Computing and Telecommunication Center From Dave’s Desk
We hope that you had a refreshing and/or productive summer. Perhaps you were one of the lucky ones who had both. I would like to give you an update on things we are doing here at the CTC that might have an impact on you. Many of these items will help orient new faculty, but there are items of interest to returning faculty too.
New Versions of Software in the Tomanek Labs
The two Tomanek Hall Pentium Labs (TH125 and 127) have Office 97 installed. We made the decision to install the latest version of Office 97 because we had several requests to do so this summer and because the new software is very web-friendly. Some faculty have Office 97 because they have received machines from the Provost's Action Plan. Some instructors want students to post assignments on the web and Office 97 produces documents in HTML format for such posting. Office 97 does not yet exist for Macintoshes, but the Mac Lab (TH123) has the latest version of MS Office (4.2.1) available for the Mac. The Mac lab has Netscape Gold (for web page creation and browsing), and the Pentium labs have Netscape 3.0.
New Student Web Server and HelpDesk
Faculty should encourage students to use a new web server dedicated to students for posting web pages. If you have an assignment that you would like students to post on the web, we have information at a Student HelpDesk area that we give to students to help them publish on the web. The Student HelpDesk is a new service resulting from an Action Plan sponsored by the SGA; send students to Tomanek 113. For a fee, students can use a FAX machine, make copies, and print on an inkjet color printer at the HelpDesk. At this time, there is no charge to use the scanner to scan images to a disk.
Ethernet in Rarick Hall
Faculty and staff in Rarick Hall can request Ethernet ports because we now have the ports in place to handle those requests. The Provost's Action Plan placed a number of new computers in Rarick Hall and all these computers have been put on the Ethernet. Before you request a port, you should verify that you have a PC powerful enough to take advantage of the Ethernet. Also, you will need to buy an Ethernet card ($87 or so) and software (usually Windows 95) that enable you to use the Ethernet connection. If you are not in Rarick Hall, you may still be able to access an Ethernet port. Contact your department chair, dean, or the CTC to check on availability.
If you get on the Ethernet, you will need QWS3270 software to access the IBM mainframe. It is specially designed telnet software for IBM mainframes. Because we have purchased a site-license for that, it is free to you, the user. As mentioned, you will need Windows 95 (or functionally equivalent software) to provide the TCP/IP networking capability. Further, you will want an Internet browser to use the world wide web. Since Netscape is free to educational institutions, we encourage using it.
To send E-mail over the Internet and to attach documents and other files to your messages, you can use Netscape Mail or get a free version of Eudora Light. I find the ability to attach documents to E-mail very useful, and students could use it to submit assignments to you; however, you will still need to use the OfficeVision system to receive on-campus E-mail. Note that you do not necessarily need any special FTP software if you have Netscape because you can put ftp:// in the place for the URL. The browser will display the files that you can download.
Other Internet Capabilities
Contact Mark Griffin if you want to set up a listserv for your class. A listserv allows you to subscribe to that listserv. So, everyone in a class could subscribe and receive every communication that was sent -- either from the teacher or from class members. In addition, we have a news server on campus, so you may want to encourage or require students to look at a variety of news groups.
CTC Staff Additions and Changes
Mike Muench joined our staff as 2nd-shift computer operator and we look forward to working with him on a full-time basis after his many years of part-time statistical consulting at FHSU.
Gary Gilmore, previous 2nd-shift computer operator, has accepted a position in the Alco Management program in Lincoln, Nebraska. Gary worked here for eight years and we wish him well in his new endeavor.
We were very fortunate to receive two positions as part of the Action Plan process for the Microcomputer area. Mark Orth accepted one position. We are still interviewing for the second position and hope to have that position filled soon.
Since we still have many requests to complete, we will have a chance to catch up when both positions are filled.
NSF Grant
Kansas applied for an NSF (National Science Foundation) grant to boost Internet speed as part of a five state consortium. NSF granted approximately $1.5 million towards the project. This means that the five states will have sites that are Internet II ready.
This has some impact on FHSU because we connect to KANREN (Kansas Research and Education Network) and KANREN will have a high-speed connection (DS3 -- 45 Megabit connection which triples our bandwidth) to the high-speed NSF network. The money will help pay to upgrade the core routers to handle the additional traffic. This will speed Internet traffic among universities.
Training Classes
The CTC and CTELT offer a variety of mini-classes, workshops, and training sessions to help you use the various systems on campus. We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to use the on-line systems for advising, registering students, posting grades, and other functions. Training schedules are sent thru OV mail.
We hope that you will find this Newsletter informative. We hope that you will keep it nearby so that when you want to call the CTC, you will have the phone numbers handy.
CONFIGURATION CONTROL
by Michael Lacy, ManagerMiscellaneous Computer Info
The FHSU Mainframe is an ES9000 IBM 9121 Model 260 with 256 Meg Main Storage and speed of 16 MIPS. The operating system is VM/ESA 2.1 running VSE/ESA as guest operating systems. We have one 3880 disk controller which controls I/O to the two 3380 disk drives. One 3990 controller controls I/O to the four 3390 disk drives.
The two 3380 disk drives have approximately 10 gigabytes of storage and the four 3390 disk drives have 68 gigabytes of storage. Three 3422 tape drives at 6250 BPI with data streaming capability and three 3490 tape drives at IDRC capacity allow us to retrieve data stored on tape or can be used to create backup tapes or archives. One 3274 terminal controller; one 3174 controller and five 7171 controllers control terminal access to the mainframe along with one Bus-Tech 3172 controller for Ethernet connected PC's. The campus has approximately 900 PC's and terminals attached via an AT&T Information System Network or Ethernet access. An IBM 6262 printer at 1400 lines per minute prints many reports, labels, grade mailers, loan statements, and a variety of other jobs.
In addition, an IBM 3812 LED page printer with graphics capabilities prints reports, letters, OV notes, and other tasks submitted from across campus. Other printers attached to the system via RSCS and TCP/IP print other jobs as submitted.
INTERNET DIAL-UP HELPDESK NEWS
by Nancy Geier, Internet DialUp Help DeskWe've moved!
In mid-July, we moved to a new office. We are now located in Tomanek Hall, Room 113, next to the Dispatch Window. We have much more space and are more accessible, since the office is located directly off the main hall.
What is Dial-Up?
Dial-up is a process which enables you to use your computer's modem to connect to the Internet from off campus by dialing in to Fort Hays State University's remote access server. The connection also allows you to access the IBM mainframe systems. From this remote access, you can check your E-mail, download shareware, run statistical software, access the web, and do a variety of other tasks. Students also use the system to communicate from off-campus. Because more and more students use E-mail, the system makes it easier to contact students electronically.
There are some minimum system requirements a computer must meet in order to do dial-up.
Internet Dial-Up accounts are only available to FHSU current students, faculty, and staff.
If you are interested in applying for an account, just stop by the HelpDesk Office (TH113) to fill out an application and an agreement form. A consultant will provide instructions and will assist you in determining whether your system requires software. If you need software, it is provided for a $5 fee. There is no service fee for faculty or staff accounts.
New Area Code
If your computer was configured for dial-up prior to July 20, you may need to change your dialer to use the new 785 area code. Detailed instructions for changing the dial-up telephone number were included with your account information packet. In addition to changing the area code of the dial-up access number you are dialing to, you will also want to change the area code of the location or home number you are dialing from. If you change the dial-up area code and do not change the location area code, your dialer will assume that the call is long distance and will dial a 1 before dialing the rest of the number. Although dialing for local calls is not affected by the change, if you wish to use your modem to dial long distance numbers using the new area code, you will want to make sure your location area code is also set to use the new area code.
In Windows 95, the location area code can be found by clicking on Dialing Properties in the Modems section of the Control Panel. Detailed instructions for making these changes in Windows 95 and in Netscape Dial-Up Edition for Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and Macintosh systems are being placed on our web site and are also available from the Internet Dial-Up HelpDesk. The 913 area code may still be used during the permissive dialing period, which ends September 30, 1998.
As noted above, the HelpDesk has recently moved and is now located in Tomanek Hall 113. If you have questions or would like more information, visit our web site at www.fhsu.edu/dialup/ or give us a call at 5276 or 5274.
Internet Dial-Up HelpDesk Hours
New Internet Dial-Up HelpDesk hours are posted each semester. Office and telephone support hours for the current semester are posted outside Tomanek Hall, Room 113 and may be viewed on our home page (www.fhsu.edu/dialup/) and on the Public Bulletin Board on the CMS Student Menu or OV system, under Computing and Telecommunication Center.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
Helpful Information
The CTC Staff Directory, a list of phone numbers to call for frequently reported problems/questions, and the FHSU Computer Labs Info flyer are included as the last pages of this issue of the newsletter.
Please keep these pages near your phone or in your 1997-1998 FHSU Campus Directory and Student Handbook for future reference so that we can serve you more efficiently.
CMS & OV Availability Policy
CMS and OV (OfficeVision) are available from 2:30am until midnight Monday through Friday. The systems are up and running unattended on holidays and from 2:30am Saturday until Monday morning.
Administrative Database Availability Policy
The administrative databases, which are in CICS, are up from 2:30am to 7:00pm each regularly scheduled work day. They run unattended from 2:30am to 7:00am each of those days and also unattended from 2:30am Saturday through 7:00am Monday and on holidays.
The Library NOTIS system will be up from 2:30am to 11:00pm each regularly scheduled work day Monday through Thursday; from 2:30am to 6:00pm on Friday work days; and after 2:30am on Saturdays.
Requests for changes to the above policy on a day-to-day basis may be made by submitting a computer-generated Request for Computing Services on OV (F5, F1) by noon on the day the requested change is needed. Request approval is contingent upon the scheduled production load of second shift operations for that day. Direct questions and recommendations to Dr. David Schmidt.
Dispatch Window Hours
Fall semester hours for the CTC Dispatch Window TH111 are:
Mon-Thurs 7am to 11pm Friday 7am to 6pm Weekends TO BE ANNOUNCED
Full Disk Message
A full disk will prevent you from opening your OV mail. If you sign on to CMS and a message displays indicating that you have a full disk, contact the programmers in the Configuration Control section at 4067 or 4489, or call Jane at 5819.
Additional space will be temporarily added which allows you to delete any old OV mail or notes. This space is automatically removed at 4:30pm the same day so you must go through and make deletions promptly.
Please delete old mail and notes regularly to avoid this problem. If you need assistance deleting, call Viv at 4031.
Keep in mind that Internet and forwarded notes fill up space more quickly with all the extra header information.
Tomanek Hall Lab News
A lab monitor is present during open lab hours; however, labs may be unavailable to users at times so that we can perform routine maintenance. CTC labs will resume regular hours after the Labor Day weekend.
No food, drinks or tobacco of any kind is allowed in any of the labs. Also, users may not bring and use their own zip drives in any of the CTC labs.
Hours for the Tomanek Hall computer labs (TH123, 125, and 127) are:
Aug 25 thru Sept 1:
Mon-Fri 8am to 6pm Weekends CLOSED Labor Day CLOSED
Sept 2 thru Dec 19:
Mon-Thurs 8am to 11pm Friday 8am to 6pm Saturday 12noon to 6pm Sunday 1pm to 11pm
Recycle Laser Paper
If you have any extra scrap paper that is printed on one side only, we would be interested in re-using it in our labs. Many of the printouts in our labs are rough drafts and recycled paper helps us cut down on expenses.
The paper must be laser quality, free of staples or rips and have one clean side. It can be white or any color. If you have a sizable amount of paper that we can recycle, call Viv at 4031 or Jane at 5819 and we would be happy to make arrangements for pick up.
Reserving CTC Labs
Faculty or staff must submit a Request for Computing Services thru OfficeVision (F5,F1) on Menu #1 to reserve a lab. Be sure to fill in your department name and number or the request will not be sent. We are unable to schedule the labs without this request.
Anyone who reserves the Tomanek Hall Computer Labs for workshops, classes, or seminars is asked to please keep in mind that each lab has a seating capacity of 24 workstations and one workstation at the front desk (TH125 does not have a computer at the front desk at this time) for the instructor and that no food, drinks, or tobacco of any kind is allowed in any of the labs.
Many of the attendees are trying to bring food and beverages into the labs. The possibility of spilling a beverage onto the equipment or a power source exists and could severely damage equipment or cause the shutdown of the lab for repairs.
Anyone caught bringing food or beverages into the lab will be asked to remove it immediately. Repeat offenders will not be able to reserve the labs in the future. Please abide by this policy.
Student Help Desk
In the fall, we are planning to open a student help desk center in TH113. The center will be able to assist students with general computer related questions at FHSU.
FAXing, color printing, and copying services will be available for a fee. At this time, there is no charge for scanning of material to disk.
The hours of operation, dependant on the demand and student labor resources available, will be posted on the tac board outside the door.
INFORMATION CENTER
by Jane Rajewski, ManagerThe Information Center serves the mainframe computer users. Computer Operations and User Services are part of the Information Center. In addition to the scheduled services provided to the University departments, the following user services are available through the Information Center. Under each item is the procedure to follow to ensure the best service.
Standard Report Programs or Mailing Labels
Fill out a Request for Computing Services form (F5 on Menu #1 of OV, then F1) and submit it to the CTC for approval at least three working days before the desired completion date. Indicate the program number, any desired options, the number of copies needed, and paper type. You will be notified when the job is completed. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Alvin Hearne at 5687 or Jane Rajewski at 5819.
Ad Hoc Reports, Mailing Labels or Data to be Downloaded
Fill out a Request for Computing Services form (F5 on Menu #1 of OV, then F1) and submit it to the CTC for approval at least one week before the desired completion date. Please try to be as specific as possible when writing the description of the data and the report. You will be notified when the job is completed. If you have any questions or concerns about what data is available or the type of reports the Center can produce, please contact Jane Rajewski at 5819 or Alvin Hearne at 5687.
Test Scoring Using the OMR Full-Page Scanner.
150 question answer sheets are available for pick-up at the Dispatch Window (TH111). Please make sure the students use No. 2 pencils and erase cleanly. No. 2 pencils are available at the Dispatch Window and must be turned in when you return the score sheets and complete the test scanning request form at the Dispatch Window. Your test will be scored and the desired reports printed within eight working hours.
You will be notified when the job is completed. Please refer any questions or concerns to Jane Rajewski at 5819 or Alvin Hearne at 5687.
Training on Mainframe Software for Faculty and Staff
Send an OV note to CCVZ or CCJR indicating which systems you would like training offered. Training will be offered if enough users indicate an interest for a particular item; users will be notified of classes offered through OV notes. We try to offer several sessions of each system at different times to allow you to choose the session that best fits your schedule.
As new administrative systems are developed, we will be offering courses in that area for the appropriate personnel. Please notify Viv Zimmerman at 4031 or Jane Rajewski at 5819 about new employees who need to be trained or other training needs.
Also, please let us know when someone resigns or leaves your area so his or her security to the system can be removed.
Help Desk for Users with Mainframe Hardware and Software Problems
Feel free to call Viv Zimmerman at 4031 or Jane Rajewski at 5819 with any hardware of software problems or questions. If we don't have the answer, we will route your concern to the appropriate person.
IDs, Password and Security
To request CMS, CICS or Internet IDs and passwords, fill out a Request for Computing Services form (F5 on Menu #1 of OV, then F1) stating the desired access and submit it to the CTC. IDs and passwords are set up within a couple of days after receipt of the request. If you are requesting IDs for a whole class, allow one week's time. You will be notified of your IDs and passwords after they have been established. Your ID and terminal security for administrative systems is normally established when you sign up for the training classes. If you are having any problems with security violations, please call Jane Rajewski at 5819.
How to Change Your CMS Password
Having a protected password is essential to the security of the information you have on your account and the protection and privacy of the information you may have access to on CICS. We encourage you to periodically change your CMS password. You can easily change your password by entering the word MENU and pressing ENTER from the main OfficeVision menu. Select F6 Change CMS Password and follow the prompts.
CICS passwords cannot be changed by the user at this time. If at anytime you feel that your CICS password may have been jeopardized, please call Jane at 5819 to get your password changed. A form will be sent out periodically to the CICS user asking them to select a new password and return the form for processing.
CICS Security for New Faculty
CICS security for the basic inquiry functions in the course, student, and transcript systems is automatically set up for the advisor level for all new faculty after they complete the required OfficeVision training.
As new faculty sign up for the training, their names will be give to Jane Rajewski so that the appropriate security can be set up. Then, during the OV training, each faculty will have an opportunity to sign onto both systems (OV and CICS) simultaneously and learn how to toggle between the two. At this time, they will also be shown how to use the library system. Hopefully, this will get everyone started on a productive semester.
Security for all other CICS administrative systems will still require the user to request the appropriate security form. The form will then be mailed to the chair person for signatures. The user will be notified when the security is set up.
If you have questions/concerns about your CICS security, contact Jane Rajewski at 5819 or CCJR.
Submitting Requests for Computing Services
Requests may be submitted electronically thru OV on the Request for Computing Services form. To submit a request through OV, press F5 on Menu #1, then F1. A form will appear on the screen. Fill in the blanks; be as specific as possible. Press F4 to send the request. Your request and a copy will be printed. A copy will be immediately sent as an OV note to the sender. It will be scheduled by the CTC staff and the copy will be returned to you for your records. Call Viv at 4031 or Jane at 5819 if you need assistance.
OfficeVision Training
With the beginning of the Fall 1997 semester, all new faculty will have a CMS ID which will enable them to send and receive E-mail until they can take the required OfficeVision (OV) training sessions.
Once the OV training is complete, their ID will be added to the OV data base which will allow use of other functions such as the calendar, distribution lists, schedule meetings, send computer requests, send warehouse orders, and have the ability to receive campus-wide mail and other functions.
We are offering OfficeVision training throughout the fall semester. Notes with the training schedule are sent to faculty and staff through OV mail each time new sessions are offered. Please encourage your new faculty to attend the training before the hectic pace of fall semester begins.
We've already had a number of new faculty complete the training.
On-Line Registration
Luci Williams, LuAnn Pfeifer and Viv Zimmerman will hold training for on-line registration from late October through November 3rd. This will be just prior to the actual Spring 1998 registration.
These sessions are for faculty ONLY. The training is mandatory for any advisor who wishes to register advisees. We will not be able to offer this training again until March, 1998.
Each session meets in Tomanek Hall 107. Choose one of the sessions from below. To sign up, send a note to CCVZ, call 4031, or leave a Voice Mail message indicating which session number you would like.
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If you are interested in registering your advisees, contact Jane at 5819 or Viv at 4031. We will send you the security form.On-Line Grade Entry
If you are new faculty or have never entered grades before or if you haven't signed onto CICS recently, please sign onto CICS and see if you can access the Course System (for example, try function 81 Roster Inquiry or 71 Roster Grade Update).
This security must be set up before you will be able to enter grades. If you do not have a CICS ID or if you have questions, please contact Jane at 5819 or Viv at 4031.
View Class Rosters On-Line
If your security is already set up for the Course System, you may view your rosters by doing the following:
* Sign onto CICS.
* Enter 04 at the Enter Function prompt.
* Enter 81, DEPT, COURSE NUMBER,
SECTION, YEAR, SEMESTER.
HINTS: Semester codes: U = Summer, F = Fall, S = Spring
* Press TAB to move from field to field.
* The default will display ALL students (regardless of status). Follow instructions on screen to make another choice.
* View your roster and follow the prompts at the bottom of screen.
If you have a printer attached to your work station, you may do a print screen to have a rough copy of your roster(s).
If you need assistance with viewing your rosters or if you would like to have security to this system, call Viv at 4031 or Jane at 5819.
OV Directory Changes
Please notify Viv at 4031 or send a note to ccvz if any faculty, staff or student employees terminated their employment with your office at the end of the semester so that we can remove their IDS.
Also, send us a listing of any new employees that includes office phone and room number information. We need this info for security purposes and also to keep the directory updated.
The information contained in the directory automatically displays at the bottom of any electronic requests submitted.
Greeting/Closing Info on OV Notes
Users can view/add/change their personal greeting or closing information for OV notes that is contained in the control file on their account by doing the following:
Press F8, F1, F5, view or make adds/changes, then press F12 (three times) to return to OV Menu #1.
After returning to OV Menu #1, it might be wise to send yourself a note to see if you are happy with the setup. Repeat the above procedure until you are satisfied with how your greeting/closing looks.
For those of you who include your complete phone number in the closing of your notes, it will be necessary to change this information since the area code for this part of Kansas changed on July 20. Follow the above steps to change this information.
If you need assistance, contact Viv at 4031 or Jane at 5819.
Invalid Key Pressed
If your screen keeps displaying the message Invalid Key Pressed when using OV, ENTER #cp ipl cms in the lower left corner of your screen (you may have to hit ENTER a couple of times) but it should reset your session and put you back to the OV Menu #1.
More... or Holding in CMS or OV
In the lower right corner of the CMS or OV screen, More... or Holding will display occasionally. If More... displays, press CLEAR to clear the screen immediately or press ENTER to change it to Holding. This will hold the screen display until you press CLEAR and give you time to read it or jot down information.
Otherwise, if More... continues to display in the lower right corner, the screen will automatically CLEAR itself in about 30 seconds or so.
APPLICATIONS PROGRAMMING
by Daryl Carswell, Applications Programming ManagerThe Applications Programming section of the CTC is comprised of a manager and three full-time programmer/analysts. Our main function is to develop and support administrative computer systems for the IBM mainframe, in areas such as student records, degree progress, payroll/personnel, accounting, course inventory, and facilities. These systems now number 25 - 30.
The development of a computerized information system follows through several stages: needs analysis, functional design, technical design, programming, testing, and implementation.
In the needs analysis process we gather ideas, concerns and problems about the existing procedures from the people involved. We compile the interview, survey, and meeting results and use this info to design the functions of the systems, charting how information will be stored and distributed throughout the whole process and shared with other systems. Where the functional design is a big picture look at the new systems, the technical design breaks out the functions into programs, screens, and data elements - our version of blueprints.
With a detailed plan, we write the computer programs, usually in the COBOL programming
language. While COBOL is the basis for much of the program code, we also use the software products VSAM, SQL, DL/I, and CICS to get data from the files and to the screens and printed reports. Most of the programs are fairly complex, and require a good amount of testing before they are ready for use. The system users become heavily involved during the testing stage, helping us to work out the bugs. The final step is to put the system into production mode - connecting it to the other systems, giving user access, and providing training and documentation.
The post script for each system is maintenance. Most of the requests we receive involve modifications to existing program; changes in procedures, rates, user needs, and regulations are all reasons that a system is never truly finished. Our applications are written with this inevitable fact in mind. Hopefully, we have built enough flexibility into each system to enable it to handle the unforseen, with only minor re-work.
If we can be assistance to you please contact us.
DATA COMMUNICATIONS
Duplicate IP Address Message
by Cheryl Helget, Network AdministratorIf you are connected to Ethernet and receive a duplicate IP address message when trying to connect, please write down the message and contact Dan at 4038, Cheryl at 4119, or Mark at 4026.
Tigr1 Replaced by Scatcat
by Mark Griffin, Unix Sup/Network Adm.Tigr1, the old AT&T Unix system brought to FHSU in 1989, has been booted for the last time. In its place is a 200 MHZ Pentium Pro processor running FreeBSD Unix. In keeping with our feline theme of server names, we have affectionately named the system Scatcat. At this time, this system will be the primary Unix system for student web pages
The one drawback of this switch is that the new system cannot be accessed by terminals on campus. This should have a very minimal effect though because of the numerous PC's available.
On the upside of things, users will have a much faster processor than they previously had and more software packages available. By next semester, users will have a choice of two E-mail packages on the system. They are Pine and Elm. Both are popular E-mail packages on Unix Systems. Students can also do C, C++, Java, and Fortran programming on Scatcat. And, the best part, students can now publish their own web pages on this server.
Students can come to the CTC Student Help Desk at Tomanek Hall 113 to get more information and apply for a user account.
Web Page Development
The FHSU web pages are growing on virtually a daily basis. Almost every day some department is adding a new page or a new feature to an old page. But there are still quite a few departments that haven't gotten their page put up yet. What are you waiting for? If you say you don't know where to start, maybe this article can help.
First, you need to decide what do you want on your web page. At first, you might just start with basic things such as the name of your department and a list of the services your office provides. Then, you have to design the web page.
There are numerous web editors out there (Netscape Gold, Netscape Composer, Hot Dog Pro, PageMill, Microsoft Front Page, MS Word 97, etc.). These may also be referred to as HTML editors, which stands for HyperText Markup Language. Most of these editors are relatively simple to use.
Many of you can create simple web pages without any additional instructions. Just start the editor of your choice and start typing and clicking. Others may wish to purchase one of the hundreds of books available on we publishing. Or, if you're still a little nervous about trying this on your own, CTELT periodically offers an excellent class on web publishing.
After you have developed your web page, you are ready to make it available for the whole world to see. Faculty and staff may submit a Request for Computing Services (F5, F1) on OV asking for an account to publish web pages and specify which department the web pages are for. Students will need to stop by TH113 and complete a request form for publishing web pages.
If you are going to want your page linked to other FHSU web pages, and most of you will, then please specify that in the request as well.
Within a few days you will receive the ID and password and some basic instructions on uploading your pages to the web server. Once you receive your ID and password you can add more web pages and make changes to your current web page as often as you like.
If you have questions about publishing FHSU web pages, you may contact Mark Griffin by E-mail at griffy@bigcat.fhsu.edu or phone/voice mail 628-4026. Mark may not know all the answers but can probably direct you to the right place.
Listservs and Usenet News
First, let me attempt to explain what listservs and Usenet news are and how they differ. Both can be excellent resources for getting information on specific topics and providing information to specific groups of people. Listservs send the information through E-mail to specific users that have subscribed to the list. Usenet news is more like a public bulletin board open for all to see. That is, all who want to see.
To get on a listserv, you have to subscribe to the list with your E-mail account. In order to subscribe, each listserv has a specific format that must be followed. In some cases, you may have to actually apply to be added. After you have subscribed, any E-mail that is sent to the list will also be sent to you. On very active lists, this may cause you to receive a flood of E-mail. Sorting the useful listserv E-mail from the garbage can be a chore.
On the other hand, Usenet news can be viewed at your own leisure and does not clutter your E-mail. You can use Netscape to view Usenet news. Because there are various versions of Netscape and each one is a little different, I can't give a specific set of directions to follow to get Usenet news. However, if you startup your Netscape and go to the News window you should be able to connect to our news server (news.fhsu.edu). This should give you a long list of available news groups that you can sort through. Decide for yourself which ones are useful or interesting. You can read the discussions that are occurring on the news groups and submit your own thoughts on the topic at hand as well.
In some cases, listservs will post their messages to a specific news group. Those listservs can be found under the bit.listserv news groups. It would be a great help to us if those that are on listservs would start reading the information on the news groups whenever possible and unscribe from the list mail. If you must subscribe to a listserv, please read it regularly! Unread listserv mail consumes valuable disk space.
If there are faculty, staff, or organizations that wish to have their own newsgroup or listserv setup here at FHSU, they need to send a Request for Computing Services (F5, F1) on OV. If anyone has a question about listservs or Usenet news, they can E-mail Mark Griffin at griffy@bigcat.fhsu.edu or give him a call at 628-4026.
Can’t Connect to Netscape
By now, I’m sure many of you have experienced problems connecting to Netscape occasionally. This problem is probably caused by either heavy network traffic on Internet or more specifically, heavy network traffic at Netscape. Even though you may not get connected to Netscape’s site initially, doing a Reload often times will connect you to Netscape. It is not necessary for you to connect to Netscape’s site before proceeding to another desired site. If you don’t connect to Netscape the first time, you can ignore this problem and enter the name of the site that you really want.
The procedure to change your startup home page is:
* Start Netscape Navigator
* Click on Options
* Click on General Preferences
* Click on the Appearance Tab
* For the option: Browser Starts with:
* Click on OK. Enter a new web page address (E.g. http://www.fhsu.edu/) or you can click on the Blank Page option
Now, when you click on Home or Start Netscape Navigator, you will be connected to the web site you just specified. This will eliminate the problems you previously encountered when connecting to Netscape.
TELECOMM SERVICES
by Tom Webb, ManagerThe mission of Telecommunications is to facilitate the smooth reliable communications of voice, data and video at a minimum cost and a maximum utility and ease of use to the university.
Using the Campus Phone System
Instructions on how to use the campus phone system can be found in the front of the FHSU Campus Directory that is published each Fall by University Relations. This is where you can learn how to start and stop call forwarding, transfer a call, and other fancy tricks.
KANS-A-N Long Distance
Official university long distance calls are routed over the KANS-A-N long distance trunk lines. Please review your KANS-A-N Directory for some important information about this service. Any long distance calls you place from your campus phone are routed by the PBX switch. Long distance calls from off campus can be made with the use of a KANS-A-N credit card issued by Cheryl Schmeidler (4424) of the Physical Plant.
Requesting Telephone Services
Use the OfficeVision system to request services.
From the main Menu #1, press the F5 key (Request for Services). Then press F6 for Telecommunication Services. The first three selections (F1, F2, and F4) are for AUDIX voicemail accounts. Press F5 to request the addition, removal or movement of phone lines.
If you are moving to a new office, please submit your request for service at least two weeks in advance. If you have a problem with your phone service, you can call or E-mail us directly (Tom at 4488 or Bob at 5997).
AUDIX Voicemail Service
Our voicemail is processed with the Lucent Technologies AUDIX system. Normally, you will want to take the class for this system which is taught periodically. Watch for training announcements on the OfficeVision system.
Revised 3/15/99