Computing
and Telecommunication Center Newsletter
Summer 2005 |
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CTC
News and Other Bytes . . . |
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| From
Dave's Desk |
| by
Dr. David Schmidt, Director |
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The
University has launched a number of projects that may impact
you. A short list of the projects follows: WIFI buildout to
campus buildings, multi-year wireless laptop initiative, new
campus apartments (Stadium Place) availability, Blackboard
server in China, single sign on action plan, and a campus
portal programming initiative.
We
will try to keep the campus community apprised of these projects
as we move forward with them. We welcome your questions or
comments; send them to dschmidt@fhsu.edu
. back
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WIFI
Buildout |
A Physical
Plant-CTC team is installing a new wireless network across
campus so that users with WIFI devices can connect to the
Internet, connect to e-mail, and to other wireless LAN services.
James Helget, Jordan Munsch, and Mike
Schmidt from Physical Plant are building pathways,
stringing CAT-5 wire and fiber, and providing electrical
connections for new switches to be placed in the campus
buildings. We plan to provide good coverage and adequate
capacity in the campus buildings so that students, faculty,
staff, and visitors can connect to the wireless network.
Dan
Pfeifer is assisted by two capable students, Nolan
Banks (wireless switch specialist) and Jeremy
Arnold (wired switch specialist). We would like
to thank the INT program for providing well-trained students
for this project. This implementation is using the very
latest technology for WIFI, a combination of thin access
points managed by a new central wireless switch. Because
it is new, the staff is often working directly with Enterasys
(and Trapeze) engineers in this implementation. As of this
writing, wireless access points have been hung in Tomanek
and the wiring completed in Albertson.
If
you already have a laptop that logs into our wireless network,
your laptop should work well in Tomanek and Albertson. In
the new wireless network you will be able to use 802.11
a and g as well as b. As the new Enterprise Directory comes
on line with the Single Sign On project, we will move authentication
to the new Directory. back
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FHSU Portal |
We
have been working with the Portal Development Committee
on the upcoming portal. The Committee will sponsor a contest
with students to name the portal early in the fall. A Portal
"Look and Feel" committee has proposed a default
color scheme and format for the portal, and this was evaluated
at the last Portal Development Committee meeting. The portal
will be rolled out with a default color scheme, but there
are some user options for changing colors, channels, and
some formatting.
Behind the scenes
Chad Dague is working on converting the
current Student Web Services to the new portal environment,
Jackie Ruder is chairing the "Look
and Feel" committee and adding portlets, and Daryl
Carswell is completing the DB2 conversion project.
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The Single Sign On Action Plan project
is moving along nicely. Initially the project will use one
username and password to provide access to the University
Portal, student e-mail, and Blackboard. We users benefit because
we need remember only one username and password to access
these three services.
Students will receive the most benefit from this initially
because it will unify their three most used services. Students
are used to the following convention used by Scatcat and Samba:
first initial of first name, first initial of middle name,
and then last name (jhdoe). This convention will be continued
for single sign on. If there is no middle initial, there will
be an underscore in that space. If more than one person would
have the same user name, the user name will be incremented
by a number (jhdoe2).
Lotus Notes (LN) will not initially be included in the
single sign on project because Lotus Notes will make it
easier to do so in a future software release. All new campus
users to LN will use the same convention (jhdoe), and we
are investigating moving all users to this new convention.
The CTC staff are in the process of scrubbing the existing
names and passwords in the various systems to remove (or to
identify) conflicts. In addition, the staff will soon load
the schema into the Enterprise Directory to prepare it for
loading all of the names and passwords into its database.
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Stadium
Place |
There
are a number of big wiring projects scheduled for the year.
We are providing phone and data access in Stadium Place, so
at this time of writing those data lines are being terminated
and tested so they will be working when students move in to
the apartments. In addition to the wiring for the wireless
buildout project, second floor McCartney needs rewiring, and
the Student Union renovation will require new phone and data
wiring. back
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| Laptops |
The
Provost's Action plan order included a number of laptops and
quite a few tablet PCs. The tablets have a swivel so that
the user can type on the keyboard or they can cover the keyboard
with the screen and write directly on the screen.
The
Mobile Computing Project will be managed by Mike Barnett,
John Ross, and myself. We will look
forward to input from all of those using laptops and tablets
to help decide on what standards the University should adopt.
I think the tablets would have particular value to those departments
using special symbols (Math, Chemistry, Physics, etc.) because
students could write those symbols when taking notes. I think
that tablets are also good when grading papers because the
instructor can highlight various words and overlay the text
with written commentary. I have also heard that the tablets
work well (the pen) for image editing too. They do create
files that are larger than text files and those files will
fill up hard drives faster; however, the benefits may outweigh
these minor disadvantages. back
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| Blackboard
Server in China |
There
have been some communication bottlenecks in the Internet between
FHSU and China. The causes of the communication slowdown appear
to be in China. Our Blackboard server here has plenty of capacity
to handle the traffic, so that is not the problem. Reviewing
transmission speeds indicates the Internet traffic slows down
in China itself. We believe that placing a Blackboard server
in China (at SIAS) will help the response time in SIAS and
we hope it will also help the response time in other provinces
there. Dell will ship a server to China and FHSU will send
two people, Jeff Mayo from the CTC, and David
Renteria from CTELT, to set up the server and work
with staff there. We trust that this goodwill gesture will
be well received and also provide faster service there. back
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| Attend CHECK
Conference |
Dave
Schmidt, Dan Pfeifer, Tom Webb, Mark Griffin, Mike Lacy, Mike
Nease, Jane Rajewski, Daryl Carswell, Larry Rupp, Derek Johnson,
Jeff Mayo, and Chad Dague attended
the CHECK (Conference on Higher Education Computing in Kansas)
Conference at Washburn University in Topeka, KS on June 20
and 21st. This year the conference was co-hosted by Washburn
University and FHSU. Several members of the FHSU group participated
in Round Table discussions on various topics. back
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| Attend Titan
Training |
Cheryl
Helget
and Mark Griffin of the CTC attended Titan
training in Lawrence, KS the week of July 25. They learned
how to program and delegate Titan Activities to be used across
various platforms.
Titan
is a product that will allow us to automate and delegate tasks
that the IT staff perform every day such as creating IDs,
adding users to groups, and authorizing a user to use an application.
In addition, Titan will facilitate acheiving the single sign-on
goal that we want to accomplish across the various applications
and platforms that we have in use on campus. It will allow
us to automate many of the tasks that we perform by executing
instruction sets bundled into what Titan refers to as an "Activity".
Once an activity is created, we will be able to assign the
task, or set of tasks, that the Activity performs to non-technical
staff, such as office staff, who will be designated as authorized
Titan users. It could possibly empower our user community
to perform the task of adding a new faculty or staff member,
or student user, to one or more of the myriad of systems for
which we provide access. back
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Information
Center News
by Jane Rajewski, Manager |
CICS
Logon Problems |
After several incorrect password attempts at logging onto
CICS, your ID is disabled. Before you can logon, you'll need
to have it reset. Please contact Jane Rajewski at
5819. back
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CICS
Error Message |
If
you get the message SUSPENDED INVALID ATTEMPTS LIMIT REACHED
when attempting to logon to CICS, contact Jane Rajewski
at 5819. back
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CICS
Security |
If
you need additional security for CICS or if you are having
problems with your current CICS security, contact Jane
Rajewski at 5819. back
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CICS Password
Changes |
Having
a protected password is essential to the security of the information
that you have on your account and the protection and privacy
of the information that you may have access to on CICS. We
encourage you to periodically change your Lotus Notes and
CICS passwords. If at any time you feel that your CICS password
may have been jeopardized or would like to have it changed,
please e-mail Jane Rajewski at jrajewsk@fhsu.edu.
Include in the note your CICS ID, current CICS password, and
what you would like to have for your new CICS password (up
to 8 characters). You will be notified via LN when to begin
using the new password.
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User Services
News
by Viv Zimmerman, User Services |
CTC Labs Hours |
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CTC Lab Hours |
| Mondays-Friday,
8/1 - 5 |
CLOSED |
| Monday
- Thursday, 8/8 - 26 |
8am
- 5pm |
| Monday
- Friday, 8/29 - 9/1 |
8am
- 10pm |
| Fridays
through 8/12 |
8am
- noon |
| Fridays
starting 8/19 |
8am
- 5pm |
| Weekends
through 9/4 |
CLOSED |
| Labor
Day, 9/5 |
CLOSED |
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| Regular
fall hours resume, Tuesday, September 6th! |
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Fall
CTC Regular Lab Hours |
| (Effective
Sept 6, 2005) |
| Mondays-Thursdays |
8am
- 10pm |
| Fridays |
8am
- 5pm |
| Saturdays |
1pm
- 5pm |
| Sundays |
3pm
- 10pm |
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LN 5.0 Hints
& Tips . . . |
LN CTC RCS Forms |
Computing
and Telecommunication Center (CTC), we have an on-line form
that make this task easy. A CTC Request for Services must
be submitted for any kind of services from the Computing
and Telecommunication Center. To submit a request to the
CTC, do the following:
* Select
the Favorite Bookmarks folder and choose
CTC Request for Services.
* Click
on the appropriate CTC section button (Information
Center, Network and Servers, Intermedia Classroom Support,
Applications Development, Microcomputer Services, Telecommunication
Services, or Systems Services) - each section
lists different services for that particular section. Click
on the section name and an electronic form will
appear on the screen. Requests for Telephone Service may
be submitted by following the instructions in the next article
Requesting Telephone Services.
* Fill
in the blanks on the electronic form; be as specific
as possible.
* When
finished entering all of the information on the electronic
form, click on the Submit button to send
the request to the CTC for approval. Please submit your
request at least three working days or more
before the desired completion date (completion date may
vary depending on workload). Indicate the program number,
any desired options or special instructions, the number
of copies needed, and paper type. You will be notified through
LN mail when the job is completed.
Call
Viv at 4031 or Jane
at 5819 if you need assistance submitting
your request. back
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Requesting
Telephone Services
Requests
may be submitted electronically through Lotus Notes on the
Telecomm Request for Services on LNapps form. Select
the appropriate option and then an electronic form will appear
on the screen. Fill in the blanks; be as
specific as possible. Click on the Submit
button to submit the request to the CTC for approval. The
CTC staff will schedule it.
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 e-mail
us directly at twebb@fhsu.edu,
brajewsk@fhsu.edu,
or dsilkman@fhsu.edu
or call (Tom at 4488, Darren
at 5999, or Bob at 5997).
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Check/Update
LN FHSU Address Book Entry |
If you haven't checked your entry in the
LN FHSU Address book lately, please take a few minutes to
do so. Click on the Work/Home tab and make sure that
the Location field contains your correct
office location (Ex. TH101) and that the Office Phone
field contains your correct office phone number (Ex (785)
628-4235) and that the Office Number field
contains the spelled out address (Example: Tomanek Hall 101).
Most of the information in the FHSU Address Book is correct;
however, occasionally someone moves to another office and
forgets to change this information. Many LN users utilize
the LN FHSU Address Book for finding phone numbers and we
would like to keep this information as current as possible.
Thank you for your prompt assistance in ensuring that this
information is correct. If you need assistance updating your
information, contact Viv at 4031.
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Account
/ ID Maintenance |
With
the end of the summer semester, it is important that you
notify Viv Zimmerman at vzimmerm@fhsu.edu
whenever faculty, staff, or student employees terminate
employment with your office so that we can remove their
IDs and update our mailing groups and security tables.
It
is imperative that all security is removed for those who
no longer work in your office. back
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| Change LN
Client Password |
It
is always a good idea to change your passwords periodically.
The Client password is the password that you use to logon
in your office. To change your LN Client password, choose
File - Security - User Security (if you are
a Mac user, choose Notes - Security - User Security). You
will be prompted to enter your current Client password. Click
Security Basics and click Change
Password under Your Login and Password Settings.
You will be prompted to enter your current Client password
again. In the Change Password dialog box, enter a
new Client password in the Enter new password field
and then enter it again in the Re-enter
new password field. Click OK.
If
you need assistance changing your LN Client password, check
the LN on-line Help menu or contact the CTC
HelpDesk at 5276. back
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| Change LN
Internet Password |
It
is also a good idea to change your LN Internet password periodically.
The LN Internet password is the password that you use when
accessing LN through the Web. If you have not changed your
LN Internet password for some time or if you are still using
the last four numbers of your SSN, it might be a good idea
to change it now.
To
change your LN Internet password, find and edit your
entry in the LN FHSU Address Book. Highlight
the Internet Password field to replace the entire
entry and enter a new password. Click Save
and Close and it will encrypt and change your password
upon closing.
If
you need assistance changing your password, check the LN on-line
Help menu or contact the CTC HelpDesk at 5276. back
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CTC Training
Schedule on Web |
On
the CTC web page, we have the workshop schedule and a description
of the workshops that we are offering. You may access the
training schedule by clicking on the Faculty/Staff
Training link from the navigation bar on any CTC web page.
This page offers a description of all of the workshops offered
by the CTC. Click on the schedule
link to see a calendar with the current month's training.
Contact Viv Zimmerman at 4031
or e-mail her at vzimmerm@fhsu.edu
if you have questions or to sign up for a workshop. back
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Guest Article
. . .
by
Suzanne Klaus, FHSU Web Site Manager |
FHSU Web Site
New Features
|
In the past few months, we have added some great features
to the FHSU Web site.
One major feature I will talk about is the new Master Calendar.
You can view it at http://www.fhsu.edu/calendar/.
My plan is for this calendar to replace all other calendars
on the Web site (except the Memorial Union and Beach/Schmidt
calendars that we will link with this calendar. I know that
for some departments this may not seem like a good idea.
Hopefully you will agree that it is a great idea after considering
the following information.
First of all, anyone can post an item. Once the item is
submitted, it goes to a specified departmental approver.
This can be the director or chair, the administrative assistant
or secretary or a faculty member. That decision is up to
the department. Once that person approves it, one of two
things will happen. If the person who submitted it chose
to have it published, it would then go to me so that I could
give it to our news department. If no publicity is necessary,
the item would automatically appear on the calendar after
it was approved.
The entire calendar is searchable by event or subject,
building or room, department, and date. That is its greatest
feature and that is the reason I feel it can easily replace
all other calendars on our Web site now. This would simplify
things for our users in that they would have only one place
to go to find FHSU events.
One other great feature is that it is also open for student
organizations to use. I have set up the advisors as approvers
for each organization. Again, anyone can submit an event,
but it won't appear on the calendar until it has been approved.
To
use the calendar, you simply go to the URL above and create
an account. Then you are ready to post events. If you want
to use the calendar, but need assistance in getting started,
please let me know. My number is 628-5520;
e-mail address is sklaus@fhsu.edu.
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FHSU Blog Site |
Another
feature we have added is a blog site found at http://www.fhsu.edu/blogcat/.
We are still tweaking it and probably will continue to as
time goes on. Here again, you would create an account and
then start blogging. You can find the help section under
the forums.
I was
asked about rules and regulations for using the FHSU blogcat.
I would, of course, expect everyone to follow the Acceptable
Use of Computing Resources Policy guidelines as set up by
the FHSU Computing and Telecommunication Center. You can
find them at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/acceptable.shtml. Also,
the site is open to all FHSU faculty, staff and students,
but I will monitor it regularly for "problems;"
although since you are all professionals, I don't expect
any.
We
created both of these features for your use and convenience;
so I hope you will use them. As always, please let me know
if you have any problems or beneficial suggestions.
So,
if anyone has questions about this, please contact me at
sklaus@fhsu.edu or
contact Suzanne at 5520.
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CTC HelpDesk
News
by Nancy Cunningham, HelpDesk Supervisor
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FHSU
Recommendations for New Computer Purchase |
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Save $$$!! Buy
Microsoft Products through FHSU's Online Software Center! |
Fort
Hays State University has partnered with e-academy to provide
an online Software Center for sales of Microsoft
products available on our Student Select and Work-At-Home
licensing agreements. We are excited to be able to provide
these software products to our students, faculty, and staff
at volume discount prices. This partnership
has enabled us to expand our software offerings and provides
a convenient online purchase process.
The
prices (including shipping) for most products are in the $60
- $80 range for students (license included) and in the $15
- $25 range for faculty and staff (license not included).
The Work-At-Home products are made available to faculty and
staff under Fort Hays State University's campus license agreement;
therefore faculty and staff may purchase the media only, without
a license. Currently employed faculty and staff who are covered
under FHSU's campus license agreement are eligible to make
purchases.
Plan
Ahead. If you wish to order products from the Software
Center, please plan ahead to allow up to one week for shipping
time. Purchases can be made using a credit card or any debit
card that uses a regular credit card number, such as the Visa
Checkcard. Tiger Card holders with a Commerce Bank account
may apply for a Visa Checkcard by visiting Commerce Bank.
For
More Information: For answers to eligibility, login,
and other frequently asked questions, please view our Software
Center information web page at http://www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/software_center.shtml
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CTC
HelpDesk Hours |
Summer Interim
Hours (Effective July 31 through August 21,
2005 ) |
| Mondays
- Thursdays |
8am
to 5pm |
| Fridays,
through 8/12/05 |
8am
to noon |
| Fridays,
starting 8/19/05 |
8am
- 5pm |
| Weekends |
CLOSED |
|
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Fall
Semester Hours (Effective August 22, 2005) |
| Mondays
- Thursdays |
8am
- 9pm |
| Fridays |
8am
- 5pm |
| Saturdays |
CLOSED |
| Sundays,
through 9/4/05 |
CLOSED |
| Sundays,
starting 9/11/05 |
6pm
- 9pm |
| Independence
Day, July 5 |
CLOSED |
|
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Office
hours are subject to change and may be adjusted due to semester
breaks or changes in demand. They are posted outside our office
(TH113) and may be viewed at www.fhsu.edu/ctc/helpdesk/.
You may also contact the CTC HelpDesk by calling (785)
628-5276 or by sending e-mail to helpdesk@fhsu.edu.
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| Contact
Viv Zimmerman with any
questions or comments concerning this web page. |
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| This
page was designed by Viv Zimmerman. |
| Updated
08/18/05. |
