INSIDE
If you have questions or comments about this newsletter,
contact
Dr. David Schmidt at 4487.
Viv Zimmerman and Jane Rajewski, co-editors.
Prior to the beginning of summer there is the illusion that there is a long time to complete projects. When I started my dissertation, I thought that getting it done would not take long either, but initial enthusiasm faded as the real work began. Needless to say progress on it took longer than I had hoped it would.
We are making progress on a variety of projects, but we are keenly aware
of time passing. We hope that you are having a productive and relaxing
summer.
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University Webserver
The old Bigcat has been replaced with a new Bigcat. Bigcat hosts the
official FHSU web pages and handles a lot of Internet traffic. We
have replaced the DEC Alpha, single processor machine, with an IBM RS/6000
dual processor system. The new system is handling the many hits with
relative ease. The DEC Alpha will become a GIS server for use by
the Geosciences and other departments using GIS functions. We believe
that it will handle the large data sets well for those applications.
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Student Info Available
on the Web
The Application Programmers have created the links necessary to open
student mainframe data to the web. Students are now able to see their
data as it appears on the mainframe.
As with all access to computer systems, there is a tradeoff between security and access from the Internet. If the system is too complex, users will hesitate to use it. If it is too simple, security may be compromised. At this point, we are allowing students to access their data with a personal identification number and password. Students are encouraged to change their passwords when they first access the system.
For students who are concerned about security, they can choose not to
allow anyone (including themselves) to access the data from the web.
Over time, students will be able to view their demographic data and financial
information. They will be able to see their scholarship and financial
aid information, fees due, current address, holds, and other information.
We believe that students like real-time access to their grades, demographic
information, and financial information. In the future, we wish to
make it easier for virtual college students to interface with our systems
also.
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Media Checkout Services
Media Checkout has moved from the Library to the CTC. By virtue
of an Action Plan, we have added two laptops, two LCD projectors, a digital
camera, and an 8 mm camcorder to the media checkout pool. To reserve
equipment come to the CTC HelpDesk (Tomanek Hall, Room 113), call
5521
or send a note to mediaequip@tiger.fhsu.edu.
If you need equipment, please reserve it in advance so that we can be
sure to have it ready for you. The Endeavor Voyager (library) system
has a module that should assist us in reserving equipment. If it
all works as advertised, you should be able to look on the web to see what
is checked out. See related article, Media Equipment
Checkout, on page 3.
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Tape Conversion
The Operations staff has converted CTC reel-to-reel tapes to cartridges.
We plan to phase out the old reel-to-reel tape drives. If any of
you have data on older style tapes and you want the data converted to the
cartridge format, please let us know. Some of you may have statistical
data on the older format and you need it archived on the new cartridges.
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System Management
Services - (SMS)
By the time you read this newsletter, the microcomputer staff will
be installing SMS and checking for some Y2K issues across campus.
When it is fully implemented the system will allow us to do software upgrades
from the server and to help users by running diagnostics from the CTC.
For now, the staff is installing the SMS client, creating the campus
wide database, checking for Y2K problems and simplifying printer management.
See related article, Coming to You Soon: SMS,
on page 2.
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Workflow
Mike Lacy and John Kaba are putting the finishing touches
on a Lotus Notes on-line travel request form. When that is complete,
you will be able to handle travel requests electronically; as supervisors
give their approval, the person making the request is notified. In
that way, the person making the request knows when the approvals are given.
If someone is out of the office and the approval is not granted in a timely
way, the requester knows where to start troubleshooting the process.
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Lotus Notes R5
Later this summer, the newest version of Lotus Notes should be installed
on the server. We have been lead to believe that response times should
be improved. There is a new client available for R5, but our existing
(4.6) clients should work fine with the new system.
After we test our current applications to be sure that they work with
this system, the new clients will be made available. We have not
yet received the R5 Mac client, but we have been told that it should improve
functionality for the Mac.
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Lotus SameTime
CTELT has purchased the new Lotus SameTime product through an Action
Plan. We will assist in configuring the new NT server for this real-time
product. Lotus has been criticized for not having a real-time component
on LearningSpace, so they have provided this additional functionality.
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Provost's Action
for PCs
As of this writing, we have not yet received the PCs ordered for the
Provost's Action Plan. Because approximately 100 PCs were ordered,
it will take us a little time to configure them and deliver them to designated
faculty and staff. By going out for bid to several companies,
we were able to get a standard PC for a little over $1,000, and that permitted
us to purchase several additional machines and 17" monitors.
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Reminder to All LN Users . . .
"Junk" E-mail & Group Mailings
"Unwanted" E-mail is, of course, a matter of one's perspective.
If you are looking for a house and you receive E-mail advertising a house,
for you that is quite valuable information; however, for the other 99.9%
of users it is unwanted.
On the other hand, the State has policies against using state-funded resources for personal use. I can attest that when questionable E-mail is sent across Lotus Notes, the CTC staff hears about it from the faculty and staff who have received that questionable E-mail. I hear State folks talking about policies concerning the use of E-mail at Information Technology Advisory Board meetings.
We attempt to keep spam off E-mail by providing a public space for "advertising." There is a Bulletin Board on Lotus Notes that users should consider using for advertising items for sale, rent, want to rent/buy, or give away; however, it is for FHSU use only -- not commercial ads. In addition, LN users are asked to please not use their LN work accounts for non-work related E-mail, which includes but is not limited to advertising, spamming, virus and hoax prank notes, get-rich-quick schemes, chain letters, etc.
We have created the faculty, staff, and allusers groups in the LN FHSU
Address Book on NotesHub for your convenience. All LN users should
be considerate when using any of these large groups for mass mailings.
If this privilege is abused, the offending IDs may be revoked.
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Lotus Notes Bulletin
Board Policy
The Buy/Sell/Trade database on Lotus Notes is frequently used by many
at Fort Hays State University. We want to encourage use of this electronic
bulletin board; however, it is NOT intended for commercial use. Please
do not post entries to the Lotus Notes Bulletin Board that advertise items
for businesses or any other kind of commercial enterprise.
If you need help using the Buy/Sell/Trade database or have questions
about an item that you'd like to post, contact us at 4031 or 5819.
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Unauthorized Use
of LN E-mail
We have a number of student employees from various offices across campus
who are on Lotus Notes. Their LN accounts have been set up for business
or office purposes ONLY and NOT student purposes. Each
student also has a student account on Scatcat that can be used for non-office
related business.
Student employees are asked to please not use their LN work accounts
for non-work related mail. This practice only clutters the server
and uses up valuable resources. If you have student workers on LN
in your area, please advise them about this policy. If this privilege
is abused, the offending IDs may be revoked.
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Attend CHECK Conference
On May 20 and 21, Dave Schmidt, Daryl Carswell, Larry Rupp, Jackie
Leikam, Vaudene Hiller, Nancy Geier, Jack Jackson, and Chad Dague attended
the annual CHECK (Conference on Higher Educational Computing in Kansas)
Conference at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS.
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Attend Lotus Notes
Workshop
Mike Lacy and John Kaba attended a Lotus Notes Application
Development 2 workshop in Overland Park, KS June 7 through 10. Some
of the topics covered included basic application development and writing
applications with the @ formulas. They will attend a Lotus Notes
R5 update workshop in July to prepare for our upcoming migration to Lotus
Notes Release 5.
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Attends DevCon
99 Conference
Mark Griffin attended the DevCon 99 Conference in Denver, CO
from June 21 through 25.
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Congratulations
Gary Hoffman, Microcomputer System Support Technician, has passed
the Microsoft NT 4.0 Server Test.
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CTC Staff Offices
Move
Jesse Jacobs, Statistical Consultant, has moved his office
from TH113 to TH185. His new phone number is 5688.
Jack Jackson, Mediated Classroom Support, has moved his office to TH145; his phone 5841 remains the same.
Chad Dague, Programmer/Analyst, has moved his office to TH175; his phone 5971 remains the same.
Please make a note of these changes in your FHSU Campus Directory.
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Coming to You Soon:
SMS
by Cheryl Helget, Network Administrator
With the growth of networked devices on campus to the point of a networked PC existing on every office desktop, support and management of those networked devices has become quite challenging. The Computing and Telecommunication Center (CTC) was awarded funding through the action plan process to implement an information management system to help us meet those technical and management challenges.
The number of locally networked devices that the CTC supports is estimated to be 1500. In order that we may better serve the large number of networked users, we have purchased and have begun to implement Microsoft's Systems Management Server (SMS) software.
Systems Management Server provides support and troubleshooting components, asset management, as well as network analysis, and automates our change and configuration management tasks. For SMS to help us maximize our support resources, the client side of SMS must be installed on every desktop that the CTC supports. The client portion of SMS takes approximately 5 M of disk space, and will require all users to log into a single domain. For those of you that are not familiar with logging into a domain, a domain is simply a logical boundary for resource management and use (resources being files, printers, served applications, etc.). Users will log into the FHSU domain, which is the SMS domain serving as a master domain to other domains that are serving as resource domains, such as FLO.
A server called a domain controller will authenticate the logon and will record and update information about the client computer's hardware and software configuration in an SMS database. The information stored in the SMS database will be used for troubleshooting, planning and distributing new software installs and upgrades, tracking Y2K product compliance and a number of other administrative tasks.
Among the new support tools that will be available to CTC support personnel with the SMS rollout will be remote control of a troubled user's machine. When SMS is installed, a component that allows support personnel to take control of the user's keyboard and mouse will exist on the client machine.
For example, when a desktop user makes a trouble call to Micro Support in the CTC, Technical Support will have the option to request control of the user's machine. When the tech requests control of that user's machine, a dialogue box will pop up on the user's screen asking if that technician can have control of the desktop. If the user responds by clicking yes, then the technician will be able to make appropriate queries and/or changes to the machine's software or hardware configuration. While the technician has remote control of the desktop, an icon will appear in the user's desktop system tray indicating such. Please note that the technician can see EVERYTHING that is on the desktop just like they were sitting at that desktop location. Therefore, if you have information displayed on the screen that is highly confidential, you may want to close the confidential file or the application that is displaying the confidential information before the technician takes control of your machine. You will be able to watch everything the technician does to your machine while they are controlling the mouse and keyboard.
We have installed and are using SMS on the CTC client machines now. The next step is to roll out to the administrative offices' desktop machines, and then to the academic department machines that we support. You will be alerted as to when we will begin SMS client installation in your office. SMS client installation should require no more than 30 minutes to complete at each desktop location.
While installing SMS Client, we will also be making some network configuration changes in an effort to improve network communication, as well as making Office Y2K compliant, setting Win95 machines to 4-digit year and applying a Win95 Y2K patch file. We expect most installs to perform smoothly. However, we know too well how unique some users system configurations are. Please be aware that non-standard configurations may require additional time when installing SMS client.
After your machine has been reconfigured with the above changes, you will be logging into the FHSU domain with an ID identical to your Lotus Notes ID. Your initial domain password will be the last 4 digits of your social security number. At first logon, you will be asked to change your password. We prefer that you make the domain password identical to your Lotus Notes account password because we are moving towards a single ID and password for multiple application/resource access.
When the technician visits your machine to install SMS Client, you will be informed of the changes to your machine and your login process, including ID and password, if it is different from your current login process.
We are excited about the prospect of SMS significantly reducing the
time and complexity of maintaining and troubleshooting desktop configurations
and upgrading software. It will allow us to better serve our
campus users and the growing number of networked resources.
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Media Equipment
Checkout
by Jack Jackson, Mediated Classroom Support
Effective June 21, 1999, the media equipment available to faculty to checkout for instructional purposes has been moved from Forsyth Library to the CTC HelpDesk in Tomanek Hall 113. The Computing and Telecommunication Center will be responsible for maintaining, scheduling and checking out the equipment immediately.
We ask your patience during the move and transition. Until we finish developing the online reservation form, you may reserve equipment for your classes by calling 5521. If you already have equipment reserved for future use, that reservation will be transferred with the equipment but you are welcome to confirm the reservation by calling 5521.
We will have student help available to deliver and pickup equipment on campus during regular office hours. If scheduled in advance, equipment can also be picked up during the hours that the CTC HelpDesk is open. Summer hours are 8am to 10pm Monday through Thursday and 8am to noon on Friday. During the fall and spring semesters, additional hours will be available and will be announced later.
We have added some new equipment to the checkout pool (specifically, laptop computers, LCD projectors, and video cameras) and we would welcome feedback from faculty regarding future purchases that will aid in your instructional endeavors.
In the meantime, please contact Jack Jackson at jjackson@tiger.fhsu.edu
or phone at 5841 if you have any problems or suggestions on how
we may best serve you.
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CTC HelpDesk News
by Nancy Geier, CTC HelpDesk Supervisor
Summer 99 Internet Dial-Up Stats
For those of you who are interested, here are some statistics comparing
our current dial-up statistics with those of one year ago. Data used
to compute the average number of accounts in use was taken from June
1 through June 15 of 1998 and 1999.
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| Student Accounts - end of S99 |
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| Faculty/Staff Accounts |
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| Student Accounts |
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| Total # Accounts |
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| August 7 Student Accounts |
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| Avg # of Accounts in use each day |
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| % Total Accounts in use each day |
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It's turning out to be a busy summer for the dial-up system. We have already surpassed our "guesstimate" that we would have a 50% increase in the number of student accounts!
As of June 15, 1999, we have already signed up 53% more students than we did all summer in 1998. Also, considering that summer school began one week later this year than last year, we believe that a higher percentage of summer semester students signed up earlier during the semester this year than they did last year. In addition, a significantly higher number of people are using their accounts on a daily basis.
With the addition of 48 more modems to the dial-up pool during the Spring 1999 semester, we currently have sufficient capacity to take us through the summer semester and well into the fall. Overall system capacity use has been in the 40% to 60% range during the peak hours of operation, which occurs in the evening from about 6pm or 7pm until midnight. As always, we are constantly monitoring capacity availability in the dial-up system to plan for future expansion when it becomes necessary.
If you would like to view the Dial-Up Server Usage statistics, they
are now available on a web site that can be accessed from our home page
at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/.
Just click on the Troubleshooting and Statistics drop-down menu,
then choose Dial-Up Server Usage Statistics. The statistics are updated
hourly.
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Attention New Faculty
& Staff...
Here's how to apply for Internet service through FHSU
FHSU provides Internet service to faculty, staff, and students through "Internet Dial-Up" accounts. "Dial-up" is a process that enables you to use your computer's modem to connect to the Internet by 'dialing in' to FHSU's remote access server. By using telnet software, the connection also enables you to access the IBM mainframe and UNIX servers. There are some minimum system requirements a computer must meet in order to do dial-up.
If you are interested in applying for an account, just stop by the CTC HelpDesk (Tomanek Hall, Room 113) to complete an application. A photo ID is required. A consultant will provide instructions and 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.
For more information about Internet Dial-Up accounts or other services provided by the CTC HelpDesk, view our web site at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/ , call us at (785) 628-5276, send E-mail to helpdesk@tiger.fhsu.edu, or visit our office in Tomanek Hall, Room 113.
Welcome to Fort Hays - we hope you have a great summer!
Summer Dispatch
Window Hours
.
. . through September 6th
| Mon-Thurs | 7am --11pm |
| Friday | 7am -- 5pm |
| Weekends | CLOSED thru Sept. 5th |
| Labor Day | CLOSED (Sept. 6th) |
User Services News
by Viv Zimmerman, User Services
Important LN Calendar Option
It has been brought to our attention that some users are having problems
with meeting invitations being accidentally deleted from their Lotus Notes
calendar when they erase the original meeting invitation from their Inbox.
We recommend that users please check their calendar profile and make sure that they have the following option selected Remove Invitations from my Inbox after I respond to them. There should be an X in the box next to this option.
As a word of caution, if you do not have the above option selected, whenever you accept a meeting invitation from your Inbox, the entry will be posted on your LN calendar but the invitation will also remain in your Inbox. Then, if you delete the invitation from your Inbox, LN will also remove the calendar entry from your calendar.
Please set up this option so that LN will automatically remove meeting invitations from your Inbox after you respond to them; then LN will remove the invitation from your Inbox but will not remove the corresponding meeting entry from your Calendar view or Meetings folder. To set up this option, choose Actions, select Calendar Tools, and select Calendar Profile. Then scroll down and click Advanced Calendar Options and click on the box to the right of Remove Invitations from my Inbox after I respond to them and then click OK.
If you need assistance with setting up this option, contact the CTC
HelpDesk at 5276.
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Attention New Faculty
& Staff...
Here's how to request new IDs
It would be helpful if the departmental secretaries would send a Lotus Notes Request for Computing Services as soon as possible to request user IDs for Lotus Notes, CICS, Bigcat, or any other systems that are needed for any new faculty, staff, or student employees hired.
Please include the following information: name of employee, SSN, department, title, indicate whether the new employee is faculty, staff, or student employee, office location and office phone number.
On this request, also include the location of the computer that needs to have LN installed and any special instructions -- such as -- is this computer shared by several users? Computers shared by more than one user affect the way LN is set up and installed.
This would help us tremendously in processing your requests more efficiently.
Since our work load significantly increases with the beginning of the fall
semester, please do not wait until the last minute to send your request.
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Using LN Groups
Hint
Have you ever sent a note to a large group only to have all
of the names appear at the top of your note? More than likely, most
of you have probably received an occasional note displaying all of the
names at the top.
We have created the faculty, staff, and allusers groups in the Lotus Notes FHSU Address Book on NotesHub for your convenience. In order to use any of these groups, all that is necessary is to just key in the appropriate list name in the To: field of your memo. For example, if you wish to send a note to all of the faculty, just type the group name faculty in the To: field. Make sure there is a comma after each name or group listed because LN requires commas.
LN will automatically suppress the huge lists of recipients at the start of the memo when these FHSU public address book groups are used.
IMPORTANT HINT: Please do not copy the faculty, staff, or allusers groups from the FHSU’s Address Book on NotesHub to your own LN Personal Address Book. If you do copy these groups to your own LN Personal Address Book, the feature that suppresses the long list of recipients will be disabled and the names of all the recipients will display at the top of your note. In addition, any groups that you copy to your own LN Personal Address Book will not contain the current updates.
Also, remember to use the appropriate group(s) when sending notes.
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In this issue of the CTC Newsletter, we'd like to feature Cheryl Helget, CTC Network Administrator.
Cheryl has worked at FHSU for about 15 years. Prior to becoming a CTC Network Administrator, she worked in the Systems Programming area. Before coming to work at FHSU, Cheryl worked at CONOCO in Ponca City, Oklahoma as a programmer/analyst.
In 1982, she earned B.S. degrees double-majoring in Business Administration and Computer Information Systems. She has passed numerous Microsoft tests and is a Microsoft NT Certified Professional. She is currently working on her MBA at FHSU.
Cheryl and her husband John live in Ellis with their two children, Jordan, a freshman at Ellis High School and Paige, a 7th grader at Washington Elementary School.
In her spare time, Cheryl enjoys spending time with her family and friends and volunteering in her community. She has served on the USD 389 School Board for four years, and will continue serving another four years.
Have a safe summer!
©1999
Computing and Telecommunication Center
Fort Hays State University