IT is performing maintenance this week related to the July 31 decommission of the umr.edu domain. If you are using a university-owned machine, please turn off your machine, wait 10 seconds and turn it back on. This needs to be done at your earliest convenience before Wednesday, July 30. You can immediately login again after turning your machine back on.

Please make sure that any students working in your offices and using university machines also do this as soon as it is convenient and before July 30.

Keep in mind that all umr.edu email and web addresses will no longer work after July 31. If you have questions about how to prepare for this transition, please visit our IT name change resource site.

Thank you for your assistance. If you have any questions or difficulty rebooting your machine, please call the IT Help Desk at 341-HELP (4357).

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT will be performing rebranding-related maintenance on the IT ticketing system, accessible at help.mst.edu. Customers will not be able to create a ticket today between 12 noon and 12:30 p.m. If you have the ticketing application bookmarked in your web browser, please make sure it is set to the correct address, help.mst.edu.

If you have any questions about this issue, or are unable to create an IT ticket after 12:30 p.m., please call the IT Help Desk at 341-4357.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On July 31, 2008, the umr.edu domain will be permanently decommissioned.

For our customers, this means umr.edu web addresses, umr.edu email and saved bookmarks will cease to function and the university will use mst.edu only. Missouri S&T email and web services are currently accessible by using both the umr.edu and the mst.edu domains.

What you can do to help

* Update your website bookmarks and email contacts
* Make sure your email contacts know about your new address (sample letter)
* Change your email footer
* Help us spread the word by telling your friends, family, alumni, potential employers,
research grant contacts, etc.
* Check out the name change timeline for campus IT services
* Get the latest updates about all things related to the name change from the Name Change Blog

Continue to check IT press for more information about changes taking place between May 1 and July 31. If you have any questions, contact the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All users on campus have been migrated to mst.edu, so customers should be able to login. There will be some continuing IT service outages that will be addressed in the coming days.

Stayed tuned to IT Press for more information. Your continued patience is appreciated.

If you have any problems logging in or questions about this issue, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

During Spring Break, IT will implement another round of updates related to the campus name change. On March 24 at 5 p.m., all university usernames will be moved to mst.edu.

ACTION REQUIRED!
All faculty, staff and students that use a university-owned computer need to make sure that the computer is powered down by 5 p.m. on March 24. This includes customers who are off-campus.

Failure to power down at 5 p.m. could result in the loss of data and problems with access to university networks and software applications.

During the evening of March 24, customers should expect various services to be unavailable for periods of up to 1 hour throughout the evening.

Customers should be able to resume use of their computers by the morning of March 25. On March 25, if you have trouble logging in, please check the IT Press blog or call the Help Desk for assistance.

If you plan on being away from campus during Spring Break, please power down your machine before leaving.

Visit the following links for information regarding necessary changes to smart phones, Entourage and other email clients:

• Smart Phone customers
• Entourage setup
• General “non-Outlook” email setup

Continue reading "Power down computers by 5 p.m. on March 24" »

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After March 24, customers who use smart phones to access their university email will need to reconfigure their phones’ email settings.

Here, we’ve provided general instructions for customers who use Windows Mobile, but the procedure for resetting the email settings may vary widely from model-to-model.

Continue reading "Instructions for Smart Phones affected by the March 24 User Migration" »

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT’s Educational Technology team will be performing maintenance on all classrooms that have been equipped with foundational technology (instructor desktop system, projector, etc.). This work will continue until Spring Break, but should not have any significant impact on courses currently being taught in the affected classrooms.

Classrooms will NOT be closed for maintenance. We will work around the scheduled activities for each classroom.

When you login to a classroom computer for the first time after it has been updated, the login process will take up to five minutes. This delay at login will occur for the first login by each individual user. Subsequent logins by individual users will be much quicker.

The Educational Technology team will post signs in the affected classrooms indicating that updates have been made.

The classroom technology maintenance is required as a preparatory step for another procedure scheduled to occur on all campus systems during Spring Break. This maintenance is directly related to the rolling CLC outages that will also be occurring until Spring Break. Stay tuned to IT Press for more information.

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

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT is currently in the process of performing maintenance related to the campus name change on all CLC machines. Between now and Spring Break, campus CLC locations will be closed on a rotating basis until they have all been updated. The CLCs will not all be closed at the same time, so students and faculty needing access to a CLC can simply visit another open location on campus. If you frequently use a CLC, please check for posted information on the door about the upcoming closure for that particular room.

IT is making every effort to schedule this round of maintenance so as to minimize our customers’ inconvenience.

Please note: CLCs used as classrooms will not be closed during classes. Maintenance for high-traffic locations will be done on weekends.

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

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In addition to the instructions for logging into your machine tomorrow morning, you’ll need to take note of the following if you use a university machine off-campus. This applies to university-owned computers only, not personal machines.

• Off-campus customers will need to bring their machines to campus and plug them into the network via hardwire connection no earlier than tomorrow morning in order for the IT updates to take effect. Please try to do this by the end of February and no later than March 15.

• Once you’ve established a hardwire connection, you’ll need to power up, log in and then restart the machine. After you’ve restarted the machine, you should be able to log in as usual.

• Remote desktop users will need to start using .managed.mst.edu to establish a remote desktop connection into their computer on campus.

UPDATE:
Off-campus customers who bring their machines in to run our computer object migration update will need to follow these steps when making a hardwire connection to the Missouri S&T network :

1. Connect your computer to the Ethernet connection outlet on the wall in your office with a LAN cable (the cable will probably be blue).

2. Log in as normal with your user name and password, making sure that UMR-USERS is selected in the Log on to: drop down menu.

3. Click Start in the lower left corner of your screen and then click Run.

4. In the Run window that pops up, type gpupdate and click OK. This should launch the update script.

5. Reboot your machine and log in again as normal.

6. If several individuals use the same off-campus machine, do the following while the machine is on the Missouri S&T wired network for each user:
a. Log in.
b. Wait or use the machine for five minutes.
c. Log off to cache the user credentials.

If you have any questions, have trouble logging into your machine or need help setting up a remote desktop connection, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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:

Continue reading "Reminder: Computer Power Down Required Evening of Feb. 5" »

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 12:42 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)

Blackboard is temporarily unavailable, but we expect it to be returned to service around 12 noon today. Thank you for your continuing patience as we make updates to campus networks and applications related to the Jan.1 name change.

If you have any questions regarding Blackboard or the availability of the Blackboard application, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Several customers have had questions regarding the new spam filtering system and mail handling changes. Below are answers to some of the more frequent questions we’ve received.

Continue reading "FAQs Regarding the New Spam Filter" »

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Email customers using a client other than MinerMail or Outlook (or customers using the Exchange server with Outlook) will need to configure their outgoing mail protocol to smtp.mst.edu to be able to send email.

Because of the variety of email clients used by our IT customers, IT does not have a specific “how to” published on this topic. Please call the IT Help Desk if you have trouble making this change in your email client.

Several customers have reported difficulties logging in to minermail.mst.edu. This issue should be now be resolved and all MinerMail customers should be able to log in with their user name (without the mst.edu or umr.edu extension) and password.

If you have questions or continue to experience difficulties with either of these issues , please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT will provide periodic updates today as we switch our web and email servers to mst.edu. There is a strong possibility that something might not go quite as we planned, so your patience is requested.

If you have an email emergency, you can call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP. We may not be able to immediately solve your issue, but we'll do the best we can.

9:31 a.m. -- Provisioning for the long haul
Our team has been at it for a couple of hours now. The major issue that you, the customer needs to be aware of this morning is spam filtering. Spam Assassin has been decommissioned and the new spam filter is being activated. You may see an increase in spam today, but this too shall pass --by early afternoon.

The photo is of our stocked war room. Several of your friendly neighborhood IT staff plan on staying at the office until well after normal business hours, until the job is done.

10:25 a.m. -- KnowledgeBase is down...

...but it should be back up in the next 30 minutes or so.

10:48 a.m. -- joeminer@mst.edu

Email will now start going out as From:username@mst.edu. Email sent to your umr.edu account will still be delivered until July 31, 2008.

In the meantime, you'll need to start notifying your email contacts and, if you use an email client other than MinerMail or Outlook, you'll need to update your address in the email client and on any listserv to which you belong.

We've created a flow chart to help you visualize how the email system will work.

10:55 a.m. – Smells like school spirit

IT has it. Do you?

11:04 a.m. -- KnowledgeBase

KnowledgeBase is back up again.

12:25 p.m. – umr.edu, we hardly knew ye

Check out the new Missouri S&T website.

Sorry about the extended blogging silence. All of the campus blogs were being moved to mst.edu

Update: The new website isn't perfect yet. We're still working out a few bugs. If you see something that isn't right on your website, check back tomorrow.

12:27 p.m. – Speaking of Missouri S&T blogs…

All of the Missouri S&T blogs have been switched over to the mst.edu domain. If you have an RSS feed set up for any of the umr.edu blogs, there is a chance that it might not recognize the redirect to mst.edu. Long story short, if your feed reader stops working you may need to go in and update your feeds to mst.edu.

By way of shameless self-promotion, I’ll go ahead and include the new feed for IT Press.

http://itpress.mst.edu/atom.xml

1 p.m. – Google website search slowdown, VoIP phone change

The Google search feature in the Missouri S&T website is being updated. Searching from Google (inside the website or from the Google homepage) may be slow or return incomplete results for the next day or two while it indexes the new website.

VoIP Phones should start displaying Missouri S&T in the phone directories.

1:22 p.m. – This just in

Spam issues will probably continue through the afternoon. Customers should receive less spam as the day goes on. Again, please be patient with us through this process.

1:40 p.m. – Ladies and gentleman

On a slightly different note, the University of Missouri system announced our new president earlier this afternoon. Gary Forsee is an alumnus of our prestigious institution (’72).

See the news release from Missouri S&T communications on the jump.

3:52 p.m. – Having trouble sending email?

Customers who use an email client other than Outlook need to set up an smtp authentication to be able to send email between now and Monday at noon. After 12 noon on Monday, the issue should be resolved. This issue will also affect devices such as printers, lab equipment, etc.

An example of how to set this up in an email client (Apple Mail in Mac OS X) can be found by visiting the KnowledgeBase and searching for smtp authentication. Set up may vary depending on which client you are using.

4 p.m. – All quiet on the western front

Things have gone very well today. Not much to report at this time. That’s a good thing.

4:57 p.m. – That’s a wrap, folks

The majority of changes that will affect our customers have already taken place today. Over the next few, days, weeks and months, customers will see other changes, so please continue to be patient with us.

If you have any questions, problems or concerns, please call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP. Thanks to all of the readers who commented today about this post and our previous post regarding spam filtering.

Happy Holidays!

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As Spam Assassin is deactivated and the new, improved spam filtering system is put into place, customers with rules set in Spam Assassin will be sent a list of their Safe Senders and Blocked Senders. In this entry are instructions for how to set up Safe Sender and Blocked Sender lists in Outlook.

Update: You can also do this by clicking Options in MinerMail. Thanks to Philip T. for reminding me.

Continue reading "Spam Filter Changing: Important Update Regarding Safe and Blocked Sender Lists" »

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Some TLS locations will be closed at varying times during the winter break due to campus-wide migration to the mst.edu domain. As with slowdowns and service interruptions, IT requests your patience and understanding as we transition to the new mst.edu domain.

Note: Technology Learning Space is the new name for areas formerly known as CLCs.

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

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After the Dec. 20 transition to mst.edu, customers using email clients other than Outlook or Miner Mail, will need to reset their email address to mst.edu. Miner Mail and Outlook will automatically make these changes.

For information on how to configure an email client, visit the KnowledgeBase and search for email client, then change your email to reflect the mst.edu domain (Example: joeminer@umr.edu becomes joeminer@mst.edu).

Customers who belong to external listservs will need to contact each external listserv administrator and update their addresses to mst.edu. Internal listservs will continue to work if your email client has been changed to send from “joeminer”@mst.edu per instructions above.

For more information, call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP (4357).

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 04:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT is in the process of moving all campus email accounts to the new mst.edu email server. The migration is taking place during evenings and weekends, so as to cause the least amount of disruption possible.

During the course of this migration, customers may experience delays or receive messages stating that the program is trying to contact the Exchange Server. Customers should expect to see delays until all mailboxes have been moved.

We apologize for any inconvenience. Please be assured that we are aware of the issue and are working diligently to reduce the amount and duration of delays on the email servers.

If you experience persistent problems or need immediate assistance with email, call the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For a list of all the computer/IT related items that will be changing in conjunction with the campus name change visit the IT name change website. Name change web content and the IT Press blog will be updated periodically to reflect the most recent changes in the campus name change process.

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

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 08:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the unusually high number of name change-related IT activities that will be taking place during the week of Dec. 17, please be aware that service interruptions and outages will occur during the entire week of Dec. 17 – Dec. 21. Customers can expect the highest number of service interruptions on Dec. 20. Customers need to also plan on powering down their computers by 12 noon on Thursday, Dec. 20 and not turning them back on until the following morning.

IT is making every effort to ensure that all customers will have access to help when problems arise and that the service interruptions that occur will be as brief as possible. Nonetheless, all customers should expect interruptions.

To get the latest information about the changes, check the IT Press blog. If you have additional questions or problems, please call the IT Help Desk at 341-HELP.

Your patience and understanding is appreciated as we continue this massive undertaking to support the campus name change.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 08:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Dec. 20, all campus TLS locations will be closed for one day due to campus wide migration to the mst.edu domain. As with slowdowns and service interruptions, IT requests your patience and understanding as we transition to the new mst.edu domain.

Note: Technology Learning Space (TLS) is the new name for rooms formerly known as CLCs.

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

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Email Accounts Migrating to mst.edu
Starting on Friday, November 30, 2007, IT will begin moving mailboxes from the current UMR hardware to new Missouri S&T hardware. When your mailbox is moved, it will be unavailable for 15-30 minutes, depending on how much email you have when it is moved.

New Spam Filter and Larger Email Quotas
• Your email account quota will be increased to 1 GB.
• With improved and constantly updated spam filtering, you will receive less spam.
• There’s no need to register to the new spam filter. We’ve got you covered!
• You should start using your @mst.edu email address on December 20, 2007.

Mailbox Management and Cleanup
On the new mst.edu email server, deleted email items older than 90 days and junk mail older than 30 days will be removed from the server. Customers have a 10-day period in which deleted items can be recovered from the Exchange Dumpster. Items can be recovered by using the “Recover Deleted Items” option in the Outlook tools menu.

Note: Customers who have set up Outlook rules to filter spam email to a specified folder may need to make a slight change in the rule configuration.

University Website Moves to mst.edu
As a part of the university name change, the Missouri S&T website (mst.edu) is scheduled to go live on Dec. 20 and will feature an entirely new look and feel.

Note: The online transition to Missouri University of Science and Technology is now under way. To ensure that your current web content is transferred to the test Missouri S&T server, the Documentum web publisher interface will be unavailable starting on Friday, Dec. 14. Your websites will still be viewable, but you will not be able to make changes.

Please make all critical updates to your site by midnight Dec.13. This will allow us time to port all updated pages and then test the new environment so it is ready to launch on Dec. 20. Access to your updated website will be available to you again on Wednesday, Dec. 26.

Check back on Dec. 21 to see the new Missouri S&T website.

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

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 08:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As you may know, the current name change efforts require changes to our technology landscape as well as the physical changes on campus (e.g. signage, etc.). This time of change has given IT the opportunity to reevaluate how Macintosh systems interact with the campus network and with their PC counterparts around campus.

As an outgrowth of this reevaluation and subsequent redesign of our standard Mac build, we are now able to offer several enhancements and additional functionality to our Mac customers, including:

• Automatic updates - The most recent security updates and patches delivered automatically once IT determines their effect within our environment.

• Remote desktop tools so that upgrades and new software installations can be performed remotely minimizing the degree to which your work is interrupted, often avoiding interruptions completely.

• A new, more reliable SFTP client, Cyberduck, which will allow you to access departmental and personal network file storage (search for “Cyberduck” on the KnowledgeBase).

• Preparation for an integrated DFS (network file storage) solution that will be available shortly after the name-change efforts are concluded.

While noting the new features and benefits, listed above, a rebuild is necessary because all Mac and Windows computers need to be reconfigured to properly operate within the new "mst.edu" domain.

If you're a Mac user, you will be contacted by a member of the IT Desktop Support team in the next few weeks to schedule a time to reconfigure your computer. Thank you for your patience as we endeavor to make this process as minimally disruptive as possible.

For more information, please contact the IT Help Desk at (573) 341-HELP.

Posted by Matthew Shaner at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some members of the campus community may have already noticed some IT related changes due to the transition from UMR to Missouri S&T.

Starting today, Nov. 1, changes will commence which will have visible impacts for the campus community. No need to fear! Today's changes will not require action on your part. However, as we proceed the changes will have more significant impact and will require you to take action. IT needs your help to make this transition successful.

Q - What will change?
A - Email and web addresses, how desktop and laptop computers interface with the campus network, how you access email and network files from off campus and in residence halls.

Q - What does this mean for me?
A - As changes will affect the entire campus community on some level, action will be required by you!

Q - Where do I go for more information and help?
A - Please visit http://helpdesk.mst.edu/namechange for full details on how your computer will be affected and to review a list of actions you will need to take in order to successfully transition from UMR to Missouri S&T.

Please note: These changes will affect YOU. It is important for you to stay tuned to http://helpdesk.mst.edu/namechange for the latest details. Additional announcements will also be sent to target audiences as appropriate.

"IT is Missouri S&T"

Posted by Christopher Dew at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When UMR becomes Missouri S&T on Jan. 1, 2008, the change will significantly affect all campus email systems and websites. Prior to that date, all email and web addresses will officially change from “umr.edu” to “mst.edu.”

For example, “joeminer@umr.edu” will become “joeminer@mst.edu” and “http://helpdesk.umr.edu” will redirect you to “http://helpdesk.mst.edu”).

However, some changes will occur before Jan. 1. All students, faculty and staff will see the following changes to University email addresses and websites.

Outgoing Email (from UMR/Missouri S&T):

• Present – Dec 20, 2007: All sent email will appear to recipients as originating from “@umr.edu”
• Dec 21, 2007: All sent email will appear to recipients as originating from “@mst.edu”
• Action Required: Please notify your email contacts prior to Dec. 21 about your email address changing. They will receive email from your @mst.edu address.

Incoming Email (to UMR/Missouri S&T):

• Nov 1, 2007 – July 31, 2008: Both @umr.edu and @mst.edu will function. You will only need to check one mailbox to view all email sent to your UMR or your Missouri S&T email addresses.
• Aug 1, 2008: All email sent to @umr.edu will not be delivered.

Websites

• Nov 1 – Dec 20, 2007: Both umr.edu and mst.edu domains will be fully functional (e.g. “helpdesk.mst.edu” and “helpdesk.mst.edu” will both be valid URLs in your browser Address bar).
• Dec 21, 2007: All umr.edu websites will redirect to mst.edu.
• Action Required: Please change your UMR website bookmarks to reflect the change in URLs.
• Aug 1, 2008: All umr.edu websites will no longer function.

Specific questions can be addressed to the IT Help Desk at (573) 341-HELP or by submitting an online Help Request at https://help.mst.edu.

Posted by Christopher Dew at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Welcome to the first of many entries related to IT's efforts in the university name change process. Entries will be added on a monthly basis for the remainder of the summer, with the frequency changing to weekly beginning August 13, 2007.

IT will be working diligently to minimize impact to the campus community from a technology prospective and will strive to provide as much information as possible as it relates to campus technology resources.

For example, some of the questions to be addressed in this venue will include:

- What will happen to my computer as a result of the name change?
- When will my e-mail address change?
- What kind of support can I expect to receive from IT during the name change process?

Many other items will be discussed and this section of the IT Press blog will be your primary source for IT related name change information during the coming months. So, please check back often for the latest news.

For more info on the campus-wide name change effort, visit http://namechange.mst.edu.

Posted by Christopher Dew at 05:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)