INSIDE

From Dave’s Desk

Recognition
FHSU and Student Web Services were  featured in IBM’s September 1999 S/390 VM and VSE Solutions Journal that goes out to many businesses and universities throughout the world.  SWS uses a product from Data 21 called IpServer that helps provide secure transactions for mainframe data using web browsers.

FHSU was the first university to use this product successfully.  Data 21 was breaking new ground in using an NT server to provide a secure connection to the mainframe data.  The IpServer product was purchased to help our programming staff with CGI programming necessary for web access and COBOL programming necessary to access the live mainframe data.

Chad Dague, Programmer Analyst, and Daryl Carswell, Applications Programming Manager, have worked with Data 21 to make this happen, and they deserve a lot of credit.  Pat Mahon, Registrar, and others have helped set priorities and have given valuable input on security and design issues.  We are pleased that IBM chose to feature FHSU.
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Y2K Desktop
Some of you have expressed concern about Y2K issues on your desktop machines.  We do not believe that there is any crisis involving Y2K for desktop machines, but there may be some inconveniences nevertheless.

The Microcomputer staff are doing some basic Y2K testing across campus.  They have tested most PCs in Rarick Hall and Davis Hall.  They have also updated machines in the Business Office, Office of Financial Aid, and Student Fiscal Services.  Martin Allen Hall and Tomanek Hall are scheduled for the next round.

The staff are checking and updating the BIOS manually as necessary, checking the operating systems and MS Office, and installing patches, and bringing the virus protection software up-to-date.

Note that this procedure does not check other software packages that you might have on your machine.  You might be using some Lotus spreadsheets, Corel software, or other products that are not part of this checkup.  If you are concerned about other products, you can go to the company web sites for more information.  Often, the major companies will provide software patches for their software.  If you have questions about how to update your software using those patches please contact the Microcomputer staff at 4021.
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Data Warehouse
An Action Plan from the Budget and Planning Office was funded supporting an Institutional Research position and Al Leiker, formerly of Koch Industries, was hired in October as Management Information Systems Coordinator.  In order to make institutional data available to Department Chairs, Deans, and others he is designing a data warehouse.  A data warehouse will house official 20th day enrollment information, current student information, and historical data as well.

Al Leiker and Daryl Carswell are identifying the data that is to be archived and the data that should be made available daily.  We have some data that dates back to the late 70's, and we have been concerned about preserving that data in a retrievable format.  Over time programs and operating systems change;  at some point it may be hard to access the old data.  The mainframe data is contained in a variety of hierarchical VSAM and DL/1 databases.  The data warehouse will repackage the data into a relational database format.  Getting it in relational form is key because there are a lot of productivity tools that make use of relational data.   Once the data has been cleansed and put in relational form, we expect that departments will be able to do longitudinal studies using this historical data and look at selected current data daily.

In designing a data warehouse hardware and software platform, we are working with Al to identify disk space needs, processor capacity, and software requirements.  Currently, we plan to put the relational database on an NT platform.  Many productivity tools work well with databases running on NT, and we believe that we can scale the platform to last for some time.  The data will be updated on the warehouse from the mainframe on a regular basis - some data will be fed to it daily.

The initial stages of this project involve defining a logical structure for the data and then populating tables of the relational database with that data.  Eventually software tools will be identified and purchased that will reside on departmental PCs that should make queries relatively painless.  We hope to make it as easy as possible for users to access meaningful data.  Some tools let the users access pre-built queries and also build queries by pointing and clicking from a menu of fields.  At some point, data will be accessible using web browsers to address the needs of the more casual users.
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Mediated Classroom Hearings
In about a year roughly half of all classrooms will have been mediated.  The ITPAC (Instructional Technology Policy Advisory Committee) has been charged with holding faculty hearings and providing input on further mediation.

Summarizing the input so far (from E-mail, a faculty survey, and hearings) it is safe to say that most faculty members, department chairs, and deans favor further mediation.  Most say that once a faculty member has taken the time to create a lot of media for a course, the faculty member wants access to a mediated classroom the next time that he or she teaches that course.  Most want at least a projector in each classroom.  Many favor a smaller bunker and additional flexibility in the classrooms.  Beyond that, there are a number of options to be explored:  using Mac laptops is an alternative, checking out some of the less used equipment, employing mediated carts in some settings, and others.

We expect some strategies to be proposed after the hearings are completed and ITPAC has a chance to discuss the issues further.
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Lotus Notes
Lotus Notes R5 is getting more stable on the server, and Mark Griffin, Unix Support/Network Administrator, has taken some measures to tune it a bit.  Viv Zimmerman, User Services, is working on documentation for the R5 client because the change from Notes 4.6 to Notes 5.0 is a relatively large change.  Lotus has tried to make it more web-like while keeping some of the good features of previous versions.  Mark is working out the details of installing R5 over the network; however, there are some details to be worked out yet.
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LN Minimum System Requirements
Microsoft has the reputation of writing bloated code.  I do not know if we should consider the Lotus Notes product bloated but it requires some horsepower to run.   We estimate that perhaps 25% of the campus machines may need to upgrade their memory, operating system, or hard drive to run LN R5.

Lotus recommends that PCs have at least 32MB of RAM in order to run Notes R5 (and other programs), and 69 - 110MB hard drive space, and at least Windows 95 or NT 4.0.  The current version of the Notes client takes roughly 45MB, so R5 will take an additional 24 - 65MB.  You might check your PCs to see if you are Notes-ready.

The good news for Mac users is that there is a good client for the Mac.  The bad news is that it is a memory hog.  Some beta testers report that they need 128MB of RAM to run comfortably.

If your computer does not have these minimum specifications, you might think about upgrading it so your transition to LN R5 is smooth.
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Congratulations
Congratulations to Gary Hoffman, Microcomputer Support Technician, who recently passed the Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Windows NT Server in the Enterprise test and the Internetworking with Microsoft TCP/IP on Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 test.  He has now completed the core requirements to becoming a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.  He only needs one more elective to become an MCSE.  We are proud of Gary and his accomplishments and are pleased to have him as a member of the CTC.
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New Disk Drive and Tape Units
by Michael Lacy, Mgr., Systems Programming

We recently upgraded our mainframe disk drives from 1980's to 1990's technology.  We removed the big and bulky 3390 disk drives and replaced them with the smaller and energy saving Ramac disk drives.  We cleared 200 square feet of computer room space, were able to shut off one of our air conditioners as the new unit puts out much less heat, and added 42 more gigabytes of storage.

Another feature of the new disk drives is that they are Raid-5 drives, which means they can recover data when they detect an error.  The Ramac drives will pay for themselves in less than a year by reducing the service and energy costs.

We will also add two more tape cartridge drives to speed up the nightly backups.  We decided to do this since we need to save processing time during the third shift (10pm - 6am).  We are also going to attach more channels to the tape drives to make things even faster.
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Lotus Notes Applications
We have developed and implemented about 20 different applications.  Currently, most of the In-State and Out-of-State travel requests are being processed through Lotus Notes.  We’ve had a few bumpy times but hopefully all is smooth sailing from here.

We plan to release the Travel Payment and APO applications in the near future.  We are currenty testing the following applications: Encumbrance, Prior Authorization, Request for Payment and Disclosure, Telephone Quotes, Alumni Requests, CICS Security Authorizations, and the Virtual College Course approval form.

Our goal with most of these applications is to reduce the paper flow and shorten the time for approval.
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Information Center News
by Jane Rajewski, Manager

CICS Hours Extended

The CICS Administrative Systems and Student Web Services (SWS) are now available from 6am until 10pm Monday through Thursday and from 6am until 5pm on Friday.  CICS will be up and running unattended on weekends after 2am on Saturday.

When Using LN Groups. . .
by Viv Zimmerman, User Services

If you’d like to send a LN note using the faculty, staff, or allusers groups, just put faculty, staff, or allusers on the To: line in your note.  LN will automatically suppress the long list of names from appearing in your note.

Please target the appropriate group when sending out campus-wide notes.  Don’t send your note to allusers if it only pertains to faculty.  We do receive comments from users about why they receive certain notes that were obviously intended for a particular group only.

Need Assistance with Lotus Notes

If you encounter a problem when using Lotus Notes in your office and you still need assistance after you have checked your training manual, the Lotus Notes 4.5 for Dummies book, and the LN on-line Help, call the CTC HelpDesk at 5276.  One of the staff will help you and if they cannot take care of the problem, your call will be routed to the appropriate CTC staff member.

LN FHSU Address Book Info

All faculty and staff are responsible for entering their own Work, Home, and Company Information into the LN FHSU Address Book.  There are still quite a few users who have not entered this information into the address book.

The LN FHSU address book contains phone and office location information about each user on campus.  It is used as an on-line campus directory for looking up phone numbers, office locations, and other information.  That’s why it is important to have your information correct at all times.  Refer to page 11 of the CTC Beginning Lotus Notes Handbook for assistance in completing this task.  If you need assistance with this task, contact the CTC HelpDesk at 5276.

On-line Travel Training Completed

Darlene Schippers, Rachel Depenbusch, and Viv Zimmerman conducted training for the new On-Line Travel forms in the Lotus Notes system for In-State Travel Authorization and Out-of-State Travel Authorization this past month.  More than 80 participants attended.

This system is ONLY for secretarial staff or anyone who submits travel authorizations.   The training is mandatory for anyone who wishes to submit travel forms.  If you need assistance using this system, contact Darlene Schippers at 5900.  Also, contact Darlene if you want training; she will schedule a training session with you.

On-Line Travel Form Hint

When entering a new travel form, if the wrong title appears for anyone from your department, that person will need to correct the title information contained in his/her entry in the LN FHSU Address Book.

On the travel form, you may key over the incorrect title with the correct title; however, the incorrect title will continue to come up on future travel forms until it is changed in the LN FHSU Address Book.

All LN users need to keep their information current in the LN FHSU Address Book.

Reserving CTC Labs

Faculty or staff must submit a Request for Computing Services thru LN 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 TH125 has a seating capacity of 30 workstations and one workstation at the front desk (for the instructor) and TH123 has a seating capacity of 24 workstations and one workstation at the front desk (for the instructor). TH123 and TH125 are equipped with an overhead projector.  See the lab monitor on duty in TH127 to use the overhead or have assistance with any problems.

No food, drinks, or tobacco of any kind is allowed in any of the labs.  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.

OLR Training Completed

Luci Williams, LuAnn Pfeifer and Viv Zimmerman completed training for on-line registration from late October through November 1st.  Thirteen faculty completed the training.

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, 2000.
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.

On-Line Grade Entry Training

We are offering several sessions on the use of the Course System.  This system contains the course catalog and semester offerings for each course.  From this system, faculty may view their class rosters, enter grades, etc.  We will learn how to log onto CICS, enter grades, and use most of the inquiry functions.  You must have a CICS ID to attend this training.

We encourage new faculty who have never entered grades before to attend; however, you do not need to attend training to use this system but your security must be in place in order for you to use this system in your office.

Choose one of the following:

#1 12/2 3:00pm -  4:00pm TH107
#2 12/7 9:00am - 10:00am TH107
#3 12/8 2:30pm -   3:30pm TH107

To sign up, send a note to vzimmerm@fhsu.edu hsu.edu, call 4031, or leave a Voice Mail message.

Signing onto CICS

Here are the instructions for those of you who will be registering your advisees or entering your grades.  If you need assistance with this procedure, contact Viv at 4031 or Jane at 5819.
 

Logon CICS:

*  From the Windows 95 Menu,  double-click on QWS3270.
*  See the FHSU tiger screen and tab to the Command line.
*  Enter mis in lower case.  See the Multiterm Menu.
*  Enter 3 at selection to logon to CICS.
*  Enter your CICS name and password - (last name space first initial).  See the FHSU CICS Menu.

You may work with whatever system(s) you have security for, usually Student, Course, or Transcript.

Print a Screen:

If you need to print a screen, for example, a student registration screen, do the following:
Click on Host and choose Print Screen.

Remember, you MUST be connected to a printer in order to print a screen!

Logoff CICS:

*  Press Alt F1 or PA1.
*  Enter 5 at selection -- the Multiterm Menu will still display after you press Enter.
*  Click on Host and select Close.
*  See message Do you really want to close your Telnet session?  Click on OK.
*  Click on Start in the lower left corner and choose Shutdown.
*  A box is already pre-selected for you to Shut down the computer.  Click on Yes.
*  Wait while your computer shuts down properly.  When you see the message It is now safe to turn off your computer, you may shut off your computer.  Do NOT shutoff the computer before you get this message.

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CTC HelpDesk News
by Nancy Geier, HelpDesk Supervisor

Virus Warnings:  What To Do???

At one time or another, you have probably been the recipient of a "Virus Warning" notice.  If so, you have probably wondered... What should I do?  Should I panic?  Should I pass this warning along to everyone I know (as the note probably suggests), or should I simply ignore the warning and delete it?

First of all, DON'T panic.  While some virus warnings may be legitimate, as a general rule, these notes are simply hoaxes.  While I do not profess to be an anti-virus expert, my personal experience has been that virtually all virus warnings I have received through the E-mail "grape vine" have been bogus (as verified through reputable sources).  Over the past several years, I can recall receiving only about 2 or 3 valid warnings, and those came from system administrators or other staff within the Computing and Telecommunication Center.  And, in each case, the warnings were also widely publicized through the news media (for example, the Melissa virus).

So, you ask, what should I do??  The U.S. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) web site at http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html provides some excellent advice.  It provides information on how to identify a hoax warning, how to identify a valid warning and what to do if you think a message is a hoax.  A quite useful feature of the site is a list of common virus hoaxes.  Two other reliable sites to check for identifying virus hoaxes are http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp and http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html .

If you receive a warning, do not circulate it without first checking with an authoritative source, such as one of the web sites given above or a system administrator.  In addition, most anti-virus companies publish web pages containing information about widely known viruses and hoaxes.  One key to identifying a possible hoax is that the warning usually urges you to pass it along to everyone you know.  As stated on the CIAC web site, "When in doubt, do not send it out to the world."

If you investigate a virus warning and feel that it may be legitimate, do not send it to everyone you know!  Instead, forward it to the CTC HelpDesk at helpdesk@fhsu.edu or to one of the system administrators in the CTC.  If the warning is legitimate, we will then take proper action to inform any users who may be at risk.

Armed with a little education about how to identify these bogus virus warnings, we can all help reduce the amount of "junk" mail circulating about on the web.

CTC HelpDesk & TH Lab Hours
Regular Fall 1999 Hours

Effective October 23, 1999, the CTC HelpDesk is now closed on Saturdays.  Hours for the Tomanek Hall Computer Labs have NOT changed.  The labs are open from noon to 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays.

Mon - Thurs 8am - 11pm
Fridays  8am -   6pm
Saturdays HelpDesk CLOSED
Saturdays Labs OPEN 12pm - 6pm
Sundays  1pm  -11pm
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Holiday Hours
Please keep in mind that we will be modifying our hours for the holiday season.  Office hours are subject to change.  They are posted outside our office (TH113) and may also be viewed from our home page.

Departures from the regular schedule are as follows:
Date  Hours
Nov. 23 & 24 8am -   5pm
Nov. 25 - 27 CLOSED
Nov. 28  6pm - 11pm
Nov. 29 - Dec. 14 Resume Fall 1999 reg. hrs.
Dec. 15 - 17 8am -   5pm
Dec. 18 & 19 CLOSED
Dec. 20 - 23 8am -   5pm
Dec. 24 - Jan. 2 CLOSED
Jan. 3 - 7  8am -   5pm
Jan. 8 & 9 CLOSED
Jan. 10 - 14 8am -   5pm
Jan. 15-17 CLOSED
Jan. 18  Begin Spring 2000 reg. hrs.

For more information, visit our web site at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/.  You may also contact us by calling (785) 628-5276 or by sending E-mail to helpdesk@fhsu.edu.
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Internet Dial-Up Statistics

For those of you who are interested, here are some statistics comparing use of the Dial-Up service now to one year ago:
 
 

Activity	10/98	10/99	% Chg
# students accts	794	993	33%
#fac/staf accts	316	439	39%
Total # of accts	1065	1432	34%
Average # accts used per day	496	739	49%
# modems available	94	142	51%
Average total connect time (mins) per day	44,135	66,604	51%
Avg connect time (mins)	4,106	6,544	59%
Ave modem capacity use	72.8%	76.8%	6%
Avg connect time (mins) per login	29.55	30.16	2%

Internet Dial-Up access was established three years ago, in November 1996.  During the first two years of its existence, the system experienced explosive growth in demand.  While the increases over the past year are still quite impressive, it appears that the growth may be starting to level off.  From October 1, 1997 to October 1, 1998, there was a 70% increase in the total number of accounts.  Over the past year, there was a 34% increase.  For the purpose of comparison, the averages shown here were computed using a 15-day period from September 23 to October 7 of each year.  As of November 1, 1999, there were 1522 total accounts.

As a result of software upgrades implemented last spring, more detailed data is now available.  One difference in the calculations from 1998 to 1999 is that the peak hour per day is now identified as the hour with the highest average number of modems connected throughout the hour, rather than the hour in which the highest number of modems were connected.  Hourly connection data can be viewed at: http://www2.fhsu.edu/dialup/ .

During the Spring 1999 semester, the entire modem pool was upgraded to 56K V.90 standard to provide greater efficiency and performance.  A net increase of 48 modems was added to the system on March 31, 1999.  As the data indicate, demand has once again caught up with the available supply, with the increase in total connect time per day matching the increase in the number of modems available (51%).  During the busiest hours of operation (from 7 or 8 pm until midnight), we have been experiencing 95% - 99% usage quite frequently during the past few months.  In response to this continued increase in demand, we have once again requested funds through the action plan process to install additional modems.
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OOPS !! - Correction

In the September CTC Newsletter, we listed Michael Lacy as having graduated from FHSU in 1982 -- actually he graduated in 1975.

In the Spotlight

In this issue of the CTC Newsletter, we’d like to feature Lucretia Walton, Secretary.  Lu has worked at the CTC for almost 15 years.  Prior to coming to Hays, Lu worked as a data entry operator at Sverdrup & Parcel an engineering company in St. Louis, Missouri.  She then moved to Hays and started working as a data entry operator at the CTC until assuming secretarial duties.

Lu grew up in Lawton and Stillwater, Oklahoma.  While growing up, her dad was in the U.S. Army and she traveled with her parents.  She attended schools in Lawton, OK, Japan, Germany, and Stillwater, OK.

Lu lives in Hays.  She has one  son Larry.  He and his wife Pattie live in Belleville, Illinois and have two children, Rachel Ann, almost 6 and Nathaniel Isaac, age 2.

In her spare time Lu likes to bowl, walk, write poetry, and dance.  Some of her favorite web sites include: www.celebratejesus.org/ (The Celebration Church), www.afr.net/ (The American Family Radio), www.wwcol.com/angelart/ and www.geocities.com/heartland/pointe/4138/pow-mia.html .
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© 1999
Computing and Telecommunication Center
Fort Hays State University