OIT News – June 2013

OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 68, June 2013

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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: Unified 30 GB of storage across Gmail and Drive space
02: NCSU Drive space quota increased to 5 GB
03: Software licensing updates
04: An electrical “blip” for parts of Main Campus on July 2 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:01 a.m.
05: How are you using Google Apps @ NC State?
06: University IT Strategic Planning update
07: Register your wireless device
08: ComTech migrates wireless network to private IP address space
09: OIT to offer Google Apps, Digital Photography, and Website Accessibility training
10: SAR training scheduled for Aug. 6

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01: Unified 30 GB of storage across Gmail and Drive space

Earlier this spring, Google announced its intent to unify, or merge together, the space available in Gmail and Drive storage. Instead of having 25 GB for mail and 5 GB for non-Google docs (e.g., Word documents, PDFs stored in Drive) each user has 30 GB total shared between the two.

NC State users should have this unified storage available to them by next week. When it is available in your account, the space indicator at the bottom of your Gmail Inbox screen will say “Using xxx GB of your 30 GB.” If it still says 25 GB, the change has not yet rolled out to your account.

No action is required on your part. The storage usage will shift between Gmail and Drive, respectively, as you store email or docs. NC State users do not yet have the ability to purchase additional administratively-managed storage from Google, as they have not rolled out that functionality to Google Apps for Education customers yet.

For additional information, contact the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP(4357) or help@ncsu.edu.

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02: NCSU Drive space quota increased to 5 GB

Effective Monday, May 20, the NCSU Drive personal file space quota has been increased to 5 GB. Provided and supported free, and backed up securely by NC State, NCSU Drive space is in addition to Google Drive and AFS space. Its use is governed by the information technology rules and regulations at NC State. Users should familiarize themselves with these, especially Computer Use Regulation (Reg.08.00.2).

Accounts with previously purchased additional quota should not experience any loss of access to home directories as a result of this increase to the default space.

The 5 GB quota will remain static until the process to increase the new default is established. For information on how to access your NCSU Drive space, visit Your NCSU Drive Space.

For information on how to increase space, contact the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP(4357) or help@ncsu.edu.

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03: Software licensing updates

New Red Hat Licensing and Support Agreement: NC State is entering a new licensing agreement with Red Hat that includes 24×7 support. More information will be shared with Red Hat users as it becomes available.

Matlab Student Site License: Through the combined efforts of Engineering, PAMS and OIT, a site license for Matlab is available to all NC State students. Students are now be able to download and install Matlab on their personal computers. For more information, please visit NC State Software Licensing.

Adobe Campus Licensing: Adobe has made some dramatic licensing changes that began affecting campus on May 31. Its new licensing model has eliminated maintenance on their Creative Suite (CS) products, effectively eliminating software upgrades. Versions newer than CS6 can be purchased only through Adobe’s Creative Cloud, Adobe’s new subscription-based service. This results in higher annual charges and more difficult management, which will create challenges for some colleges and departments. OIT is currently working with Adobe and UNC General Administration to find a resolution that is agreeable to all sides.

OIT recommends that everyone using the Creative Suites be at the CS6 level. Software Licensing Management has an FAQ that answers most of the questions received regarding the changes in Adobe licensing. See Adobe FAQs.

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04: An electrical “blip” for parts of Main Campus on July 2 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:01 a.m.

NC State Facilities has announced an electrical “blip” that will affect Main Campus buildings between Pullen Road and Gorman Street, as well as between Hillsborough Street and Western Boulevard, on Tuesday, July 2, 2013 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:01 a.m. This action is necessary to ensure that the newly designed automatic throw-over capability at Sullivan Substation works as designed. The outage will be only a blink during the transfer of power.

Campus users in the affected areas may want to power down their computers the night before if they do not have an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), or follow the advice of their IT support staff if they make another recommendation. The associated Facilities work order number for this event is 13-61472, and the Facilities contact is Eric Dean, at 513-7178, if you have any questions about the planned outage.

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05: How are you using Google Apps @ NC State?

Are you using Google+, Google Analytics, or Google Blogger? These are just a few of the apps the Google Service Team rolled out over the last couple of semesters to provide greater flexibility and increased options for university students, faculty and staff, and OIT is encouraging everyone to share how they’re using them! You might be doing exactly what someone else is thinking of doing, or you might be thinking of doing something someone else is already doing. This is an opportunity to learn from each other.

In the descriptions of each of the 15 apps that were introduced, you can click on their potential use cases, their best practices and their tips and tricks to see those already documented. To share your own, click on the respective link: use case, best practice, or tip and trick.

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06: University IT Strategic Planning update

The NC State IT Strategic Planning initiative continues to move forward to create the first-ever university-wide Information Technology Strategic Plan. Input that has been collected this spring was consolidated and shared with members of the IT governance subcommittees and Campus IT Directors at a workshop June 12. Participants discussed these and other IT issues and opportunities and developed a set of strategic themes that will go forward in the process.

A planning process outline, along with other frequently-updated material, can be found among the Documents collected on the site. Send your comments and suggestions to itstratplan-feedback@ncsu.edu.

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07: Register your wireless device

Gone are the days of having to authenticate every time you connect to the campus network with a wireless device. The Nomad (Wireless) Registration System allows campus users to gain immediate network access without entering their Unity ID and password after registering.

Students, faculty and staff can register up to five wireless devices in the Nomad system. Once a device is registered, it will automatically authenticate itself to the Nomad system using the registration profile that is associated with the user’s Unity account. To complete registration, a user must connect the device that he or she wishes to register to the Nomad network.

For more information or to register a wireless device, visit the Nomad Registration System website.

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08: ComTech migrates wireless network to private IP address space

With the explosion of devices connecting to the campus network, the university is starting to run low on public Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses and cannot obtain additional public space.

To permit continued IPv4 growth, ComTech recently migrated the campus wireless network to Request For Comments (RFC 1918) private addresses. Normal Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) clients connecting to the “ncsu” wireless network will receive a private IPv4 address.

Private IP address spaces were created under IPv4 as a stopgap to prolong IPv4 address depletion, but they are also a component of IPv6, the next generation Internet Protocol.

ComTech is currently testing IPv6  in a controlled lab environment and is developing plans for its future campus-wide deployment.

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09: OIT to offer Google Apps, Digital Photography, and Website Accessibility training

OIT is offering the following workshops during June:

  • Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training will be offered on Tuesday, June 18 from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. This hands-on workshop is designed to help you become familiar with the basic functions of Gmail and Google Calendar at NC State. You will need an active Unity ID to participate in this training. To register, visit Classmate.
  • Digital Photography: Introduction will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, June 19 in 216 Scott Hall. Learn the basics of how your digital camera works and how to determine when to use manual settings versus picture modes. You’ll also learn about f-stops, aperture, ISO, depth of field, zoom and other concepts so you’ll become more comfortable with composing photos. Topics also will include editing, storing and sharing of your photos. Bring your own digital camera and memory card to the class. Camera does not need to be a DSLR / removable lens camera. To register, visit Classmate.
  • Website Accessibility Tune-Ups will be offered on Wednesday, June 19 from noon to 1 p.m. in ITTC Lab 1A of D.H. Hill Library and again on Wednesday, July 10 from noon to 1 p.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. Do you have questions about your website’s accessibility, but don’t know who or what to ask? Bring your questions and website URL to this workshop and learn easy steps to make your site more accessible. To register, visit Classmate.
  • Interpreting Your Accessibility Scan Report will be offered on Tuesday, July 16 from noon to 1 p.m. in ITTC Lab 1A of D.H. Hill Library. This workshop will teach you how to interpret the results of your website accessibility scan. Learn which errors are more critical to deal with and which are not as essential to fix. Also, learn strategies for prioritizing your corrections and techniques for doing so. For more information and to register, visit Classmate.

Check the Classmate training calendar for other available workshops. If you’re interested in custom software training for your department, unit or classroom, please complete the Custom Training form. If you have any questions about OIT training, please email classreg@ncsu.edu.

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10: SAR training scheduled for Aug. 6

Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held Tuesday, Aug. 6 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in the ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. Please visit Classmate to sign up for training.

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