out the new "Average Hits Per User by Final Grade Distribution" reports announced on March 6.

For more information about the Blackboard Reports project, contact John Fritz at 410.455.6596 or fritz@umbc.edu.

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May 3, 2008

Using Blackboard for Job Search or RFP Committees

When the 20-member Provost Search Committee identified its four finalists, it did so using a Blackboard community to review AND rank all applicants online before meeting face-to-face to discuss their differences. Similarly, the Alternate Delivery Program has frequently used Blackboard to review faculty proposals to receive a one-time course development stipend to redesign an existing course for hybrid delivery in summer or winter sessions.

Key Steps

1. Members review candidate materials or RFP proposals on the Bb community discussion board or blog.

2. Members post an initial "vote" by changing subject line of their reply to "yes" or "no" or "maybe."

3. Optional: Members use body of their reply to explain their "vote"

4. Members meet face-to-face as a group to "negotiate" their online voting differences and reach consensus

"Show & Tell" videos

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SP2008 UMBC Blackboard Update

UMBC Blackboard update is provided by the Office of Information Technology for
students, faculty and staff using Blackboard at UMBC. If you have questions or
suggestions, contact John Fritz (fritz@umbc.edu or 410.455.6596) or Bob Armstrong
(rarmstro@umbc.edu or 410.455.3885). For more information about using Blackboard,
login via myUMBC or visit http://blackboard.umbc.edu.

HEADLINES

1. SP2008 Course Shells Expire on 6/15

2. SU2008 Course Shells Created on 4/30

3. OIT Publishes FA2007 Blackboard User Survey Results

4. New myUMBC Tools Show How Good Students Use Blackboard

5. UMBC Joins Two National, Online Learning Faculty Development Networks

6. Job Opening: UMBC Blackboard Graduate Assistant

7. FYI: Using Blackboard for Job Search or RFP Committees

8. FYI: OIT to Upgrade Labs to MS Office 2007 (PC) & 2008 (Mac)

9. FYI: BbWorld'08 World Conference is July15-17

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May 2, 2008

Job Opening: Blackboard Graduate Assistant

OIT’s Instructional Technology & New Media unit seeks a graduate assistant to provide Blackboard support to students, faculty and staff. The person will assist with routine Bb system administration functions (e.g., course & community site creation), and development of Blackboard user support procedures and documentation. Candidates will be expected to work well in a collaborative team environment and to communicate effectively with customers from a variety of academic and administrative departments.

In the past, special projects have included design and development of the following:

UMBC Blackboard Reports
UMBC Blackboard Help

The successful candidate must be self-directed and work well communicating information to technical and non-technical users. The candidate must also be able to interact with customers of all levels in a highly professional and competent manner.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate must be an officially registered UMBC graduate student with demonstrable experience providing end-user support. The candidate must have good problem-solving skills, strong analytical and organization skills, and excellent oral/written communications skills. Experience with web application development (ideally using PHP & MySQL) is preferred.

Compensation & Hours

Term (9 Month)
Closing Date: Open until filled
Compensation: TBD by Graduate School policy (typically stipend, tuition & health)
Hours:
• PT (20 hours/week) in Fall & Spring
• FT (40 hours/week) possible in Winter & Summer

Application Process | Show Me (video)

1. Login to Blackboard via myUMBC or directly at http://blackboard.umbc.edu
2. Search for and “Enroll” in the “Blackboard User Group” organization on the Bb Community tab
3. Complete the “UMBC Bb GA” application by attaching the following:

- Cover Letter (include a brief description of how you use Blackboard now)
- Resume or CV
- Unofficial PDF version of your transcript from myUMBC
- Names of three references and how they know your work
- Note: You can “save” your application and come back, but can only “submit” it once.

Send an email to blackboard@umbc.edu when you have submitted your application using the process described above, or if you need help doing so.

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OIT to Upgrade Labs to MS Office 2007 (PC) & 2008 (Mac)

This summer, OIT will be upgrading the Microsoft Office suite in all labs for the start of the Fall 2008 semester. Windows XP machines will be upgraded to Office 2007, and Apple machines will be upgraded to Office 2008.

Microsoft Vista is tentatively scheduled to be installed in the OIT labs beginning in Fall 2009.

Currently, OIT is working with UMBC Training Centers to offer "bridge" training for users accustomed earlier versions of MS Office as they make the transition to Office 2007 (PC) or Office 2008 (Mac). Details will be announced on the OIT News site at a later date.

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April 30, 2008

CS Major Wins "Students & IT" Focus Group Drawing

Junior Computer Science major Andrew Winder won the iPod Touch "door prize" drawing at yesterday's UMBC student focus group sessions for the 2008 "Undergraduates and IT" study sponsored by the Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR). Pictured with Andrew is Judy Caruso, principal investigator of the 2008 ECAR study, and Director of Policy and Planning in the CIO's office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Thanks to all of the students who participated.

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April 8, 2008

4/30 Team Based Learning Demo

If you want to make sure students are prepared for class and group work, come to this demo of Team Based Learning (TBL) and its Readiness Assurance Process (RAP) that includes the following:

1. An individual quiz over assigned readings;
   
2. A team quiz over the same material using immediate feedback "scratch off" cards;
   
3. An open book "appeals" phase for incorrect "team answers" only.
   
4. Corrective instruction (mini lecture) by the instructor based on a real-time understanding of what students didn't understand.
   

For more information and to register, visit www.umbc.edu/fdc/training

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March 31, 2008

4/29 Workshop & Focus Groups Look at How Undergraduates Use IT

On Tuesday, April 29, Judy Caruso, the principal investigator of a national study on how undergraduates use technology will deliver a "Brown Bag" presentation at noon, followed by focus groups with students at 4, 5 and 6 p.m.

For the past two years, UMBC freshmen and seniors have participated in Undergraduates and IT conducted by the Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR). UMBC is also participating in this year's ECAR study.

During a Teaching, Learning and Technology (TLT) Brown Bag workshop Caruso, who is Director of Policy and Planning in the CIO's Office at the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, and co-principle investigator for the 2008 study, will share the 2007 study's key findings, and talk about what she's learned from five years of studying the nation's undergraduate technology trends.

FYI: UMBC's Past ECAR Study Results

• 2007
  
• 2006
  

Later in the afternoon, Caruso will conduct focus groups with UMBC students about their technology use to inform the 2008 study. If you are a UMBC undergraduate, and would like to participate in a focus group at 4, 5 or 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29 (food will be provided).

NOTE: Undergraduate students who register for and attend a focus group will be eligible to win an iPod Touch. Each participant will receive a ticket for the iPod drawing, which will take place after the 6 p.m. focus group is finished. If you can't be present for the drawing, an OIT staff member will put your ticket in the drawing and you will be notified if you win.

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March 6, 2008

New myUMBC Tools Show How Good Students Use Blackboard

OIT announces the release of two new myUMBC tools designed to show the campus community how top UMBC students use Blackboard.

Specifically, students can "Check My Blackboard Activity" to see a comparison of their own activity against an anonymous summary of other students in their classes. In addition, faculty can now run their own "Grade Distribution" and "Tool Usage" reports showing their students' Blackboard activity by any item in the Blackboard grade book (including final grade), or by overall tool usage within the course.

While the trend needs further study, initial findings suggest that students who earn higher grades tend to use Blackboard more than students earning lower grades. It is NOT the case that using Blackboard alone will produce higher grades, simply by "gaming" the system.

But if students know how their activity compares to an anonymous summary of peers, at any time during the semester, this timely and personal feedback may allow them to monitor and change their own behavior as it pertains to engaging with course concepts, materials, instructors or each other. In essence, students can now draw their own conclusions about the quantity AND quality of their Blackboard activity and the impact this may or may not have on their learning.

Since the "Check Grade" tool in Blackboard allows students to view statistical differences between their grades and the class average for any visible item in the grade book, OIT will eventually publish student reports showing activity by grade distribution as well. In the meantime, faculty who wish to can provide further insight to students, by viewing, printing and publishing (as PDF files in their Bb course site) their current or past student activity GDRs for their specific courses.

Background

A year ago, OIT began reporting on UMBC's "Most Active Blackboard Courses" based on a simple "average hits per user" approach. In this way, "rankings" don't favor large enrollment sites over smaller ones. To date, we now have reports for the Spring, Summer and Fall 2007 semesters.

After OIT announced the Fall 2007 Blackboard reports and availability of the "self service" faculty Grade Distribution Reports (GDR), 16 faculty used their GDRs, which collectively showed overall Blackboard usage was higher by students earning higher grades. The self service GDRs complemented earlier pilots with two faculty from Geography and Environmental Systems (Karin Readel and Chris Swan), which also showed higher Blackboard usage among students earning higher grades.

While there is no statistically significant difference among students earning As, Bs and Cs (numerically there is: students earning higher grades tend to use it more), there is a significant difference between this group and those students who earn Ds and Fs. So far, the pattern has held true in the courses mentioned above, and OIT is working on a way to load final grades into a table that looks at all Bb courses to see if the trend is broadly generalizable.

OIT recognizes that hits alone are no endorsement (or indictment) of course quality. But looking at and publishing user activity is one way to help faculty and students identify and consult each other about effective teaching and learning practices. By adopting an attitude of transparency about Blackboard usage, the entire UMBC community (and not just OIT system administrators) gains a "birds eye view" of how this Course Management System (CMS) is being used.

For more information, visit http://www.umbc.edu/blackboard/reports. You can also view a brief video demo of these new myUMBC tools for students and faculty.

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February 25, 2008

UMBC Joins Two National, Online Learning Faculty Development Networks

On behalf of the UMBC community, the Office of Information Technology has recently joined QualityMatters and the Sloan-Consortium, two national, online learning networks that specialize in faculty development, online training and research-based "best practices." Membership in both organizations is made possible through a partnership with the University System of Maryland (USM).

Established in 2003 with a three-year, $500k grant from the Fund for Improvement to Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), QualityMatters is a nationally-recognized initiative by MarylandOnline that focuses on defining and evaluating best practices in quality online or hybrid course design--not instructor delivery.

Last year, OIT staff and selected faculty participated in several USM-sponsored course design and peer reviewer training workshops by QualityMatters, which is now an institutional subscription service supported by more than 100 colleges and universities in 31 states who have voluntarily adopted the QM course design and peer review standards. UMBC's own Alternate Delivery Program also adopted the QM standards as part of the Hybrid Course Design Workshop.

Now that UMBC is an institutional QM member, all faculty may access summary or annotated versions of the the highly regarded rubric (or "check list") of 40 course design characteristics that educational research literature identifies in good online courses. An interactive version of the rubric, as well as a form to request peer review by QM trained reviewers, is also available. Send email to John Fritz at fritz@umbc.edu to receive your userid & password for the interactive QM services.

Note: Two Education faculty members, Zane Berge and Greg Williams, are QM certified "peer reviewers," as are Jack Prostko, Director of the Faculty Development Center, and John Fritz and Bob Armstrong from OIT.

Known for its research-based course design rubric--which takes a lot of the guess work out of developing or evaluating online courses--QM does offer face-to-face and online training workshops, but also frequently partners with the Sloan-Consortium, which specializes in online faculty development in all aspects of online learning.

As 2008 institutional members in Sloan-C's "College Pass" program, UMBC has a total of 100 free "seats" to be used toward any online workshop (including how to use the QM rubric) and 50 additional "seats" in select workshops. UMBC also has ten (10) $50 registration discounts toward Sloan-C's highly regarded Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks in Orlando, Florida (Nov. 5-7).

For now, OIT will manage the "College Pass" registration codes on a "first come, first served" basis. To receive a Sloan-C "College Pass" code, click here.

Finally, faculty are reminded that UMBC has also been a member of the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) since 2006. While ELI does not focus exclusively on online learning, it provides excellent resources, including free webinars on timely topics, a very popular "Seven Things You Should Know About . . ." series, and the annual Horizon Report that looks at new and emerging technologies likely to be adopted in the next one to five years. The Horizon Report is also a partnership with the New Media Consortium, which UMBC also belongs to.

For more information about any of these opportunities, contact John Fritz at fritz@umbc.edu or 410.455.6596.

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February 15, 2008

Mac Office 2008 is Here!!

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac was released on February 14, 2007 for Faculty and Staff at UMBC. Faculty and Staff can obtain the media by visiting myUMBC

Students who want to purchase MS Office for the Mac should visit the UMBC bookstore.

Posted by mikec at 1:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 14, 2008

VPN Upgrades Will Support OSX 10.5 (Leopard)

This Sunday February 17th at 8:00am we will be upgrading the software on our web based VPN. We expect VPN service to be unavailable for approximately 10 minutes. On the first login after the outage you may see a message pop-up that it is installing a new version of the VPN client. This process should not need any user intervention and should appear seamless. This upgrade will offer full support for Mac osX 10.5 (Leopard) as well as some other minor big fixes.

Posted by mikec at 4:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 12, 2008

Blackboard Hardware Issues Affecting the System

Saturday, September 12, 2009
The Blackboard system is currently experiencing hardware problems. We are actively working with our hardware vendor to identify the cause and restore the system (updated 11:44AM 9-12-09). DoIT staff are currently restoring the blackboard servers and expect to have the system fully functional by 2:00PM today. Thank you for your patience.

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Posted Feb. 2008
Change to Weekly Blackboard Maintenance: Fridays, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Starting this Friday, February 22, OIT will change the weekly, scheduled maintenance window to Fridays from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Last semester, OIT announced the need for scheduled, weekly maintenance when Blackboard could be unavailable. If OIT plans to use the new weekly maintenance window, we will post a "Down for Maintenance" notice users will see when they attempt to login.

While rare, OIT found some classes were actually held on Saturday mornings during the Fall 2007 semester. The new Friday evening maintenance window also works well because overall usage has been historically low during this time.

Note: As it did last semester, the Faculty Senate's Computer Policy Committee approved the new change in weekly Blackboard maintenance at its February 12 meeting. For more information, contact CPC Chair Ant Ozok

Posted by fritz at 9:50 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 25, 2008

Blackboard "Turnitin" Issues & Scheduled Downtime (1/26, 6-9 a.m.)

Following the planned upgrade to version 7.2 last week, OIT has discovered issues with the Turnitin "Building Block" that instructors may want to understand before using this tool.

In addition, the main Blackboard production server will be down for routine, scheduled maintenance this Saturday, January 26, from 6 to 9 a.m. This is unrelated to the Turnitin issues described in this announcement.

Basically, the Turnitin "Building Block" (or plug-in) for Blackboard we have used for several years has been going down sporadically in Bb versions 7.2 or higher. This was not publicly announced and it seems to be an issue when Blackboard is used in a multiple server configuration such as UMBC uses to guarantee redundancy and performance. We've learned that other schools have experienced similar issues.

The issue has become more complicated since Blackboard released its own plagiarism detection tool, SafeAssign, this summer. While SafeAssign is free (the Faculty Development Center currently pays for Turnitin), the key to any tool like this is the library of past submissions to compare future papers against. Clearly, Turnitn has a larger library at this point, but given its wider availability across all 3,700 colleges and universities using Blackboard, SafeAssign is bound to catch up. Also, there were early reports of "issues" when Safe Assign first shipped, but they appear to be settling down.

While we have worked with Turnitin, there is no guarantee the tool will not go down if you use it inside Blackboard. Accordingly, OIT has made SafeAssign available in all courses and suggests the following options:

1. Use Turnitin Outside of Blackboard

As a campus, we haven't done this in a while, but it is possible to access Turnitin outside of Blackboard; it's just not as easy for faculty and students who may be accustomed to using it inside Blackboard.

Instructions

After the class is created online, students will need to create accounts and submit papers using your class ID. If you have questions, please contact Jack Prostko, Director, Faculty Development Center (ext. 5-1829 or prostko@umbc.edu).

2. Use SafeAssign

While we do not have a lot of experience with this tool yet, OIT has made it available. Also, faculty can upload student papers from past courses to "jump start" the rebuilding of their respective bank of papers SafeAssign can check against. For more information on how to use SafeAssign, visit www.safeassign.com.

3. Use Turnitin Inside Blackboard | More Information

OIT recommends piloting “Safe Assign” for those courses where issues would be most problematic or for faculty who do not wish to worry about Turnitin. We will keep the Turnitin service running for faculty who wish to continue using it and accept that there is some risk.

If you have questions or concerns, please add them as a comment to this announcement, which OIT will monitor, or send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.

Posted by fritz at 1:08 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 14, 2008

Reminder: Blackboard Down for Upgrades 1/15 to 1/17

As announced November 30, 2007, UMBC's main Blackboard production server (http://blackboard.umbc.edu) will be down for hardware and software upgrades from Tuesday, Jan. 15 through Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008.

Note: The alternate Blackboard server being used in Winter session (http://bbss.umbc.edu) will continue to operate during the production server upgrades.

Posted by fritz at 1:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 16, 2007

GES Faculty Show and Tell How and Why They Use Blackboard

Karin Readel

Chris Swan

In addition, OIT has published pilot reports for some of Readel's and Swan's recent courses showing student activity by final grade distribution:

While this kind of individual course report is not yet available (faculty can do it manually), OIT intends to provide this service to faculty who wish to view it privately (or eventually post it inside a Bb course for future students to monitor and benchmark their own activity).

OIT will also be publishing a similar, public report that summarizes student activity and tool use by grade distribution in the top 25, 50, 75 and 100 percentile ranges of all UMBC Blackboard courses. The goal is to see what difference, if any, exists in student grade distribution across a range of Bb courses and activity levels.

After watching Readel and Swan show how they use Blackboard in their actual course sites, faculty may want to check out why they do so in two new "Q & A" video interviews on UMBC's iTunesU service (for more information about UMBC on iTunes, see http://itunes.umbc.edu).

OIT plans to publish more "Show & Tell" (how) and "Q & A" (why) videos from faculty teaching active Blackboard courses in other disciplines, but if you or a colleague has an effective practice or insight you'd be willing to share, send email to fritz@umbc.edu. Please include a short description of the pedagogical problem that is solved or the new learning opportunity that is created in using Blackboard.

Note: To protect the work and identity of students who may appear in the "Show & Tell" videos, only UMBC faculty can access them with their myUMBC userid & password. These videos are intended for collegial, professional development only, so all faculty are reminded that any medium containing identifiable student academic information constitutes an "educational record" that is protected by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Posted by fritz at 4:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 13, 2007

Weekly Blackboard Maintenance Begins Sat., 9/15 (6-9 a.m.)

Starting this Saturday, September 15, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) is implementing weekly Blackboard maintenance on Saturdays from 6 to 9 a.m. While OIT may not always use all or part of these weekly maintenance "windows," Blackboard users should plan accordingly.

Since 1999, UMBC has used Blackboard which now supports more than 1,000 courses and 350 organizations every semester, making it one of the largest, most mission-critical technology services on campus. However, there is no good time when OIT can perform necessary patches, upgrades or even simple reboots because the academic semesters all overlap (except the third week in August, which is too close to the start of Fall).

OIT will continue to implement major upgrades in January, when the small number of winter courses can be run on a separate Bb server. But we need regular weekly maintenance and think the 6 to 9 a.m. window on Saturdays minimizes disruption to users while giving OIT staff access to the system to maintain it.

For the next month, OIT will post system-wide Blackboard maintenance "reminders" on Thursdays, develop a generic "Blackboard is Down for Maintenance" message for anyone who logs in when Blackboard is down, and continue to note any changes to the system.

Long term, we think regular maintenance will help improve Blackboard's performance, and appreciate the campus community's support and patience as we move forward.

Posted by fritz at 8:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 28, 2007

Blackboard Will Be Down 9/1 (9 p.m.) to 9/2 (9 a.m.)

To extend a fix of recent "database connection" errors that have increased during the busy days leading to the start of semester today, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) needs to take Blackboard down from 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1, to 9 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 2.

Working with Blackboard, OIT has developed a short-term fix to the "database connection" errors, but needs extended downtime with no user access to address an underlying issue with the production database. No content has been lost, nor is it expected. But the production database that runs Blackboard needs to be "cleaned up" so performance does not degrade throughout the semester, when the user load will only increase. We are also continuing to work with Blackboard to identify existing processes that may be contributing to the problem.

Currently, we believe overall performance is stable. If we find otherwise, we will post an update on the OIT News site at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/news which you can also subscribe to by RSS feed or view in myUMBC. If you encounter system performance problems, please send email to helpdesk@umbc.edu.

We understand this is a busy time of year, and appreciate your patience as we address these system issues to maintain acceptable performance during the semester.

Posted by fritz at 2:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 16, 2007

UMBC on iTunes U

UMBC on iTunes U is now available at itunes.umbc.edu. UMBC on iTunes U provides access to UMBC-related digital video and audio content through Apple's iTunes Store, a popular online music, video and podcast service.

Initially, UMBC is offering public content through the service, including special events, video features and lectures. Select course lectures are also available with the permission of instructors.

In the coming months, we are planning to integrate iTunes U with UMBC's user authentication system, allowing course-restricted access to content through UMBC's Blackboard course site. Instructors who are interested in making course lectures and materials available through UMBC on iTunes U, either in a public or a restricted way, should email us at newmediastudio@umbc.edu

Once authentication is in place, we also plan to open the site up to campus organizations as a way of distributing media content. If your group or department is interested in participating, please email newmediastudio@umbc.edu

On March 15, Aaron Davis, Senior System Engineer with Apple gave a presentation on what UMBC can expect with iTunes U. You can view the presentation here.

You can also find more information on what iTunes U has to offer on Apple's support site.

UMBC on iTunes U is sponsored by the Office of Information Technology and the New Media Studio. For more information email us at newmediastudio@umbc.edu.

Posted by shewbrid at 10:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 23, 2007

OIT's Bill Shewbridge Named UMBC's Employee of the Quarter

Bill Shewbridge, who is manager of OIT's New Media Studio, has been named UMBC's "Employee of the Quarter" effective April 1 to June 30, 2007. OIT celebrated Bill's accomplishments during an Instructional Technology & New Media staff meeting on Thursday, March 29, at 2:30 p.m. in ECS 023.

"Bill's work is distinguished by his patient persistence. He listens well and knows how to 'cut to the chase' of a problem and propose an effective solution," says John Fritz, director of Instructional Technology & New Media. "He is extremely creative and well-versed in all kinds of new media technology (e.g., Web, multimedia, podcasting and video production/streaming). He is also very responsible, doing whatever it takes to complete a project on time to the client's satisfaction."

Bill has been manager of UMBC's New Media Studio since it's inception in 2001, shortly after the merger between University Computing Services (UCS) and the Office of Instructional Technology (OIT). Prior to this, Bill was a video and multimedia producer and has more than twenty years of experience at UMBC providing educational media support and expertise.

Working with campus leaders and historians, Bill and the New Media Studio staff produced the UMBC 40th anniversary oral history video and the related interactive timeline. With his leadership, the New Media Studio annually produces well over 100 projects with a staff of two other full time employees and up to four part time student research assistants.

"Bill is a natural born teacher and approaches his job as a learning opportunity for both himself and his student research assistants," says Fritz. "Sitting in a biweekly NMS staff meeting is a treat. In addition to reviewing status and completing numerous projects, Bill and his staff use the meetings as a connection point between interesting, new technologies and real campus needs that require creative, out-of-the-box solutions. Bill gives direction but also receives it with aplomb."

In recent years, Bill has distinguished himself serving on the advisory board of the New Media Consortium's 2007 Horizon Report, which looks at new and emerging technologies over the next 1-5 years. He also served on the advisory board's 2005 Horizon Report.

Finally, Bill has been a constant shepherd of the new relationship forming between UMBC and Retirement Living TV. He has helped serve as a liaison for the RLTV temporary takeover of the UMBC TV Studio in ACIV, and served as an advocate for faculty affected by the move. He has also led the development of several "Digital Storytelling" projects involving Charlestown Residents, which may likely appear on RLTV as pilots. These projects involve UMBC students interviewing Charlestown residents and capturing their stories with 2-3 minute, first-person, narrated documentaries complete with family photos and memorabilia. Bill first used the "digital storytelling" workshop method in his ART 395 "Video Production" class, and has led the charge to bring this new kind of literacy to UMBC, through an open workshop this past January, which will be repeated in Summer 2007.

Originally from Frederick County, Maryland, Bill holds a B.A. in History from UMBC, an M.S. in Instructional Design from Towson University, a Certificate in Environmental Studies for the Johns Hopkins University and a Doctor of Communications Design from the University of Baltimore. Bill lives with his wife, Janet, a graphic designer, near UMBC.

As UMBC's Employee of the Quarter, Bill will receive the following:

A check for $500;

A personalized employee parking space;

One day of administrative leave;

A certificate;

His name on a plaque located on the fifth floor of the Administration building;

An invitation to the annual Service Award Ceremony for all the recipients of the quarterly award.

For more information about UMBC's Employee of the Quarter award (including eligibility, a list of past recipients, and a nomination form), click here.

Posted by fritz at 10:06 PM | TrackBack

March 2, 2007

Daylight Saving Time Issues

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November: March 11, and November 4, in 2007.

Different layers of computer applications implement DST in different ways. There may be required patching at the OS, database, programming language, or application level to ensure correct representation of current time during the expanded portion of DST as well as correct date calculations that cross the new DST boundaries.

For more detailed information about desktop machines and PDAs please visit the page below.

http://www.umbc.edu/oit/DST/

Posted by mikec at 7:27 PM

February 26, 2007

Elimination of SGI Support

UMBC has had a long history of using Silicon Graphics (SGI) IRIX computers. Over the past few years, SGI has been struggling financially, and has not been continuing development of these technologies. The SGI computers used inside OIT include Titan, UMBC7, and Irix2.gl. The newest of these systems is 6 years old, and the oldest is over 10. OIT will eliminate these machines and remove them from service on August 31, 2007. If you are a current user of any of these systems, please be aware of other OIT supported computing options that are available for your use:

Applications - Applications that OIT has current software support arrangements for, such as Matlab, SPSS, SAS and Maple are available on OIT's centrally managed Linux and Solaris servers. Updated versions of popular open source software packages are also available on these other platforms.

Titan- For some time, OIT has had available a multiprocessor Linux-based server, hercules.rs.umbc.edu, which is many times more powerful than Titan. Many of the popular applications that have been used on Titan are available on this server and other computing resources. Users who have been granted access to Titan are also able to access this server; the filesystems and data that have been available on Titan are also available there. OIT is also working with the research computing subcommittee to further develop resources to be used for campus-wide research cmoputing. The only application which was specifically licensed for Titan is Spartan; users of this application have been previously notified and been given appropriate time to make alternate arrangements. It is available under other operating systems such as Linux and Windows in student or server editions.

UMBC7- UMBC7 has been primarily used by faculty and staff to access email. Most of our users have migrated to using our IMAP, POP or WebMail services. The pine email application is availble on our general purpose cluster under both Linux and Solaris. Users can access these servers by logging into:
*linux.gl.umbc.edu - For Linux access.
*solaris.gl.umbc.edu - For Solaris access.
Both of these servers provide a more modern computing environment than the existing UMBC7 server, and a similar suite of applications -- including, of course, the popular pine. OIT will also be augmenting and updating the solaris.gl.umbc.edu resource in conjunction with the retirement of UMBC7.

GL - OIT will be eliminating 'irix2.gl.umbc.edu' from service. Similar, or newer software, is available on the solaris.gl and linux.gl servers.

Outside of OIT, the migration away from SGI IRIX based systems has been in progress for some time. OIT no longer provides support for departmental IRIX-based computing resources.

Finally, OIT recognizes that change is always hard. We have held off discontinuing support for these systems as long as possible; however, these systems have reached the end of their useful life. If there are any issues we have not identified or addressed, please let us know so that we can be of assistance.

Posted by mikec at 10:55 AM

January 16, 2007

Oracle Calendar Downtime Jan 18 from 7:00PM to Midnight

On Thursday, January 18th, 2007 Oracle Calendar services will be unavailable from 7:00PM through Midnight. OIT will be performing an upgrade to the production calendar environment.

**Will I notice any changes?
The most noticeable difference will be by customers that access Oracle calendar via the Web (calendar.umbc.edu). The initial Web login page will look slightly different. However, subsequent pages will look the same as they always have. Customers that use the desktop Oracle Calendar Client will notice no significant differences.

**Why Are We Upgrading?This upgrade will provide for the future use of collaboration features. Of most interest will be the ability to synchronize calendar entries over-the-air (OTA). OIT will have device and configuration recommendations that support OTA by the end of the Spring 2007 semester.

Posted by mikec at 9:14 PM

January 8, 2007

Seven Faculty Selected for SU2007 "Alternate Delivery Program"

Seven UMBC faculty have been selected to participate in UMBC's Alternate Delivery Program (ADP) to redesign existing UMBC courses for online or hybrid delivery in Summer 2007.

Sponsored by the Office of Summer, Winter and Special Programs (OSWSP) and supported by the Faculty Development Center (FDC) and Office of Information Technology (OIT), the Alternate Delivery Program provides a course development stipend, instructional design training and technical support to redesign existing courses for online or hybrid delivery.

Since the ADP began in Spring 2005, 16 faculty have redesigned their courses for online or hybrid (part online, part face-to-face) delivery in UMBC's Winter and Summer Special Sessions. Of the seven new faculty accepted into the SU2007 cohort, five will be redesigning an existing course, and two will participate as "peer mentors," which was a new award announced in the Summer 2007 "Request for Proposals."

The SU2007 ADP faculty cohort includes

Matthew Belzer (Music)

Mary Davis (Economics)

Linda Harris (English)

Jodi Kelber-Kaye (Gender & Women's Studies)

Katherine Morris (Social Work)

Susan McCully (Theatre)*

Greg Williams (Education: Instructional Systems Design)*

* Selected to serve as "Peer Mentors."

After two half-day training workshops in mid-January, the SU2007 cohort will begin working on their course redesign deliverables. These include meeting twice during the spring semester (March 1 and April 5) to present two learning objects, assignments or activities that represent how their courses will be redesigned for hybrid or online delivery. Each faculty member's departmental colleagues are encouraged to attend the lunchtime presentations (location and presentation schedule to be announced).

Quality Matters Online Learning "Rubric"

One new development in the SU2007 ADP cohort is the use of the Quality Matters online learning "rubric" or checklist as both a proposal form for the new "peer mentor" awards and as a guide for all new faculty developing future online or hybrid courses. Quality Matters is a voluntary, standards-based method of evaluating online course design (NOT instructor performance or course delivery). In addition to having their online courses evaluated, QM also trains faculty to serve as QM peer reviewers who can earn $150 for participating in a three-member team evaluation of another faculty member's online course.

From 2003 to 2006, QM was funded by a $500,000 grant from the Fund for Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE). It has won numerous awards for articulating a simple, but effective standard by which online learning design can be evaluated. Currently, QualityMatters is operating on an indvidual and institutional "subscription" model. However, during the 2006-2007 academic year, the University System of Maryland is sponsoring several QM workshops and training programs to System schools and faculty. In March, QM will host online and face-to-face workshops on how to improve an online course and how to become a QM peer reviewer.

For more information about the UMBC Alternate Delivery Program, visit www.umbc.edu/ssfaculty/adp or contact John Fritz at 410.455.6596 or fritz@umbc.edu

Posted by fritz at 2:00 PM

January 7, 2007

Part-Time Employment Opportunities

The OIT Help Desk have positions open for part-time customer support. Available hours are Sunday thru Saturday. Must be able to start training immediately. Interested UMBC students should complete our online application at http://www.umbc.edu/oit_jobapp. All majors welcome.

Job Description:

The Help Desk is the first point of contact for students, staff and faculty seeking technical assistance for campus technology issues. They serve as members of OIT by providing technical support over the phone and in person, and maintaining the smooth operation of the OIT equipment and facilities. Help Desk employees are under the supervision of the Help Desk Manager.

Specific duties include but are not limited to the following:

• Primary responsibility is user support and customer service. Be present and visible in the Help Desk and available to customers requiring technical assistance.
• Respond to questions from callers; assist in person with problems in the computer lab.
• Learn fundamental operations of commonly used software, hardware, and other equipment.
• Follow standard Help Desk operating procedures; accurately log all Help Desk contacts using call tracking software.
• Accept general responsibility for the computer lab and ensure that it is ready for use; stock paper and toner in printers, push in chairs, restart frozen computers, etc.
• Enforce all Computer Lab policies.
• Manage the circulation of headphones, manuals, or other materials as appropriate.
• Attend all Help Desk training sessions.
• Become familiar with available help resources; stay updated on campus technology changes or problems.
• Become familiar with OIT policies, services, and staff.
• Direct calls to appropriate OIT staff as necessary.
• Maintain reasonable discipline and decorum in the Help Desk and computer lab areas.
• Other duties as assigned by the Help Desk Manager.

General Requirements:

• Must be fluent in English and be eligible for employment in the U.S.
• Friendly presence and helpful attitude; good interpersonal skills and ability to work well with others.
• Ability to provide technical support over the phone; good phone skills, professional demeanor, previous customer service experience strongly desired.
• Good problem solving skills; ability to visualize a problem or situation and think abstractly to solve it.
• Ability to handle constantly changing flow of traffic; remain productive during slow times, be able to multitask effectively during busy times, exercise patience and professionalism during stressful situations.
• Ability to work responsibly with or without direct supervision.
• Working knowledge of common operating systems and software applications.
• Adequate familiarity with equipment found in OIT computer facilities.
• Work a minimum of 12 hours per week; maximum of 35 hours per week.
• Be a current, registered student.

Term of Employment:

• Year-round employment, reviewed each semester, renewable upon favorable review.
• Must start shifts a month before the start of each semester.
• Required to work before the start of semester (during Move-In Days), during holidays, and Finals week.

Posted by anna at 8:00 AM

December 22, 2006

Help Desk Hours of Operation during Winter Semester

The OIT Help Desk will have the following hours of operation:

Sunday 12noon to 10:00pm
Monday 8:00am to 10:00pm
Tuesday 8:00am to 10:00pm
Wednesday 8:00am to 10:00pm
Thursday 8:00am to 10:00pm
Friday 8:00am to 10:00pm
Saturday 9:00am to 5:00pm

Our 24-hour lab in ENGR room 021 will be available. Please use your UMBC ID to access.

Posted by anna at 8:55 AM

November 28, 2006

Greylisting FAQ

Overview:
- How does Greylisting work?
- Why is my legitimate e-mail taking so long to get delivered to me?
- What if the external e-mail is still not delivered to me after 4 hours?
- Should I update my personal Whitelist?
- Why am I getting legitimate e-mail in my “Spam” folder?
- Does Greylisting affect e-mail sent from UMBC?

How does Greylisting work?
Essentially any new message, one that has not been seen by UMBC’s mail servers for a period of time, is rejected by our mail servers the first time it is received. Properly configured external mail servers will send the message again, typically twice within the first hour, but some mail servers may wait for several hours before resending. Unfortunately, the “resend” configuration of external mail servers is outside of UMBC’s control.

However, when the second delivery attempt is made UMBC’s mail servers will accept the message and record this in a database. Recording this successful e-mail delivery allows UMBC’s mail servers to deliver future e-mail from that particular sender without first having to reject the message again. The result is that all future mail from that specific e-mail address will be delivered without delays.

This procedure helps to prevent SPAM because spammers typically do not “retry” or “resend” their spam after receiving a failed delivery the first time. They simply move on to the next victim. Therefore, by rejecting the first attempt at delivery OIT can help reduce SPAM on campus.

This is a very brief description of Greylisting. More detailed information can be found at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/news/archives/2006/11/what_happened_t.html

Why is my legitimate e-mail taking so long to get delivered to me?
Greylisting relies on the principle that a properly configured mail server will retry a failed delivery attempt. Unfortunately, not all mail servers are setup the same. For instance, UMBC’s mail servers will retry a failed delivery twice within the first hour. However, some mail servers at external businesses and schools may take 3-4 hours before making a second attempt. The good news is that once the message has been resent, UMBC’s mail servers will allow that particular e-mail address to send mail to UMBC without future delays. Basically the initial delivery delay is a one-time penalty that we endure to help prevent SPAM.

What if the external e-mail is still not delivered to me after 4 hours?
Other servers do not have a well identified fix to make them compliant. For that, the following two procedures exist:
1. Manually perform the "re-send" that the external server should be doing automatically:
a. If it has been a few minutes and the message is not arriving, tell your sender to just re-send the message once to the intended recipient. The recipient might receive 2 copies (one from each send), but the process will not need to be repeated, future messages will pass through without any delay (with only a single sending of the message).
2. Request help in identifying the problem if the above does not work to immediately pass your e-mail:
a. E-mail with the bounce message or e-mail address of the external sender
b. OIT will extract the information needed from that message
c. OIT will verify the information and see if the problem did or did not stem from a communication with our server,

Should I update my personal Whitelist?
Updating your personal whitelist found at http://accounts.umbc.edu will have no impact on Greylisting. Greylisting does not filter SPAM based on SPAM filtering rules. Instead all e-mail is rejected the first time (See “How does Greylisting Work?”)

However, once the e-mail is successfully delivered your personal SPAM filtering rules and Whitelists will work. This is why you will still see SPAM e-mails in your “Spam” folder. It is also possible that the occasional legitimate e-mail will be flagged as SPAM and placed in your “Spam” folder. Please continue to check your SPAM folder.

Why am I getting legitimate e-mail in my “Spam” folder?
Greylisting does not filter messages based on SPAM filering rules. Therefore, mail successfully delivered to your Inbox will have the same Spam filtering rules applied that we always have. If you find that legitimate e-mail is being placed in your “Spam” folder then you should add them to your personal Whitelist found at http://accounts.umbc.edu or you can simply move them back into your Inbox.

Does Greylisting affect e-mail sent from UMBC?
No, Greylisting has no impact on e-mail being sent from UMBC. It also does not impact mail sent from one UMBC address to another UMBC address.

Posted by mikec at 7:19 PM

November 27, 2006

What Happened to all my Spam?

OIT’s Core Systems group has put in place an implementation of greylisting on the central email servers over the thanksgiving holiday weekend. Greylisting is another method of combating spam which relies on the methods that most spammers are currently using to send their messages by returning a temporary error to a mail server the first time it attempts to communicate with a particular recipient. While well behaved mail servers will simply retry sending their message within a short period of time, spammers won’t, causing your wanted messages to get through but leaving the spam on the floor.

Like any anti-spam technique, greylisting does have a negative side effect. The side effect is that a delay – sometimes significant – may be incurred on the first time a message is sent to a UMBC recipient from a particular server. However, after the initial message does get through (after a short timeout period), messages from that mail server should flow smoothly to your mailbox from that sender. While our servers are configured to accept mail 2 to 5 minutes after the initial attempt is made – the remote server is responsible for scheduling the re-try.

We’d like your feedback on how the greylisting is working.

The Details

First, a little about how internet email works. Email is a store-and-forward system – a message is passed along from mail server to mail server, and if at any point there is a temporary failure in transport, an attempt is made to retry sending the message to the next hop.

Back when internet Spam first became a problem, spammers would use “open relays” – misconfigured hosts on the internet – which they could use to send mail from anywhere, to anywhere, in this fashion. Mail server administrators caught on to this, and made efforts to secure open relays, or, track them, so that they could reject mail coming through these insecure access points. The spammers, of course, caught on to this, and now rely on bot-nets – armies of compromised PCs throughout the world – as the initial source of their spam. These hosts are numerous hard to track – some may only be used to spam for very short periods of time – so the methods of blocking spammers by the hosts their messages originate from became almost impossible.

Attention then turned to content-analysis of messages – phrase analysis, or other patterns – which could flag a message as being junk mail. Again, the spammers quickly caught on to this, and began to craft the content of their messages to evade such detection.

Spammers need to send their messages quickly and move on – after all, they have millions of individuals to offer their latest and greatest stock tip, or discounted Mexican Viagra to. Therefore, spammers don’t spend much time trying to re-send a message when it returns an a temporary or permanent error – they just move on, sure to get you in the next round of messages.

What is Greylisting?

Greylisting is a practice of using the spammers ‘shotgun’ approach against them. When a mail message comes into a mail server, three pieces of information that make up the envelope are recorded: the source IP address of the message, the SMTP FROM: address, and the SMTP recipient. This triple is looked up in a database of triples recently seen by a mail server, and if a matching record is found and is recent, but not too recent, the mail is allowed to pass. If a triple is not found, or the timestamp recorded in the database is too old, or too young, the mail server returns a temporary error to the sending host. A well-behaved mail server will simply queue this message for a retry at some later point (usually within 30 minutes, usually less), at which time the mail will go through, as that triple has already been seen. A bot-net’d PC being used to send spam won’t retry – either because the spammer has moved on to spamming someone else, or, that host has been discovered and cleaned of it’s infection.

Posted by mikec at 3:42 PM

October 18, 2006

HFS12 Still Having Problems - Update on UMBC Campus E-mail Problems

Today 20% of our e-mail users were without e-mail access from approximately 11:00AM until 2:30PM. One of our file servers suffered a failure during a fix that we were applying to deal with slow e-mail performance problems. It took several hours to salvage this server and restore access.

Over the past couple of weeks e-mail performance has been extremely slow. OIT is aware of the problem and are awaiting new e-mail servers, which are currently on order with the vendor that should help to ease the problem. Over the next two days OIT system administrators will be applying fixes that we hope will alleviate some of the performance problems until the new hardware arrives and can be installed.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this is causing.

Michael Carlin
Director of Infrastructure and Support
Office of Information Technology

Posted by anna at 8:43 AM

August 29, 2006

myUMBC Downtime Wed at 12:15 a.m.

Tonight OIT staff will be performing database maintenance on myUMBC. This work will begin at 12:15 a.m. Wed August 30th and will be completed by 2:15 a.m. Wed August 30th (i.e. late at night).

Posted by mikec at 4:10 PM

August 14, 2006

ListProc Migration Schedule for Sunday August 20th

During the past eight months OIT has been engineering a new mailing list replacement for ListProc. ListProc has served us well over the past years but recently it has begun to show its age. Messages frequently hung in the system, list management was cumbersome and the online archives left much to be desired. The replacement for ListProc is an open source product called Sympa (http://www.sympa.org/). OIT staff presented the new system to a large group at the Departmental IT meeting in May 2006. During this meeting much appreciated feedback was received with regard to the configuration and setup. The result is UMBC’s new list management package.

OIT will be migrating to the new system on Sunday, August 20th. All active lists will be migrated beginning at 2:00 p.m. and ending by 6:00 p.m. During this time all lists will be unavailable to the campus.

FAQs
***How Do I View My List(s)***
Sympa has a very easy to use Web interface. If you visit http://lists.umbc.edu and login using your UMBC username and password you will be able to manage your lists and subscribe to others.

HINT: lists.umbc.edu will only work after Sunday, August 20th. If you would like to see the interface before please visit http://sympa.umbc.edu

***Will List Subscribers Notice Any Difference***
List subscribers will notice that messages will be From: listname@lists.umbc.edu instead of the old naming convention of From: listname@listproc.umbc.edu

***What Happens if a Message is Accidentally Sent to the Old List Address?***
For the foreseeable future OIT will maintain an alias for all existing list addresses. If someone sends a message to listname@listproc.umbc.edu it will be forwarded to the correct list address of listname@lists.umbc.edu

***Will My Customized E-mail Filters Still Work?***
All personalized mail filters created using UMBC’s centrally managed system will be converted to use “lists.umbc.edu”. You will not need to modify those rules created at http://accounts.umbc.edu under Email > Email Filtering

Unfortunately, locally created filters are client specific and reside on the local machine. OIT will not be able to modify filters created by the local e-mail client. It will be up to each individual user to modify their respective filters to reflect the new naming convention.

***What Has Changed in the New System?***
*List Address
Please note the list address has been changed to the industry standard of “lists.umbc.edu” Please do not advertise “listproc.umbc.edu” once this migration is complete.

*Web Interface
The web interface is cleaner, easier to use and allows owners complete management of their list.

*Username changes don't impact subscriptions and are seamless to the list owner
All three aliases plus the username can be used to post messages. Customer can have their mail client setup with user.name@umbc.edu, username@umbc.edu etc. and Sympa will allow any of them to post the message.

*Live Synchs to LDAP (UMBC’s Identity Management System):
Campus groups can be automatically enrolled in a given list. For instance if we have the need for an UMBC-Faculty@lists.umbc.edu then we can set this list up to poll LDAP for ALL faculty. The list owner does not need to manually update the list as they do now, instead will be automatically updated in real time.

*RSS Feeds:
You can use RSS readers or web page plugins to publish the archives from

Posted by mikec at 1:48 PM

August 4, 2006

Comcast Blocking Inbound Emails from @umbc.edu

OIT System Administrators confirmed today that Comcast blocks inbound email addressed from @umbc.edu.

Many myUMBC account holders prefer to view their email from one account. They use the email forwarding feature to automatically transfer an email sent to their @umbc.edu to @comcast.net. Unfortunately, this forwarding is an all or nothing option which means it also forwards SPAM messages.

This forwarded SPAM has caused UMBC to be blacklisted by Comcast's mail servers. We have been working with Comcast technicians to resolve this issue and will keep the campus posted.

Posted by anna at 11:20 AM

August 3, 2006

Power Outage Scheduled for August 18th and 19th

Engineering Computer Room Power Outage on August 18th and 19th
On Friday, August 18th beginning at 9:00PM, all Internet and campus services will be taken down due to electrical work being performed in the computer room. Services will be restored by noon on Saturday, August 19th.

In order to facilitate this work all computer room equipment will need to be shutdown. All OIT services will be unavailable between the hours of 9:00PM on Friday August 18th and Noon on Saturday August 19th, 2006 while this work is being performed.

The electrical contractors will perform their work during the evening and early morning hours of August 18th and August 19th. Once power is restored network services will be brought back online and tested.

What Campus Services Are Impacted?
At a minimum we expect the following services to be unavailable from 9:00PM Friday to 12:00PM (Noon) on Saturday.
PeopleSoft
Email
myUMBC
remote login to gl.umbc.edu (campus Unix servers)
Web services
OIT Computer Labs
Network Services (DNS, DHCP etc.)
HP3000
Active Directory (e.g. H:, I:, P: etc.)
Network Printing
Blackboard
Dial up Modems
Off-campus Internet Access
Main UMBC Web Page

OIT will have staff in the help desk from 9:00AM to 5:00PM on Saturday, August 19th to answer any questions that may arise as a result of this power outage.

Background:
Over the past few months OIT has been working with electrical contractors and Physical Plant to perform a critical power upgrade to the computer room located in the Engineering building (formerly the ECS building). They have completed the rough-in work and now require a power outage to complete the connections to the main power grid. This upgrade will provide the additional circuits required to meet the increasing IT demands of the campus.

Posted by mikec at 11:07 AM

August 1, 2006

OIT Units Merge to Become Instructional Technology & New Media

After 33 years of service, Victor Aulestia, OIT’s Director of Classroom Technology retired on June 30, 2006. As a result, Classroom Technology merged with New Media Learning & Development to become Instructional Technology & New Media, reporting to John Fritz as director of the combined unit.

“As more faculty use Blackboard in the classroom, the lines between online and face-to-face instruction have blurred,” says Fritz. “Victor left a strong group that joins another one to support UMBC’s focused efforts in teaching, learning and technology, as well as the campus’s broader innovation with new media such as streaming video, multimedia and web development.”

The newly merged ITNM unit is still sorting through the transition, but generally, instructional technology encompasses in-class, audio-visual support, including fixed and mobile classroom presentation technology, the International Media Center, all OIT computer lab scheduling, and Blackboard. The New Media Studio (www.umbc.edu/studio) focuses on all aspects of video production, including video streaming, video conferencing and video/audio duplication services, as well as multimedia and Web development & support.

For more information or to make comments or suggestions, contact John Fritz at 410.455.6596 or fritz@umbc.edu.

Posted by fritz at 12:27 AM

July 27, 2006

Dell & McAfee v8.0 Issue

There is a conflict between McAfee VirusScan Enterprise v8.0 and Wave Systems Embassy TrustSuite Document Manager which comes preinstalled on Dell Latitude D620, D820, Dell Precision M65 and Precision M90, that causes Windows to crash and shutdown. In addition, due to the complexity of the enhanced security with the Wave Embassy Trust Suite software you could potentially be locked out of your laptops if you have forgotten your security settings. For these reasons OIT recommends customers who have purchased or will be purchasing our recommended Dell Latitude D620 laptop to install McAfee v7.0 available for download at myUMBC.

Posted by anna at 8:52 AM

July 23, 2006

FYI: 9/15 Assessment Webinar & TLT Brown Bag

Assessment of student learning outcomes has become very important, as the College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT), the Education Department and even the University itself has learned through recent accreditation visits and reports. Join Peggy Maki, Higher Education Consultant and former Senior Scholar and Director of Assessment, American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), for an Educause Learning Initiative “Webinar” on Assessment, on Friday, September 15, at 1 p.m.

OIT has recently joined the Educause Learning Initiative (http://www.educause.edu/eli), which offers conferences, “best practice” online repositories and frequent “webinars” on timely teaching, learning and technology topics. OIT will host a “joint viewing” of this Assessment webinar in ECS 023, as part of the Teaching, Learning and Technology “Brown Bag” workshop series (refreshments will be provided). To “register” for the Brown Bag, visit http://www.umbc.edu/brownbag.

Posted by fritz at 12:41 AM

June 30, 2006

OIT System Interruptions June 29, 2006

At 7:00pm on June 29, 2006 multiple OIT systems suffered a failure due to an electrical circuit overload in a rack that contained several servers.

OIT staff have been on site throughout the evening and early morning hours restoring the affected systems. These systems were E-Mail, WebMail, Web pages and a few other ancillary systems.

- E-mail service was restored at approximately 11:00PM
- Web Services were restored at 12:10AM
- WebMail was restored at 12:20AM

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

Mike Carlin
Director Infrastructure and Support

Posted by mikec at 12:33 AM

May 26, 2006

Help Desk Hours of Operation

Summer hours of operation begin Tuesday, May 30th until Saturday, August 19th. The Help Desk will be opening on:

Sunday - 12 noon to 8:00 pm
Monday - 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
Tuesday - 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
Wednesday - 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
Thursday - 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
Friday - 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Saturday - 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

Posted by anna at 7:00 AM

May 11, 2006

Shibboleth is Key to Single Sign-On

In March, UMBC joined the Shibboleth community to allow single sign-on to some web-based applications.

Shibboleth is a "standards-based, open source middleware software that provides Web Single SignOn (SSO) across or within organizational boundaries. It allows sites to make informed authorization decisions for individual access of protected online resources in a privacy-preserving manner," according to its official web site. It is part of the Internet2 project.

With Shibboleth, UMBC users can access programs that are not part of the campus's web presence by using their UMBC login and password. As of now, those include the alumni site and a new music sharing service available through the University of Maryland System. More applications will be added later.

The Shibboleth Community currently consists of about 40 institutions, with more planning to join.

Posted by jward at 1:54 PM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2006

Computer Lab Now Open 24x7

To accommodate the needs of students and others who need late-night computer access, OIT staff worked during spring break to set up a 24-hour computer lab in Room 021 of the Engineering Building.

Students, faculty and staff can enter the room at any time of the day or night using their Campus One-Card to open the door.

The lab houses both personal computers and Macintosh computers, and a pay-for-print service that uses the same campus-one ID card that allows access to the room.

For security purposes, the room is under video surveillance and is equipped with a panic alarm that notifies campus police when activated.

Posted by jward at 3:24 PM | Comments (0)

Computer Replacement Initiative

The Office of the Provost is working with all units that report through them to subsidize upgrading office and lab computers that don't meet minimum standards.

Minimum requirements are defined as below a Pentium 1.0 GHz or a Mac G4.

As part of the replacement initiative, OIT has worked with Dell to negotiate special volume pricing so computers can be purchased at far less than regular prices.

OIT is encouraging any department that plans to buy computers at the end of this fiscal year or the beginning of the next to contact Mike Carlin, OIT's Director of Infrastructure and Support, and arrange for all orders to be part of the discount package.

Orders are scheduled to be placed June 12. Complete details about minumum requirements can be found on the replacement website.

Posted by jward at 1:53 PM | Comments (0)

The Continuing Battle Against SPAM

OIT has stepped up its efforts to eradicate SPAM, but it's a stubborn problem that will never completely go away.

For one thing, said Jack Suess, Vice President for IT, 20 percent of the SPAM the UMBC community receives is from phishing scams, and SPAM filters don't block addresses that look legitimate.

Phishing is the practice of sending SPAM from e-mail addresses that appear to be legitimate and asking users to provide personal information, often to "verify" or "update" an account. Ebay and Amazon are among the return addresses used in Phishing scams. And since those are legitimate company names, SPAM filters won't block them.

However, OIT has made changes that are helping to block other forms of SPAM. In late January, filters were set to automatically reject messages that had a high score as likely SPAM.

While some faculty members have complained that some legitimate mail could be blocked, Suess said the change was necessary because of the huge volume of unsolicited, unwanted e-mail that passes through UMBC's mail servers each day.

The university receives approximately 500,000 inbound e-mail messages every day. Between 60-70 percent, or as many as 350,000, appear to be SPAM. Many messages are filtered into Spam folders where users have the opportunity to review them to assure they really are unwanted e-mail.

Messages more than 21 days old that have been labeled as SPAM are deleted from campus e-mail accounts. This is necessary, Suess said, because of the huge amount of space those unwanted, unread messages consumer on UMBC's mail servers.

Suess said OIT continues to monitor and re-evaluate the SPAM problem, and will continue to look for innovative solutions for blocking unwanted e-mail.

Posted by jward at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

May 8, 2006

From the CIO--Save the Internet

As Congress looks at updating the 1996 Telecommunications Act, one part of the revision could severely limit the Web sites available to you through your Internet service provider.

As it is now written, the Telecommunicaitons Act requires "Network Neutrality." That means regardless of which service provider you use, you have access to any site on the Internet. The service provider can't block you from visiting any site you want to see.

But big companies like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T are hoping to change that. They're lobbying Congress to allow them to choose what Web sites you can see, based on who pays them the most.

Many--including myself--feel that Network Neutrality is a critical element that we want to see in whatever bills come out of Congress, and we need to let our representatives know.

You can help assure that free and open access to the Internet remains a fact of life by contacting your Congressional representatives and letting them know how you feel.

The website savetheinternet.com makes it easy by providing a form that automatically determines who your representatives are, based on your home address. You can also sign up for a mailing list that will keep you up to date on what's happening with the Telecommunications Act revision and how to get involved in preserving network neutrality.

Posted by jward at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

Help Desk Switching to Parature

This summer, OIT will begin using Parature, a web-based support product that offers unlimited site licenses, a knowlege base to help users resolve issues more quickly, and an easy, Web-based user interface that allows users to file a help request form and check on the status of tickets they have previously filed.

UMBC purchased Remedy, the current Help Desk system, in 1998. Since then, the number of tickets filed annually with the help desk has increased to 25,000. Remedy has not been able to keep up with that demand.

"We identified shortcomings in the way Remedy supports the community," said Jack Suess, Vice President of Information Technology. "Parature is a better platform for UMBC."

Among other enhancements, the new product is Web based and does not require those managing tickets to install software on their computers. It also offers options for use by departments outside of OIT, and provides a knowledge base so users have an opportunity to resolve their problems immediately, without contacting the Help Desk.

The Help Desk will begin using Parature by the end of July. However, PeopleSoft support will not migrate to Parature until later. OIT will work with the offices of Finance and Human Resources to migrate to the new product at a later date.

Posted by jward at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

New Email List Management Coming This Summer

Beginning this summer, OIT will migrate e-mail lists from listproc to Sympa, an open-source application that offers flexibility and stability, and allows users to control more aspects of their lists.

Sympa offers an easy-to-use web interface and works well with other UMBC applications such as Webauth.

Sympa's features include:
-Configuration options are accessed through an intuitive user interface.
-Easy management of list owners, managers and subscribers.
-Searchable, threaded Web archive with access control.
-Each list has a Web-based file sharing repository with access control, moderation and an optional quota.

OIT will migrate mailing lists from listproc to Sympa this summer. Lists will still be accessible through myUMBC.

For a sneak-peak of Sympa, visit sympa.umbc.edu.

Posted by jward at 10:45 AM

May 7, 2006

Mail Service Problems Today, Sunday May 7th

UPDATE 3:00pm: All mail service has been restored as of 3:00pm today. Customers should be able to receive and send mail without further problems. We apologize for any problems that this may have caused.
-------------------------------------------------
Currently UMBC's e-mail service is down. At 12:30pm today OIT staff were notified and they are currently working to resolve the problem. Once we have further information this notice will be updated.

Thank You,
OIT

Posted by mikec at 1:06 PM

May 5, 2006

E-mail Delivery Failures on May 4, 2006

Yesterday afternoon UMBC’s e-mail service suffered a failure between 12:45pm and 2:00pm. After careful examination of this failure it has become apparent that any e-mail sent during this outage was not successfully delivered.

All mail sent TO: or FROM: an @umbc.edu address between 12:45pm and 2:00pm was not delivered. Due to the nature of the failure customers did not receive the customary bounce back message stating that your message could not be delivered. Therefore, many of our users are not aware that there was a problem yesterday.

We encourage you to resend any e-mail in your “Sent” mail folder that was sent between 12:45pm and 2:00pm on May 4th, 2006. Alternately, you may wish to send a follow up e-mail to your recipients to find out if they received your e-mail.

We truly apologize for this inconvenience and are working to ensure that a failure of this type does not occur again.

Michael Carlin
Director of Infrastructure and Support
Office of Information Technology

Posted by mikec at 9:30 AM

April 18, 2006

myUMBC Service Restored

At approximately 2:15pm today service was restored to the myUMBC portal. We are still examining the cause of the problem but have initiated procedures to minimize the chances of this occurring again. We apologize for any problems that this may have caused. If you experience any problems please do not hesitate to contact us at 410-455-3838 or by e-mailing us at helpdesk@umbc.edu

Posted by mikec at 4:09 PM

MyUMBC Portal Problems

This morning at approximately 10:30AM the myUMBC portal began experiencing problems. We are presently working to diagnose the cause and will provide further updates once the problem has been identified and fixed.

While myUMBC is unavailable you can reach many online resources by using the URLs below.

Blackboard:
http://blackboard.umbc.edu

Webmail:
http://webmail.umbc.edu

Peoplesoft Finance:
https://fsprd-web.ps.umbc.edu

Peoplesoft Human Resources:
https://hrprd-web.ps.umbc.edu

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may be causing.

Michael Carlin
Director of Infrastructure and Support
Office of Information Technology

Posted by mikec at 1:21 PM

April 12, 2006

Alternate Delivery (Online & Hybrid) Winter 2007 RFPs (deadline: 5/19)

The Office of Summer, Winter and Special Programs (OSWSP) is sponsoring a program to increase the number of alternate delivery courses - specifically, hybrid and online courses - offered during special sessions (winter and summer terms) in 2007.

Supported by OIT and the Faculty Development Center, the OSWSP invites proposals from UMBC full and part-time faculty to develop online or hybrid courses to be offered during the 2007 Winter Session. Course development funding, high speed Internet access, technical support, and the opportunity to participate in a faculty learning community are available through this program. The application deadline is Friday, May 19, 2006 (recipients will be notified the week of May 24, 2006). For more information, visit http://www.umbc.edu/ssfaculty/adp.

Posted by jward at 4:13 PM

March 4, 2006

Dates Set in the Future for Windows Machines

We are experiencing intermittent problems with computers running Windows. Symptoms include dates on the system tray changing to the year 2142 and the time to 2:22pm. The problem is affecting a variety of programs, including Oracle/Corporate Time Calendar and Outlook. OIT system administrators are working quickly to find the solution. If you have any questions regarding this, please call our OIT Help Desk at 410-455-3838.

Posted by anna at 11:17 AM

March 1, 2006

Spam & Trash Messages to be Deleted Beginning Week of March 12th

Beginning Sunday, March 5th, 2006, OIT will be sending out messages to users regarding automatic deletion of messages greated than 4 weeks old located in the "Spam" and "Trash" folders. After consultation with the IT Steering Committee, it was decided that OIT should implement such a procedure to manage the volume of "Spam" email that is consuming users' e-mail disk space.

The e-mail will be sent out 7 days prior to the actual scheduled deletion date. A message similar to the sample below is what our customers will see.

Subject: Automatic Spam & Trash Deletion
Date: Sunday, 5 Mar 2006 17:54:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Automated System Process
Reply-To: OIT Helpdesk
To: UserName@umbc.edu

On March 12, your "Spam" and "Trash" folders will be purged of the following:

Spam: 595 messages (4MB)
Trash: 1044 messages (19MB)

Unless you move them to another folder, or otherwise delete these messages yourself.

Why is OIT Implementing This?

Beginning 3/12/2006, OIT will automatically begin purging the Spam and Trash folders of UMBC email accounts of messages that are over four weeks old. After consultation with the IT Steering Committee, it wad decided that OIT should implement such a procedure to manage the volume of "Spam" email that is consuming users' e-mail disk space.

If you wish to keep these message you must move them to another folder before the purge date. This process will run weekly. For the first few weeks of this process, you will receive a notice such as this one notifying you of how many messages may potentially be purged. This is being done to manage the volume of "SPAM" that is consuming users' e-mail disk space

Questions?

If you have questions, more information on managing your email can be found on the OIT web site under www.umbc.edu/oit by selecting "Using Email" on the left hand side. In addition, you can call the OIT Helpdesk, 5-3838,if you have questions.

Posted by mikec at 3:49 PM

February 14, 2006

Network Problems on Feb. 14th

This morning, at approximately 10:15 a.m., OIT began receiving reports of network problems. We were able to isolate the issue to the main campus firewall. It appears that there is an active attack occurring that is flooding the firewall with an enormous amount of data.

We are working to identify the machine or machines that are
causing this problem and will keep you informed.

Potential Symptoms:
- General network slowness
- Inability to read or send e-mail
- Off campus web pages are inaccessible
- Sporadic connectivity issues to campus computing resources

We apologize for any problems this may be causing.

Posted by mikec at 11:46 AM

February 1, 2006

Update on E-mail Problems, Wed February 1st

This morning at approximately 9:00AM UMBC’s mail servers encountered a problem. It appears that some irregular network traffic generated an operating system fault on our Sun hardware. OIT was able to trace this error back to filters that were in use. They have been turned off to prevent this problem from reoccurring and logs of this problem have been sent to Sun for analysis. Mail service was restored by 11:30AM today. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Posted by mikec at 11:37 AM

January 30, 2006

Welcome Students!

We hope you had a great Spring semester 2006 and are looking forward to an exciting Summer semester. To get the semester started off smoothly and to avoid problems down the road, we are providing information to help you get into the swing of things.

• OIT Help desk and Computer Labs
  
  
  
  • Hours of Operation
    
  • Lab Location
    
  • Lab Reservation
    
  
  
• myUMBC
  
  
  
  • Change Password
    
  • Managing Disk Space
    
  
  
• Residential Networking
  
  
  
  • Rules and Policies
    
  • Installing Antivirus Software
    
  • Updating Virus Definition Files
    
  
  
• Wireless Access
  

Posted by anna at 6:44 AM

January 14, 2006

OIT To Purge Spam & Undeleted "Trash" Email Older than 28 Days

As the volume of spam continues to grow many of our email system users find their disk quota is consumed with spam. After consultation with the IT Steering Committee it was decided that OIT should implement a system to automatically purge messages flagged as spam that are at least four weeks old. As a housekeeping measure, we will also be purging messages that are at least 4 weeks old from users' trash folders.

In addition to automatically purging messages, we will begin "rejecting" aggregious spam at our mail gateways, keeping the worst spam from even being delivered into users' mailboxes or spam folders.

OIT will implement this new spam deletion practice the week of January 21, 2006.

If you have questions, more information on managing your email can be found on the OIT web site under www.umbc.edu/oit by selecting "Using Email" on the left hand side. In addition, you can call the OIT Helpdesk at 5-3838, if you have questions.

Posted by fritz at 9:31 PM

January 9, 2006

myUMBC Login Issues

OIT is aware of login problems to myUMBC, which are caused by issues associated with our Oracle database server. OIT staff members are working to address these as quickly as possible. If we cannot resolve the issues, we have a contingency plan to restore service using the previous instance of myUMBC by 1 p.m. today.

In the interim, you can login directly to the following resources:

Old myUMBC
https://your.umbc.edu

PeopleSoft

Blackboard
http://blackboard.umbc.edu

Webmail
https://webmail.umbc.edu

myUMBC Accounts
http://accounts.umbc.edu

Thank you for your patience. To share feedback, visit the "Webteam" blog and post a comment or send email.

OIT

Posted by anna at 12:18 PM

January 4, 2006

To-Do List for the New Year

The start of the year is always a good time to renew good habits. Here are some suggestions for safe computing.

• Backup. Do a monthly backup of your data to optical discs, store program disks and drivers together in a relatively safe place, and keep important day-to-day files on a USB key. Backing up is a valuable habit to get into.
  How to Backup Your Data with Roxio Easy CD
  
• Keep your OS up to date. Security patches often are more trouble then they seem worth, but in the end, it’s the folks who didn’t bother to install them who end up having the most trouble.
  How to Update Macintosh OS X Tiger
  
• Run a current antivirus program. And make sure the signatures are up to date.
  
• Know what software is on your computer. Web sites and programs leave behind things you may not want, so run an antispyware scanner like Spybot Search & Destroy.
  
• Be careful with your personal information. This goes for both online and offline data. We’ve seen too many problems.
  

Posted by anna at 12:25 PM

December 23, 2005

myUMBC Portal Will Change January 6th, 2006

When you log into my.umbc.edu on January 6, it will look a bit different from what you’re used to seeing. The new myUMBC is built on a different, more scalable platform that will ultimately provide more services to faculty, staff and students.

If, for any reason, you are confused by the new look or can’t get to something you need, you can easily switch to the old, familiar view by clicking on the “Olde myUMBC” button in the upper left corner.

The old version of the portal will remain active until February 17. After that date, the new portal will become our only myUMBC portal. The look, for now, is similar to what you’re used to seeing. We hope to begin adding functionality, features and a new look later in 2006.

You can get a sneak preview of the new portal by clicking on mybeta.umbc.edu. You’ll find a “feedback” link at the top of this test version of the new portal. Please use it to let us know what you think.

Click here for more information on why myUMBC changed.

Posted by mikec at 9:52 AM

November 15, 2005

Update on Recent E-Mail System Problems

During the past two days UMBC’s mail servers have suffered two outages. Yesterday, the outage lasted from 4:00AM to 1:30PM. Today we suffered another outage that has affected one half of our e-mail users. At this time we expect our systems to be restored by 3:00PM, Tuesday, November 15, 2005.

We are in the process of working with outside groups to help us diagnose the problem. One of the measures we are taking is to introduce debugging scripts into our mail systems to help us diagnose the cause of these failures.

At this time we have not definitively identified the problem. As such there is the possibility that we could have further outages until we have identified the bug. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may be causing.

Posted by mikec at 3:03 PM

November 10, 2005

Mac Users Can Connect to MS Active Directory

Mac users can now access their files on the new Microsoft Active Directory environment. Most Mac users used the http://novell.umbc.edu web interface. Microsoft does not provide the same web based method but you can connect directly. For documentation on this please click here.

This access will work while on campus or off.

Posted by mikec at 3:40 PM

Need Remote Access to Your Files in Active Directory?

Many of you are familiar with Novell's method of accessing files remotely using a web browser and connecting via http://novell.umbc.edu Unfortunately, Microsoft's Active Directory does not provide the same web based access. However, there are two options available to those that require access to files from off campus.

OIT has two recommendations for remote file access:
UMBC Owned Machine in Active Directory
This is for UMBC machines, typically laptops, that have been joined to Active Directory. In this scenario access if you have a decent Internet connection (e.g. DSL, Cable Modem etc.) file access performance should be good. This is the preferred method of connecting as OIT can provide a level of security assurance that can't be provided for Non UMBC machines.

You will log into your machine as usual. Then you will login into the VPN Client. From there you can simply access your drives as you normally would from work.

Non UMBC Machine
This would typically be a home machine or any other machine that is not UMBC owned and is not in Active Directory. Due to naming conflict concerns Non UMBC machines will not be joined to Active Directory.

The good news is that there is a simple way to access your files remotely using the Windows XP Remote Desktop Connection
Please Click Here for documentation on how to use this type of connection. This remote service will be available to users by the end of the migration this weekend.

Posted by mikec at 2:24 PM

Novell to Active Directory Migration Scheduled for Friday, November 11th

Beginning Friday, November 11th at 6:00PM OIT will begin migration of
all data associated with the Share volume on Novell (e.g. I: Drive, S:
Drive etc.). The “Share Volume” is where the common departmental data is shared. The most commonly known drive letter associated with this volume is the I: Drive although there can be others such as the S, K etc.

All data residing on these drives will be moved from Novell to the
Microsoft Active Directory environment. It is important that your
machine already be joined to Active Directory. If it has not been then you will not be able to access this data on Active Directory once the migration is complete. Please see the notes below to determine if your machine is already joined to Active Directory.

You may recall that we successfully moved the H: Drive data from Novell to Microsoft Active Directory in July of this year and the P: Drive last month. Please see
http://www.umbc.edu/oit/news/archives/2005/08/novell_to_activ.html
for more information about this migration.

****Can I Access my Files on the Share Volume (e.g. I: Drive, S: Drive)During the Migration?
Beginning at 6:00PM on Friday, November 11th files located on the
current Novell share volume will be locked. This is done to ensure data integrity during the migration.

****When Can I Access my Files on the share volume again?
Files located on the share volume (I: Drive, S: Drive etc.) will be
available for access by 6:00PM on Sunday, November 13th. It is likely
that your files will be available earlier than this but they will
definitely be available by the date and time above. OIT will send an
e-mail to the Novell users once the migration is completed notifying
everyone of the successful migration.

****What if I Need Access to Files on the P: Drive During the Migration?
If you require access to files you should place a copy of the file on
your local machine prior to 6:00PM on Friday, November 11th, 2005.

****How Can I Tell if my Computer is in Active Directory?
After logging into your computer goto My Computer. If you see a drive
letter mapping for H: that looks like the following example then your
machine is successfully connected to Active Directory.
Goto My Computer
EXAMPLE: "username on 'uservol.ad.umbc.edu\Home' (H)"
If you don't see this drive mapping then you should contact the OIT
helpdesk at helpdesk@umbc.edu requesting that your PC be added to Active
Directory.
If you have questions please contact the HelpDesk.

Posted by mikec at 2:13 PM

11/10 Blackboard Problems

OIT is aware that Blackboard is slow or not even loading in some cases.

We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience while we attempt to fix these problems as soon as possible.

Posted by fritz at 11:04 AM

October 18, 2005

Novell P: Drive Migration Friday, October 21

Beginning Friday, October 21st at 6:30PM OIT will begin migration of all data associated with the P: Drive on Novell. PeopleSoft data residing on the P: Drive will be moved from Novell to the Microsoft Active Directory environment. It is important that your machine already be joined to Active Directory. If it has not been then you will not get the P: Drive on Active Directory once the migration is complete. Please see the notes below to determine if your machine is already joined to Active Directory.

You may recall that we successfully moved the H: Drive data from Novell to Microsoft Active Directory in July of this year. Please see
http://www.umbc.edu/oit/news/archives/2005/08/novell_to_activ.html
for more information about this migration.

****Can I Access my Files on the P: Drive During the Migration?
Beginning at 6:30PM on Friday, October 21st files located on the current Novell P: Drive will be locked. This is done to ensure data integrity during the migration.

****When Can I Access my Files on the P: Drive again?
Files located on the P: Drive will be available for access by 6:00PM on Sunday, October 23rd. It is likely that your files will be available earlier than this but they will definitely be available no later than the date and time above. OIT will send an e-mail to the P: Drive users once the migration is completed notifying everyone of the successful migration.

****How Can I Tell if my Computer is in Active Directory?
After logging into your computer goto My Computer. If you see a drive
letter mapping for H: that looks like the following example then your
machine is successfully connected to Active Directory.

Goto My Computer

EXAMPLE: "username on 'uservol.ad.umbc.edu\Home' (H)"

If you don't see this drive mapping then you should contact the OIT
helpdesk at helpdesk@umbc.edu requesting that your PC be added to Active Directory.

****What if I Need Access to Files on the P: Drive During the Migration?
If you require access to files you should place a copy of the file on
your local machine prior to 6:30PM on Friday, October 21, 2005.

If you have questions please contact the HelpDesk if you have any questions.

Michael Carlin

Director of Infrastructure and Support
Office of Information Technology
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Posted by anna at 9:12 AM

September 17, 2005

Fall 2005 TLT Brown Bag Schedule

The Fall 2005 Teaching, Learning and Technology (TLT) Brown Bag Workshop schedule is now available online at www.umbc.edu/brownbag. Learn about academic integrity tutorials, hybrid courses, podcasting, wikis, online practice assignments, effective group learning and more.

Specific workshop topics include:

"Results of a Homegrown Academic Integrity Online Tutorial"
Lark Claassen (Biology)
Thursday, September 22, 2005
12:00 PM

"Improving Student Learning in a Hybrid Delivery Course"
Chris Swan (Geography & Environmental Systems)
Monday, October 10, 2005
1:00 PM

"Podcasting 101: An Introduction and Demo"
Aaron Davis (Apple Computer, Inc.)
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
12:00 PM

"Award-Winning Teachers on Teaching: Ed Orser"
Ed Orser (American Studies)
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
12:00 PM

"Using Wikis in Teaching & Learning"
Philip Farabaugh (Biology), Robin Farabaugh (English), Steve Freeland
(Biology)
Monday, November 07, 2005
12:00 PM

Note: This workshop has been developed by the Provost's Writing in the
Disciplines (WID) program. OIT and the FDC are pleased to co-sponsor the workshop, but since lunch is provided please RSVP online by Nov. 1.

The 1st Annual Shimoff Memorial Brown Bag Workshop
"Learning as Doing: Pedagogical Implications and Online Examples"
Charles Catania (Psychology)
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
12:00 PM

"Designing and Managing Effective Group Learning"
Faculty Panel TBA, moderated by Jack Prostko (Faculty Development Center)
Friday, November 11, 2005
12:00 PM

The TLT Brown Bag workshops are co-sponsored by the Faculty Development Center and Office of Information Technology. For more information, including workshop descriptions, how to register for a workshop, view a video archive of past presentations or sign up for an email announcements/reminder listserve, please visit:

http://www.umbc.edu/brownbag

Light refreshments are provided, but we ask that you register to help us plan accordingly.

Posted by fritz at 10:53 PM

September 12, 2005

Compare Oracle Calendar Clients and Available Features

Before deciding how you will use the Oracle Calendar, you may want to compare different options and features. Oracle Calendar: Feature Comparison briefly summarizes pros and cons for different ways of accessing your calendar.


If you still don't have an account, contact the OIT Help Desk at 410-455-3838 or helpdesk@umbc.edu to place a request.

Posted by anna at 2:13 PM

August 30, 2005

McAfee Virus Scan Upgrade to 8.0.0

McAfee AntiVirus for Windows has been updated to version 8.0.0. This release is offered at no charge to UMBC users and is available for download at myUMBC "Business Services" section. In addition to virus protection, the latest version of McAfee includes tools for preventing spyware and malware from infecting your desktop. Please check minimum system requirements before installing. Also, if you have a different antivirus software, for example, Norton Antivirus, please uninstall this software before installing McAfee.


If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk at 410-455-3838 or helpdesk@umbc.edu

Posted by anna at 9:35 AM

August 25, 2005

Spyware Applications will be Blocked Friday, August 26th

During the past six months OIT has had numerous reports regarding poor performance and unreliability that were shown to caused by spyware, software that may unknowingly send confidential information from you machine.

Spyware often masks itself as a useful tool and people unknowingly
install these programs not realizing the dangers. Given the increasing concern over spyware that is now targeting confidential information on your computer, either your own or files that contain confidential information regarding other members of the UMBC community, OIT is working on a number of steps to protect the campus from spyware. These steps will cause some applications, especially non-standard web browser toolbars designed for Internet Explorer, to stop working.

The steps we will be taking are the following:

Beginning on Friday August 26th, 2005 OIT will begin using our Tipping
Point intrusion prevention system to block most of the common Spyware tools that exist. This may result in some of the more common Spyware tools such as Gator, Weather Bug, 180 Search Assistant and Hotbar to stop working. While most Spyware tools do provide some legitimate functionality (e.g. Internet Searches, Weather Reports) they also contain more nefarious programming code that records and transmits your browsing history back to the company. In some cases installation of a seemingly legitimate application can result in keyboard sniffing software being installed that can in turn provide unknown external sites with all of your keyboard activity (e.g. Logins and Passwords to mail, banking etc.).

One of the best preventative measures that you can take is to make sure that your Anti Virus is up to McAfee version 8 and that you have
installed spybot search and destroy. This software can be found at:
http://www.umbc.edu/oit/security We are launching this change before the semester to protect students before they move in, and faculty and staff prior to the start of semester. If you have any questions please contact the OIT help desk at helpdesk@umbc.edu

--
Michael Carlin
Director of Infrastructure and Support
Office of Information Technology

Posted by anna at 9:28 AM

OIT Pilots Use of Blogs & Wikis in Blackboard

This year, OIT is piloting a third-party Blackboard extension (or "Building Block") that provides blogs (diary-like web journals) and wikis (group developed websites) contained in Blackboard courses or communities and only visible to enrolled members. Developed by a company called Learning Objects, their "Campus Pack" building block is a set of tools that are designed to foster greater communication between and among Blackboard users.

Bob Armstrong

Journal LX enables users to create, share and comment on blogs within a Blackboard course or community. More Information.

Backpack LX is a dynamic blog and web site builder that permits students and instructors to create and showcase journals and web sites in a central location of the course or community.

OIT will be evaluating the Campus Pack suite of tools during the 2005-06 academic year, and invites instructors/managers and students/members of Blackboard sites to give us feedback on the product. For help or feedback, contact Bob Armstrong (rarmstro@umbc.edu or 410.455.3885). You may also want to see the Team LX and Journal LX help sheets on the UMBC Blackboard Help Tab.

FYI: To see how colleges and universities are using collaborative tools like blogs and wikis in the classroom, see the June 24, 2005 Chronicle of Higher Education special section "Ten Techniques to Change Your Teaching" (login required to view the issue online, or visit the New Media Learning & Development office in ECS 101). Sample articles include the following:

THESE LESSONS CLICK: Thanks to his students' remote-control devices, a biology instructor at the College of Lake County, Ill., can measure the class's comprehension instantly.

C3PO 4 EE101: Electrical engineering students at Montana State University have a lot of knowledge to navigate, and so do their robots.

PIXEL PERFECT: A University of Denver art-history professor exchanges the slide projector for more flexible digital technology.

CUT! Education students at the University of Texas at Austin are learning to tell stories through laptop-produced videos.

CRUDE BEHAVIOR: Computer simulation turns students at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School into oil executives in a tense negotiation.

AMERICAS ONLINE: Videoconferencing allows students at the University of Maryland and the Mexico City campus of the Monterrey Institute of Technology to model a joint business venture.

FACE TO FACE: Thanks to video over IP, the Virginia Community College System can affordably offer an education course team-taught in several linked locations.

A BUILDING TOOL: Three-dimensional software helps students at Carleton College design an environmentally friendly house.
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? Students in an online constitutional-law class from Concord University listen up and write back.

PEN IN HAND: Tablet PC's allow an English professor at CUNY's College of Staten Island to mark up papers the old-fashioned way -- but in a new-fashioned way.

Posted by fritz at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2005

BSG Staffing Updates

Todd Haddaway
Todd is the new Assistant Director for the Business Systems Group effective June 1, 2005. Todd has held many positions in OIT dating back to the late 1980’s as a student programmer up to his last position, Manager of Database Technologies. Todd’s experience with various technologies, passion for organization, and leadership are a great combination for his new position. Todd is responsible for all Infrastructure Technologies for the Business Systems Group.

Ann Byron
Ann officially joined the Business Systems Group as member of the HR Technical Team effective July 5, 2005. Ann’s previous position was a Senior PeopleSoft Analyst & Developer. Ann comes to UMBC with 20+ years in IT, the last 15 implementing enterprise PeopleSoft Human Resource, Benefits, and Payroll applications for diverse organizations. Ann will be instrumental in the upcoming major initiative for the HR department involving the Payroll Electronic Interface (EI) to the Central Payroll Bureau. Ann has been at UMBC since last fall as a contractor giving her a good foundation for UMBC business processing. Ann is a welcome addition to our HR team.

Darryl Del Pino
Darryl officially joined the Business Systems Group as a member of the HR Technical Team effective May 23, 2005. Darryl’s previous position was a Senior Consultant specializing in the technical aspects of Human Resource Management System software implementations. Over the past seven years he has developed, implemented, and customized various Human Resources information systems using PeopleSoft HRMS. Darryl is a Certified PeopleSoft 8 consultant in the areas of Technology and PeopleTools. Darryl is a welcome addition to our HR team.

Matthew Riedel
Matt officially joined the Business Systems Group as a member of the Infrastructure Team effective August 4, 2005. Matt comes to us from Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, NM where he performed system administration for a large, technically diverse customer base that supported other computer scientists as well as administrative and other technical staff. Matt’s background with systems and storage fit very well with UMBC’s newest architecture put in place for the PeopleSoft initiative. Matt is a welcome addition to our Infrastructure team.

Kevin Joseph
Kevin officially re-joined the Business Systems Group as a member of the Infrastructure Team effective June 20, 2005. As many of you know Kevin has done several tours of duties at UMBC over the last 19 years. When not at UMBC Kevin was a senior technical consultant with Computing Options Company. Kevin’s vast technical background, coupled with a wide breadth of University Business Systems knowledge (UMBC and others) should prove to be a winning combination. Kevin is a welcome addition to our Infrastructure team.

Posted by mikec at 3:09 PM

BSG Infrastructure

Business Systems Infrastructure team, led by Todd Haddaway, will be upgrading the storage system for HR and Finance systems in the early fall 2005 timeframe. In addition to enhanced performance this upgrade will provide more predictable performance as development and production systems are further separated. Another benefit of this setup will be better Disaster Recovery options as the development storage as well as some select servers are relocated to a secondary computer room in Public Policy.

Posted by mikec at 3:09 PM

Retriever

UMBC’s team, led by Stacy Long (OIT) and Bob Preston (Finance) placed a new version of Financial Services Retriever product into production in July 2005. The major advantages of this version are daily updates versus weekly updates, enhanced online response time, and a foundation for expanding Financial Services overall reporting solutions.

Posted by mikec at 3:08 PM

Payroll Electronic Interface

UMBC’s team, led by Lance Rand (OIT), Lisa Drouillard (HR), and Rochelle Sanders (HR), are working steadfastly with UMCP to get approval to have an electronic payroll interface to the State’s Central Payroll Bureau. Once this is in place UMBC will no longer need the “Green Journals” and there will be a single system for Payroll. This is an intensive testing and coordination activity involving many different agencies and all the associated complexities. UMBC is currently in testing with UMCP and it is hoped that this will be completed by early Fall 2005 to make way for the next level of testing with CPB.

Posted by mikec at 3:07 PM

R25 Scheduling

For several years UMBC has moved toward using the product known as R25 from CollegeNet for Campus Scheduling. University Commons and Registrar’s Offices have led the way, many times taking some bumps in the road as we refine the use of this tool at UMBC.

Good news is that previous performance issues associated with the Web Viewer seemed to be resolved at this time. The solution proved to be a complete team effort. Led by Cheri Putro (OIT), Michelle Brown (UC), and Al Frankel (Registrar Office) the teams worked with the Business Systems Infrastructure group to upgrade the server and reconfigure some settings with the support of the vendor. OIT has gotten many positive comments recently associated with the improved performance.

Next steps include working with the Scheduling Committee on a wider deployment. With performance issues behind us it is expected that strategies to achieve this will be more acceptable. Some items to be considered include training, communication, security, documentation, and procedures for the process.

Posted by mikec at 3:06 PM

Computer Replacement Initiative

Computer replacement machines are currently being configured with OIT’s image. However, given the start of semester rush OIT will delay installation of these machines until the week of September 19th when call volumes begin to subside and more staff will be available to assist with the installations.

Posted by mikec at 3:02 PM

New Pay for Print System in OIT Labs

OIT has implemented the Pharos pay for print system in OIT labs located in the Engineering building. This is the same system that the library has been using for several years. Rather than ringing a bell and waiting to be helped customers can now walk up to a print release station located in ENG 019, login and swipe their UMBC One Card to pay for their printouts.

Posted by mikec at 2:59 PM

Novell to Active Directory Migration

During the past year OIT has been taking steps toward our ultimate migration from Novell to Microsoft’s Active Directory environment for printing and file sharing. This has included a new IBM Storage Area Network, new Dell 2650 servers, and the addition of over 2,000 Windows 2000 and XP desktops to Active Directory.

Throughout the months of June and July all Novell print queues were migrated successfully to Active Directory. In addition during the evening of July 29th all data located on the Novell home volume (i.e. H: Drive) was migrated to Active Directory.

Given the start of semester rush OIT will not be migrating any further data until late in September. We anticipate moving all of the PeopleSoft data (i.e. P: Drive) in late September and all campus shares (i.e. I: Drive) in October. Once the campus shares have been completed the campus will be 100% migrated off of Novell.

Posted by mikec at 1:58 PM

July 26, 2005

Working with Email: You have Options!

Haven't found an email client that suites you or your current email software not giving you all the features you need? OIT offers several clients to make working with email more efficient. Selecting a software requires you to examine a number of important factors. Consider how you work with email daily. The following key points may help guide you in your selection.

Where will you be using the email client?
Is the application secure?
Does the program handle attachments?
Is the interface laid out well? Is it intuitive?
Does the program contain tools for fighting spam?

OIT has compiled a chart to compare functions among all the clients used by the UMBC computing community. Please visit our Email Client Comparison Chart at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/helpdesk/emailchart.html. If you have additional questions about these applications, please contact the OIT Help Desk at 410-455-3838 or helpdesk@umbc.edu.

Posted by anna at 7:16 AM

July 12, 2005

Dealing with Email while Out of Town/on Vacation

If you're heading out of town this summer for vacation or a conference, there are a few ways of dealing with your email:

Send Out a Vacation Email Message
You may want to set up a vacation email message, automatically informing anyone who emails you that you are away and not checking your mail regularly. To do so, visit Enabling Your Vacation Message and follow the simple directions. Note, however, that the vacation message will be sent to anyone who writes you, including spammers and viruses, which may increase your spam and the number of error messages you receive while gone.

Check Your Mail While Away
The simplest way to check your UMBC email while away from your home or office is via Webmail, the campus Web-based email client. Alternatively, you can have your campus email forwarded to another account, such as your home DSL or cable modem account or a Web-based account such as Yahoo! or Hotmail; visit Forwarding Your Account and follow the instructions provided.

Don't Forget to Check Your Quota!
Remember that your UMBC email account has limited space for storing messages, so to avoid going over your quota and losing new emails, you should check your email once a week--not necessarily to answer messages, but to delete those you don't need. You can find your email quota on the Web at http://my.umbc.edu and click the "View my Current Disk Usage and Quota" link.

Posted by anna at 8:13 AM

New Students: Need your myUMBC ID?

New Students who wish to get started with accessing their UMBC email and accounts can get started by visiting OIT's Getting Started page and following the Create/Manage Your Account link.

Posted by anna at 8:07 AM

June 29, 2005

New Internet Worm Scam

Websense® Security Labs^Ù has received reports of a new wave of email
scams disguised as Microsoft Security Bulletins. Users receive an email message which urges the immediate installation of a cumulative security patch. Users who execute the Trojan become infected with an SDBot variant, which is currently undetected by major anti-virus vendors. This Trojan/Bot allows complete unauthorized access to the machine.

SAMPLE E-Mail Scam Body:
-----------------------------
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-039: New patch against W32/Sober,
W32/Zafi, W32/Mytob.
Issued: June 26, 2005
Updated: June 26, 2005
Version: 1.0
-----------------------------

Please do not download or install any file of unknown origin. Many of
these scam e-mails are very convincing. If in doubt contact the OIT Help Desk at 410-455-3838.

Posted by anna at 1:44 PM

June 1, 2005

Position Opening: Campus Web Architect

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Office of Information Technology (OIT) seeks a Campus Web Architect (New Media Specialist) to take lead responsibility of the end-user experience for UMBC's web site and campus web portal. Application Deadline: June 24, 2005. More information.

Posted by fritz at 5:03 PM

May 20, 2005

Online Tech Training for UMBC Faculty & Staff

Need to brush up on Excel? How about managing your time & projects? If you need to learn IT or business productivity skills, but don't have time or budget to attend in-class training, you can now learn online with SkillSoft. UMBC recently joined other USM schools using SkillSoft. With over 1,800 titles to choose from, SkillSoft is open to all UMBC faculty and staff. Use it on your own or setup a professional development plan between supervisor and employee. SkillSoft can even be used "off-line" and then synched up "on-line, and you can print certificates of completion. For more information, visit http://www.umbc.edu/skillsoft or http://www.umbc.edu/training (includes online demo). To login, use your full UMBC email address for userid & password (e.g., youruserid@umbc.edu). For more information or help, send email to training@umbc.edu.

Posted by fritz at 1:42 PM

May 11, 2005

24-Hour Labs and Support Ends May 13, 2005

Computer labs in Engineering and Help Desk 24-hour support will end on Friday, May 13. Our new hours of operation for Finals will be:

Sunday - 12 noon to 12 midnight
Monday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
Tuesday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
Wednesday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
Thursday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
Friday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
Saturday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight

Hours of operation will be observed from Saturday, May 14th until Saturday, May 28th. Summer hours will start on Sunday, May 29th.

If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk at 410-455-3838 or send email to helpdesk@umbc.edu.

Posted by anna at 9:18 AM | Comments (0)

April 6, 2005

New Email Worm

Dear Campus Community,

By now many of you have seen a number of suspicious e-mails that have
appeared in your mailbox since yesterday. All of them have mysterious
attachments with files ending in .scr, .pif or .zip. The most common one has a subject line of "Hello" and a zip file attached.

At this time this appears to be a zero day worm. This means is that the worm is so new that McAfee does not have a DAT file new enough to detect it. Therefore, if you open the attachment you will get infected.

The good news is that infection can easily be avoided by simply not
clicking or opening any suspicious attachments. Please Do Not under any circumstances open an e-mail attachments that you are not expecting.

Remember that just because the e-mail is from a familiar address does
not mean that that person actually sent it. Hackers can fake the "From" line. If in doubt send an e-mail to the person asking if they really sent you the attachment before you open it.

--
Michael Carlin
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Office of Information Technology
Director of Infrastructure and Support Services

Posted by anna at 9:09 AM

March 31, 2005

Spring '05 Blackboard User Survey

OIT is conducting a UMBC Blackboard User Survey until Monday, April 4, 2005. To complete the survey, login to blackboard and select the relevant student/member or instructor/manager survey links on the My Institution page, or inside ANY Blackboard course or community.

Your participation will help improve the service, and be compared with our last user survey in spring 2003. If you have questions or concerns, send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.

Posted by fritz at 9:20 AM

What it's Like to Teach an Online or Hybrid Course (4/6, 1 p.m.)

In light of the USM Board of Regents proposal for more online or hybrid (part online, part face-to-face) courses, what's it like to teach and learn this way? Faculty from UMBC's three online master's programs in Emergency Health Services (Maguire), Education (Oliva) and Information Systems (Seaman) will describe their experiences, and share their thoughts on what it would take to support this mode of delivery for UMBC's undergraduate curriculum. Wednesday, April 6, 1 p.m., ECS 023. To register, visit http://www.umbc.edu/brownbag.

Related Information:

For more information, visit Goucher's Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology or send email to ctlt@goucher.edu

Posted by fritz at 9:11 AM

March 28, 2005

Tip: How Often to BackUp

Ask yourself how much information you could bear to lose. That's how often you ...

Ask yourself how much information you could bear to lose. That's how often you should back up your data. If you use your computer to create irreplaceable data files (such as lengthy word processing documents), you may want daily backups of these important files. If other members of your household have access to your computer, and your important data files, you may want to increase the frequency of your backups. If you use your PC primarily for cruising the Internet or sending email, or if you use it on an infrequent basis, a weekly or even monthly backup may be sufficient. If you maintain original company data files (client reports, letters, and so on) at home, or you run a small business from your computer, backups are especially important.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

March 21, 2005

Tip: How To Use A Search Engine

Most search engine users type two- or three-word phrases, and that can be good ...

Most search engine users type two- or three-word phrases, and that can be good enough most of the time. But too often, these simple phrase searches yield thousands and thousands of hits, way too many to effectively sort. So familiarize yourself with the advanced search options of your favorite search engine. Don't let the word 'advanced' scare you off: You can learn your way around these search functions in minutes. Just read the help provided by your search site. For instance, on Google you can search for an exact phrase by putting it in quotes, limit hits to a particular language, or just show pages that have been recently updated. (Details about advanced searching on Google are at www.google.com/advanced_search.)

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

March 17, 2005

Engineering 021 and Help Desk Open during Spring Break Week

Computer lab in Engineering room 021 and OIT Help Desk will be open during Spring ...

Computer lab in Engineering room 021 and OIT Help Desk will be open during Spring Break week. The hours of operation are:

• Sunday, March 20 - 12 noon to 5:00pm
• Monday, March 21 - 8:00am to 5:00pm
• Tuesday, March 22 - 8:00am to 5:00pm
• Wednesday, March 23 - 8:00am to 5:00pm
• Thursday, March 24 - 8:00am to 5:00pm
• Friday, March 25 - 8:00am to 5:00pm
• Saturday, March 26th - resume normal hours of operation - 8:00am to 12 midnight

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

March 14, 2005

Tip: What To Do About "Bounced" Emails

Some Internet Service Provider (ISP) subscribe to spam-blocking services. We�ve all seen spam: ...

Some Internet Service Provider (ISP) subscribe to spam-blocking services. We�ve all seen spam: the messages that guarantee a product will help you earn millions or win a free trip to Hawaii. Some spam-blocking services keep track of the each domain name (identifying title given to a system of email servers) from which spammers send email. ISPs who subscribe to these services might decide to block any email they receive from these domain names. Unfortunately, if you happen to have the same domain name as a spammer, the ISP also may block your email and send you an email message. For example, let�s assume that the spammer is winbigmoney@companyname.com, and your email address is yourname@companyname.com. An ISP may block all email from companyname.com, leaving you out in the cold. Your best bet is to contact your ISP or email administrator to see if anyone has blacklisted your domain name.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

March 7, 2005

Tip: Should I Let WinXP Report Errors To Microsoft?

In WinXP, Windows offers to report any errors directly to Microsoft any time an error ...

In WinXP, Windows offers to report any errors directly to Microsoft any time an error occurs. This may or may not be helpful depending on the situation. Regardless, due to privacy concerns, error reports are completely anonymous, and only a handful of Microsoft developers have access to these error reports. Don't expect Microsoft to get back to you concerning an error report. Microsoft developers, however, may notice trends in submitted reports over time. They can use this information in the future to fix common errors. Remember, the information you submit in these reports is confidential. If you do contact Microsoft's tech support department directly, they will not have access to the report you submitted.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

February 28, 2005

Computer Labs and Help Desk closing at 12 noon, Monday, February 28th

UMBC is closing the campus at 12 noon, Monday, February 28th due to inclement weather. ...

UMBC is closing the campus at 12 noon, Monday, February 28th due to inclement weather. Our computer labs and Help Desk support will be closing at the same time. We will resume our office hours on 8:00am, Tuesday, March 1st.

If you still need support, please send an email to helpdesk@umbc.edu.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

February 24, 2005

Computer Labs and Help Desk will be closing at 2:30pm Feb 24th

Due to inclement weather, OIT Computer labs and Help Desk will be closing today at ...

Due to inclement weather, OIT Computer labs and Help Desk will be closing today at 2:30pm, Thursday, February 24th. We will reopen the facilities at 7:00am, Friday, February 25th.

If you need technical support, please browse through our online documentation on this page. If you are not able to find a solution, please send an email to helpdesk@umbc.edu.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

February 18, 2005

Computer Labs and Help Desk Hours of Operation - Spring 2005

OIT Help Desk and the computer lab in Engineering room 021 is open 24 hours. ...

OIT Help Desk and the computer lab in Engineering room 021 is open 24 hours. All other labs may be opened by request depending on lab usage.

Hours of Operation for ENGR 005, 104, 104a, 114, 122, 122a, 333, 336

• Sunday - by request
• Monday - 6:30am - 10:00pm
• Tuesday - 6:30am - 10:00pm
• Wednesday - 6:30am - 10:00pm
• Thursday - 6:30am - 10:00pm
• Friday - 6:30am - 10:00pm
• Saturday - by request

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

Scheduled Downtime for myUMBC for Saturday, February 26th at 8:00 am

As part of ongoing myUMBC maintenance, OIT is scheduling myUMBC downtime for Saturday, February 26 ...

As part of ongoing myUMBC maintenance, OIT is scheduling myUMBC downtime for Saturday, February 26 from 8:00am to 9:00am.

If you need to access sites linked from myUMBC, you can click the link below or enter the web address in your browser.

• Blackboard http://blackboard.umbc.edu
• PeopleSoft Finance http://psfsprd.umbc.edu
• PeopleSoft Human Resources http://pshrprd.umbc.edu
• Retriever http://psepmprd.umbc.edu
• Webmail http://webmail.umbc.edu

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

February 13, 2005

myUMBC Down 2/18, 8 p.m. - 2/19, 5 p.m.

To upgrade database hardware and improve performance ...

To upgrade database hardware and improve performance, myUMBC will bedown on Friday,Feb. 18, at 8 p.m. to Saturday, Feb. 19, at 5 p.m.

During this time, you may still access the following services through their alternateweb sites (each requires a UMBC userid & password to login):

If you have any questions, please contact the OIT Help Desk at 410.455.3838 or helpdesk@umbc.edu.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

January 31, 2005

Tip: Desktop - How do I clean it up?

Before you can alleviate your clutter problem, you need to determine which Desktop elements you ...

Before you can alleviate your clutter problem, you need to determine which Desktop elements you want to keep and which you no longer need. You can then dispatch them to their proper places—or throw them away.

Windows XP users have the Desktop Cleanup Wizard, which can help with this cleanup task. The Desktop Cleanup Wizard is easy to use, but you’ll gain more control if you manage your Desktop manually. The wizard works only with shortcuts and not original programs, files, or folders. Additionally, it doesn’t delete or relocate unwanted shortcuts. Rather, it moves them to a folder on your Desktop, which you can do yourself just as easily. If you want to follow the manual method we recommend, or if you are not using WinXP on your computer, read on.

You can deal with Desktop items on a case-by-case basis, but it’s just as easy, and it is safer, to create two temporary folders on your Desktop and then move all the Desktop elements into one or the other folder. (Exclude the Recycle Bin and My Computer icons, which should remain on your Desktop.) That way, you won’t accidentally delete an important element or move it into the recesses of your hard drive. To create each folder, right-click an empty area on your Desktop, select New, and click Folder. Name this first folder “Keep.” Repeat the steps to create a second folder, and then name it “Toss” (or something similar). Now, drag all your Desktop elements, one by one, into one folder or the other.

Once you determine a fate for each element, double-click the Toss folder and confirm that everything in it is destined for the trash. If the items you are throwing away are shortcuts (look for a small arrow in the lower-left corner of the icon), make a note to also remove or uninstall the originals if you no longer want the items on your system.

Items without a shortcut arrow are actual originals of programs, folders, or files. If you do not have copies of these stored elsewhere on your hard drive, you will be discarding your only copy if you throw them away. Make copies, if necessary, store them elsewhere, and then drag the items to the Recycle Bin.

If you are eliminating original programs, you should uninstall rather than delete them by using each program’s uninstall utility (check the program’s documentation) or letting Windows remove them. To have Windows remove unwanted programs, open the Start menu, select Settings, click Control Panel, and double-click Add/Remove Programs. (In WinXP open the Start menu, select Control Panel, and double-click Add Or Remove Programs.) Locate and delete the programs, one by one. When you are finished, check to see if the program icon is still present in your Desktop folder. If the icon still exists, you can delete it.

If there is no uninstall utility for a program and one is not present in your Add/Remove Programs list, you can contact the program’s manufacturer for removal instructions (if any are available). Otherwise, you can delete the icon.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

January 27, 2005

Moving into the Residence Halls? Security Steps to Take Before Plugging Your Computer to the Network.

ul>

• Have an antivirus software installed
  UMBC has a site license for McAfee Antivirus Software. You can download your copy from myUMBC. After logging in, click on the Business Services tab and locate the McAfee Antivirus link. You can also pickup a copy of the UMBC Security CD from the OIT Help Desk located in Engineering room 020. This media has McAfee version 7 and you can run the install before plugging in your network cable.
• Maintain an up-to-date antivirus software
  To update your McAfee Antivirus Software, go to http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/helpdesk/antivirus/mcafee/index.html#update.
• Periodically check all files in your system for viruses
  To scan your machine for viruses, go to http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/helpdesk/antivirus/mcafee/index.html
• Maintain up to date operating system security patches
  Installation of 'Critical Updates' is required to maintain the security of your system.
  Windows 98/2000/XP/ME users can use the 'Windows Update' web site or the automated update service.
  Mac OS users can use Apple's 'Software Update', security updates are clearly identified.
  Usersof other operating systems need to identify appropriate updates from their vendors and maintain them.
• Respond promptly to reports of suspicious activity with your system

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

January 25, 2005

Spring 2005 Computer Lab and Help Desk Hours of Operation

Our Spring 2005 hours of operation for computer labs and Help Desk are as follows:<...

Our Spring 2005 hours of operation for computer labs and Help Desk are as follows:

• Sunday - 12 noon to 12 midnight
• Monday - 8:00am to 12 midnight
• Tuesday - 8:00am to 12 midnight
• Wednesday - 8:00am to 12 midnight
• Thursday - 8:00am to 12 midnight
• Friday - 8:00am to 12 midnight
• Saturday - 8:00am to 12 midnight

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

January 22, 2005

Internet Access Changes to Walker Avenue on Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Attention Walker Avenue Residents

On Wednesday, January 26th, 2005, OIT will be implementing a ...

Attention Walker Avenue Residents

On Wednesday, January 26th, 2005, OIT will be implementing a new method of authentication for ResNet access in Walker Avenue.

You may recall that during the Fall of 2004 the authentication methoddeployed had several problems. This resulted in OIT removing the needfor authentication from Walker Avenue Resnet. OIT has developed andtested a new method of authentication.

After the changes have been implemented, you will need to go tohttp://resnet.umbc.edu, click on the 'ResNet login' button, and enter your myUMBC login name and password before getting full Internet access.

If you experience any problems after logging in, please contact the OIT Help Desk at x53838

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

January 21, 2005

Novell Downtime beginning Friday, January 21 7:00pm to Sunday, January 23 9:00am

Many of you may recall the severe hardware failure that we suffered with Novell on ...

Many of you may recall the severe hardware failure that we suffered with Novell on September 20, 2004 which lasted for several days.

Since that time OIT has purchased new servers and implemented new storage to mitigate this type of failure in the future.

OIT will be migrating from the old server to the new server beginning Friday, January 21st at 7:00pm. We are scheduled to complete this migration by Sunday, January 23rd at 9:00am.

Between 7:00pm 1/21/05 and 9:00am 1/23/05, Novell file access and printing will be available except for a brief 30-minute outage Saturday morning.

Important! While read access to your Novell files are available during this upgrade, all data must be saved locally (e.g. to your local machine C:/, floppy drive, CDRW, USB drive etc.)

If you save or create data on the Novell servers (H:, I:, P:,)during this period, you risk losing it.

Once the migration has been completed, you may continue to use Novell as in the past. Your drive letters, printers, and files will be the same.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

January 12, 2005

Wireless Network Outage Thursday January 13th, from 7:00am to 7:30am

On Thursday January 13th at 7:00 the campus wireless network will beunavailable. During ...

On Thursday January 13th at 7:00 the campus wireless network will beunavailable. During this time we will be upgrading the version of Code on the Vernier authentication system used in our wireless network. This upgrade should allow PDAs and other devices that use SSL version 3 to work with the vernier without a problem.
We expect the outage to last 10 minutes. After that time, users will be prompted to re-login to the wireless network when they attempt to access any webpage.
Thank You,
Damian Doyle Senior Network Engineer UMBC - OIT

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

Closed for Martin Luther King, Jr Holiday, Monday, January 17

In observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, OIT Computer Labs and Help Desk ...

In observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, OIT Computer Labs and Help Desk will be closed on Monday, January 17th. We will resume our Winter Hours of Operation on Tuesday, January 18th.

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

December 17, 2004

Winter 2005 Hours of Operation

Our Winter Semester schedule will begin on Sunday, January 2, 2005 and ends Saturday, January ...

Our Winter Semester schedule will begin on Sunday, January 2, 2005 and ends Saturday, January 29, 2005!

• Sunday - 12 noon to 10:00pm
• Monday - 8:00am to 10:00pm
• Tuesday - 8:00am to 10:00pm
• Wednesday - 8:00am to 10:00pm
• Thursday - 8:00am to 10:00pm
• Friday - 8:00am to 5:00pm
• Saturday - 8:00am to 5:00pm

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

December 6, 2004

Computer Labs and Help Desk Hours during Finals

OIT Computer Labs and Help Desk will be changing their hours of operation starting Sunday, ...

OIT Computer Labs and Help Desk will be changing their hours of operation starting Sunday, December 12. The new hours will be as follows:

• Sunday - 12 noon to 12 midnight
• Monday - 8 am to 12 midnight
• Tuesday - 8 am to 12 midnight
• Wednesday - 8 am to 12 midnight
• Thursday - 8 am to 12 midnight
• Friday - 8 am to 12 midnight
• Saturday - 8 am to 10 pm

Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

November 24, 2004

Blackboard Security Upgrade: Known Issues & Work-Arounds

font="verdana" size="2">12/01/04 Update

Following the 11/26 ...

12/01/04 Update

Following the 11/26 Bb security upgrade, OIT is aware of a few issues that may be affecting users. We are working closely with Blackboard to resolve these issues as soon as possible, but here is what we know at present.

Known Issues:

1. "Access Denied" Error Message: This error can occur when the user is attempting to log into Blackboard, or (in some cases) access course content after successfully logging into the course.

   Solution: OIT believes this may be related to users who connect with the Millennium Digital Media Internet Service Provider (ISP). We are working with Millennium to resolve this, but if you are a Millennium customer, OIT recommends that you install our Virtual Private Network (VPN) client, which allows you to access a private network like Blackboard, as if you were on site at UMBC.

   If you are getting the "Access Denied" error message and do NOT use the Millennium ISP, please answer the questions below.

2. Loss of links to course content: This seems to be isolated to only a few courses with the problem appearing when the user tries to access the content and an error message tells the user that the requested content is not available.
   Solution: A solution is currently being developed that will give users direct access to the affected content, possibly by linking to a copy of the existing course.

3. Continuous looping: This looping occurs after the user has logged out of Blackboard when using Internet Explorer.

   Solution: If looping action occurs when you logout, simply close the affected browser window and the looping action will be terminated.

4. Gradebook download cannot be viewed in Microsoft Excel:When the Gradebook is downloaded in a tab delimited format, the user may not view the file in Microsoft Excel. The columns in Excel are merged and some characters do not display correctly.

   Solution: If Tab Delimited is selected for the Gradebook download format, follow the steps below:

   • Right-click the Download button.
     
   • Choose Save Link As.
     
   • Save the file.
     
   • Import the file into Excel (or change the file extension and open it in Excel).
     

If you encounter the any of these issues (except the gradebook download problem) please email us at blackboard@umbc.edu with the following information:

1. Are you enrolled in more than one BB course?
   
2. If yes, does the access denied problem occur in all courses or onespecific course?
3. Does this occur on more than one machine, i.e., does this problemoccur across different PCs, Macs etc.?
4. How are you connecting to Bb? (From home over Comcast Cable,Verizon DSL or other ISP, from on-campus, via UMBC Dial-Up, etc.)?

   ---

   To apply a critical security upgrade, the UMBC Blackboard server will be unavailable from Thursday, Nov. 25, at midnight until Friday, Nov. 26, at noon (12 hours total).

   Among other things, the upgrade (known as "App Pack 2") addresses a security issue that -- if we wait to install later -- could affect many users, and would require more downtime to fix when the system is in peak use the last three weeks of the semester.

   While Blackboard has identified "known issues" with the App Pack 2 upgrade, they have also released several "hot fixes" which we will be applying. Still, if we encounter major problems after the upgrade, OIT will "reverse" the upgrade and return to tape backups of the Blackboard system just prior to midnight on Thursday, Nov. 25. If a tape restore is necessary, it would take approximately one (1) hour, be completed no later than Saturday, Nov. 27, at 4 p.m. and will be announced on the Blackboard login page, before and after the restoration.

   Note: Most of the 12 hour downtime will be used to backup the server so OIT can restore it quickly on Saturday if the planned security upgrade is not successful.

   At this point, OIT believes the App Pack 2 upgrade will be successful, but there is a possibility all work done on the system from noon on Friday, Nov. 26 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 27, could be lost if a tape restore is necessary. Consequently, OIT recommends that all users make backups of original files or content posted to the Blackboard server during this time.

   Again, if you do not see an "Upgrade Reversed" message on Blackboard by Saturday, Nov. 27, at 4 p.m., you may assume that all went according to plan.

   If you have any questions or concerns, or encounter a severe disruption of service or functionality after the upgrade, please send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 22, 2004

   Turn Off Your On Campus Machine for the Thanksgiving Break

   Dear Campus Community,

   Don't forget to turn off your machine for the Thanksgiving ...

   Dear Campus Community,

   Don't forget to turn off your machine for the Thanksgiving break. Notonly is this good for the environment but it helps UMBC to conserveeletricity. Turning off your machine will also help us to preventunwanted security incidents from occurring during the break.

   Enjoy your break and have a great holiday.

   Michael Carlin
   Director of Infrastructure and Support
   Office of Information Technology

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 18, 2004

   Thanksgiving Break Schedule for OIT Computer Labs

   Computer labs and support staff will be close on Wednesday, November 24th until 12 midnight. ...

   Computer labs and support staff will be close on Wednesday, November 24th until 12 midnight. We will resume our normal business hours on Saturday, November 27th [8:00 am to 10:00 pm].

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 7, 2004

   Scheduled Downtime for myUMBC and PeopleSoft for Sunday October 10th at 8:00 am

   In order to complete routine maintenance myUMBC will be unavailable from 8am - 10am Sunday October ...

   In order to complete routine maintenance myUMBC will be unavailable from 8am - 10am Sunday October 10th. All myUMBC functions will be offline during this time. Direct Blackboard access will still be available at http://blackboard.umbc.edu.

   PeopleSoft Finance and Human Resources will be unavailable in order to complete other routine maintenance from 8am - 12 noon Sunday October 10th. All PeopleSoft access will be offline during this time. Batch jobs that are running or scheduled to run during this time will be impacted. Please reschedule any impacted batch jobs.

   If you have any questions please contact the UMBC helpdesk at 410-455-3838.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   September 28, 2004

   Blackboard Down for Maintenance: 9/29, 7-7:30 a.m.

   UMBC's blackboard server will be down Wednesday, September 29, from 7 to 7:30 ...

   UMBC's blackboard server will be down Wednesday, September 29, from 7 to 7:30 a.m. for database maintenance.

   We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you continue to experience problems accessing your course after this scheduled downtime, please contact the Help Desk at 410-455-3838.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   September, 28th, 2004: Evening Gaobot Worm Update

   p>We have worked with McAfee technical support for most of the afternoonand evening ...

   We have worked with McAfee technical support for most of the afternoonand evening to try and identify the worm discovered on campus today.McAfee has provided us with an extra DAT file that we have nowdistributed to the campus via UMBC's McAfee server. McAfee believes thatwe have a new variant of the W32/Gaobot.worm which this extra DAT filewill fix.

   Customers that are part of Novell or Active Directory will automaticallyreceive this update on their machine so there is no need to do anythingfurther. Initial testing shows that this extra DAT file does preventmachines from becoming infected and it appears to clean machines thathave already been infected. If you believe your campus machine isinfected please contact the OIT help desk at 410-455-3838. If there ismore than one machine infected within your department please send us asingle list of names so that we may more efficiently manage your call.

   If you have a home machine or an on campus stand alone machine weencourage you to run your updates to receive the newest version of theDAT file. For instructions about how to update your machine go tohttp://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/helpdesk/antivirus/mcafee/index.html in thesection labeled "Updating Virus Definition files with McAfee VirusConsole for Standalone machines"
   OR
   If your machine is running a newer version of McAfee simply right clickon the shield icon located on your task bar and then left click "UpdateNow".

   In order to help prevent the spread of this worm (W32/Gaobot.worm) wehad to change all campus Active Directory machine user accounts fromAdministrators to Users. The worm was using the administrativeprivileges to infect other machines. This may cause certain applicationsto break. If you experience a problem with an application please contactthe OIT help desk at 410-455-3838 or helpdesk@umbc.edu

   Thanks again for your patience,

   Michael Carlin

   --- End of Update ---

   This morning, Tuesday, September 28, 2004 at approximately 9:30am OITbegan receiving calls about Windows machines that were freezing orsimply not connecting to the Internet. At present this appears to bespread across a small number of departments.

   While there are a number of new low-risk viruses reported none of themachines appear to be exhibiting the symptoms associated with the newviruses. Even more concerning is the fact that all of the infectedmachines have the most up to date patches and anti virus dat filesrunning on them.

   At this point OIT is working to identify and categorize the problem.Once we have determined what we are dealing with a plan will beimplemented. There is a possibility that we may be dealing with what is called a zero day virus. Meaning it is so new that none of the majoranti virus vendors have a method for detecting or cleaning the virus.

   OIT staff are currently working with Symantec, McAfee and other securityresources to identify and resolve this problem. Until we have moreinformation about how this virus is spreading we urge the campuscommunity to be extremely cautious when opening mail from unknownsources or visiting unfamiliar web sites.

   We will keep you informed as we gather more information.

   --Michael CarlinDirector of Infrastructure and SupportOffice of Information Technology

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   September 20, 2004

   11:00 am 9/23/04 Update regarding Novell Failure

   Start New Update ---

   I wanted to give you a progress update. While not much ...

   --- Start New Update ---

   I wanted to give you a progress update. While not much has changed sincethe last update I feel it is important to provide everyone with somefeedback just to let you know where we stand.

   Last night was a good night so far as the restore process goes. If wecontinue at our present speeds we are hopeful that most if not all fileaccess will be available by noon Friday, September 24th.

   The OIT staff involved in this recovery have been here 24 hours a daysince the beginning of this unfortunate incident. They will continue inthis manner until all services have been fully restored to the campuscommunity. I would like to thank everyone for their support. We havereceived several e-mails expressing thanks for the hard work of the staffhere at OIT.

   --- End New Update ---

   Finally I am able to greet you with some good news. We are a littleahead of schedule and have successfully restored the USER volume (i.e.H: drive) access. If you do not have your H: drive try rebooting yourmachine and logging back in. If you still do not have access pleasecontact the OIT help desk to report this issue.

   Printing was restored yesterday and is available for use.

   At this time we have restored several of the large departmental shares(e.g. I:, J:, K: etc.) and are working to restore the remainder of thedepartmental share drives. Once we have more information as to theavailability of these files we will let you know.

   Please note that while data is becoming available to you via yournetwork drive letters OIT is still restoring other data to the serversconcurrently. You may experience some performance loss as a result ofthis process. Until we have completed the entire restore we encourageNovell users to copy only files that you may require during the next dayor two to your local desktop. Please do not copy all data from Novell toyour local PC as this will severely degrade performance. Once we havecompleted the restore you may continue to use Novell as in the past.

   As of 2:00pm today, September 21st Novell printing services have beenrestored. Please be sure to power cycle (turn off and back on) anynetwork printers that use Novell before attempting to print via thenetwork. OIT staff has already contacted most departments with networkprinters asking them to power cycle their printers.

   Based on the present restore rate from our backup tapes we anticipatethe USER (i.e. H: Drive) volume to be available for use by approximatelynoon Wednesday, September 22nd. This means that all personal filesstored on the H: drive should be available. We chose to restore thisvolume first due the relatively small size and thus faster restore timeof the volume as compared to the much larger shared departmental volumethat will take multiple days to restore.

   Unfortunately, based on current restore rates departmental shared drives(e.g. I:, J:, K: etc.) may not be available before this weekend. OITstaff will continue to work in 24 hour shifts to manage this process.Future updates will be sent as we know more. We again apologize for theproblems this has created.

   If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at the helpdesk, 410-455-3838 or helpdesk@umbc.edu

   Despite valiant efforts by OIT staff the Novell servers have not beenrestored at this time. After receiving the replacement hardware withinfour hours of our call to Dell we brought up the replaced drive array(PowerVault). Despite just having most of the internal hardwarereplaced, the PowerVault subsequently failed during the restore. As aresult the staff continued to work with the on site Dell supporttechnician throughout the night and into the early morning.

   At this point we have begun the restore from tape backups but do notanticipate Novell being available during the business day on Tuesday,September 21, 2004. We apologize for the inconvenience that this hascaused. The staff are doing everything they can to restore services asquickly as possible by working around to clock to meet this goal.

   --Michael CarlinDirector of Infrastructure and SupportOffice of Information Technology

   Dell technical support has confirmed our assessment that the drive array which is attached to Novell lost its' configuration. The result being that all of the drives on the array can not be seen by the Novell servers (this is a bad thing).

   Unfortunately, this means that all data or work that was created ormodified after our last complete backup of Novell at 1:00am Mondaymorning has been lost.

   Presently the drive array has been brought back up and it appears to be functioning properly. The next step is to begin restoring the data and volumes from our tape backups. We anticipate this taking the entire evening and morning but are hopeful that it will be completed by the start of business tomorrow.

   Again we apologize for the interruption but please know that our staffare diligently working on the problem and will continue to do so untilall services have been restored.

   If you have questions please contact the OIT help desk at 410-455-3838.--Michael CarlinDirector of Infrastructure and SupportOffice of Information Technology

   At approximately noon today we experienced a hardware failure on thedisk array attached to Novell. Presently all Novell services areunavailable (e.g. printing, file access). OIT staff are currentlyworking to diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, at this time we do nothave an estimated time that services will be restored.

   Once we have diagnosed the failure and worked with Dell support we will be better able to provide an estimated restore time. As new information is available we will notify you via this e-mail list and the help desk.

   We apologize for the problems that this is causing.--Michael CarlinDirector of Infrastructure and Support

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 31, 2004

   Online Financial Scams and Windows XP SP2 Updates

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   Windows XP Service Pack 2:
   While there are some caveats that exist regarding Service Pack 2 (SP2) forWindows XP the results have been generally positive. In order to assist our XPusers we have created a Web page that outlines our general recommendations.Please visit OIT's Service Pack 2 site at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/winxpsp2/and http://www.umbc.edu/oit/article.html?news_id=157
   
   Online Financial Scams"Phishing":
   There has been an increase in e-mails to UMBC account holders asking forpersonal financial information. Most recently the e-mails appear to belegitimate requests for credit card information from eBay. Last month it wasCitiBank. Please do not under any circumstances provide financial informationto unsolicited sources. These types of scams are known as phishing. Moreinformation can be found at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/article.html?news_id=149
   
   Good luck with the start of semester!
   
   Michael Carlin
   Director of Infrastructure and Support
   Office of Information Technology
   
   

    

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 30, 2004

   OIT Windows XP Service Pack 2 Recommendations

   html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:...

   On August 8^th, Microsoftannounced the imminent release of service pack 2 (SP2) for computers runningWindows XP operating system. SP2 provides a number of new or enhanced securityfeatures, such as integrated firewall support, a new security console, and configuresWindows XP to be a more secure operating system. OIT has been testing SP2 onsoftware we commonly use at UMBC and have found only a few issues:

    

   1.    The Cisco VPN client is not recognized by the SP2 firewall andusers must manually configure the security console setting to allow this towork;

   2.    The security console does not recognize the most common version ofMcAfee deployed on campus, version 4.5. As a result, it reports that virusprotection is not enabled when in fact it is.

   3.    AFS Clients older than 1.3.70 do not work. Upgrading to the newestAFS client resolves this problem.

    

   Beyond the UMBC specific software tested there have beennumerous reports of SP2 interfering with different vendor applications.Microsoft has technical articles on this at the URL:

   http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=884130&product=windowsxpsp2

    

   Visit UMBC痴 website on Windows XP Service Pack 2 issues at:

   http://www.umbc.edu/oit/winxpsp2/

    

   The key question to answer is whether it makes sense toupdate your computer with SP2. Here are five categories of machines and ourrecommendation:

    

   Home Computers withHigh-Speed Internet Access (Cable or DSL)

    

   If you have high-speed Internet access and do not have ahardware firewall for your computer we recommend that you upgrade to SP2.Computers connected with high-speed Internet are most at risk so the addedsecurity of SP2 is beneficial.

    

   Home Computers usinga dial-up modem

    

   Home computers are still vulnerable to security issues,though because they are not on the Internet at all times they are lessvulnerable than those with high-speed Internet access. Due to the size of thisupdate, approximately 80 megabytes, we don稚 recommend downloading this bymodem (it will take about at least a day). The OIT Helpdesk, ECS 020, will haveloaner CD痴 available for people on campus to check out and take home. Thiswill greatly speed the process of updating you machine. Please call thehelpdesk, 410-455-3838, to reserve a copy. We expect this to have these CD痴 byearly September.

    

   Student Computers inthe Resident Halls

    

   Students running Windows XP should run the OIT security CDand install the latest version of McAfee and the Windows Updates (SP1). Doingthis will enable your computer to get automatic updates of critical patchesfrom Microsoft, including SP2. OIT recommends that you install SP2; however youshould review the list of programs impacted and make certain there will be noproblems. OIT has supplied students with instructions for how to delay the SP2download for 120 days if you have concerns.

    

   Faculty and StaffUsing the UMBC Novell Network

    

   OIT will automatically schedule the SP2 update to occursometime after the first two weeks of the semester have completed. We will dothis in small groups based on the benefit of activating the firewall.

    

   Faculty and StaffNot Using the UMBC Novell Network

    

   OIT recommends that you install the SP2 update on yourcomputer after reviewing the applications it impacts. Faculty and staff cancontact the OIT helpdesk, (x53838), and request a copy of the OIT security CDfor Windows. We will send you a copy through inter-campus mail. This CD willprovide the latest release of anti-virus software and configure your machine toreceive automatic patches. Alternately, if you would like to have updates toyour machine tested by OIT you can contact the helpdesk and request that yourmachine be configured to use the OIT System Update Service.

    

    

    

    

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 25, 2004

   Blackboard Down: 7-9 a.m. on 8/26 & 8/27

   To get ready for the new semester, Blackboard will be down from 7 to 9 ...

   To get ready for the new semester, Blackboard will be down from 7 to 9 a.m. on Thursday, August 26, and Friday, August 27. The time will be used to install memory and processor upgrades to the system.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 20, 2004

   Update on Computer Room Power Outage Today, August 20

   Today, August 20, 2004 at approximately 10:30am, all electrical power was inadvertently shutdown to ...

   Today, August 20, 2004 at approximately 10:30am, all electrical power was inadvertently shutdown to the main OIT computer rooms in the Engineering building. It was a mistake resulting from Fire Sprinkler and Smoke Detector testing being performed in this building. The Emergency Power Off switch was triggered when a smoke detector located under the computer room raised floor was 'tested'. The good news is that the system worked as it was designed to in the event of a fire. The bad news is that it was tested unintentionally and resulted in several hours of unscheduled down time to the campus.
   Presently all systems are back online except for Corporate/Oracle Calendar.Unfortunately this system suffered data corruption as a result of thepower outage. This means that any updates to the Corporate/Oracle Calendar system after 2:00am Friday morning were lost and can not be recovered.We are currently restoring this server from our tape back ups as of2:00am last night. We expect this restore to be completed by 5:00pm today.
   We apologize for any problems that this may have caused. If you areexperiencing problems or just have questions please free to contact the OIT Help Desk.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 13, 2004

   Wireless Authentication Required!

   During the past several years OIT has added significant amounts of Wireless access points throughout ...

   During the past several years OIT has added significant amounts of Wireless access points throughout the campus. While wireless provides considerable amounts of freedom from the entanglement of wires, it also brings greater security concerns.Currently our wireless networks do not require any type of authentication (Login). While this is very convenient to legitimate users it also makes it easy for someone with malicious intent to use our networks to launch attacks. This particular concern has been highlighted in the state security policy. In fact this policy now requires that some form of authentication be in place to prevent unauthorized use of wireless networks.OIT has been testing a wireless authentication system since Spring 2004 in UMBC's residential wireless network. Given our success in this area we will begin using the same system for all wireless access across the entire campus. Beginning on Wednesday, August 18th 2004 at 8:00am wireless users will first need to login to our wireless networks before being able to connect to the Internet. This will be done by first launching your computers Web Browser and logging in with your UMBC username and password. We have created a web page documenting this process. http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/desktopsupport/vernier/If you have any questions or problems please contact the OIT helpdesk at helpdesk@umbc.edu or 410-455-3838.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 12, 2004

   Network Downtime Sunday, August 17th 7:00am to 8:00am

   This message is to inform the campus community that there will be a scheduled downtime ...

   This message is to inform the campus community that there will be a scheduled downtime to our Off Campus Router on Sunday morning, August 15th from 7 am to 8 am. This time is being used to install a new piece of equipment. During the outage, there will be no outside internet traffic to/from the UMBC network. The UMBC network will still be up and running.We apologize for any inconveniences. Any questions or concerns should be emailed to telecom@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 9, 2004

   Do Not Install Windows XP Service Pack 2

   Today Microsoft has announced that it will be releasing service pack 2 for Windows XP ...

   Today Microsoft has announced that it will be releasing service pack 2 for Windows XP operating systems. This new service pack only affects XP operating systems. Unfortunately, once installed it automatically turns on certain security features like the Windows XP firewall.Our testing of the Beta release shows that Service Pack 2 breaks Novell printing, Microsoft's Systems Management Server and possibly parts of Peoplesoft.It is very important that you DO NOT install this service pack for Windows XP. Most Windows machines on campus are using OIT's Software Update Services(SUS) to receive patches like this one. These patches are only released once OIT has had the opportunity to test them for potential compatibility issues. If you are currently on Active Directory then you are receiving your patches in this manner, and should be fine.However, for those machines that have been setup to receive their updates from Windows Update automatically, it is important that you DO NOT install this patch. Windows machines configured in this manner would typically be independent machines that do not use Novell to share files.OIT is presently testing the officially released patch. Once we have made sure there are no compatibility issues it will be released to the campus via SUS.If you have a machine that is not on Novell and would like it joined to Active Directory and SUS to benefit from our centrally managed services please e-mail the OIT Help Desk at helpdesk@umbc.edu with your request.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 1, 2004

   Caution! Fraudulent E-mails Requesting Personal Financial Information Have Been Received at UMBC

   Recently there have been a number of fraudulent e-mails received by UMBC account holders. ...

   Recently there have been a number of fraudulent e-mails received by UMBC account holders. These e-mails vary in their wording but the central theme is that they want you to submit personal financial information via a fake, but legitimate looking, website.
   Typically you will receive an e-mail or pop-up from a well known andtrusted financial institution like CitiBank. The message may say thatsomeone has recently tried to access your account and that the financial institution needs to verify your information by clicking on the link included. This type of scam is called "Phishing". You can read more about it at http://www.antiphishing.org/
   Do not under any circumstances provide personal information of any type if you receive a message similar to the type described above. These are well known Internet scams. To read more about some of the most common types please visit http://www.antiphishing.org/ and look at their "Recent Phishing Attacks".
   If you ever have any questions about the legitimacy of such a messageplease contact the financial institution or business in question and ask them.
   Thanks,Michael CarlinOffice of Information TechnologyDirector of Infrastructure and Support

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   July 12, 2004

   Network Downtime Wed July 14 From 1:00am to 6:00am

   Last night we were successful in installing part of the campus firewall. Unfortunately, as is ...

   Last night we were successful in installing part of the campus firewall. Unfortunately, as is often the case we need additional time to debug a problem that occurred after installation. In order to provide us with time to work through this issue with Cisco we will need to work on the firewall from 1:00am to 6:00am (tonight)July 14th, 2004.Please note that during this time most network services, datacommunication between buildings and traffic into and out of the campuswill be unavailable.We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   June 18, 2004

   Network Outage this Sunday (6/20) at 8:00am

   p>This Sunday, June 20th at 8:00am there will be a brief interruption in ...

   This Sunday, June 20th at 8:00am there will be a brief interruption in network service so that we can upgrade software on one of our core routers. This outage will effect all internet traffic, as well as all traffic between the campus buildings and the computer room.

   This outage should only last 5-10 minutes.

   We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, if you have anyquestions or concerns, please email telecom@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   May 22, 2004

   Blackboard 6 Migration Update & Known Issues

   p>

   As of 5/21/04 All Blackboard version 5 courses were migrated ...

   As of 5/21/04 All Blackboard version 5 courses were migrated toverstion 6.

   Version 5 should ONLY be used by Spring '04 faculty and students topost and view grades until Friday, August 27, when it will be shut down.All others should now use version 6 at:

   From any Internet Service Provider (ISP) including on-campus:

   http://bb6.umbc.edu

   The following may still take you to Bb5 if using Comcast or otherISP:

   http://blackboard.umbc.edu
   http://www.umbc.edu/blackboard

   Bb6 Migration Known Issues

   Instructors can't access gradebook in courses migrated from Bb5 toBb6 (but can still do so in Bb5 at http://bb5.umbc.edu).

   Usual Blackboard URLs (e.g., Web Address) don't go to new version 6(see above).

   Can't login to Bb6 if coming directly from Bb5 (solution: quit ALLbrowser windows, restart browser and go DIRECTLY to Bb6 at URLs above).

   If you need help, send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   April 19, 2004

   4/19/04 Update: "Script Produced No Output" Bb Error

   b>04/19/04 Update: For the week of April 19, OIT will be ...

   04/19/04 Update: For the week of April 19, OIT will be rebooting the Blackboard server every day at 5 a.m. During this time, the server will be unavailable for approximately 10 minutes. Thank you for your patience.

   ---

   03/01/04 Update: OIT has decided to re-boot the Blackboard server every Tuesday at 5 a.m., in addition to the weekly re-boot every Friday at the same time announced last month.

   Also, as of today, the "My Calendar" link will no longer be available on the "My Institution" page, though the calendar function will continue to be available in individual courses or organizations.

   In consultation with Blackboard, we believe both actions will help minimize the frequency of the "script produced no output" error which appears during periods of extremely high usage. If you find otherwise, please send email to blackboard@umbc.edu. While we can only provide work arounds at the moment, it will help to know if and when users are receiving this error. Screen shots are also extremely helpful.

   ---

   02/06/04 Update: OIT has decided to re-boot the Blackboard server every Friday at 5:03 a.m. It should take no longer than five (5) minutes for the server to be available, but please plan your usage accordingly.

   Unfortunately, the "script produced no output" error has returned, which is due to periods of high demand like the start of a semester. Blackboard says the problem will be fixed in version 6.1, to be released shortly. However, all but a handful of version 6 pilot courses and community sites are still running on version 5.6 until we migrate in late May.

   We believe the weekly re-boot will solve the problem this semester, but if you get this error message, here's what you can do to usually work around it:

   1. Hit the "back" button on your browser
   2. Click the link that produced the error
   3. If that doesn't work, quit the browser and try again.
   4. Try "reloading" (netscape) or "refreshing" (IE) the frame cotaining the link or task that caused the error (e.g., digital dropbox, adding/removing users, etc.).

   We realize this is inconvenient, but wanted you to know this error is unrelated to the task you're performing. To work around it, try the steps above. If you still have problems send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.

   ---

   9/24/03 Update: OIT has been working with Blackboard on this issue and believes the problem has been resolved. If you find otherwise, please send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.

   Note: If possible, when sending email to OIT via blackboard@umbc.edu or helpdesk@umbc.edu, try to attach a "screen shot" of the error messages you receive. To learn how to do this, click here.

   ---

   OIT is working with Blackboard on the "script produced no output" error many users have received when they try to use certain functions (e.g., digital drop box, attach documents, etc.).

   In the meantime, if you get this error, hit the "Back" button and retry the function that produced the error -- for example, resubmit an item to the digital dropbox -- or refresh the browser, perhaps several times. As some of you may recall, this seemed to work temporarily when we encountered this problem at the start of the Spring 2002 semester.

   Beyond regularly rebooting the server on a daily basis -- we will notify users if and when this will occur -- we will continue to pursue a long-term fix with Blackboard, which acknowledges that the problem is caused by their software during periods of extremely high usage. We regret the inconvenience, but if you have questions or concerns, please send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   April 7, 2004

   Network Outage - Administration Building - Thursday April 8 6:30am - 7:00am

   The entire Administration building will experience a network outage from 6:30am until 7am on ...

   The entire Administration building will experience a network outage from 6:30am until 7am on Thursday April 8, 2004. This time will be used to install a new piece of network equipment in the building.

   We apologize for any inconveniences. Any questions or concerns should be emailed to telecom@umbc.edu.

   Physical Network Staff

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   March 24, 2004

   UMBC Security Updates: Internet Worm Phatbot and the Witty Worm

   This is an important update from OIT regarding security issues relatedto a new Internet ...

   This is an important update from OIT regarding security issues relatedto a new Internet Worm named "PhatBot" and the "Witty" worm that affects the personal firewall product, BlackIce.

   NOTE: Be sure to turn off your machine before leaving the campus tomorrow. Not only will it save electricity during a long weekend but it is the best known computer security for Internet Worms :).

   ---Phatbot Internet Worm---

   A new Internet Worm named Phatbot, also known as Polybot was discovered late last week. This worm, while rated a low-risk by McAfee, has the potential to create a great deal of problems in the near future if left unattended.

   What Does It Do? (Top 3)

   1. Steals account names/passwords from system's network traffic
   2. Disables anti-virus software & changes to avoid anti-virus protection
   3. Performs a Denial of Service attack

   http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=101100

   Ensure that you have Anti Virus software installed and that it hasthe most up to date virus data files. To install McAfee please visithttp://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/desktopsupport/downloads/#virus

   If you have any questions please contact the OIT help desk at 410-455-3838.

   ---Witty Worm Affecting BlackIce and RealSecure Server---

   What Does It Do?

   • Overwrites key hard drive sectors (including system files)

   Why Is It Bad?

   • Random/bad data written out after buffer overflow may crash thesystem and cause permanent errors and blue screens on your PC resulting in it being left inoperable.

   If you are using BlackIce please be sure to patch your system. If you require more information regarding this please visit the reference links below.

   References:
   http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/alerts/id/167
   http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.witty.worm.html
   http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/150326
   http://www.eeye.com/html/Research/Advisories/AD20040226.html
   http://www.eeye.com/html/Research/Upcoming/20040213.html
   http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/alerts/id/165
   

   Thanks,Michael CarlinDirector of Infrastructure and SupportOffice of Information Technology

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   March 16, 2004

   Downtime for Biological Sciences Building Wednesday from 6:30am to 7:00am

   This Wednesday there will be a brief outage of the Biological SciencesBuilding network so ...

   This Wednesday there will be a brief outage of the Biological SciencesBuilding network so that we can upgrade the software on the networkequipment in the building. The outage will NOT effect the MartinSchwartz Hall.

   We apologize for any inconveniences. Any questions or concerns should be emailed to telecom@umbc.edu.

   Thank You,Physical Networks Staff

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   March 15, 2004

   Spring Break Hours of Operation

   OIT Help Desk and selected computer labs will be open during Spring Break. Please make ...

   OIT Help Desk and selected computer labs will be open during Spring Break. Please make note of changes starting March 21, 2004.

   • Sunday
     March 21 12noon - 5:00 pm
   • Monday
     March 22 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
   • Tuesday
     March 23 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
   • Wednesday
     March 24 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
   • Thursday
     March 25 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
   • Friday
     March 26 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
   • Saturday
     March 27 8:00 am - 12 midnight
   • Sunday
     March 28 12 noon - resume 24 hours

   If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk at 410-455-3838.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   March 10, 2004

   Partial network outage - Fine Arts Ground Floor - Friday March 12, 2004 7am - 9am

   The Fine Arts building on the ground floor that the network will not be available ...

   The Fine Arts building on the ground floor that the network will not be available from 7am - 9am on Friday, March 12. This time will be used to upgrade and standardize the currentnetwork equipment in the telecom closet.

   We apologize for any inconveniences. Any questions or concerns should be emailed to telecom@umbc.edu.

   Physical Network Staff

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   March 3, 2004

   Fake E-mails Containing Viruses from UMBC Addresses

   OIT has received reports that UMBC account holders are receiving e-mails which appear to ...

   OIT has received reports that UMBC account holders are receiving e-mails which appear to be from official UMBC e-mail addresses. These e-mails are from addresses such as "administration@umbc.edu","management@umbc.edu" or other official looking addresses.

   DO NOT open or install the attached file. This e-mail is not from UMBC's Office of Information Technology. The fake e-mails contain text similar to the sample below. Again please do not install, open or execute any attached files.

   If you receive a message similar to the one below delete the messageimmediately.

   Make sure that you have Anti Virus software installed and that it hasthe most up to date virus data files. To install McAfee please visithttp://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/desktopsupport/downloads/#virus.

   If you have any questions please contact the OIT help desk at 410-455-3838.

   -------Begin Fake Message Sample---------------
   Dear user of "Umbc.edu" mailing system,

   Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mailcontent) outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have beeninfected by a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep yourcomputer safe, follow the instructions.

   Please, read the attach for further details.

   Attached file protected with the password for security reasons.Password is 81600.

   Cheers, The Umbc.edu team http://www.umbc.edu
   ------------End Fake Message Sample-------------------------------

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Microsoft Patch Deployed to Campus on Thursday, March 4th, 2004

   On Thursday, March 4th 2004, UMBC Novell users will have an important Microsoft security patch ...

   On Thursday, March 4th 2004, UMBC Novell users will have an important Microsoft security patch installed on Windows 2000 and XP desktops. This installation will occur during the logon process to Novell. Once completed you will be asked to reboot your machine. It is important that patched machines be rebooted as requested so that the machine will be properly protected.What if I don't Logon to Novell?For customers that do not use Novell please visit Windows Update using Internet Explorer at http://www.windowsupdate.com to install the most up to date security patches for your machine.Instructions On How to Use Windows Updatehttp://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/desktopsupport/windowsupdate/to secure your machine. If you have any questions please contact the OIT Help Desk at 410-455-3838 or via e-mail at helpdesk@umbc.eduFor more technical information regarding this patch please visit:http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms04-007.asp

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 27, 2004

   OIT Help Desk and Computer Labs Closing Today, January 27th at 4pm

   Due to UMBC campus closing from inclement weather, OIT Help Desk and Computer labs will ...

   Due to UMBC campus closing from inclement weather, OIT Help Desk and Computer labs will be closing today at 4:00pm. We will resume our Spring 2004 hours tomorrow at 8:00 am.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   UMBC-OIT Update on New MyDoom Internet Worm

   A new Windows worm called MyDoom has been discovered. It is spreadingvia e-mail ...

   A new Windows worm called MyDoom has been discovered. It is spreadingvia e-mail and, in some cases, through Kazaa downloads. If you receive e-mail from with an attachment that you are not expecting, simply do not open the attachment.

   More information about this virus can be found at: http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=mydoomUsers of Microsoft Windows should update their virus signature filesimmediately. The latest McAfee update, protecting systems from thisvirus, is available. If you do not have anti-virus software installedon your computer, please install McAfee Anti-Virus immediately from the MyUMBC site.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 25, 2004

   Spring 2004 Hours of Operation

   OIT Computer labs and Help Desk hours of operation for Spring 2004 are (Hours ...

   OIT Computer labs and Help Desk hours of operation for Spring 2004 are (Hours effective January 25, 2004 to February 14,2004. 24 hour service starts February 15):

   • Sunday 12 noon to 12 midnight
   • Monday 8am to 12 midnight
   • Tuesday 8am to 12 midnight
   • Wednesday 8 am to 12 midnight
   • Thursday 8am to 12 midnight
   • Friday 8am to 12 midnight
   • Saturday 8am to 12 midnight

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 4, 2004

   Winter Hours of Operation for Computer Labs and Help Desk

   only selected labs will be open. If you need access to a specific lab, please ...

   *only selected labs will be open. If you need access to a specific lab, please see a Help Desk staff member in room 020.

   • Sunday - 12 noon to 10:00 pm
   • Monday - 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
   • Tuesday - 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
   • Wednesday - 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
   • Thursday - 8:00 am to 10:00 pm
   • Friday - 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
   • Saturday - 8:00 am to 5:00 pm

   *January 19th 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Martin Luther King

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   December 23, 2003

   Blackboard Down All Day, Dec. 24

   To prepare for the Spring 2004 Pilot Upgrade to Blackboard version 6, UMBC's Blackboard server will be down all day on Wednesday, December 24, 2003.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   December 22, 2003

   Don't forget to turn OFF your computer for the holidays

   Please don't forget to conserve power by turning off your computers and monitors while ...

   Please don't forget to conserve power by turning off your computers and monitors while the campus is closed for winter break.

   You may also wish to setup a vacation message while you are awayenjoying the holidays. Please visithttp://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/helpdesk/accounts/myUMBC/myumbcvacation.html to see how easily an e-mail vacation message can be configured.

   The Office of Information Technology wishes everyone a happy holiday season. We will see you next year.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   December 18, 2003

   HP3000 Downtime December 29, 2003

   OIT needs to perform some enhancements to the HP3000 environment during the holidays, specifically 12/...

   OIT needs to perform some enhancements to the HP3000 environment during the holidays, specifically 12/29/2003, which will require downtime.

   HPUMBC3, which serves the Faculty Authorizations and Registration functions for myUMBC will be upgraded to enhance performance by a factor of 3. Please note that myUMBC will still be available for the other information it provides.

   HPUMBC1 which serves most of the UMBC community for online access and batch processing will be down at the same time to add some disc space that is very much needed.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   December 12, 2003

   "Jdbgmgr.exe" Email Virus

   Thursday, December 12, 2003

   The Office of Information Technology has received a number of ...

   Thursday, December 12, 2003

   The Office of Information Technology has received a number of questions from the campus regarding an e-mail virus that has reportedly infected their machine. The "Jdbgmgr.exe" message is a Hoax. While the messagesent to individual users looks convincing it is very important that you Do Not delete the "Jdbgmgr.exe" file. It is in fact a legitimate Windows file.

   For more information about this Hoax please visit:http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=99436

   We ask that you do not pass the hoax message along to others as this is how an e-mail virus hoax propagates across the Internet. The result is more work for your friendly IT support staff. If you have any questions please contact the OIT help desk at helpdesk@umbc.edu or 410-455-3838.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   December 3, 2003

   Finals Week Hours of Operation Start December 7, 2003

   Hours of operation for Finals Week will start on December 7, 2003. Only selected labs ...

   Hours of operation for Finals Week will start on December 7, 2003. Only selected labs will be open until midnight. If you need to work in a specific lab, please see a Help Desk staff member for access.

   • Sunday - 12 noon to 12 midnight
   • Monday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
   • Tuesday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
   • Wednesday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
   • Thursday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
   • Friday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight
   • Saturday - 8:00 am to 12 midnight

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Try StarOffice 7.0 in EngrCompSci Room 021

   Our PCs in computer lab Engineering Computer Science room 021 has StarOffice version 7.0. ...

   Our PCs in computer lab Engineering Computer Science room 021 has StarOffice version 7.0. Please feel free to try this software package and give us feedback. Send your questions or comments to helpdesk@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 24, 2003

   Computer Labs and Help Desk Closing at 6:00pm Wednesday, November 26

   OIT Computer labs and Help Desk will be closing at 6:00pm on Wednesday, November ...

   OIT Computer labs and Help Desk will be closing at 6:00pm on Wednesday, November 26. We will be closed Thursday and Friday, November 27 and 29. Our hours of operation will resume on Saturday, November 30.

   If you have any questions or wish to report a computer problem during these times, please send an email to helpdesk@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Microsoft Access: Learn to Import Tables

   b>Copy & Paste Method

   The easiest way to import a table is to ...

   Copy & Paste Method

   The easiest way to import a table is to simply copy and paste it in the new database.

   In the Northwind database, double-click the Orders table to open it. Review the data and then click View to inspect the table in Design view. Close the table. In the Database window, right-click the table and choose Copy.

   From the Start menu, open a second session of Access. In the New File frame under New, click Blank Database. (If the New File frame isn稚 open, click File and New.) Choose a convenient folder in which to save the database. In File Name, type SC January Test and click Create.

   Click Edit and then Paste. Type Orders to name the table. You now have three choices: You can copy the structure (Primary Key, Field Properties, etc.), copy both the structure and the data, or append (attach) the data to another table. Select Structure and Data and click OK. Open the Orders table in Design view.

   The entire table (fields, data types, field properties, etc.) has been copied. For example, click in the OrderDate field. In the Field Properties in the lower pane, note that the Caption is Order Date. Click View to view the table. The Caption for the OrderDate field is also Order Date. Close the table. Delete the Orders table by pressing DELETE and confirming the deletion.

   In the Taskbar, switch to the other open session of Access and close the Northwind database.

   Import Table Method

   Now we値l use the Import Table method. In the Taskbar, select the SC January Test database. Click File, Get External Data, and Import. Navigate to Copy Of Northwind.mdb, select it, and click Import. With the Tables tab selected, select Orders and click Options.

   Because this is a new database, you値l want to deselect Relationships in the Import section; you can always create relationships between tables afterward. Under Import Tables, check Definition Only to include only the table痴 structure. In the Import Queries section, merely note that you can import queries as queries or as tables.

   Click OK to import the table. In the Database window, open the Orders table in Design view and note that the fields, data types, field properties, etc. have been imported. Click in the OrderDate field and note that the Caption is Order Field. Click View to see that no data has been transferred and the Caption for the OrderDate field is Order Date. Close the Orders table and delete it from the database. Close the SC January Test database and exit this session of Access.

   Make-Table Query Method

   Most users will feel most comfortable transferring tables using either of these two methods, but there痴 a third way to import a table. You can also create a make-table query in the source database and export the table to the target database.

   Under this method, all the fields and their data types will be imported. None of the other field properties will be imported, nor will a primary key be assigned. You can, however, include criteria.

   In the remaining session of Access, open the Northwind database. Click Queries and click New. With Design View selected, click OK. In the Show Table dialog box, click the Orders table and click Add. Close the Show Table dialog box.

   From the menu bar, click Query and Make-Table Query. In the Make Table dialog box, click the down arrow next to the Table Name field and choose Orders. Click the Another Database radio button. Click the Browse button, find and select the SC January Test.mdb file, and click OK. In the Make Table dialog box, click OK.

   Double-click the Orders field list title to select all the fields. Drag all the fields to the design grid and drop them in the first column. On the Criteria row of the OrderDate column, type >12/31/96 to include orders made in 1997 and after. Click Run and confirm by clicking Yes. Close the query without saving it.

   Click File and Close. Open SC January Test.mdb. Open the Orders table in Design view. All the fields have been imported with their data types, but there is no primary key assigned, and field properties have not been imported. Click in the OrderDate field and note that the Caption property is empty. Click View. Only orders made after 12/31/96 have been included.

   Close the table, close the database, and exit Access. Remember to delete the databases you created if you don稚 want them.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 19, 2003

   Solve Problems with Printing a Web Site

   As you browse the Web, you will inevitably discover pages you want to print for ...

   As you browse the Web, you will inevitably discover pages you want to print for handy reference or more comfortable reading. Usually, this is as easy as choosing Print from your browser痴 File menu, but sometimes what you see on your screen is not what you get from your printer.

   Frames. There are many reasons for a printed World Wide Web page to be different from the one on-screen. One of the most likely is the page is composed of frames. Frames let a Web browser display more than one page at a time, combining them into what appears to be a single page. Some Web pages have obvious frames; others use borderless frames and are harder to spot. When you attempt to print a Web page with frames, you usually end up printing only the active frame, defined by the last place you clicked on the page. If no frame is active, some Web browsers will not display the Print option in the File menu. If the Print command is unavailable, check to make sure the page has finished loading and then click in a blank area of the part of the Web page you want to print to activate the frame and enable the Print command.

   If you are using Internet Explorer 5 and Windows 98 or later, you have advanced options for printing framed pages. Open the File menu in Internet Explorer, choose Print, and go to the Print Frames section. The As Laid Out On The Screen option should print a page faithful to the on-screen version. The Only The Selected Frame option will be unavailable if you haven稚 selected an active frame. The All Frames Individually option produces a separate printed page for each frame. Choose the correct option and click the OK button.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 13, 2003

   Create Distribution List in Outlook Express

   In Outlook Express, start by clicking the Address Book button on the toolbar or selecting ...

   In Outlook Express, start by clicking the Address Book button on the toolbar or selecting Address Book from the Tools menu. Click the New button on the left side of the Address Book window and choose New Group.

   In the Group window, enter a name. If you致e got the urge, you can also click the Group Details tab and enter even more information about the group, but it痴 unlikely that everyone on your list lives at the same address or shares a phone number.

   As a helpful note on the Group window points out, you can add people to your new group in three different ways. Click the Select Members button to choose folks who are already listed elsewhere in your address book. As in Outlook, scroll through the list and double-click names to move them to the column on the right; then click OK.

   Second, you can add someone to the group and at the same time add her own entry to the address book by clicking the New Contact button, filling out the form, and clicking OK. If there痴 someone you壇 like to place in the group but not in your address book, just enter his name and email address in the spaces at the bottom of the Group window. Click Add to move the name up to the Group Members list.

   Save the Group by clicking OK at the bottom of the window. To send a message to everyone in the group, open a new message form, click the To: button, and find your newly created group name in the list. Move it to the appropriate spot on the right side of the screen, click OK, and continue with your mass mailing. Show me how.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Network outage in the Library on Friday 11/14/03 @ 7am

   There will be a brief outage affecting the entire AOK library network on Friday 11/...

   There will be a brief outage affecting the entire AOK library network on Friday 11/14/03 at 7am and lasting to no more than 7:15am. During this time, the network staff will be installing a module in to our existing network equipment that is neccesary to the network upgrade going on in the basement pc lab.
   If you have any questions or concerns, please email telecom@umbc.edu
   Thank You,Physical Networks

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Network Outage in Social Sciences on Friday 11/14/2003

   The Social Sciences buliding will experience periodic network outages on Friday, November 14, 2003 from ...

   The Social Sciences buliding will experience periodic network outages on Friday, November 14, 2003 from 7:30am until 7:45am. This time will be used to upgrade a piece of network equipment.
   If you have any questions or comments, please email telecom@umbc.edu.
   Thank YouPhysical Networks

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 11, 2003

   Windows Tips: Skip the Recycle Bin

   Every now and then you need to really delete a file. Right now.
   Well, ...

   Every now and then you need to really delete a file. Right now.
   Well, most people delete the thing, then go to the recycle bin and remove it from there. This is good when you want to recover a file accidentally deleted, but there's a better way.
   Next time your 100% sure, without a doubt, for certain, that you want to delete a file, hold your Shift key down while you delete. The file will be deleted - skipping the Recycle Bin completely.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 5, 2003

   Deleted Messages in Outlook and Outlook Express

   Many Outlook and Outlook Express users let deleted e-mail messages pile up in the ...

   Many Outlook and Outlook Express users let deleted e-mail messages pile up in the Deleted Items folder. You can set up Outlook and Outlook Express to automatically delete messages from the Deleted Items folder when you exit the program.

   Outlook Express users, click the Tools menu followed by Options. Click the Maintenance tab and put a check in the Empty Messages From The Deleted Items Folder On Exit checkbox. Show me how.

   Outlook users, click Tools, Options, the Other tab, and then put a check in the Empty The Deleted Items Folder Upon Exiting checkbox. Show me how.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 1, 2003

   Troubleshooting: Eliminate the Obvious Culprits

   Always address the obvious trouble spots before engaging in serious troubleshooting tactics. You値l save ...

   Always address the obvious trouble spots before engaging in serious troubleshooting tactics. You値l save time, money, and embarrassment if you can fix the following problems yourself.

   1. Check for floppy diskettes in the diskette drive.
      Leaving a diskette in its drive can hamper your attempts at booting the computer. Remove the diskette from its drive預nd, while you池e at it, remove the disc from your optical drive傭efore rebooting your PC.
   2. Check for power.
      The computer must have a live electrical source to work properly. If your PC won稚 start, look for unplugged power cables, broken electrical circuits, malfunctioning power strips, local blackouts, and any other object or event that may have interrupted the flow of electricity to your computer.
   3. Check for loose cable connections.
      If your PC won稚 start or you can稚 access a particular component, make sure your cable connections are tight. Start with the external connections, including those between the PC and the monitor, the printer, and all USB (Universal Serial Bus) devices. Then, open your computer and make sure your expansion cards sit properly in their slots and the data cables and electrical cables securely connect to their drives.
   4. Check the monitor settings.
      You might be able to fix a seemingly dead or ailing monitor simply by adjusting the Brightness, Color, Contrast, and other monitor settings. Review the monitor痴 users manual for instructions on how to adjust the settings for your particular monitor.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 31, 2003

   Cleaning Out Your Inbox

   The fewer messages in your Inbox, the faster email will start. When you start Outlook ...

   The fewer messages in your Inbox, the faster email will start. When you start Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger, SquirrelMail/WebMail, it has to load all your messages into your Inbox and then sort them in whatever order you last sorted them.
   Where can you put all your messages if not in the Inbox? One strategy is to move them to a few new folders. The new folders provide the added benefit of making old messages easier to find. Outlook Express doesn’t display Local Folders by default, so before adding folders, you have to display Local Folders. Click View and then Layout; check Folder List and click OK. In the Folder List, right-click Local Folders and click New Folder; type a name for the folder, such as the name of a specific subject, sender, or project, and click OK. Make as many of these folders as you like. After setting up Local Folders, you can right-click Local Folders or Inbox and click New Folder from either context menu to add folders to the directory tree. In SquirrelMail/WebMail, you can categorize your messages into other folders in your account. Click 'Folders' from the top menu. Enter the name of the folder and click create.
   Next, move messages from your Inbox to the appropriate folders. Sometimes this is easier if you sort the messages first. To sort, click the From, Subject, or Received headings; this groups the messages so that you can quickly find, select, and move them. Select the message or messages you want to move (to select multiple, contiguous messages, click the first message in the group, hold down the SHIFT key and click the last message; to select multiple, noncontiguous messages, hold down CTRL and click the messages). Once selected, drag the messages to the appropriate folders.
   Of course, you can also delete messages you no longer need. To delete selected messages to Outlook Express’ Deleted Items folder, right-click the folder(s) and click Delete on the context menu. To delete messages permanently, hold down SHIFT, click Delete from the context menu, and click Yes in the dialog box that appears. In Netscape Messenger, Deleted Items folder is called Trash.
   Once you get your Inbox cleaned out to your liking, down to a maximum of two or three hundred messages or less, take some measures to keep it clean. You can make a habit of cleaning your Inbox every month, week, or day, depending upon how many messages you receive each day; you might even take up the habit of moving or deleting messages as you read them.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 30, 2003

   Computer Room Power Outage Update

   Wednesday, October 29th at approximately 2:45pm all electrical power was inadvertently cut to the ...

   Wednesday, October 29th at approximately 2:45pm all electrical power was inadvertently cut to the ECS computer room while mechanical maintenance was being performed. Office of Information Technology staff were notified within moments of the power outage by our automated environmental monitoring system.

   The majority of our services were back online by approximately 6:00pm (e.g. E-mail, Blackboard, myUMBC, Labs, Novell, DNS, and DHCP). However, services such as the HP and UMBC's Peoplesoft environment required further work. The HP was back up and functioning by 7:30pm. The PeopleSoft servers were back up by 9:15pm after a faulty piece of hardware was hand delivered this evening by an IBM service representative. Once this critical piece of hardware was received OIT staff were able to restore normal PeopleSoft services.

   At this time all services appear to be functioning normally. If you experience any problems please contact the OIT helpdesk at 410-455-3838 or via e-mail at helpdesk@umbc.edu

   Michael Carlin
   University of Maryland Baltimore County
   Office of Information Technology
   Director of Infrastructure and Support Services

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 28, 2003

   Setup Multiple Accounts in Outlook Express

   Set up multiple accounts. If you share your computer with another person, you can configure ...

   Set up multiple accounts. If you share your computer with another person, you can configure Outlook Express so that each person can access his or her account. You can accomplish this by creating what Microsoft refers to as “identities.” To add a new identity, open the File menu, click Identities, and click Add New Identities. Type your name, select the Require A Password checkbox if you wish (and, if so, type a password, type it again to confirm it, and click OK), and click OK.
   Outlook Express then prompts you to switch to the new identity. If you choose to switch now, the software will ask you for Internet connection information. Follow the on-screen instructions. To log in under a new identity, click Switch Identity from the File menu, highlight the desired identity from the Switch Identities dialog box, and click OK.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 23, 2003

   Daylight Saving Time Ends, Sunday October 26

   Don't forget to set your clocks back on hour on Sunday, October 26th at ...

   Don't forget to set your clocks back on hour on Sunday, October 26th at 2am.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Blackboard Down Sun., Oct. 26, 6-8 a.m.

   The Blackboard system will be unavailable on Sunday, October 26, from 6 to 8 ...

   The Blackboard system will be unavailable on Sunday, October 26, from 6 to 8 a.m. (Remember: Daylight Savings Time ends at 2 a.m.). During this scheduled down time, OIT will be copying the existing Blackboard 5 database. Later this month or early next, OIT will use this copy to run a test migration of all version 5 data to the new Blackboard version 6, which the campus will upgrade to for the spring 2004 semester (see the Summer 2003 OIT Newsletter). By making the version 5 copy now, OIT can run the test migration without more scheduled down time of the current system and begin to understand what issues, if any, we will face with the upgrade next semester.

   We apprectiate your patience, but if you have any questions or concerns, please send email to blackboard@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 3, 2003

   Scheduled Network Outage, Sunday, October 5

   On Sunday, October 5, 2003 several buildings across the campus willexperience brief network outages ...

   On Sunday, October 5, 2003 several buildings across the campus willexperience brief network outages between 8am and 11am. During thistime, we will be making configuration changes to our network equipment in these buildings. These changes are being done in an effort to build a more stable and robust network across the entire campus.
   Specifically, the following buildings will be affected:

   • Academic IV
   • Academic Services
   • Administration
   • Biology
   • Central Plant
   • Chemistry
   • Field House
   • Fine Arts
   • ITE
   • Math/Psych
   • South Campus
   • University Center
   • University Commons

   --Michael CarlinUniversity of Maryland Baltimore CountyOffice of Information TechnologyDirector of Infrastructure and Support ServicesFax 410-455-1065Phone 410-455-2578Help Desk 410-455-3838

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   September 18, 2003

   OIT Help desk and Computer Labs Closed due to Inclement Weather

   Due to inclement weather, OIT Help Desk and Computer labs will be closed today, Thursday, ...

   Due to inclement weather, OIT Help Desk and Computer labs will be closed today, Thursday, September 18, 2003. We will reopen tomorrow, Friday, September 19 at 7:30 am pending status of UMBC campus.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 22, 2003

   New WebMail Debut

   WebMail, the Central Mail Service's web interface, was replaced on August 21, 2003. The ...

   WebMail, the Central Mail Service's web interface, was replaced on August 21, 2003. The new WebMail is more responsive and more informative. Changes include an up-to-date quota status and searching the UMBC email directory while composing messages.

   WebMail can be accessed at myUMBC

   Documentation on how to use WebMail can be found at OIT's Web Site

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 19, 2003

   Internet Worm Impacting Campus Tuesday, August 19, 2003

   There was a new Internet Worm, detected today, called the W32/Sobig.f@MM virus. ...

   There was a new Internet Worm, detected today, called the W32/Sobig.f@MM virus. Network Associates (McAfee) rates it as Medium risk. This Internet Worm fakes the 'From' line of infected e-mails sent out from the names gathered on the victims machine. The Worm gathers these names from the address books and Inbox of the infected machine. It then sends out more mail pretending to be those people.

   For more information about W32/Sobig.f@MM please visit:http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=100561

   What Should I Do?

   1. The first thing you need to do is to make sure that your machine has the most up to date DAT file from McAfee (See 'Updating My McAfee DAT File' below)
   2. Scan your C: drive for the Virus. Please visit:http://www.umbc.edu/oit/sans/helpdesk/antivirus/mcafee/
   3. If your machine was infected it should now be cleaned

   -------Updating My McAfee DAT File ---------------------

   UMBC Campus Users:

   If your machine is owned by UMBC and is on the UMBC network it isprotected by McAfee. There is no need for you to update your software or virus.dat file as the Office of Information Technology is able to do this for you using our McAfee server.

   Off Campus and UMBC Resnet Users:

   If you already have McAfee installed on your personal machine all that you will need to do is get the newest Virus.Dat file. To do this goto Start>Programs>Network Associates>VirusScan ConsoleA Window titled 'VirusScan Console' will then open. Left click once on 'AutoUpdate' to highlight it. Then click the 'Start' button on thetoolbar of the 'VirusScan Console' window (NOT the start button on the task bar) . You will now begin downloading the newest Virus.Dat file.

   NOTE: You will need to be connected to the Internet to perform this download (e.g. Cable modem, dial-up connection etc.)----------------End Updating McAfee DAT File--------------------

   How do I know if I have McAfee installed already?

   You can confirm the presence of McAfee on your machine by looking for the small icon on your task bar that is Blue and White, shaped like a shield and has a Red 'V' on it. Usually this is located in the lower right hand corner of your window on the task bar.

   Need McAfee Anti Virus Software?

   Please visit my.umbc.edu under the 'Business Services' tab to download McAfee. Alternately, you can stop by the OIT Help Desk in ECS 020 to pickup a free copy of McAfee for your personal machine. If you need McAfee installed on your UMBC office machine please contact the help desk. They can step you through downloading the version you will need from my.umbc.edu under the 'Business Services' tab.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 12, 2003

   Resnet Outage Today

   The entire Resnet system will be unavailable beginning Wednesday August 13th and it should be ...

   The entire Resnet system will be unavailable beginning Wednesday August 13th and it should be operational again by the end of the day.During this time we will be making signifigant changes to Resnet for the upcoming semester.After the changes are made, there will be a period of a few days in which users will not have to log into the system in order to use Resnet.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Update: Internet Worm Affecting the UMBC Campus

   UPDATE 8/15/03

   Beginning today, Friday, August 15, 2003 at noon OIT network ...

   UPDATE 8/15/03

   Beginning today, Friday, August 15, 2003 at noon OIT network staff will redirect windowsupdate.microsoft.com and windowsupdate.com to anonexistent location on our router, essentially sending all requests for these Web pages into a black hole. This redirection will remain in effect until noon on Monday, August 18, 2003.

   Why Are We Redirecting These Web Pages?

   By now I am sure that everyone has seen, heard or suffered the effects of the MSBlast Internet Worm that struck the campus this week. This Internet Worm has code integrated into its payload that is designed to perform a Denial of Service attack against Microsoft's Windows Update site. This attack is set to begin August 16, 2003.

   On the Internet, a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is one in which a multitude of compromised systems attack a single target, thereby causing a denial of service for users of the targeted system. The flood of incoming messages to the target system essentially forces it to shut down, thereby denying service to the system to legitimate users.[techtarget.com]

   Unfortunately, there are still infected machines located within thecampus that we have been unable to identify. Any machine that has notbeen disinfected will participate in this attack. In order to protectthe UMBC campus network, the Internet connection that we share with the University System of Maryland (USM) and even Microsoft we will prevent the infected machines from flooding the Internet by redirecting web requests destined for windowsupdate.microsoft.com and windowsupdate.com to a black hole.

   How Can I Patch My Machine if I Can't Get to Microsoft's Update Site?

   Please visit http://www.umbc.edu/oit/wormvirus/ to receive detailed instructions about how to fix/protect your machine. You can get the patch on CD from the OIT Help Desk in ECS 020 or you can download it from the link above.---

   OIT staff members have been actively working to develop a fix for the MSBlast Internet Worm that has been affecting the campus. This Internet Worm has been causing machines to shutdown and reboot throughout the day. A series of steps have been identified that should both remove the Internet Worm and protect your machine from future attacks that exploit this particular Microsoft Windows vulnerability.

   How Do I Fix My Machine?

   Please visit http://www.umbc.edu/oit/wormvirus/ to receive detailed instructions about how to fix/protect your machine.

   How Do I Protect My Home Machine?

   We have two options available. From your home machine you can connect to the Internet and click on this link http://www.umbc.edu/oit/wormvirus/ to download the patches necessary for your machine. Alternately, if your Internet connection is too slow we have made CDs available at the OIT Help Desk located in ECS 020. These CDs contain the patches necessary to protect your home computer. These CDs will be available late this afternoon.

   I Applied the Patch But My Machine Is Still Rebooting?

   If you followed the steps listed at http://www.umbc.edu/oit/wormvirus/and your machine is still rebooting we will need you to contact the Help Desk. Please submit a work request via helpdesk@umbc.edu,http://www.umbc.edu/oit/workorder.html or by calling 410-455-3838. AnOIT staff member may need to work on your machine to address the problem.

   How Do I Get McAfee Anti Virus Software?

   In addition to patching, Microsoft computers should have McAfeeAnti-virus installed with the latest anti-virus definitions. If you donot already have it installed please visit http://my.umbc.edu under the "Business Services" tab, click on the link for "McAfee Virus Protection" and follow the installation instructions.

   For More Information

   Please visit the pages below for more detailed background information.http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5062524.htmlhttp://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   August 4, 2003

   "admin@umbc.edu" -Email Worm Propagation-WARNING

   There have been a lot of reports from our users of e-mail apparently from "...

   There have been a lot of reports from our users of e-mail apparently from "admin@umbc.edu" warning them that their e-mail addresses are about to expire. This message is not from any UMBC staff member and should not be opened. The message asks them to open an attached ZIP file for details.If you get such e-mail, DO NOT open the attachment. It contains a worm that will collect e-mail address from various sources on your computer and then start mailing itself out to new potential victims.For more details about the worm, see: http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/alerts/id/149OIT staff are currently working on detecting this worm and eliminating its spread on our campus.Managers: Please pass this message to your staff.Michael CarlinUniversity of Maryland Baltimore CountyOffice of Information TechnologyDirector of Infrastructure and Support

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   July 28, 2003

   Scheduled Outage - Field House/RAC Building Network - Wednesday July 30, 7am - 7:30am

   The Field House and RAC that there will be a scheduled downtime on Wednesday morning, ...

   The Field House and RAC that there will be a scheduled downtime on Wednesday morning, July 30th, from 7-7:30am. This time will be used by the physical network staff to upgrade its network equipment that serves this building. During this time also, there will be no network connectivity to the rest of the network.
   We apologize any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact telecom@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   July 17, 2003

   Student Employment Opportunity - Help Desk

   SUMMARY OF THE JOB

   Help Desk employees are responsible for maintaining phone and walk-...

   SUMMARY OF THE JOB

   Help Desk employees are responsible for maintaining phone and walk-in support to all customers within the UMBC community. Problems dealing with Technical, Network, Operations, and Programming issues are first handled through phone/walk-in support. If the problem is not fixed, then Help desk assigns work requests to 2nd -tier technicians to solve the problem on-site. Prioritizing concerns in order of importance and expediting technicians is a responsibility of the Help desk.

   If you would like to apply for this position, please fill out the online application:www.umbc.edu/oit_jobapp

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   June 6, 2003

   Off-Campus Link Down Sunday, June 8

   On Sunday, June 8, 2003 between the hours of 8:00 am and 9:...

   On Sunday, June 8, 2003 between the hours of 8:00 am and 9:00 am UMBC's campus border router will be upgraded. This work is part of the over all plan to upgrade the campus network to enhance security, reliability and generally increase network performance.

   During this time, off campus connectivity (i.e. Internet) will not be available. All other services routed within the campus will remain unaffected. We expect all services to be fully restored and operational by 9:00 am.
   -Michael Carlin, Director of ISS

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   June 4, 2003

   PeopleSoft Implementation

   The Peoplesoft implementation, which goes live on July 1st of this year, is an attempt ...

   The Peoplesoft implementation, which goes live on July 1st of this year, is an attempt to integrate our budget, human resources, and eventually student information services into a cohesive online environment. This is a much needed upgrade to the slow and outdated model of disconnected processes and will make these business processes more efficient for faculty, staff, and students.

   The first phase of Peoplesoft (Budget and Human Resources) which will go live July 1, 2003, will affect general ledger and financial reporting, grant proposals, Purchase Card reallocation, requisitions, timesheets/entry, payroll, and new hires.

   By consolidating these processes, Peoplesoft eliminates the need for duplicating data entry, and reduces the amount of hand-shuffling forms between offices, signatures required, and storage space for transaction hard copies. Peoplesoft streamlines the transaction process by allowing submittal, approval, and status tracking of transactions online, and empowers our business model by making theses services available via a new web browser-based interface.

   For more information on the Peoplesoft implementation, fire up your web browser and head to www.umbc.edu/peoplesoft.-Kendrick Hernandez, OIT Help Desk

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   May 22, 2003

   Closed for Memorial Day

   ul>

   Help Desk will be closed on Monday, May 26th. Regular

   • Help Desk will be closed on Monday, May 26th. Regular summer hours will resume on Tuesday, May 27, 2003.
   • Computer labs will be closed. They will reopen on Tuesday, May, 27 at 8:00am.
   • OIT Main Office will be closed on Monday, May 26, as it is an official University Holiday.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Scheduled Outage - Police Station Network

   This message is to inform those on the second floor of the Central Plant ...

   This message is to inform those on the second floor of the Central Plant Building, that being the police station and other departments that there will be brief network outage on Friday morning, May 23 @ 8am, lasting no longer than 2 minutes. The Physical Network staff is using this time to move network equipment over to UPS power. Customers will not need to do anything and your connection should come back up with in 1-2 minutes. Thanks for your patience.Please direct any questions or comments to telecom@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   April 25, 2003

   Lab Changes April 26 & 27

   OIT computer labs and Help Desk will change it's weekend hours of operation to ...

   OIT computer labs and Help Desk will change it's weekend hours of operation to the following:

   1. Saturday, April 26 8:00 am - 3:30pm
   2. Sunday, April 27 8:00 am - 24 hours

   During the morning of Saturday, April 26th (QuadMania) OIT staff will be moving the majority of our equipment onto our newly installed and tested computer room Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). For more information about our UPS please visitUPS Information.

   Much of the work leading up to this final transfer was completed onMarch 28th when the ECS building power was routed through the newsystem. Since that time, contractors have completed their testing and we are now ready to reap the benefits of over six months of steadyconstruction when we transfer our machines to the new power system. All construction when we transfer our machines to the new power system. All work will be completed between 7:00am and 11:00am on Saturday, April 26th.

   At a minimum we expect these services to be unavailable from 7:30am-11:00am:

   • Email
   • Peoplesoft development
   • myUMBC
   • Remote login to gl.umbc.edu (campus Unix servers)
   • Some web services

   In addition, these services will have brief outages when power is being transitioned to the new power outlets. The durations of these outages will range from just a few minutes up to 1 hour:

   • HP3000 (1 hour)
   • Novell (30 minutes)
   • Dial up Modems (few minutes)
   • VPN Servers (few minutes)
   • Off-campus Internet Access (7:00am to 8:00am while a new routeris installed)
   • Library Proxy Server (30 minutes)
   • Main UMBC Web Page (some sub pages may not be available)

   Services that will remain up during this transition are:

   • DNS
   • DHCP
   • Core Network Services will remain up
   • Blackboard
   • OIT Computer Labs

   OIT will have staff in the help desk from 8:00am to 3:30pm on Saturday, April 26th, 2003 to answer any questions that may arise during this work. OIT help desk staff will open early on Sunday at 8:00am to ensure that no problems arose during the evening as a result.

   The good news is that this is the final interruption in service that our customers will face as a result of this new system. Once on the new UPS we will be fully protected in the event of brown outs or even lengthy power outages like the one we suffered on October.

   Thanks for being patient and understanding while this work was being done. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the Help Desk at 410-455-3838 or via helpdesk@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   April 2, 2003

   Reminder: Daylight Savings Time Begins Sunday April 6

   Remember to set your clock forward one hour this Sunday, April 6 at 2:...

   Remember to set your clock forward one hour this Sunday, April 6 at 2:00 a.m. as we begin daylight savings time.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   March 20, 2003

   Computer Labs and Help Desk Hours of Operation during Spring Break

   OIT Computer Labs and Help Desk will be open during the following hours of operation:<...

   OIT Computer Labs and Help Desk will be open during the following hours of operation:

   • Wednesday, March 26th [10:00am - 8:00pm]
   • Thursday, March 27th [10:00am - 8:00pm]
   • Friday, March 28th Help Desk ONLY/Computer Labs will be closed [1:00pm - 8:00pm]
   • Saturday, March 29 Resume Normal Hours [8:00am - 12:00 midnight]

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   March 17, 2003

   ECS Bldg/Computer Room Power Outage March 28th, 2003

   OIT has been working closely with Physical Plant and Whiting Turner on a power upgrade ...

   OIT has been working closely with Physical Plant and Whiting Turner on a power upgrade to the ECS computer room (see http://www.umbc.edu/oit/newsletter/winter2003.html#ups). This power upgrade will provide backup power to run the computer room and eliminate problems that have been caused by power outages.In order to connect the feed from the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to ECS’ building power we have to take down power to the entire ECS building for approximately 5-6 hours. This work is scheduled to begin Friday, March 28, 2003 at 8:00am. The contractor will provide backup power generation but we will need to shut down systems as we transition to the backup feed. In order to allow OIT staff to properly shutdown our systems we will begin this process at 8:00am on March 28th and expect to have all systems fully operational again by 6:00pm

   At a minimum we expect these services to be unavailable from 8:00am – 6:00pm:

   • Email
   • Peoplesoft development
   • myUMBC
   • remote login to gl.umbc.edu (campus unix servers)
   • Some web services
   • OIT Computer Labs

   In addition, these services will have brief outages when power is being transitioned to the temporary generator (approximately 9:30-10:30am and 4:30 to 5:30pm) but should be available while the majority of the work is being performed:

   • Network Services (DNS, DHCP etc.)
   • HP3000
   • Novell
   • Blackboard
   • Dial up Modems
   • Off-campus Internet Access
   • Library Proxy Server
   • Main UMBC Web Page (some sub pages may not be available)

   OIT will have staff in the Help Desk from 1:00pm to 8:00pm on March 28th, 2003 to answer any questions that may arise during this power outage. OIT Help Desk staff will resume normal hours on Saturday, March 29th (8:00am to Midnight).

   After this power work is complete the system will be tested by the contractor and we can begin migrating systems over to the new power system in mid-April. This upgrade will be a major step in moving the infrastructure forward and we thank everyone for their patience during these outages.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   February 25, 2003

   Campus Network Outage Sunday March 2nd from 5:00am to 7:00am

   This Sunday from 5:00am to 7:00am there will be a campus ...

   This Sunday from 5:00am to 7:00am there will be a campus wide network outage, during this time we will be upgrade the core campus router. The outage will effect all traffic going to/from any campus servers or buildings as well as traffic going to/from the internet.

   We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, if you have anyquestions or concerns, please email telecom@umbc.edu.

   Thank You,Physical Network StaffOIT - UMBC

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   February 7, 2003

   Computer Labs and Help Desk MODIFIED hours for February 7, 2003

   OIT Computer labs and Help Desk will be open at 5:00pm today, February 7, ...

   OIT Computer labs and Help Desk will be open at 5:00pm today, February 7, 2003 due to inclement weather. If you would like to report a computer problem,you can send email to the following email address: helpdesk@umbc.edu or fill out the work-order by clicking on the "Trouble Ticket" link on the above toolbar.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 31, 2003

   Sunday, Feb 2 Off Campus Internet Failure

   This morning, Sunday February 2nd, 2003 the main campus border router which connects UMBC to ...

   This morning, Sunday February 2nd, 2003 the main campus border router which connects UMBC to the Internet (i.e. Internet 1 and Internet 2), suffered a severe hardware failure. OIT staff working with Cisco Technical Support diagnosed the problem as being a hardware failure of a component internal to the router. In order to limit inconvenience to the campus OIT worked with the vendor to have the replacement part express shipped to UMBC within 4 hours.

   This failure occurred during a scheduled code upgrade to the router but was not caused by the work being performed. The code upgrade was originally scheduled to occur from 7:00am to 7:30am but due to the unexpected hardware failure downtime was extended until approximately 12:30pm today when a temporary solution was put in place. The replacement parts arrived within 2 hours of our order and UMBC痴 Internet connection was working again by 2:00pm today.

   We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. If you have questions or are experiencing problems please contact the OIT help desk at 410-455-3838 or via e-mail at helpdesk@umbc.edu.

   
   Michael CarlinDirector of Infrastructure and Support

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 27, 2003

   Blackboard Server Problem, 1/27

   Mid-Afternoon the Blackboard server went down as a result of patching the Blackboard server ...

   Mid-Afternoon the Blackboard server went down as a result of patching the Blackboard server to protect it against Microsoft SQL attacks such as the "SQL Internet Worm" (see http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/27/worm.why/index.html).

   The patch supplied created an instability in the Blackboard server. We have an urgent call into Blackboard and their technical support is working on this. We'll be working on this through the evening to get a solution and restore this critical service.

   If you have any questions, please contact the Help desk at 410-455-3838 or via email at helpdesk@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 21, 2003

   Computer Labs and Help Desk Spring 2003 Hours of Operation

   OIT Computer labs and Help Desk hours of operation for Spring 2003 are (Hours ...

   OIT Computer labs and Help Desk hours of operation for Spring 2003 are (Hours effective January 26, 2003 to February 15,2003. 24 hour service starts February 16):

   • Sunday 12 noon to 12 midnight
   • Monday 8am to 12 midnight
   • Tuesday 8am to 12 midnight
   • Wednesday 8 am to 12 midnight
   • Thursday 8am to 12 midnight
   • Friday 8am to 12 midnight
   • Saturday 8am to 12 midnight

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 15, 2003

   myUMBC Login Issue Resolved

   We were having problems with logins to myUMBC. Systems administrators rebooted the server and all ...

   We were having problems with logins to myUMBC. Systems administrators rebooted the server and all logins are now accepted as of 2:35pm 1/15/03. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you continue to have a login problem, please contact the Help Desk at 410-455-3838.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 14, 2003

   WebMail Down Sunday, January 19

   On Sunday, January 19th UMBC's WebMail will be inaccessible from 8:00pm to 3:...

   On Sunday, January 19th UMBC's WebMail will be inaccessible from 8:00pm to 3:00am while the system undergoes upgrades to improve performance and service reliability.

   While this work is being performed Webmail can not be used but you canaccess your mail through the other normally available methods (e.g.PINE, Outlook, Netscape etc.). During this upgrade a new server with amuch faster processor and increased memory will be installed. Inaddition we will be upgrading to a newer version of the WebMail software to address issues with the current version. Once the upgrade is complete you will be able to access your e-mail using WebMail as you did before.

   We apologize for any inconvenience that this might cause. If you haveany questions please feel free to contact the OIT Help Desk at410-455-3838 or you can send e-mail to helpdesk@umbc.edu.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   January 13, 2003

   Baltimore Modem Outage Friday, January 17

   The UMBC Baltimore modems (410-719-1094) will be down on Friday January 17, 2003 ...

   The UMBC Baltimore modems (410-719-1094) will be down on Friday January 17, 2003 from 7 am to 7:30 am.During this time, we will be upgrading several of our modem banks tonewer equipment.We apologize for any problems this may cause. If you have any questions or comments, please email telecom@umbc.edu.Thank YouPhysical Networks

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   November 13, 2002

   Winter Training Schedule

   The Winter OIT Computer Training Schedule is now available and includeshands-on workshops in ...

   The Winter OIT Computer Training Schedule is now available and includeshands-on workshops in Managing Your UMBC Account, Understanding YourComputer, Corporate Calendar, Internet Basics, Departmental Web Training, and Blackboard, as well asMicrosoft's PowerPoint. Skills to be covered include creating, editingand using your UMBC account, working with the different parts of acomputer including the CD Writer, installing local printers, schedulingmeetings online, browser basics, using search engines effectively,creating and printing presentation documents. To register for a workshop or for more information check the IT TrainingSchedule Web page at http://www.umbc.edu/training.

   For more information on future directions of OIT training, see the November "Tech Watch" column in Insights Online.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 25, 2002

   User Survey

   To help guide a planned redesign of myUMBC--the campus' web portal--...

   To help guide a planned redesign of myUMBC--the campus' web portal--OIT invites you to complete a myUMBC User Survey. It is also available on the myUMBC login page. For background on why myUMBC is changing, see the October "Tech Watch" Column in Insights Online.

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 11, 2002

   The First News Event in CHE's Site

   ...

   Hello there, isn't this an interesting piece of news?

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   October 2, 2002

   Eudora and SSL Updates

   Eudora email client is experiencing problems with the UMBC environment. After some investigation, OIT system ...

   Eudora email client is experiencing problems with the UMBC environment. After some investigation, OIT system administrators discovered that it is using an OpenSSL system that has major security bugs. For your protection, OIT has elected not to rollback SSL versions which is a less secure system. At this time, OIT is contacting Eudora to inquire about a patch or a more secure upgrade.Currently the following options are available:* Switch to Netscape Messenger version 7.0 or Outlook Express version 6.0 which supports UMBC's SSL setup (Recommended)* Disable SSL in Eudora. Be advised, this will disable any encryption when you are sending and receiving emailIf you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk at 410-455-3838 or send email to helpdesk@umbc.edu

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   Novell Scheduled Downtime 10/3 7:00pm - 8:00pm

   LAN administrators will be updating the Novell servers on October 3 at 7:00pm and ...

   LAN administrators will be updating the Novell servers on October 3 at 7:00pm and is expected to last until 8:00pm. This affects access to Novell personal and shared drives. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.If you have any questions, please contact the Help desk at 410-455-3838 or email helpdesk@umbc.edu

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM

   September 19, 2002

   Mail Server Performance Issues on Wed., September 18th

   On Wednesday, September 18th the UMBC mail servers experienced anincrease in e-mail volume ...

   On Wednesday, September 18th the UMBC mail servers experienced anincrease in e-mail volume eight times greater than is typical for this time of year. The result was that OIT's mail processing abilities were adversely affected. The effect was slow mail performance during the day. Customers may have also seen e-mail messages being received hours after they were sent. Presently our administrators are investigating source of this incident. At this time mail volumes have returned to normal and we are no longer experiencing the problems witnessed yesterday. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.If you have any questions please contact the help desk athelpdesk@umbc.edu or 410-455-3838

   Posted by OIT at 12:00 AM