INFORMATION SERVICES
JULY 2003
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Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
07/30/03, Brief Network Outage on 7/30 After 5:00 PM
The central network router will need to be rebooted to resolve a few
post-upgrade issues. This will be done between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM today,
in conjunction with some other tasks. The outage should only last for a
few minutes. [Notification-L]
07/29/03, Telephone Services Down Friday 8/1
As previously announced, it is necessary to take Macalester's telephone
system out of service in order to make some significant upgrades. In
consultation with our vendor, Friday August 1 offers the best time to
perform the upgrades while causing the least possible inconvenience to
our community and giving the vendors enough time to complete their
tasks.
All telephone service, including voicemail and 911, will be taken down
at 12:30 PM on Friday August 1. The vendor estimates that the upgrades will
take approximately eight hours, so we hope to restore service by
approximately 9:00 PM. The upgrades may take longer, of course.
Pay phones are NOT affected by this downtime: pay phones are located in
the lower level of the Campus Center, the hallway of the Art Gallery,
and the Snelling Avenue entrance to the Field House. During the downtime,
there will be a cel phone and 2-way radio at the Campus Center
Information Desk. In addition, student workers with 2-way radios
will be stationed in the Doty and George Draper Dayton Hall offices. [Notification-L]
07/25/03, Network Downtime Beginning TODAY
As previously announced, Macalester's data network will be shut down
beginning at 12:30 PM today, Friday July 25, in order to perform
upgrades. All network services, including e-mail, network printing and
access to the Internet, will not be available beginning at 12:30. We
expect to restore service by 10:00 PM Sunday July 27, earlier if
possible.
Because of circumstances affecting our service vendor, the telephone
system upgrades and downtimes that had been announced for Friday July 25
must be postponed. The work must still be performed, and doing so will
require bringing down the entire Macalester telephone system. To
minimize work interruptions, we are conferring with the vendor to
schedule the upgrades for an upcoming weekend. As soon as a date is
chosen we will communicate that to the community through multiple
venues, along with other relevant information. [Notification-L]
07/23/03, Voicemail System Temporarily Down Tonight
In order to be fully prepared for future telephone system upgrades, the
Macalester voicemail system will be out of service from 5:00 to 6:00 PM
tonight, Wednesday July 23.
[Bulletin Flash]
07/25/03, POSTPONED: Telephone System Upgrades
Because of circumstances affecting our service vendor, the telephone
system upgrades and downtimes that had been announced for Friday July 25
must be postponed. The work must still be performed, and doing so will
require bringing down the entire Macalester telephone system. To
minimize work interruptions, we are conferring with the vendor to
schedule the upgrades for an upcoming weekend. As soon as a date is
chosen we will communicate that to the community through multiple
venues, along with other relevant information.
In order to be fully prepared for the telephone system upgrades, the
Macalester voicemail system will be out of service from 5:00 to 6:00 PM
Wednesday July 23.
Please note that the network infrastructure upgrades announced
previously will occur as scheduled. Beginning at 12:30 PM on Friday
7/25, all network services - including e-mail, printing and Internet
access - will be taken down. We expect to restore service by 10:00 PM
Sunday 7/27, earlier if possible.
[Bulletin]
07/23/03, Corporate Time E-Mail Notification Fixed
For about the last week there have been problems with Corporate Time's
e-mail notification of meetings. It just wasn't working. The problem
is now fixed, and e-mail notification of meetings will come from
Corporate Time. [Notification-L]
07/23/03, POSTPONED: Telephone System Upgrades
Because of circumstances affecting our service vendor, the telephone
system upgrades and downtimes that had been announced for Friday July 25
must be postponed. The network infrastructure upgrades will still occur
as scheduled: beginning at 12:30 PM Friday 7/25, all network services
(including printing, e-mail and Internet access) will be brought down.
Service should be restored by 10:00 PM Sunday 7/27. For more details,
see the CIT home page at http://www.macalester.edu/cit/.
[Bulletin Flash]
07/17/03, Telephone/Network Service Downtime Beginning 7/25
The following information has been announced in previous
Notification-L messages [7/9/03, 7/11/03], but given the extent of the
downtimes and services affected, we are reposting.
On FRIDAY, JULY 25, beginning at 12:30 PM, staff will upgrade components
of our central telephone switch and replace the central network router
switch. Necessary upgrades to the air-conditioning system in Humanities
313, the central server room, will be performed at the same time.
Beginning at 12:30 PM, there will be no campus telephone service,
including 911. (Pay phones will not be affected.) Also beginning at
12:30, there will be no data network services available: these include
e-mail, CARS, and access to the Internet. Telephone service is expected
to be restored by 8:30 PM Friday at the latest. Data network services
should be restored by 10:00 PM Sunday July 27.
Security, the Campus Center Information Desk and Admissions will have
cel phones. Pay phones are located in the hallway of the Art Gallery,
the Campus Center and the entrance to the Field House. Student monitors
equipped with 2-way radios will be posted in George Draper Dayton and
Kagin Halls in case of emergencies. Groups that are meeting on campus
the afternoon of July 25 will have cel phones or radios. If you are
involved with a group that will be meeting on campus on Friday
afternoon, July 25, and have not already been contacted by Kelly Borke,
please call her at x. 6566.
For safety and security reasons, especially the telephone service
downtime, we strongly suggest that you plan to spend that afternoon away
from campus.
Terry Gorman, Director of Security
Kelly Borke, Telecommunications Manager
Joel Clemmer, VP for Library & Information Services
[Notification-L]
07/16/03, CARS Downtime 7/18-7/20
The CARS system will be down starting at 1:00 PM Friday, July 18, and
will remain out of service through Sunday, July 20. The downtime is
needed to install eight new disks and reorganize the information stored
on all CARS disks. Users should not schedule any CARS jobs or reports
to run over the weekend. If you have questions, please contact Database
Manager Ramón Rentas at x.6633. [Notification-L]
07/10/03, CARS Downtime Friday 7/18
The CARS system will be taken down on Friday, July 18, from 1:00 PM to
3:00 PM so that we may install eight new disks. If you have questions,
please contact Ramón Rentas, Database Manager, at x.6633.
[Notification-L]
07/11/03, Information Services Staff Member of the Year
Linda Carlson is our new IS staff member of the year! As an
administrative systems programmer with special responsibilities
supporting Business Services and Human Resources, Linda is among those
of whom it can be said, "without her, no paychecks!" In fact, Linda's
special project over the last year was a major upgrade of our HR and
payroll administrative system, into which she poured huge effort,
including much of what the rest of us would call "personal time." Thank
you, Linda, and congratulations! [Bulletin]
07/11/03, Down Times
Please note some important dates on which we must interrupt data and
telephone service in order to upgrade equipment.
On FRIDAY, JULY 25, beginning at 12:30 PM, staff will
replace the central network router switch and upgrade components of our
central telephone switch. All data network services will be down,
including e-mail, CARS, and access to the Internet. In addition, wired
campus telephones (except for pay phones) will be down. Plans are
underway for cell phones and radios at critical locations during this
time.
On FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, beginning at 12:30 PM, staff will
replace the e-mail server. Obviously, e-mail service via macalester.edu
will be down. [Bulletin]
07/11/03, Communication
Congratulations for keeping up-to-date by reading the Bulletin! As the
universal campus news source for at least staff and faculty, you are
advantaging yourself by doing so. Please encourage your colleagues to
partake, as well. They'll be glad they took your advice; so will you; so
will we. And, remember, you can catch up on information services news at
http://www.macalester.edu
/infoservices/.
[Bulletin]
07/11/03, Late Delivery
The computer stork is making frequent stops at Macalester these days. We
must prepare each new delivery before handing it over to its new parent
(that's you). Ironically, the newest operating systems require more
setup work and C.I.T. has some other projects going on (see above). We
will get your new computer to you as fast as possible and, in the
meantime, your patience is appreciated.
[Bulletin]
07/09/03, Phone Shutdown Friday 7/25
On the afternoon of Friday, July 25, the Macalester telephone system
will be upgraded. This will require the system to be shut down for at
least 4 hours, and possibly up to 8 hours. During this time, there will
be no campus telephone service, including 911. The shutdown will start
at 12:30 PM. At the same time, the computer network will be shut down
for a hardware upgrade; therefore all network services will be down,
including e-mail, the Internet and CARS.
For safety and security reasons, especially the phone service downtime,
we strongly suggest that you plan to spend that afternoon away from
campus.
Terry Gorman, Director of Security
Kelly Borke, Telecommunications Manager
Joel Clemmer, VP for Library & Information Services
[Notification-L]
07/03/03, Application Launcher Upgrade
This Monday, July 7th, we will be upgrading the Application Launcher
software. The first upgrade will be done on the Academic server
followed by the Admin server the following day, Tuesday July 8th. The
upgrade should take about an hour or two. Academic and any files on it
will be unavailable during this time. Other network functions, such as
e-mail, Internet access and printing, do not rely on Academic and will
not be affected by this upgrade.
Once the upgrade is complete, users will notice a difference in their
application launcher (NAL) but the content and its functions should
remain the same. You will need to reboot your computer once after you
have succuessfully logged in. [Notification-L]
07/01/03, Copyright Infringement Bad - Hulk Smash!
[The following letter was distributed via e-mail, from the Dean of
Students Office, to all Macalester students living and working on
campus over the summer. The full text may be downloaded at http://www.macalester.edu/infoservices/copyright-infringement.pdf.]
Recent court decisions indicate that downloading illegally copied
files, especially music, is more dangerous than ever. For example, the
Recording Industry Association of America just announced that it will
"gather evidence against individuals who trade songs online and slap
thousands of them with copyright-infringement lawsuits." See
http://news.com.com/
2100-1027-1020876.html. A recent legal decision would
force the College, in its role of Internet Service Provider, to provide
your name to record company attorneys if they find illegally copied music
traceable to your computer. See
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2003/0425judgeuphol.html. News accounts say
that the record industry will begin the campaign this summer. In the
meantime, a computer user caught with a downloaded copy of The Hulk was
discovered by the FBI's Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Squad
and faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a fine of
$250,000. See http://news.com.com/2100-1026-1021005.html.
Macalester's Responsible Use policy recognizes that copying commercial
files without permission or payment is a violation. See http:
//www.macalester.edu/cit/policies/responsible-use.html. We resist
the notion of monitoring individuals' files because of our commitment to
your privacy but we respond when potential copyright violations are made
apparent. If you do not have permission to have copied commercial files on
your computer and agents of the record industry find you, you will
minimally lose network privileges until you take down the files. Repeat
offense will put you into the student judicial process. Persons or
organizations outside the College may also sue you. While I regret the
circumstances that necessitate this notice, those circumstances are very
real and you should make your own decisions accordingly.
Joel Clemmer
Vice President for Library and Information Services
clemmer@macalester.edu
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