OIT News – May 2012

OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 55, May 2012
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Follow OIT on Twitter @NCStateOIT
For up-to-the minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State Help Desk
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01:
OIT rolls out 802.11n to campus
02. Google Drive coming to Google Apps @ NC State
03: OIT to discontinue delivery of GroupWise email
04: Identity management “Listening Tours” to begin
05: World class research requires world class networking
06: ComTech to offer virtual campus networks
07: Blackboard Collaborate now available on campus
08: OIT upgrades non-credit education system
09: Avoid the spam filter: Tips for successful bulk mailing
10: Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training
11: OIT to offer Acrobat Pro training
12: SAR training scheduled for June 5
13: Virus writers target social engineering

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01: OIT rolls out 802.11n to campus
OIT Communication Technologies has begun moving the campus wireless infrastructure to the latest Wi-Fi technology – 802.11n.  This move was spurred by an increase in the number of wireless devices connecting to the campus network and an increase in bandwidth usage.

The new wireless access points are 802.11agn, which allows 802.11n-capable clients to connect at a faster data rate (up to 300Mb/s depending upon configuration and the radio frequency band). The legacy access points have a maximum data rate of only 54Mb/s.

ComTech has divided the campus into five zones for wireless access point replacement. The initial campus rollout, on May 11, included facilities on the College of Veterinary Medicine campus: the college, the CVM Research Building and the new Randall B. Terry Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center. Approximately 85 percent of all campus wireless access points will be converted this summer. The last zone, Centennial Campus, will be converted during fall break. More information about this project will be available soon on ComTech’s Wireless website.

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02: Google Drive coming to Google Apps @ NC State
Starting this week, Google Apps @ NC State users will be able to opt in to Google Drive, which provides users with a default allocation of 5GB of storage space.  When it becomes available to you, you will see a “Find out more and get started” link at the top of your Google Docs screen.

Using Google Drive, you can access your files no matter where they’re stored—on the Web, on your hard drive, or your mobile device. Any file you have stored in Google Drive can be updated on every computer or mobile device on which you’ve installed the Google Drive application. Using Google Drive is yet another way to avoid sending bulky email attachments to yourself to have access to a file stored on another device.

Employees should consult their IT support personnel before installing Google Drive on their university-owned devices. For more information, visit
Google Apps @ NC State gets Google Drive.

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03: OIT to discontinue delivery of GroupWise email
On Monday, May 28, OIT will discontinue the delivery of any email with an address containing @gw.ncsu.edu or @gw.fis.ncsu.edu.

During the GroupWise to Google @ NC State migration, OIT moved users’ GroupWise address books and groups into Gmail. For most users, those contacts contained many addresses that ended with @gw.ncsu.edu or @gw.fis.ncsu.edu and that are still being used.

OIT will be contacting affected users to take two actions in advance of this delivery change:

  • Inform others that their old GroupWise email address will expire soon
  • Remove GroupWise email addresses from their Gmail Contacts


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04: Identity management “Listening Tours” to begin
Beginning in May, OIT will hold a series of information exchanges with campus leaders to reach a common understanding about what identity management is, and to learn about the colleges’ and units’ business processes that are dependent upon identity data.
 

Identity management at NC State deals with identifying individuals and their relationships to the university. For example, an individual may be identified with attributes such as a faculty member, a parking permit holder or an alumnus. The university identifies an individual by his or her total collection of attributes.

Ultimately, the attributes of an individual govern what services, systems or features an individual can access. For example, an individual with a “faculty member” attribute would get access to the “For Faculty and Staff” section of MyPack Portal, an individual with a “parking permit holder” attribute would be authorized to park on campus, and an individual with an “alumnus” attribute would be eligible to join the NC State Alumni Association.

Every college and unit in the university has a stake in identity management. It can be developed only through a collaborative effort to identify the attributes of identity that are important in all NC State business processes and to ensure that everyone is using a common definition of those attributes. For more information, visit the Identity Management home page.

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05: World class research requires world class networking
A new acquisition will allow NC State to move large quantities of cutting-edge research much faster across its campus network and beyond. In early May, the university purchased seven of Cisco’s new 40Gb/s Ethernet cards, the very first ones sold anywhere in the world.

Each card will be subdivided into four 10Gb/s uplinks, allowing campus researchers to share large datasets with external groups via the university’s dual 10Gb/s links to the NC Research and Education Network (NCREN). A service of MCNC, NCREN is recognized as one of the world’s leading statewide regional optical networks.

After the campus backbone routers are upgraded today (May 15), ComTech will install the Ethernet cards. Campus units and locations that will be using the 10Gb/s links include: the Department of Computer Science, Engineering Building II; NCSU Libraries, James B. Hunt Jr. Library, which is currently under construction; College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (PAMS), SAS Hall; College of Agriculture and Life Sciences/PAMS, Bioinformatics; the College of Education, Poe Hall; and Urban Affairs, Poe Hall and Materials Management locations. OIT is currently collaborating with several campus groups to apply for a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to fund 10Gb/s uplinks to other areas on campus.

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06: ComTech to offer virtual campus networks
OIT Communication Technologies (ComTech) will begin offering virtual campus networks in the near future.

With the recent deployment of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), ComTech now has the ability to define entire virtualized network architectures for units and colleges, data centers and cloud computing environments over the campus network infrastructure. MPLS can virtualize the campus network by providing multiple virtual routing and forwarding instances. On-campus subnets and the systems they contain can be moved into different virtual networks with a simple configuration change.

Without impacting the main network, MPLS will allow researchers and others to move data across a separate virtual network, with firewall functionality. MPLS will permit ComTech to improve network resilience by mitigating certain types of potential failures, and it will optimize other existing processes such as keeping guest users isolated from certain campus resources. ComTech is now in the process of piloting MPLS and will offer the new service to campus colleges and units soon.

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07: Blackboard Collaborate now available on campus
In 2010, Blackboard acquired Elluminate, the synchronous learning management system currently used by NC State. A newly released version of the product, Blackboard Collaborate, is now available for campus use.

You can continue to use Elluminate Live! v10 for live sessions until Aug. 8, and can also begin experimenting with Blackboard Collaborate now. Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) and Blackboard Collaborate have provided a variety of resources and training workshops to help you get started. For more information, please see the DELTAwire article.

For more information about synchronous learning tools at NC State, see DELTA’s synchronous learning page, or contact DELTA’s LearnTech at learntech@ncsu.edu or (919) 513-7094.

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08: OIT upgrades non-credit education system
On May 6, OIT upgraded Destiny One, which manages enrollment for non-credit course and certificate offerings, and its data repository, Data Mart.

The new version (3.18) includes these key features:  

  • Student self association to groups – companies or institutions with whom a student shares an email domain.
  • Batch upload process for student records and course section enrollments.
  • Rapid entry for non-credit transcripts.
  • New course certificate updating/maintenance.
  • New student interest area, to be used for marketing purposes.


Data Mart’s new release includes Encore membership reporting, non-credit educational activities, and marketing reports.

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09: Avoid the spam filter: Tips for successful bulk mailing
Do you distribute newsletters, announcements or surveys via email to a large campus population? Unbeknownst to you, and possibly to your intended audience, your messages may be getting caught in a spam filter like Postini.

Join Twanda Baker, Andrew Barnes and Tim Lowman of the Office of Information Technology to learn how to avoid the common pitfalls of sending bulk email and become more efficient at getting your email to its destination. An informational session on successful bulk mailing will be held on Friday, May 18 from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. in Room 106 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. To register, visit Classmate.

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10: Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training
Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training will be offered from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursday, June 14 and Tuesday, July 17 in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center (OIT Training Labs).

This hands-on workshop will cover everything you need to know to get started with Gmail and Google Calendar, including an overview of the apps and helpful resources. For more information and to register, visit
Classmate.

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11: OIT to offer Acrobat Pro training
OIT is offering “Acrobat Pro Introduction: PDF Collaboration and Editing” on Thursday, May 24 from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center.

During this workshop, you will learn how to create a PDF document and edit it using text and image editing tools. You will also learn how to import and export from Microsoft Word and how to use Adobe Acrobat collaboration tools. There will be an overview of the Adobe Creative Suite applications, including Bridge. To register, visit Classmate.

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12: SAR training scheduled for June 5
Monthly Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held on Tuesday, June 5 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. Please visit Classmate to view available classes and to sign up for training.

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13: Virus writers target social engineering
It’s true: NC State receives more email from Facebook than almost any other domain. You probably don’t think twice about reading Facebook email updates and clicking on links in the messages to log in and to respond. Virus writers know this and have started sending fake Facebook updates that have links to websites rigged to infect your computer with a data-stealing virus.

On May 3, university email addresses received more than 32,000 personalized fake Facebook updates with the subject: “Someone left a comment on your status update.” The prior week, there was a smaller attack of fake Career Builder email messages on the “status of your job search.” There have been similar attacks of fake postage bills from the U.S. Post Office and fake online check-in notices for airline flights.  

OIT Information Security Services studies these attacks to determine how they can infect your computer. Based on this analysis, security officers recommend that you:

  • Hover on the link to check the website URL. Does it have the correct URL? If you are doubtful, copy the link and enter it at Zulu URL Risk Analyzer to determine if the Web destination is safe!
  • Do not use the link. Go to the website using a bookmark or a shortcut.
  • Keep players and viewers patched. Malicious sites typically infect computers using an exploit of Java, Flash Player or Acrobat Reader. Keeping these applications patched or up-to-date will help prevent the infection if you click on a malicious link.


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