Requests for Software Installation in Computing Services Labs:
Faculty members, who require a specific software application to be installed on lab pcs for the Spring '05 Semester , should supply Computing Services with the software no later than Monday January 3, 2005. Due to the time required to load and test the software, and due to the routine responsibilities of Computing Services Staff, sufficient time must be allowed to fulfill your requests. Computing Services is unable to guarantee the installation of any software presented less than two weeks before it's needed for a class.
We appreciate your cooperation.
Reserve Scantron Optical Scanner
Anyone wishing to score final exams on the Scantron Optical Scanner in room 132, Business & Science Building, reservations are now being accepted. Faculty using the scanner, their department secretary or TA should have already been instructed on it's use. Computing Services is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the Scantron ES2800, not scoring the tests. Please go to the following web page, http://rucs.camden.rutgers.edu/reservations/ and click on view under "Scantron Exam Scanner" to check for available time slots. Click on "email" next to Ann Bilbrough's name to send her the day and time you are requesting. Your reservation will be confirmed via e-mail.
Megaconference on December 9, 2004
Rutgers, Camden will participate in the sixth world-wide videoconference event known as the Megaconference VI. Faculty, students, and staff are invited to come to the Business and Science building, room 231 any time throughout the day (8am-10pm) on Thursday, December 9 to listen and even participate in the largest videoconference ever held.
Each year, the Megaconference occurs as a result of a tremendous amount of volunteer effort and good will, with the goal of connecting people together everywhere on Earth where someone chooses to participate, in order to further the use of videoconferencing in education and research and to advance of the state of the art in videoconferencing technology.
On the chosen date, speakers from across the globe share their latest real-world uses of H.323 videoconferencing, while using H.323 videoconferencing to do so. The audience consists of:
- Active participants who have access to advanced Internet connectivity and an H.323 videoconferencing endpoint, and
- Observers who watch the simultaneous stream using a web browser and freely available stream players.
This year's theme is:
Let's Talk: Global Communications, Innovation, and Participatory Videoconferencing
December 9, 2004 : 8am to 2pm, and 6pm to Midnight EST (UTC -5)
Join us for a free global conference from a world of locations!
For the tentative program listing and presentation synopsis, please visit:
http://www.megaconference.org/program.html
When: Thursday, December 9
Where: BSB 231
Time: 8AM-10PM
Extended Sunday Hours
Computing Services is extending the Sunday Hours of Operation in the BSB Labs on 11/28, 12/5 and 12/12. The labs will be open from 9 am to 10 pm on these three Sundays.
Closed 11/25/04 and 11/26/04
Computing Services will be closed on Thursday, 11/25/04, Thanksgiving Day and on Friday, 11/26/04 for the campus-wide planned power outage. Normal hours of operation will resume on Saturday, 11/27/04, 9 am to 5 pm, provided power and services are restored on 11/26/06 as planned. Extended Sunday hours of operation begin on Sunday, 11/28/04, 9 am to 10 pm.
Computing Services Down Friday, 11/26/04
Due to a scheduled campus-wide power outage, scheduled for Friday, 11/26/04, all computing services will be down from 7 am thru 7 pm on this date. Services will be restored following successful power restoration to the campus. This means that all campus telecommunications and electronic services (Email, Web pages, access from Residence Halls) will not be available from 7am thru 7pm on 11/26/04.
Computing Services Hiring Student Workers/Consultants
Computing Services is currently seeking interested students in becoming Help Desk Consultants for the Spring '05 Semester. Computer Science majors preferred but not necessary. Starting salary is $7.75/hr. with maximum weekly schedule of 20 hrs./week. Interviews being held before the end of this semester. Please send your resume via e-mail to bilbroug@camden.rutgers.edu or drop it off to room 121 in the Business & Science Building.
WebMail Downtime
Urgent maintenance is needed on the campus WebMail server, so at 8AM on November 10 we will be temporarily locking everyone out of WebMail in order to migrate services over to a backup system. We've scheduled one hour of downtime between 8AM and 9AM Wednesday morning. If the transition goes smoothly we expect the downtime to end well before 9AM. This downtime, and the temporary lockout, are being used to minimize the chance of any data loss during the transition to the backup system.
Two New Printing Services
Beginning Monday, November 8, 2004, Camden Computing Services will introduce two new printing services to the campus community that have been requested by the students. Computing labs in the Business & Science Building (room 132), Campus Center (room 017B) and the Law School (room 203) will now provide color printing at the cost of $.50 per page, including black and white pages within the same document. PC output can be directed to the color printer, where it will be released by the Help Desk Consultant after payment is confirmed. Payment must be made via an RUConnection card, with discretionary funds, obtained from the Bursars Office. No other method of payment is available.
Additionally, the computing lab in the Business & Science Building (room 132), and the Career Center in the basement of the Campus Center will house printers for special forms printing, i.e. special bond paper (for resumes), letterhead, envelopes and HP Laserjet (only) transparencies. There is no charge for the printing of special forms, however, these forms must be supplied by the customer. The labs will not provide or sell special forms.
For more information, please go to one of the following:
BSB Color Printing/Special Forms Printing:
http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/Documentation/Windows/bsb_color_printing.html
Campus Center Color Printing: http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/Documentation/Windows/cc_colorprinting.html
Optical Test Scanner Security Update
Camden Computing Services, would like to take this opportunity to remind all of our faculty and staff members about our Scantron Test Scanner. The test scanner, which is located in the Business and Science Building (room 132), allows you to scan multiple choice tests and receive immediate results via a program called "QuickSCORE". If you would like the ability to store student records and their test results this can be done using the "ParSCORE" program. This gives faculty members the ability to store all quizzes, labs, essays, midterm and general tests into a database which can be edited or added to at any time. "ParSCORE" even allows you to access your students' grades from your office computer. At the end of the semester you can also export your students' grades to an Excel file which you can then upload to the registrar's office. We have had much success with the number of people using the Test Scanner, and we hope that if you haven't tried it yet, that you will consider trying it in the future.
Camden Computing Services is in the process of tightening the security of our Scantron Test Scanner PC in BSB 132. We are currently in the process of adding a login screen to the system which will required any faculty or staff member that wishes to use the system to first authenticate who they are by entering their Rutgers netid and password. This login screen will not change how the system operates in any way. This login screen will be installed on Friday, November 12th, if you have any questions or concerns, please send an email to help@camden.rutgers.edu.
myRutgers Portal Now Available to Students
A new personal, customizable, web-based informational portal to Rutgers University is just a click away. The portal provides a single access point and sign on to an ever increasing number of Rutgers applications. Go to http://my.rutgers.edu for more information and logon.
Two one hour demonstrations will be held the following times:
WHEN - Wednesday, November 10
TIME - 12:15pm-1:15pm
3:30pm-4:30pm
WHERE - Room 117 of the Business and Science Building.
BSB Labs Closed 10/22/04
The BSB labs will be closed Friday, October 22 from 7:00am until 10:00am for network maintenance.
dtlogin Decommissioned on 1/1/05
For those Unix users who use dtlogin to remotely login to clam, crab or other sun servers, this service will be turned off (decommissioned) on 1/1/2005. This service is insecure (passing passwords in the clear over the network) and is used by very few people. Better alternatives exist to using dtlogin, such as just signing on to the local sun workstation one is using instead of launching a remote dtlogin session. ssh is another useful alternative. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact help@camden.rutgers.edu.
Login Now Required in BSB-117
To All Faculty/Staff who use BSB 117 Instructional Lab:
On October 15, 2004, we will be making a change to the Instructional PC Lab in BSB 117. Currently, the systems in this lab do not have login screens. People just sit down and start using the systems without ever having to authenticate who they are. This was allowed over the years for the sake of convenience. Lately, this has caused some security issues with people using the PC
in the labs to hide their identity, download large amounts of data, and slowing down the network.
Without login screens (authentication) we can't identify who is doing this. So we are placing a login screen on all of the PCs and people will have to login with their normal NetID and password, to gain access (as we already do in all of our labs and smart classrooms on campus).
If you have non-Rutgers people use these systems for any reason, and they do not have a NetID/password, we can give them a temporary NetID/password (guest account) to
obtain access.
If you have any questions/comments on the above, please
contact us at "help@camden.rutgers.edu".
Thank you for your cooperation,
Camden Computing Services
Optical Scanner Seminars:
Any faculty or staff interested in learning the operation of the Scantron Optical Scanner in room 132, Business & Science Building, for the grading of tests/exams and gradebook set up, please contact bilbroug@camden or cornwell@camden to sign up on one of the following dates and times. Additional dates will be added if required.
Tuesday, Oct. 5 - 10 am
Thursday, Oct. 7 - 2 pm
Monday, Oct. 11 - 10 am and 7 pm
Thursday, Oct. 14 - 2 pm and 7 pm
New Email Vacation Program
Camden Computing Services tries to offer new services and new features of existing services that we feel can better our community's computing experience. One example is our email vacation program which can be used to automatically reply to incoming email. It is intended to let correspondents know that you are away and cannot reply to their mail immediately. With our current setup, if you receive a SPAM message (unsolicited email message) and you have your vacation message enabled, the vacation program will attempt to respond to the SPAM message. Most SPAM comes from email addresses which don't exist, so the response which the vacation program sends will actually get sent back to you. This causes a large amount of unwanted email in your Inbox when you return.
Camden Computing Services has designed a new vacation program which first scans your messages to determine if they are SPAM, and if they are then a vacation response is not sent back to that message. The SPAM filtering is only enabled if you choose to use SPAM filtering. If you do not have SPAM filtering enabled on your account, then the vacation program will act just as it has in the past. We have designed a new web interface for the vacation program to make the setup of your vacation message as simple as possible. This means that the old unix "vacation" program can no longer be used. The new web- based tool can be access from the below URLs once the new vacation program is online. The change-over (which will be transparent for those currently using vacation) will take place on Monday, November 8th. After that date you will need to use the web-based tool in order to enable, disable, and configure your vacation message. Simply choose "Enable/Disable Email Vacation Auto-Reply" from one of the below URLs:
Faculty/Staff: http://crab.rutgers.edu/account_tools.html
Students: http://clam.rutgers.edu/account_tools.html
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this change, please send an email to help@camden.rutgers.edu.
University Network Disruption
From the Telecommunications Division (TD) of Rutgers University on September 22, 2004 @ 1AM:
TD is aware of intermittent university wide network disruptions. The RUNet core is currently experiencing routing problems that affect all areas of the University. We are in contact with our networking vendor and are working towards a solution.
Concurrently, we are working to deploy a backup infrastructure that will pass traffic around the problem. Updates will continue to be provided via email and will be posted to this page as they are available.
While we hope for a quick resolution, at this time a firm estimated time to repair is not available. This problem will continue to receive our highest level of attention until repaired.
3PM Update (9/22):
TD Network Operations has restored connectivity via the temporary implementation of a new core network. At this time, normal connectivity has been restored to all campuses.
TD is continuing to work with Cisco to determine the original cause of the problem, and to restore the network to it's full capacity.
RU Acceptable Use Policy
All faculty, staff and students should read and follow the "Acceptable Use Policy for Computing and Information Technology Resources". This University policy addresses acceptable and non-acceptable ways to use computer hardware, software and the network.
You can find this guideline at:
http://rucs.rutgers.edu/acceptable-use.html
Other computing policies are online at:
http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/policies/policies.html
If you have questions on any of this, please contact Camden Computing
Services at 856-225-6274 or email "help@camden.rutgers.edu".
Server Downtime 10/8 & 10/22
Student Home Directory Downtime
-------------------------------
On Friday, 10/08/04, Computing Services will be conducting an operating
system upgrade on the server that stores student home files. Students
will not have access to their home directories (H: drive) and mail from
6:00pm until approximately 9:00pm.
Faculty Home Directory Downtime
-------------------------------
On Friday, 10/22/04, Computing Services will be conducting an operating
system upgrade on the server that stores all faculty and staff files.
Faculty and staff will not have access to their home directories (H:
drive) and mail from 6:00pm until approximately 9:00pm.
Student Server (clam) Upgraded
The student server, clam, was replaced over the weekend of August 28-29. For the first time in many years, the server upgrade was done from scratch instead of starting with a carbon-copy of the older server. We did this to remove the rather large accumulation of out-dated and inoperative software that had built up over the past ten years. In the process, every attempt was made to restore or upgrade actively used software.
Unfortunately our auditing system is not able to track usage of library and include files. If you experience any problems with missing, broken, or changed software (including compiler-related issues with libraries or includes) please contact help@camden.rutgers.edu. We will gladly re-install any software, libraries, or other files needed for coursework. Some of the files on the previous clam were quite old, and may no longer function under the new operating system environment. In those instances we will look for updated versions of the same or similar files for you to use.
In addition to the replacement of clam, Camden Computing Services is also working on replacing the hpc server used by Chemistry, Computer Science, Math, Physics, and others. The hpc server will be replaced with a pair of machines that are identical to the new clam. Both of those machines will be joined across a Gigabit Ethernet link to clam via Sun's HPC ClusterTools software to create a virtual machine of 8 to 10 UltraSPARC processors and 24gigs of RAM.
Here are some of the technical specifications of the new servers:
- SunFire V440
- (4) UltraSPARC-IIIi processors running at 1.06 GHz
- 8 gigabytes of RAM
- (4) Gigabit Ethernet interfaces
- (4) 36 gigabyte internal hot-swappable UltraSCSI system drives
- Redundant hot-swappable power supplies
- Running Solaris 9 4/04 release operating system
- GNOME for Solaris is available on the new clam, but currently not supported
Classroom Networking Changes
At the start of the fall semester, all classroom data jacks (including those inside SmartClassroom panels) will be connected to a new network access system. In the past, anyone who wanted to use a classroom data jack had to register their laptop with Computing Services. That will no longer be necessary for classroom data jacks.
Instead, you will be required to use your NetID and password to gain access to the network. As with the old registration method, your laptop must be configured to use DHCP for networking. When you connect your laptop to a classroom data jack and power it on, run a web browser (IE is recommended, Mozilla/FireFox should also work). The web browser will be automatically directed to a login page where you will be prompted to enter your NetID and password.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Computing Services Help Desk by phone 856-225-6065 or email (help@camden.rutgers.edu).
CS CLOSED on Monday, 9/06/04
Computing Services Offices and Labs will be closed on Monday, 9/6/04 for the Labor Day Holiday. Normal Hours of Operation will resume on Tuesday, 9/7/04.
Dorm/Resnet Connection
The following announcement applies to all resident students living in on-campus housing who connect a personal computer to the university network (RUnet).
On the morning of Thursday August 19, 2004 - you will lose your Internet connection. You will need to configure your operating system to obtain an IP address automatically and register your computer in order to regain Internet access. If you have a Windows operating system, your computer must also pass RUCompliant. Once you register and pass RUCompliant, you will regain full Internet access in 2-4 hrs. Please go to:
https://resnet.rutgers.edu/get_connected.php for more information.
This change in ResNet is being made to facilitate moving your computer (particularly a laptop) between different networks (such as campus wireless, or at home through a cable/dsl router, etc.). Many of these other networks already support dynamically assigned IP addresses, also called DHCP. Now ResNet will support this as well.
We sent a message regarding these exciting changes at the end of last semester and the time has come to start using the new system.
Here are some changes you will notice:
- You should NOT enter an IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS number.
- You must configure your operating system to obtain an IP address automatically.
- We highly recommend RADS (Rutgers Antivirus Delivery System) as your antivirus software because it automatically updates for you. You can obtain this software for free at: http://mssg.rutgers.edu/software/portal
- If you have a Windows operating system, you will have to pass RUCompliant. RUCompliant checks for the most up-to-date Windows patches, antivirus software (RADS, other McAfee versions or a recent version of Norton), and then makes sure your computer is virus-free by checking for viruses. Please be sure your computer has the most up-to-date patches by visiting: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
- You will have to register your computer and pass RUCompliant (Windows only) once a semester (fall and spring).
- We recommend the following Ethernet card manufacturers and models:
- Linksys (all models)
- 3Com (all models)
- Netgear (models 210, 310, 410)
- D-Link (all models) Intel (all models)
- The following Ethernet card manufacturers and models will NOT work on the ResNet network:
- Realtek (all models)
- Netgear (models 311 and 312)
If you have any questions please contact the Camden Computing Services Help Desk by phone (856)225-6274 or email help@camden.rutgers.edu.
CAP AUFS Decommission
CAP AUFS, the Apple-UNIX-File-Server is being decommissioned on clam and crab on July 30. This Service is used to share software to pre OS-X Macintosh computers from the UNIX servers. It appears that this service is no longer utilized, but if you have any problems after the decommission, please email us at help@camden.rutgers.edu
Account Deletions on Clam and Crab for Fall 2004
Electronic mail has been sent to accounts which have been marked as "no longer current Rutgers faculty, students or staff" as determined by our data base. Crab and Clam accounts will be closed on December 6, 2004. We ask that these account holders move their files to new systems before this date, or save them to a floppy disk. The checking of accounts is an automated procedure performed with the computer systems every semester on all campuses of Rutgers. This list of clam and crab accounts that are to be deleted is posted below for your review. If your account is listed, it is scheduled for closing.
Clam Account Deletion List
Crab Account Deletion List
If your name is on this list and you feel that you are still a valid student/staff/faculty member, please send us E-mail before the above dates with your FULL first name, last name, and account name to:
rohrman@camden.rutgers.edu
We will then manually check further on the status of your account and will respond back to you personally via E-mail.
Note...if you are a student who is not taking courses this semester, then your account has to be closed. No exceptions. You can reopen your account, using the normal makeacct procedure, as soon as you start attending classes again.
There are many commercial providers of Internet access such as Prodigy, CompuServe, and America-Online whose fees are reasonable. There are many local firms also that provide Internet access (called ISPs). Check your phone book or newspapers for their advertisements.
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