All faculty, students and staff using university-owned Windows desktop computers need to shut down their machines by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Please power down the machine instead of simply logging off.

If you use a campus installed machine off-campus and experience problems, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP to schedule an appointment to resolve the issue. IT can update your wireless settings at that time, if you have not already done so.

Important changes related to the campus name change will occur that evening that require all university-owned Windows desktop computers to be powered down.

Please power down the machine instead of simply logging off. CLC computers do not need to be powered down, as this issue will not affect them.

Here are a few things to keep in mind before you reboot and log in on Feb. 6:

1. On Wednesday morning, when you return to your computer, wait at least 15 minutes after powering up before logging in. This will give our changes time to complete.

2. If you reboot before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5, your machine may start to implement these changes early. This may cause a 5-10 minute delay, after which you should be able to log in and use your computer as normal.

3. If you find you can’t log in when you return Wednesday morning, try rebooting your machine. If you are still unable to log in, call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

If you have any questions regarding this change window and required power down, please call the IT Help Desk at 341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT has opened four new Documentum training sessions.

The dates are as follows:

Feb. 12: 8:30 a.m. - noon, Library 103
Feb. 26: 1-4 p.m., Library 103
Mar. 11: 8:30 a.m. - noon, Library 103
Apr. 1: 1-4 p.m., Library 103

To register, visit http://ittraining.mst.edu and click Register for a Short Course.

For more information, call the IT help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT's servers and systems team worked late last night and brought the Exchange email server back up at approximately 11 p.m.

This is still a temporary resolution as we continue to work with Dell to implement a long-term solution. We understand that it's frustrating when email is down, and we sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding.

Customers may experience intermittent service disruptions until this issue is resolved. While moderate email functionality has returned, we are working diligently to bring it to optimum performance for all of our customers.

Please continue to check IT Press for the latest updates on this issue.

If you have any questions, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

UPDATE: IT staff will continue to work on this issue throughout the evening to restore email performance to campus customers. Customers should expect at least one outage this evening lasting several hours as we continue to balance email storage loads.

Starting at noon today, email will be taken down for approximately two hours in order to reconfigure our storage space and return functionality to university email. This was recommended by Dell, with whom we're still closely working to provide a solution that will bring email back up to optimum performance.

We hope to be able to return all email to moderate performance this afternoon.

Any updates will be posted to the IT Press blog. Your continued patience is appreciated.

If you have any questions, please check IT Press for updates or call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 04:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starting Jan. 28 and continuing through Feb. 6, customers who start or reboot their Windows desktop machines will experience a delay of up to 60 seconds longer than usual before the login screen appears. Once the login screen appears, customers should be able to log in as normal with their university user ID and password.

This is a preventative measure to keep machines from auto-rebooting and customers losing unsaved work during our Feb. 5 computer object migration related to the campus name change.

NOTE: This issue is unrelated to email outages that customers have experienced recently.

If you have any questions or experience delays 60 seconds longer than normal, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT is aware of the campus wide email issues and is diligently working to improve email performance. Due to an ongoing issue with our storage area network (SAN), email performance is severely degraded and may get worse before a permanent solution is implemented.

What customers are experiencing is an extreme symptom of the same problems that have occurred over the last two weeks.

We are working with one of our hardware vendors, Dell, to provide a long-term solution. Unfortunately, we do not currently have a projected resolution date and time. Every effort will be made to keep customers informed of the problem and when we expect it to be resolved.

Your patience and understanding is appreciated.

If you have any questions, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Students, faculty and staff still have one day to register to win a $75 gift certificate from the Missouri S&T Bookstore when they register for the emergency alert system. While campus customers can continue to sign up for the alert system through the rest of the semester, the deadline for prize drawing registration is noon on Tuesday, Jan. 29.

On Jan. 30 at 12:05 p.m. a test will be run of the emergency alert system. Anyone who has registered a cell phone will receive a voicemail or text message indicating that a test is being conducted. The same message will be sent to the university email account of anyone who has not registered a cell phone.

University administrators will conduct a test of the emergency alert system each semester to ensure its functionality in the vent of an actual campus emergency.

For more information and to register, visit the emergency alert page of the university's website, or call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The servers for university blogs, wikis and the mail archive will be unavailable tonight starting at 5 p.m. The service interruption will last approximately one hour.

If you have any questions, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT will be performing critical security updates on all campus Windows servers on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

During the maintenance window, customers may have difficulty accessing a number of services, including e-mail, web applications, applications that need to access the affected servers and any other service hosted on the campus Windows-based servers. Interruptions in service will last from 15 – 30 minutes, depending on which service is updated.

IT recommends that all IT customers save their work before 10 p.m. to keep from losing any data.

For more information, please contact the IT Help Desk at 341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 03:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NOTE: This issue has been resolved.

There is an issue with the public folders on the Exchange email server and they are currently unavailable. The Missouri S&T IT Department is working with UM System and our IT vendors to make them available as soon as possible.

Our hope is to have these folders back up and accessible sometime tomorrow morning, but it has not yet been determined how quickly this issue can be resolved. Your patience is requested as we work to restore access to these email folders.

More information will be posted here at IT Press as it becomes available.

For more information, please call the it Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Missouri S&T has implemented an emergency notification system to alert students, faculty and staff about campus emergencies. You can register to recieve voicemail or text messages about campus emergencies on your cell phone. Registration for the service is free, but your normal cell and text messaging rates still apply.

Register by Jan 29 at noon and you'll be entered in a drawing to win $75 from the MIssouri S&T Bookstore. If you've already registered, you're already entered to win.

Please Note: There will be a system wide test of the alert system on Jan 30 at 12:05 p.m.

To register, visit the emergency alert registration page.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the last several days, some customers have reported difficulty logging in to Miner Mail using their user ID and password. This issue has been temporarily addressed and customers should be able to log in as usual. However, this is an ongoing issue and we’re currently working with our vendor to provide a permanent solution.

If this issue comes up again in the future, customers can log in by typing "umr-users/your user ID" in the username field and the regular password for their account.

Example:

For more information, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What: IT Resource Fair

Where: Havener Atrium

When: Tuesday, Jan. 22, 11 am.-1 p.m. and 4-6 p.m.

Why: IT staff will be on hand to answer questions about email, spam filtering, the new wireless network and other issues that students, faculty and staff may have as the new semester begins.

IT will also have computer support personnel there to help you configure your device for the new wireless network and, if you haven't already, sign you up for the new emergency notification system.

For more information, call the IT Help Desk at 341-HELP or, better yet, stop by and chat with us in the Havener today from 11 a.m.-1p.m. and 4-6 p.m..

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 08:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starting Jan. 24, student display names in Outlook will no longer use UMR. All instances of “UMR” in students’ address book entries for will be changed to “S&T.”

Customers searching for a student name in the global address book (accessed by clicking the “To…” field in a new email) need to be aware that Missouri S&T students will now be listed as last name, first name middle name (S&T-Student).

Example: On Jan. 24, Miner, Joe (UMR-Student) will become Miner, Joe (S&T-Student).

If you have questions regarding this issue, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Your university-owned Macs will need to be rebuilt by IT. If you haven’t heard from us, please let us hear from you. If you know someone on campus who uses a Mac who hasn’t been contacted by IT, please encourage them to call us.

Macs that aren’t rebuilt before Spring Break will not be able to log into the network.

The recent email, spam and wireless changes (see recent blog posts) will similarly affect Mac users.

If you haven’t been contacted by us to schedule a rebuild or know another Mac customer on campus who hasn’t been contacted, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NOTE: If you use the Missouri S&T wireless network, you need to reconfigure your device as soon as possible.

Missouri S&T has installed new, more secure wireless networks. There a few critical issues you need to know about to make sure you can access the new network.

• The old WEP wireless network will be deactivated on March 4 and everyone who uses a wireless device on campus will need to reconfigure their connection for the new MST-WPA or MST-PSK networks.

• We’ve created easy-to-follow instructions for updating your wireless connection on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Macintosh OS X operating systems.

• If your device is not WPA-compatible, you may be able to get a software upgrade from the manufacturer. Here are some common devices and their manufacturers’ websites:

Read on for device manufacturer contact information.

iPhone: Check back soon for instructions.

Palm OS: http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=43,E=0000000000787128964,K=142,Sxi=11,Case=Obj(40507)

HP iPAQ:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00543152/c00543152.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

Dell Axim x5:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/aximx5/en/K1971en0.pdf

Nokia 770-800:
http://knowledge.search.nokiausa.com/nokiaselfservice/answer.jsp?guid=30142017815411470112af92c56503ba0

Laptops: If your laptop is more than one or two years old you may need to upgrade your wireless networking software. Please contact your computer’s manufacturer for more details.

If you need help or get stuck trying to reconfigure your wireless device, call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP and someone can help you through the process.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 02:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new spam filter has been activated to replace Spam Assassin. While the new spam filter won't eliminate 100 percent of spam, you should receive less spam once it has had time to adjust to campus email traffic.

For the first four to six weeks of school, however, the spam filter may incorrectly place an email in your Junk Mail folder. To ensure you receive all important email, it is advisable to monitor your Junk Mail folder on a regular basis.

The following questions have come up most frequently regarding the new spam filter.

• How do I keep "safe" email from coming into my Junk Mail folder?
• What should I do if I think mail is not being delivered to my university email account?

How do I keep "safe" email from coming into my Junk Mail folder?
For email incorrectly marked as Junk Mail, copy and paste the sender into the Safe Senders list using the steps below:

1. Log in to minermail.mst.edu.
2. Click Options from the left side menu.
3. Scroll down to the Privacy and Junk E-mail Prevention section and click Manage Junk E-mail Lists.
4. Click Add next to the Safe Senders dialogue box.
5. Type or paste the copied email address you wish to be marked as “safe.”
6. After 10-15 minutes, the server will be updated to recognize all future mail from that sender as "safe."

This solution also applies to customers using email programs other than Outlook.

Mail not delivered to Inbox or Junk Mail folders
Some customers have expressed concern that mail may not be getting through to them. In this case, mail may be blocked from coming into our mail server and never has the opportunity to get sorted as safe or junk email.

Off-campus senders whose emails addressed to mst.edu are blocked will be sent an automated message informing who to contact for assistance.

If you feel messages simply aren't getting through to your Inbox or Junk Mail folders, please contact postmaster@missouri.edu with your email address, the senders’ email address, and the approximate time the message was sent (if you know this information) or contact the IT Help Desk at 341-HELP.

If you have any questions regarding spam filtering or email handling, call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Several email changes took place over the winter break that affect all university email accounts. You may have noticed that your email address appears as username@mst.edu.

With your new email account come a couple of new, improved features:

New email quota – Everyone on campus now has a mailbox quota of 1 GB.

New spam filtering – A new spam filter has been activated that will decrease the amount of spam you receive in your Inbox. This issue has created more questions thus far than any other. If you have questions, read the separate post regarding spam.

If you’re concerned about receiving important email addressed to your @umr.edu account, read on.

Listed below are the key events you need to know about to make sure you don't miss any important email

Event
Starting on November 1, 2007, email sent to campus customers can be sent to either the ".mst.edu" or the "@mst.edu" domains

Action Required
Between November 1 and December 20, 2007, notify your email contacts about the change to your email address. This includes personal contacts as well as any mailing lists to which you may belong.
________________________________________

Event
Starting on December 21, outgoing email (from UMR/Missouri S&T) originating from campus will appear to recipients as originating from "@mst.edu" instead of from ".mst.edu" email domain. All email from this campus will be from an @mst.edu email address.

Action Required
Change .mst.edu email contacts in address books to @mst.edu email addresses. Make sure ALL important contacts are notified that your email address has changed.
________________________________________

Event
After July 31, 2008, email sent to an ".mst.edu" email address will NO LONGER be delivered.

Action Required
Make sure ALL important contacts are notified that your email address has changed.

How your Email will be Sent and Received Before and After July 31

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are experiencing an unplanned service disruption with the campus Internet provider for the main campus link. Customers will experience significant Internet slowdowns until approximately 11:15 a.m.

For more information, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During IT maintenance that occurred last night, a hardware issue was discovered that will require the installation of new equipment. The replacement equipment will be installed today at noon, which will cause decreased performance of central IT services, including email, for approximately an hour, from noon to 1 p.m.

We appreciate your continued patience as we work to resolve this issue and ensure that all affected IT systems are running at optimum performance.

If you have additional questions, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During Winter Break, IT reinstalled the software on a number of instructor stations around campus. This upgraded the system with the latest software updates for several applications, improved consistency among similar machines across campus, and will help resolve some issues which may arise later in the semester as a result of the University’s name change.

A complete list of installed software applications can be found at:

http://ittraining.mst.edu/documents/Spring_2008-BaseSoftwareInstall.pdf

If you require specialty software not listed as part of our standard installation package, then IT recommends one of the following approaches:

• Use Remote Desktop Connection to establish a remote session between the local machine (the instructor’s station) and a different machine across campus—your office or research system that has the specialty software required. This option gives you the flexibility to run specialty software on ANY classroom computer on campus without worrying about licensing costs or installation time. Most software will operate in this mode without a significant problem (there may be some performance lag due to the fact you are running an application over the network instead of on a local system). Instructions on setting up a Remote Desktop session can be found at:
  
  http://ittraining.mst.edu/generalinfo/remotedesktop.html


• Bring a laptop with the specialty software installed and connect the laptop to the projector through the laptop connection cable located at the instructor’s station.


• Contact the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP to request the specialty software be installed on the classroom computer. There may be licensing costs associated with the installation. Please allow at least 3 working days to complete your request.

Posted by Malcolm Hays at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is a storage area network issue that is affecting the performance of email and several other campus IT services. IT is currently working with Dell to resolve the issue and normal service will resume as soon as possible.

For more information or if you are unsure if a problem you are experiencing is related to this issue, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fiber cable maintenance will be taking place today and tomorrow (Jan. 9-10) on 16th Street. The following Greek organizations will not have access to network services, including Internet access, on Wednesday or Thursday.

Kappa Delta, Kappa Delta Annex
Lambda Chi Alpha
Pi Kappa Pi
Chi Omega
Theta Xi

Network service should resume by 5 p.m. on Thursday.

If you have any questions regarding this service interruption, please contact the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 02:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is an issue with the campus VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephone system and some customers have experienced delays in receiving voicemail. This issue only affects voicemail and you should still be able to send and receive calls normally. IT is currently working to resolve the issue.

If, after tomorrow morning, you continue to notice delays in receiving voicemail on your campus phone, please call the IT Help Desk at 341-HELP.

UPDATE: This issue (a delay in the receipt of voicemail then the subsequent delivery of all delayed voicemail in one batch) has been resolved.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)