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On Jan. 30, Missouri S&T successfully tested its new emergency alert system by sending test voice, text or email messages to the entire campus community. The results are as follows:

• The message reached a total of 7,549 people in the form of an email, voice or text message.
• Prerecorded voice messages sent to cell phones had a success rate of 68 percent.
• Text messages sent to cell phone had a success rate of 78 percent.

These percentages were affected by factors outside of university control, such as hang-ups, users who did not have voicemail set up, busy phone lines and incorrectly entered contact information. The security team is now analyzing the database to determine how to improve the system and delivery rates, but overall the test was considered a success.

To encourage registration for the new system prior to the test, the university offered a $75 Missouri S&T gift card drawing. Daniel Wilson, a Missouri S&T student, was randomly selected from everyone who had registered with a cell phone or text messaging number. Congratulations, Daniel.

Currently, 41.9 percent of the campus community has signed up to receive emergency notifications via text or voice message. Students, faculty and staff who do not sign up will be notified of campus emergencies via email to their university email account.

Students, faculty and staff can still register to receive voicemail or text messages about campus emergencies by visiting http://it.mst.edu/generalinfo/emergencyalert.html.

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:

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

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..

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.

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.

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?

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.