INFORMATION SERVICES
September 2003
return
to Information Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
09/26/03, Blaster and SoBig, Fini?
After much work, C.I.T. staff are nearing the end of the battle against
these computer infections. Over twenty computers are still quarantined
from network access and require cleaning but many times that number were
infected at the height of the break-out. Please visit http://www.macalester.edu
/safecomputing and follow the advice you find there to protect
yourself and others! [Bulletin (also 9/29)]
09/26/03, Library Catalog Fix
On Monday, September 29th, CLICnet, Macalester's library catalog, will
undergo a software upgrade. This will involve a re-boot of the system which
will happen after 9:00 PM. During the re-boot, the public library catalog
will be unavailable for up to 30 minutes. We apologize for this
interruption in service and ask that you plan for this. [Bulletin (also 9/29)]
09/26/03, The Voice of Macalester
There is more than one claimant of this title but here is ours. Colleen
Nelson is our new Macalester switchboard operator. She started August
18, and came to us from the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office. We
are thrilled to have her. If you are in the vicinity of Humanities 316,
please stop by and say "hello!" [Bulletin (also 9/29)]
09/24/03, E-Mail Performance
You may have noticed slow-downs of e-mail service late in the days of
September 15 and 16. This was caused by the very large number or size of
messages in some users' e-mail Inboxes. We have since moved those
Inboxes that were over 5 megabytes in size to another location and sent
an explanatory message to the affected users. Since then, performance
has improved considerably. The experience apparently confirms our
previous announcements about Inbox size. See
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/announce/082803inbox.html.
Please keep your Inbox size under 5 MB by moving messages to other
mailboxes or to file folders. An explanation of Mulberry mailboxes is
available at http://www.macalester.edu/cit/docs/xplatform/
mulberry3/mulberry3mailboxes.pdf. [Bulletin (also 9/19)]
09/22/03, Personal Computer Sales
All personally-owned computer hardware is now ordered by the customer
via the Web or by phoning the vendor. For more information, please
visit our Web site at http://www.macalester.edu/cit
/store.
Please note that there is no longer a "storefront." Printed pricing
information is available on the rack outside Humanities 305. It is
recommended that you check the Web site for the most current
information.
For computer software and accessories, please contact the Highlander on
the lower level of the Campus Center. [Bulletin (also 9/19)]
09/22/03, Passport Photo Service
Do
you need passport photos? Media Services now offers instant passport
photos while you wait. Two color photos are $6.00 and each additional
set of two is $4.00. The service is available at Media Services, 4th
floor of the Humanities building, from 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Monday through
Friday. Appointments are necessary and can be made by calling x6377.
[Bulletin (also 9/19)]
09/22/03, Course Folders Update
The course folder subfolder of 'readonly' has been replaced with two
folders, 'course_readonly' and 'anyone_readonly'.
'course_readonly' allows for read-only access by anyone in the class,
full access for any faculty/preceptors, and NO access for others. 'anyone_readonly' allows for read-only access by anyone at Macalester
and full access for any faculty/preceptors.
Any files (there were a grand total of four, for all classes) that were
in the 'readonly' folder have been moved to the 'course_readonly'
folder.
Sorry for the quick change. [Notification-L]
09/22/03, Academic Server Problem
This morning at about 9:00 AM the Academic server was rebooted, without
warning. This server has started experiencing a problem in the past
week where it basically gets stalled. This interferes with normal
logins, and prevents people from accessing their files. We are working
on a solution to this problem. [Notification-L]
09/19/03, New Virus; New Course Subfolder
New Virus. Many people are receiving a new virus spreading via e-mail. It's another
one that says it is from Microsoft and has an important attachment and
blah blah blah. As usual it is complete garbage, please ignore and
delete it.
New Course Subfolder. A new subfolder has been created
in all course folders. The subfolder name is 'readonly':
(e.g. \\academic\groups\courses\BIOL355-01\readonly).
The 'readonly' folder is set to be read-only for students, and
read-write for faculty/preceptors. This is in response to faculty
needing a place to put course-related files with some assurance that
they will not be accidentally deleted or altered.
The 'dropbox' folder is still there, which is intended for
assignments. Faculty/preceptors have read-write access to 'dropbox'
while students are restricted to write-only. [Notification-L]
09/19/03, E-Mail Performance
You may have noticed slow-downs of e-mail service late in the days of
September 15 and 16. This was caused by the very large number or size of
messages in some users' e-mail Inboxes. We have since moved those
Inboxes that were over 5 megabytes in size to another location and sent an
explanatory message to the affected users. Since then, performance has
improved considerably. The experience apparently confirms our previous
announcements about Inbox size. See
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/announce/082803inbox.html.
Please keep your Inbox size under 5 MB by moving messages to other
mailboxes or to file folders. An explanation of Mulberry mailboxes is
available at
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/docs/xplatform/
mulberry3/mulberry3mailboxes.pdf. [Bulletin (also 9/22,
9/24)]
09/19/03, Personal Computer Sales
All personally-owned computer hardware is now ordered by the customer via the
Web or by phoning the vendor. For more information, please visit our
Web site at http://www.macalester.edu/cit/store.
Please note that there is no longer a "storefront." Printed pricing
information is available on the rack outside Humanities 305. It is
recommended that you check the Web site for the most current
information.
For computer software and accessories, please contact the Highlander on
the lower level of the Campus Center. [Bulletin (also 9/22,
9/24)]
09/19/03, Passport Photo Service
Do you need passport photos? Media Services now offers instant passport
photos while you wait. Two color photos are $6.00 and each additional
set of two is $4.00. The service is available at Media Services, 4th
floor of the Humanities building, from 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Monday through
Friday. Appointments are necessary and can be made by calling x6377.
[Bulletin (also 9/22, 9/24)]
09/12/03, Automatic Patch Application Starting Monday 9/15
The two security patches referred to in my previous notification-l message
[see "09/11/03, Oops! They Did It Again!" below - Ed.] will be
automatically installed on all computers on campus beginning Monday. If
you use anything besides Windows XP or Windows 2000, this will have no
affect on you.
But Windows 2000 and Windows XP users will see whatever patches they
haven't already applied automatically applied at login. If both patches
are already applied, nothing will appear to happen. If you do not have
the Novell client installed, automatic patching cannot happen, and you
need to download AND run the patches from the link below.
After each patch, a reboot will automatically happen. When both patches
have successfully been applied, and the computer reboots itself, login
will just proceed normally.
If you want to run the patches yourself before this, visit here and go
to the "IMPORTANT SECURITY PATCHES" section:
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/safecomputing/index.html#critical.
Don't want to apply the patches? This really isn't an option. The
patches are critical and will prevent your computer from getting
hacked. [Notification-L]
09/12/03, Get Connected
All faculty
and staff members will soon find copies of the 2003 "Get Connected!"
CD-ROM in campus mailboxes. This CD is designed primarily to help
students connect personally-owned computers to the network in on-campus
residence halls, and has already been distributed to all students
(including those living off-campus). We give it to you as well for two
main reasons:
09/12/03, LESTER And You
Check out
the View Personal Data channel on the Tools tab in LESTER
(http://lester.macalester.edu). Macalester staff can check vacation and
medical leave accruals, and faculty and staff can check reimbursement
account balances. Students with work-study awards can view position
titles and award balances.
Also new: Course Resource Links have been enhanced to include an
optional category designation for ease in organizing these links in the
course channels. The courses tab has also been enhanced to allow an
individual course channel to be expanded during use and remain collapsed
when not in use. Click on the plus sign after a course name to expand a
course channel. [Bulletin, 9/12.]
09/12/03, Your Inbox
It is easy to
move messages from your e-mail Inbox to other folders using the Mulberry
e-mail client. When your Inbox swells in size, e-mail performance for
everyone else suffers. Five megabytes (or MB) is the outside limit for
the Inbox. Explanation is available at http://www.macalester.edu/cit/
or go to [the archived posting from September 5, below] and browse the
one on Mulberry Mailboxes. [Bulletin, 9/12.]
09/12/03, Electronic Resource Problems: Status
Report
Multiple significant problems have hit Macalester's
electronic resources in the past few days. A listing of those problems,
along with notes about how they may have affected you, and information
about what CIT has done, or is currently doing, to fix them is available
at http://www.macalester.edu/cit/
. See the announcement dated Sept. 9 or go straight to it at
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/announce/090903status-report.html.
[Bulletin, 9/12.]
09/12/03, Network Blockages
We understand that the Internet connection in the residence halls has
been slow and erratic. This is due to a high concentration of computer
viruses and worms introduced by personally-owned computers. These
problems all cause an incredible amount of traffic on our network; some
dormitories are more severely affected than others, most notably Bigelow and Turck Halls.
This week, as many have experienced, we began scanning the network for
computers that were generating excessive amounts of traffic ('excessive'
being far beyond the level of traffic that an individual could generate
by even the most active Web-surfing, game-playing or file downloading).
When found, we blocked these computers from accessing the network. After
blocking the heaviest traffic-generators earlier in the week, we saw
some improvement in network connectivity in the residence halls.
However, as we began responding to requests to UN-block ports ("I ran
your patches and installed anti-virus software, please remove my
block"), the levels of excessive traffic began to rise once more.
Obviously some personally-owned computers are still infected with
viruses. This may be due to the fact that the patches and anti-virus
measures were not fully executed; it may be because some users did not
try to take such measures. It takes only a single computer to spew
enough traffic to slow down the entire network for everyone - students,
faculty and staff alike.
We face an unpleasant choice. We can either block network access for
all computers that are generating excessive network traffic, thus
inconveniencing those individuals, or we can remove all blockages, thus
inconveniencing everyone at Macalester and potentially having our
network slow to a crawl. Clearly it makes more sense to take the former
path, thus protecting the network and its resources for the majority of
our users.
Those who find that their computer's network access has been blocked
should call the Help Desk at x.6525. Help Desk staff will begin
following up on such reports beginning at 8:00 AM Monday, September 15.
If you wish to discuss this regrettable necessity, you may do so by
contacting Joel Clemmer, Vice President for Library and Information
Services (clemmer@macalester.edu). [Notification-L]
09/11/03, Oops! They Did It Again!
There is yet another critical security vulnerability in Microsoft
Windows XP and Windows 2000. Microsoft warns the vulnerability could
lead to a slew of problems, like those caused by the Blaster worm.
Microsoft has released a patch for this vulnerability. Please download
and run this patch immediately, before another Jeffrey Lee Parson comes
along and writes the next worm.
You will find patches available at the link below. Install all patches
listed in "IMPORTANT SECURITY PATCHES" for your Operating System. Don't
worry about accidentally installing one twice. That doesn't matter.
Really, these patches are not just recommended. Your [PC] computer will
likely get hacked without them.
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/safecomputing/index.html#critical.
[Notification-L]
09/10/03, Electronic Resource Problems: Status Report
Multiple significant problems have hit Macalester's electronic resources
in the past few days. A listing of those problems, along with notes
about how they may have affected you, and information about what CIT has
done, or is currently doing, to fix them is available at
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/. See the announcement dated September 9 or go straight to it at
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/announce/090903status-report.html.
[Bulletin Flash. A slightly shorter version of the above
announcement, linking to the same status report, also ran in the
Today of 9/11, 9/12 and 9/15.]
09/09/03, Electronic Resource Problems: Status Report
There have been multiple problems affecting Macalester's electronic
resources as the semester has begun. These problems have created
frustration and inconvenience for everyone. Here is a brief rundown of
the major problems, whether or not they have been fixed, and what is
being done to continue improving service.
'Denial of service' attack, 9/8/03. Beginning after
noon on Monday 9/8, Macalester's network suffered under a DOS attack
from one or more off-campus computers. This attack flooded our network
with so much false traffic that legitimate services were choked off.
Our staff responded and worked hard to block this flood. By 9:00 AM on
Tuesday 9/9, the attack has been successfully blocked, thereby easing
some of the strain on our system.
Academic server outage and Windows login problems,
9/8/03. On Monday 9/8, the Academic file server crashed,
possibly because of the DOS attack. This downtime resulted in many
faculty and some staff Windows PCs booting only into 'safe mode.' At
startup, these PCs normally connect to Academic; since they could not
connect while the server was down, the boot process was stymied.
Academic was restored to service before close of business on Monday 9/8.
Rebooting a PC after that time should open the normal connection with
the Academic server.
E-mail and Internet server outages, 9/8/03. During the
day on Monday 9/8, at various times both the central e-mail server and
our Internet connection went down. No e-mail was lost: network staff
manually ran procedures both to send and deliver electronic mail - you
would have seen slow delivery times. Network staff restored both full
e-mail service (that is, automatic electronic sending and delivery of
messages) and Internet access before 9:00 AM Tuesday 9/9/03. The
Internet outage may also have been related to the DOS attack we
experienced; see above.
Problematic access to cross-listed course folders and course
e-mail lists for faculty, beginning 9/2/03. A procedure to
automatically enable access for all instructors and students in
cross-listed classes was not working properly. That procedure was
rewritten and put in place by 8:00 AM Monday 9/8. With that, the
problems with cross-listed course folders and e-mail lists have been
fixed. In addition, a new service has been added by which all faculty
members may now add (or remove) access to all of their online course
materials for ACTC inter-institutional registered students, plus
preceptors, lab instructors and team teachers as desired, through LESTER
(see http://lester.macalester.edu/).
Computer virus problems, beginning August 2003.
Regrettably, multiple computer viruses are still causing problems for
our network. SoBig.F, MSBlast and Welchia have hit us through infected
personally-owned computers, brought to campus by students, staff and
faculty members. It only takes a single infected PC to spread these
viruses across our network. We responded with multiple news postings for
the community (see http://www.macalester.edu
/infoservices/, for both August and the current month, as well as http://www.macalester.edu/cit/
for specific virus announcements). We burned more than a hundred copies
of a 'SAV' CD with appropriate Microsoft OS patches and updated
anti-virus software, for distribution across campus from multiple public
computer facilities (including the CIT Help Desk and the Library
computer lab). Network staff are running hourly checks of our network
to identify computers that show signs of infection, and are blocking
network access so as to 'quarantine' these PCs until the appropriate
fixes can be applied. Anti-virus software running on the central mail
server is automatically scanning incoming and outgoing messages, and is
removing viruses when they are found (please note, however, that bogus -
though harmless - e-mail messages are still being sent due to viruses).
Finally, we have worked to alert students to the updated anti-virus
software and information that are available at no charge from CIT's
'Safe Computing' Web pages, http://www.macalester.
edu/safecomputing/. All Windows users are encouraged to download
new anti-virus software from these pages. These viruses are likely to
remain a problem for the near future: we will continue to work to
eliminate and block them.
Student networking problems in on-campus residence halls, beginning
8/30/03. As students have moved into on-campus residence halls and
attempted to connect personally-owned computers to our network, some are
experiencing difficulty. There is no single source for all such
problems: personally-owned computers may be misconfigured, be infected
with viruses or have other problems that prevent flawless network
access. Students in a few residence halls have complained of access
difficulties that seem to be endemic to specific areas: as of this
writing, no problems with central wiring or network routing equipment in
these halls have been found, but we are continuing to investigate and
will promptly repair any problems we find. CIT staff began a series of
six 'ResNet' sweeps on Wednesday, 9/3, starting with the First Year
residence halls. By the time we conclude these visits on the evening of
Wednesday 9/10, CIT staff will have visited every room in every
residence hall and offered assistance to students experiencing computer
problems. Please see http://www.
macalester.edu/cit/general/res_comp/ for more information on the
ResNet sweeps.
The usual suspects. Not all electronic access problems on campus are
due to major system events like those outlined above! Anyone can
experience a unique computer problem, such as difficulty printing or an
application error, that is unrelated to any other computer or system.
While it is tempting to ascribe one's computer woes to large-scale
causes, understand that you may have difficulties that are unique to
your computer. You can work to minimize the chance of problems by avoiding
unsupported or untested software (especially Microsoft Outlook and
screen savers), by routinely backing up critical data, and by watching
the Information Services column of the Bulletin for news about
problems and solutions that may affect you.
At this point, a word about communication is in order.
Our ideal is to inform everyone at Macalester immediately and precisely
what is happening when there is a problem affecting information
resources. There are significant blockages preventing us from realizing
that ideal, so instead we must hew to a system of shared responsibility
when it comes to informing the community. It is CIT's responsibility to
'get the word out,' and we promise to do that by using the
Notification-L e-mail list and the Information Services column of the
Bulletin to report events to the fullest extent that we can do
so. It is your responsibility to maintain your subscription to the
Notification-L mailing list, and to read the Information Services column
in the Bulletin, so as to stay informed.
What is CIT doing about all these problems? The short
answer is "working as hard as we can to fix them as quickly as
possible." Network staff have striven to diagnose and correct multiple
major system problems, while desktop services staff have likewise worked
very hard to collect information about major system events, troubleshoot
and fix individuals' computer problems, conduct the ResNet sweeps and in
general help those who need it. Please understand that we take all
problems very seriously and are putting our best efforts into fixing
them. At this time of year, when the volume of requests far exceeds our
ability to respond as quickly as you (and we) would like, we must
prioritize and fix the most mission-critical and/or large-scale problems
first. Inevitably this means that some who need our help will have to
wait before we can give it. This is as frustrating for us as it is for
you, particularly at the beginning of the semester, and we ask for your
patience and understanding as we work through the heavy load of problem
reports. [Notification-L. This text is also being sent as a paper
mailing to faculty and staff, and is linked from the "Announcements" section of
CIT's home page, http://www.macalester.edu/cit/.]
09/08/03, E-Mail/Internet Slowdown, Monday September 8
Since approximately noon today (Monday 9/8), Macalester has been under a
"denial of service" attack, and we have confirmed this by speaking with
Onvoy, the College's Internet Service Provider (ISP). Such an attack
means that one or more off-campus computers are flooding our system with
bogus traffic, swamping our legitimate e-mail and Internet flow. Coming
on top of existing problems with computer viruses, this attack is
further slowing Internet and e-mail response. It is also adding more
work to the already heavy burden our small network staff is carrying.
This problem is not only severe, it is complex. At the time this message
is going out, we know little more than what is stated here. Our staff
are working as diligently as possible to fix the situation and we will send
out more information as it is know. [Notification-L. Because of the nature
of the problem, this message has also been circulated to designated information
contacts via targeted broadcast voicemail.]
09/05/03, Computing Users' Group
For the past several years we have had a users' group that meets monthly.
Initially, it went under the name of 'Microsoft Word Users' Group.' It now
covers any software issues the group wants to discuss. For example, the
Users' Group recently explored some of the new features of our Mulberry
e-mail client.
We meet from 1:30 to 2:30 PM in Humanities 302. The fall semester
schedule is:
09/05/03, No More Bricks, Just Clicks, For
(Personal) Computer Purchases
All personal
computer hardware is now ordered by the customer via the Web or by
phoning the vendor. For more information, please visit our Web site at
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/
. [Editor's note: 'personal' computer purchases here means 'items that
will be owned by you, rather than by the College.' Institutional
hardware and software purchasing is not changing.]
Please note that there is no longer a 'storefront.' Printed pricing
information is available on the rack outside Humanities 305. Check the
Web site for the most current information.
For computer software and accessories, please contact the Highlander on
the lower level of the Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center. [Bulletin 9/5, 9/10]
09/05/03, Wow! Feedback!
On Tuesday
morning, we found this note outside CIT offices. "Dear CIT, Thank you
for all of the work you do keeping the network up & running, especially
when all these new machines are being added." It was taped to a plate of
cookies. This is a good thing and we thank the anonymous donor. [Bulletin 9/5, 9/10]
09/05/03, Speaking of Worms
Here are
some quick hits on what is going on with Blaster and SoBigF. Staff and
faculty members bringing computers from off-campus may encounter some of
these safeguards.
* Thanks to clever programming by network staff, all
computers on our residence hall network are scanned hourly for
susceptibility to the Blaster worm. Those needing to be patched are
diverted to a special Web page when they attempt to access our network.
* Loaner CDs with the needed software are available at
the Library Lab (lower level) and Help Desk.
* Our Safe Computing page features software fixes for the recent viruses
and worms. See http://www.macalester.edu/safecomputing.
* We encourage all Windows users to download the latest
version of Norton Anti-Virus from http://www.macalester.edu
/safecomputing, even if you already have it installed.
Information Services staff and student aides will sweep through residence
halls over six nights, beginning Wednesday, September 3, looking for
problematic computers (and connecting disinfected computers to the
network). [Bulletin 9/5, 9/10]
09/05/03, The Growing Inbox
Problem
The demands on e-mail servers are skyrocketing these
days. An invasion of spam, extra layers of virus and other filtering,
more voluminous attachments and normal exponential growth of e-mail make
it very challenging to keep up. We just took delivery of a new server,
originally promised for early summer, but must await fall break for
installation.
New server or not, we must ask everyone to pitch in to solve the problem
by keeping the number of messages in your Inbox to the absolute minimum.
We merely ask that you transfer messages to other mailboxes, your file
server space or to your local hard disk as soon as possible. Please see
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/
for "The Growing Inbox Problem." [Bulletin 9/5, 9/10]
09/05/03, What's New In
LESTER
LESTER is Macalester's Web portal, providing a
convenient and personalized way to access a wide variety of campus and
Web resources. Use your regular network/e-mail username and password to
log in to LESTER at http://lester.macalester.edu.
New in LESTER this fall: Course Resource Links have been enhanced to
include an optional category designation for ease in organizing these
links in the course channels. The courses tab has also been enhanced to
allow an individual course channel to be expanded during use and remain
collapsed when not in use. Click on the plus sign after a course name to
expand a course channel.
Another new feature is the View Personal Data channel on the Tools tab.
Macalester staff can check vacation and medical leave accruals, and
faculty and staff can check reimbursement account balances. Students
with work-study awards can view position titles and award balances.
Create or access your LESTER account today at http://lester.macalester.edu.
[Bulletin 9/5, 9/10]
09/04/03, Scheduled Internet Maintenance
Our Internet provider has notified us that some maintenance will be
performed on our Internet connection on Sunday, September 7 between 2:00 AM and
4:00 AM. The Internet will be unavailable during some or all of this time.
Inbound e-mail from the Internet will not arrive during this time.
Remote systems should be smart enough to re-queue it and attempt
delivery later. Any e-mail bound for off-campus will be queued and sent
when the Internet connection is reestablished. On-campus network
services, such as file and print services, and intra-campus e-mail will
not be affected. [Notification-L]
09/03/03, Network Performance Problem
The slow network performance is due to additional virus and worm
activity. Enough of the returning computers of faculty and students are
infected so as to cause a problem with overloading the network with
superfluous traffic.
Thus far, we had been redirecting computers known not to have applied
the anti-Blaster patch to a web page, http://fwin.macalester.edu.
However, the traffic making it to the central router (new, this past
summer) has been bad enough to really ruin performance.
So we're going to track down and terminate the connections of offending
computers at the point where they first connect to the network. At the
top of the list will be computers spewing the most garbage, and we'll
just go down the list from there. This will ease the workload on the
central router.
If you suddenly find yourself completely cut off from the network, this
is probably what has happened. You'll need to go to the Library lab or
to the Help Desk to get a CD-ROM containing the tools you'll need to
clean and protect your computer. AFTER you've done that, you will have
to call the Help Desk to ask to get reconnected.
We will be doing this tonight, after the ResNet sweeps. [Notification-L]
09/03/03, GET PROTECTED!
Protect
your computer and the community from virus attacks that send out
server-clogging email. Download and install the latest Symantec
AntiVirus software for free at http://www.macalester.edu/safecomputing. Even if you did this last year, you need the latest
version in order to configure Live Update and keep virus definitions
up-to-date. [Today, 9/3, 9/4 and 9/5]
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