Account Deletions
Account deletions for Spring 2009 on clam and crab. 

Archived Announcements
Archived listing of previous announcements that appeared in this Announcement Section of Camden Computing Services web pages 

Camden Computing Services Annual Reports
Last year's annual report along with the archive of previous annual reports of RUCS-Camden

Camden Computing Services Newsletter Archive
Archived listing of Newsletters

RSS feed 
An RSS feed is available for the most recent Camden Computing Services announcements.
This is currently a service undergoing testing.

Training
Camden Education Series seminar listings, schedules and online regstration. 

Remote Software and Linux Pilot Service:

This message is to notify you about a new OIT-Camden pilot service
available to Rutgers Camden students, faculty, and staff.  This new
remote access service provides on- and off-campus access to a number of
software suites, including Maple, Matlab, Mathematica, and SAS all from
your web browser.

   By directing a web browser to this service, as one would any other
website, you can access the same desktop environment and software that
is available on all of our Linux systems, including clam, crab, the Unix
lab systems, and office systems.  You can access this service from any
Java-enabled web browser, such as IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome on most
operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux/Unix).

   The service also provides home directory (H: Drive) access, remote
printing, and the ability to transfer files to and from your local
computer.  Work sessions can remain open and running, without logging
out, and then later be resumed from another location or web browser.

   This service may be useful to those that wish to access software only
available on the Linux operating system or to access premium,
Rutgers-licensed applications such as Maple, Matlab, Mathematica, and
SAS from off-campus locations or when the labs are closed.

   This service might also be useful for those that currently access clam or crab
remotely via SSH, SFTP, or an X11 server.  A shell is available for those that
wish to work from the Unix command line.

   By default, all students are able to log into this service with their
Rutgers NetID and password.  Staff and faculty accounts need to be added
manually.  If you are a staff or faculty member and wish to use this
service for your research or for a class that you teach, please contact
OIT (help@camden.rutgers.edu) and we can provide you with access.


   To access this service, please visit:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/desktop


   For more information on this service, please visit:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/Documentation/Unix/remoteXserver.html


   OIT is very interested in receiving any feedback you may have on this
pilot service.  Based on usage and customer feedback, this service may
be upgraded and moved to a production level for upcoming semesters.

Monday & Tuesday: 8 am to 10 pm
Wednesday: 8 am to 5 pm
Thursday: CLOSED - Thanksgiving Day
Friday: 9 am to 5 pm

Extended Hours begin Saturday, 11/28

Monday thru Thursday: 
8 am to 11 pm
Friday:  8 am to 5 pm
Saturday:  9 am to 5 pm
(11/28, 12/5, 12/12)
Sunday:  9 am to 5 pm
(11/29, 12/6, 12/13

Any computer account (which includes NetID and email) belonging to a Rutgers graduate will automatically remain open for 1 year after the date of completion of graduation requirements.  When the end of the 1 year extension nears, you will receive email reminding you that your account will be closed and that you should back up any personal files that you wish to save.  At this time, you should also consider forwarding your mail to another email address and letting people know that your email address is changing.

Faculty members who require a specific software application to be available on either public lab or non-Law classroom PCs for the Spring '10 semester should bring the software to Camden Computing Services no later than December 21.  Due to the time required to load and test new software on all systems in the labs, sufficient time must be allowed prior to the start of each semester in order to fulfill your requests.

Reservations are now being accepted to score final exams on the Scantron Optical Scanner in room 132, Business & Science Building. Faculty using the scanner, their department secretary or TA should have already been instructed on its 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://computing.camden.rutgers.edu/reservations/ and click on view under "Scantron Exam Scanner" to check for available time slots. Click on:
room-reserve@camden.rutgers.edu to submit the day and time you are requesting via e-mail. Your reservation will be confirmed via e-mail.

OIT-Camden Computing Services is conducting a survey of some of its many services. Students who submit a completed* survey will be entered into a drawing to win one of three $50 prizes (RUExpress Funds).

Please go to the following web address to complete the on-line survey starting Monday, 11/16 thru Monday 12/7.
http://computing.camden.rutgers.edu/helpdesk-survey.php

 *all students who submit completed surveys will also receive an additional $5 to their printing allocation (new total $35 not $30) to be used starting in January 2010. Three (3) winners will be randomly selected from all completed surveys at the drawing during the week of 12/7.

Sorry, you'll need to watch TV for this program. But, if you'd like to view a couple of Rutgers' produced videos highlighting the down side of phishing and identity theft, you'll want to visit these web pages -

Safepardy http://www.patsimon.com/Safepardy_DRAFT5.mp4 

Life as a computer  http://www.patsimon.com/computer3.mp4 

OVERVIEW:

During the Fall 2010 semester, the RULink email and calendaring service will be terminated. (A more exact date will be announced in the future, pending feedback from our user community.) Current users of RULink must migrate off the service prior to this termination date.

NOTE: Those using the RULink service solely as a forwarder (NetID@rutgers.edu, first.last@rutgers.edu) do not need to migrate.  This forwarding service will be automatically migrated to an independent system.  Details will be forthcoming at a later date.


SERVICE TERMINATION DATE:

Fall 2010.


HOW YOU MAY BE AFFECTED:

Current users of RULink will no longer be able to access email, address books, or calendaring via RULink after the service termination date.

A separate solution is being developed to handle forwarding from NetID@rutgers.edu and first.last@rutgers.edu to your email account. Further information regarding this service will be forthcoming at a later date. This solution will replace the forwarding functionality currently provided by RULink and will continue to be a free service for the University.


TYPE OF WORK:

This is a scheduled service termination.


OBJECTIVES:

The objective of terminating this service is to eliminate a product that is no longer supported by its developer, and consequently no longer supported by the Office of Information Technology. Alternative service solutions for current RULink account holders are available:

o RUMail - RUMail is a collaboration suite available to Rutgers departments. RUMail is offered by the Office of Information Technology as a premium service and includes email, address books, calendaring, tasks, documents, and briefcases. These features can be shared with others to serve as collaborative tools. OIT will work with departments to develop migration plans and to successfully migrate departments from RULink or other services to RUMail. Current fees are $30 for the first year (this includes a $24 perpetual license fee and a $6 annual service fee) and $10 for all following years (this includes a $4 maintenance fee and a $6 annual service fee). To initiate your department's migration request to RUMail or to schedule a demonstration of the service, please fill out (or have your Unit Computing Manager/Specialist fill out) the RUMail survey located at: https://www.rci.rutgers.edu/rumail/migrate. UCMs/UCSes can also contact the RUMail Support team via email at rumail_support@rumail.rutgers.edu.

o RCI/Crab/Andromeda - These services are non-fee email services offered by the Office of Information Technology. The services provide email and file storage solutions for individual faculty and staff members. All faculty/staff members are entitled to an RCI (New Brunswick), Crab (Camden) or Andromeda (Newark) account. If you do not already have such an account, you can create one at: http://oit.rutgers.edu/services/account/quick.html. Phone and email contact information for assistance on each campus (New Brunswick, Camden and Newark) can also be found on this web page.

o Departmental solution - Departments can choose to run their own email/calendaring solution. Please contact your UCM/UCS for more information on this option. Departments that do not have a designated UCM/UCS can contact departmental support units for fee-based support of a departmental email/calendaring solution:

- New Brunswick: OIT-MSSG (Microcomputer Support Services Group) via phone at (732) 445-6950 or via email at contactus@mssg.rutgers.edu.

- Newark:  OIT-NCS (Newark Computing Services Departmental Services Group) via phone at (973) 353-5086 or via email at dstech@nwk-campus.rutgers.edu.

- The Camden campus does not offer a fee-based departmental support solution, but encourages Camden faculty and staff to contact the OIT Camden Help Desk via phone at (856) 225-6274 or via email at help@camden.rutgers.edu for suggestions regarding RULink alternatives.

TD is going to reconfigure how the building routers connect to the core routers.  The core routers connect the Campus  to NB and to the Internet.   We are planning to do this on October 28th starting at 6AM with a target time to finish of 8AM.   None of the routers will be reloaded or rebooted.   There may be some slowness while we unplug the fiber from the distribution switch and replug the fiber into the core router.   Each building would be affected for about 5 mins.  The period of time it takes for the network to switch to the secondary link will be the slow time.   We appreciate your patience and understanding of this necessary improvement.

A number of hardware and software vendors work closely with Rutgers to offer computing equipment and application software at very good prices. In particular, Rutgers has contracted with certain vendors in order to offer a variety of free software (such as Trend Micro Antivirus) and reduced-priced software (including Microsoft Office at an extremely good price through the Microsoft Academic Student Select agreement).  On October 1 the latest pricing was posted for hardware purchases.  More information is found at:
    http://findtech.rutgers.edu
    http://software.rutgers.edu

We all know that one of the most important aspects of information security is protecting critical information.  In the next two months faculty and staff, as well as students will receive postcards reminding them of best practices to keep their information and university data safe. A new IT security awareness video will also be available on our website, http://RUSecure.rutgers.edu and RU-tv in October. Information in the form of pocket cards, posters, newsletters from the FTC, and some give-aways are available for distribution. Please email us for information on providing your staff with valuable information. While you're at it, take a look at IT security news on http://rusecure.rutgers.edu We're also available on Facebook (rusecure) and Twitter (ru_secure).

Recently, a number of email messages have been sent to Rutgers accounts in which individuals were asked to respond with personal information. Convincing people to send such personal information in email is an example of a widespread problem known as phishing in which social engineering is used to steal confidential/personal information for criminal activity. The latest reported email starts out with, "We are currently carrying-out a mantainance process to your rutgers.edu
account".

WHO IS AFFECTED?:
All email users

ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:

Never supply personal information, including your password, in email. Do not share your password with anyone, including family members, co-workers, supervisors and friends.

Please note, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will never request personal information – including social security numbers, birth dates, passwords or credit card numbers - to be sent in email. Furthermore, as a general rule when using the Internet, never send personal information in email messages.  Such personal information can be intercepted as it passes across the network or may later be discovered unprotected in the recipient’s email inboxes.

We encourage you to learn more about phishing and other security measures at:

http://rusecure.rutgers.edu/students.  Improve your skills and recognize phishing scams by taking the interactive quizzes linked off the bottom of this page.

ACTIONS OIT ARE TAKING:

In some of the recent attacks, OIT has been able to intercept the messages before they made it to people's accounts.  OIT will continue to do all it can to minimize your risk from these types of scams, but occasionally phishing scams do get through.  OIT will continue to provide and reinforce IT security awareness communication through web pages, updates and events.

WHERE CAN I GET HELP?

Please feel free to contact Camden Computing Services Help Desk at 856-225-6274 if you have any questions.  If you are skeptical about the validity of any emails, please call our Help Desk first.


Thank you,
Camden Computing Services Help Desk

The fiscal year 2008-2009 annual report on the major equipment, software and service usage managed by Camden Computing Services is now available for review on the web page under the Annual Reports section of the News and Announcement page.  You may review the report by going directly to:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/computing/Announce/AnnualReports/CAMD0809APP.pdf

myRutgers Updated:

myRutgers release 3.0.0.4 has been successfully deployed at 6AM on September 28.  Here are the high-lights of this release:

myRutgers - Version 3.0.0.4 

New Channel

• Rutgers Today channel

Email Issues

• Handle SMTP exceptions gracefully
• Java-level deadlock while download file
• Display the server's alias instead of its hostname
• Disable tallies features for the "Unread Messages" and "Total Messages" counts on the "Folders" listing view
• Reverse the default listing order with the most recent messages at the top of the list
• Handle multipart/mixed or multipart/related content within multipart/alternative part
• Include link to information on how to setup forwarding in email summary and "Configure Preferences" views
• Rendering HTML email feature:
• Using "sent-mail" as default sent folder for clam and crab servers

Other Issues

• User's channel preferences report
• Record count per channel ID for all channel events' statistics
• Update FAQs and User Guide documents
• New URL for Academic Calendar
• Rearrange guest layout

The OIT-Camden, Computing Services Fall EdSeries have been scheduled. EdSeries Workshops are open to all faculty, staff and students, free of charge. To view the various topics, a brief description of the subjects and the workshop schedule, please visit the following web page: http://edseries.camden.rutgers.edu/ All workshops will be conducted in Room 134 of the Business & Science Building.

Starting January 22, 2008, in order for Faculty or Staff to be able to print from any of the printer Release Stations in either the Campus Center or Business & Science Building, it became necessary to have an RUConnection Card which has been acquired after July 1, 2003. Cards issued prior to 2003 will not be read/accepted by the Release Stations and an error will appear. Please visit the Impact Booth on the first floor of the Campus Center to have your card re-encoded to the new format.

Remote Student Password Recovery:

OVERVIEW

In the past, students who forgot the passwords for their Rutgers student accounts (clam) needed to present ID at one of our facilities to get their password reset. As a convenience, the Office of Information Technology has developed a feature which allows individuals to reset their own passwords, without staff interaction, by answering a series of user-selected secret questions.

HOW YOU MAY BE AFFECTED

By default, this feature is not turned on. If you want to maximize security and believe it is unlikely you will ever forget your password, you can elect not to turn this feature on. On the other hand, if you want the convenience of resetting your password on your own in case you do forget it, you will want to turn the remote password recovery feature on.

DETAILS

If you turn this feature on, you will be prompted to provide answers to three questions of your choice from a predefined list. These questions and answers will be associated with your account.  After this, if you later forget your password, you will be able to set a new password on your own by supplying the same answers to the selected questions.

You will need to decide whether it makes sense to turn this feature on, given your own personal circumstances. It is a matter of choosing between the convenience of easily resetting a forgotten password against the lessened security of associating possibly-guessable questions with entry into your account. Someone who is a distance learner and can not easily get to our Help Desk to get a password changed has different needs than someone who visits our computer labs on a regular basis.

For more advice on whether to turn the remote password recovery feature on, and to get directions on how to do so, visit the webpage: http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/newdocs/rpr/

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Help Desk at 856-225-6274.

Has your PC slowed down to a snail’s pace?
Is your PC sending you strange messages about problems?
When you try to go to a WEB site does your PC send you somewhere else?
Is your PC telling you to visit some WEB site?
Does your PC seem to have a mind of its own?

Are you seeing strange “pop-ups” on your screen?
Are you having trouble passing “RU Compliant”?

Then try the new CD produced by Camden Computing Services available at the Help Desk in BSB or CCC. It is loaded with software and information that can be useful in eradicating problems that can infest your PC. The CD is “self-starting” and menu driven.

Printing Conservation Information:

(Most recent information regarding Printing Conservation, which began 7/1/08, can be found at: http://www.nbcs.rutgers.edu/ccf/main/print/ )

After consulting over a period of years with students, faculty, and staff, OIT is pleased to announce the July 1, 2008 implementation of a printing policy in OIT managed computing labs that will foster conservation.  Student governing leaders were notified of this policy in February while the remainder of the Camden student body received final notification this week (6/23/08).

All students will be provided an allotment of $30 worth of black & white printing (the equivalent of 750 black & white sheets). Based upon usage data collected over the past three years, we confidently predict that an overwhelming majority of students will find that the $30 semiannual allotment meets their academic printing needs. Once students spend their $30 semiannual allotment, they will be charged 4 cents per sheet for the black & white printing through their RU Express Card. The current 25 cents per sheet for every color print will continue as well through the RU Express Card. 

 However, please note that “academic printing needs” does not include student organization printing or classroom materials printed by teaching assistants for their classroom duties or materials requested by supervisors for graduate assistants in their research duties.  Costs for such printing should be borne by the academic department or sponsoring organization.  OIT wishes to thank the numerous student government leaders, deans, directors, faculty, and staff who have provided input over the past 36 months in shaping our Printing Conservation policy.  We look forward to working with the entire university community as good stewards of Rutgers resources to contribute to the “greening” of the university.  Additional information regarding printing in student labs can be found at: http://printing.rutgers.edu.  Please feel free to contact us at feedback@computerlabs.rutgers.edu.