DECEMBER, 2004

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Changes in the SUNY Microsoft Campus Agreement

SUNY Oneonta has recently renewed the Microsoft Campus Agreement.  There has been a change that does affect how employees of the College take advantage of the Work At Home program, where many Microsoft products can be used on home machines.

The terms of the new contract prohibit the College from distributing installation disks to employees.  Instead, employees wishing to use software under the terms of Work At Home must purchase the disks from UBMicro (the company who handles the Campus Agreement contract for many SUNY Campuses) and pay shipping on the order.  The cost is very low compared to commercial versions of the software; most commonly-used applications are priced at less than $6.  You can also keep the software and install it on up to two home computers assuming you do College related work from those computers.

In order to be eligible for the Work At Home program, you must be a current SUNY Oneonta employee.  The SUNY Work at Home Microsoft Media Software order form for personal use is available at: http://www.oneonta.edu/its/software/microsoft/orderform.pdf.  You will need to enter your Oneonta username and password to access this form.

After filling out the form, please attach a photocopy of your current SUNY Oneonta ID before sending it to UBMicro. The method of payment for this media is either personal check or credit card.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Rita C. Szczesh at extension 3080 or szczesrc@oneonta.edu.
 

Telecommunications To Test Wireless Network Security

The last few years has seen the growth of wireless network service on campus, allowing users to have network access for laptops, pocket PCs and other devices without being tethered to a wall port.  To improve security on this network, Telecommunications will be installing and testing systems that will require users to authenticate (enter a valid username and password) to gain access.  This testing will be carried out during the period January 3rd to January 17th, and may result in sporadic unavailability of the wireless network.  If you will be requiring wireless network access during this time, please call the Telecommunications Office at 436-2577 and we will work to accommodate your needs.

Phone System Interruption January 4th

Telecommunications will be upgrading the campus telephone system on Tuesday, January 4th, 2005. At 5 p.m. on January 4th, we will be performing a re-boot of the telephone system. During the system re-boot, the telephone system will be unavailable. Although a system re-boot usually takes less than 5 minutes, everyone should be prepared for the unlikely event of the re-boot taking longer. Anyone with questions or concerns should contact the Telecommunication Office at extension 2577.
 

Proliferating Pointing Paraphernalia

The computer mouse has been with us for more than twenty years, and there have been few options available for those who cannot use them.  Recent developments have produced some alternatives, though -

The iGesture Pad looks like a mouse pad but involves the entire hand in manipulating objects on screen without requiring the user to actually grip or click on anything!

See their page at http://www.fingerworks.com/igesture.html for details on how their product works.

Another option is the wireless, deskless mouse - yes, a mouse that doesn't even need a desktop to slide on.  The Gyration Mouse has a built-in gyroscope and acceleration sensors to allow you to use the mouse in midair up to 30 feet from your computer.  Originally designed for the person making presentations in large rooms, this device can also be useful for the extremely sedentary websurfer who doesn't want to stir from the La-Z-Boy.  See http://www.nextgenelectronics.com/gyration.shtml for a review of this product.

About Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

As networks develop and become more essential to the function of organizations, the security of those networks becomes more and more critical.  Technical support staff here on campus are constantly working to make our network as secure as possible, while at the same time keeping the user experience as easy as possible. 

One area of new interest is the capability to access College network resources from outside the physical campus.  There are many ways for a user to access some resources from outside (email and webpages are two examples) but the College's critical systems need a much greater level of protection from the threats common to the internet.  This is where Virtual Private Networking comes in.  There are many gory details in VPN technology (see this link for a good, basic discussion of those details), but suffice it to say that VPN allows an outside user to use the College network.  This connection is also highly secure, so that intruders on the outside Internet Service Provider would not be able to intercept passwords or other kinds of sensitive information flowing back and forth. 

Using VPNs require some careful consideration before jumping right in, though.  Let's say a user has a computer at home or at some remote office location and wants a VPN connection to the College.  First, they may need a special client installed on their computer to make the connection work.  Second, and more importantly, they need to be absolutely certain that their machine isn't already compromised - infected with a virus, the operating system not updated, loaded with spyware - that sort of thing.  If it is, then the VPN connection could expose the campus network to the very kind of threats we work so hard to eliminate on College-owned machines.  A VPN is certainly not the kind of service that the casual user should dabble in.

The security team from Computer and Telecommunications Services is currently testing several different VPN modes to determine the best way to implement this technology.  While not yet available, if you believe that your office will need to take advantage of the features of Virtual Private Networking, you should contact the Network Administration Staff at 2628 to get some consultation.

See future issues of CATPrints for followup news on progress in this area.

Help Desk Hours During Intersession

 If you have any questions, please phone Academic Computing at x2735.

Change those Banner Passwords!

As a reminder to the College community, we are re-running this article from last month's CATPrints.

In order to enhance Banner security, a process has been implemented so that beginning in mid to late January, Banner users’ passwords will expire. Banner users will be required to change their password at that time, and every 90 days thereafter.

When your Banner password has expired, you will receive the following message as you log into Banner:

Then, you will immediately be prompted for a new password:

Guidelines For Choosing Your Banner Password

1. The Banner password must be at least 8 characters in length.

2. The Banner password must contain at least 1 alpha character and at least 1 numeric character.

3. The previous 5 Banner passwords cannot be reused.

4. The Banner password must be different from the username.

5. The Banner password must differ from the previous password by at least 3 characters.

There are many ways to create passwords that fulfill these conditions and are still memorable.  You can create a phrase like "i8aHotdog" or "2beorNot2be".  One of our favorites is the math problem model - something like "4Plus2=six".  This is easy to remember, and can be changed incrementally; after 90 days it could be altered to "5Plus3=eight".

If you have a question for Computer and Telecommunication Services about:

Computer Problems or Related Issues - Call the Information Technology Help Desk at     436-4567

Telephone Service or Problems - Call the Office of Telecommunications at 436-2577

Directory Assistance - call 436-3500

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