• EagleNet/SharePoint will be down for maintenance starting at 7:00 am. This outage will last for approximately two hours. Department sites, MySites, and the UMW Reporting Center will be unavailable. Users will still be able to access Banner during this time.
• Wireless service will experience interruptions between 10:00 am and Noon.  VPN service may also experience periodic interruptions during this time.

For status updates you may visit technology.umw.edu or twitter.com/umwIT. Thank you for your patience.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you have any questions please contact the IT Help Desk at 654-2255 or helpdesk@umw.edu.

On Wednesday March 28, Acting CIO Justin Webb and IT Project Coordinator Sean O’Brien met with Student Senate to discuss technology issues.  Here is some information in follow-up.

Wireless Access:

We are currently completing a wireless upgrade in academic and student services buildings. More details can be found at: http://technology.umw.edu/projects-and-initiatives/campus-wireless-upgrade/

Instructions to connect to the secured network are located along the left sidebar at: http://technology.umw.edu/connecting/connecting-my-laptop/connecting-to-the-secured-network/

Users need up-to-date virus protection to access the Secured network.  Information on free anti-virus is located below.  Students should know that the secured network provides increased performance and security as compared to the unsecured (guest) network.

In response to concerns raised about connectivity within different parts of the same building / dropped connections, we have changed the wireless timeout on the secured network.  Initial testing has shown that this has improved user experience for those using iPhones and iPads when changing locations or issues due to short periods of inactivity.

Tools:

“Stuff for starving students” is maintained by the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and focuses on free tools. http://stuffforstarvingstudents.umwblogs.org/

For Anti-virus we recommend AVG (as does Apogee), available here: http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download

Download.com provides many options for free anti-virus and other security software.  Here is a list of free security software sorted by C-Net editors rating:

http://download.cnet.com/windows/security-software/3150-2023_4-0.html?filter=licenseName%3D%22Free%22%7C&filterName=facetName%5BsearchFacet.Name.value%5D%3DFree%7C

Apogee Issues:

Students are encouraged to contact Apogee with issues they encounter.  For questions on connecting to the Internet or TV issues – contact Apogee at 540-654-2255 (option 1).

We have contacted Apogee about issues with channel 4 and wireless connectivity in Ball Hall.  Responses received indicated that there has been an issue with Channel 4 due to an antenna problem, but that has since been corrected.  For Ball Hall, that residence hall is scheduled to receive a total wireless upgrade Apogee is doing in the residence halls.  However, if there are specific signal issues, Apogee can do a rapid deployment of a wireless access point – open a ticket with them, as appropriate, through the 2255 number.

Communication:

DoIT has recently started using Twitter in an effort to push out updates to the campus community in a more synchronous way.  You can follow us by visiting: https://twitter.com/#!/umwIT

We will also be creating a webpage on our site geared towards resources and help available to students.  That page will be posted on http://technology.umw.edu/info and through Twitter once it is available.

Connectivity has been reestablished with the Stafford Campus, so systems appear to be functioning once again.  However, Verizon reports to us that the work on our connection between campuses is ongoing, and that the connection may go up and down as they work to finalize repairs.

We will update the community as we get more information on this issue.

UMW IT and other reputable organizations will never ask you to confirm your account information through email.

Users who give out account information via email allow spammers and/or criminals to access their accounts either to send additional SPAM through our email system to internal and external users or access the content of your mailbox.  This is a serious security concern.  Furthermore, external email providers may elect to blacklist the umw.edu domain preventing email messages to be sent to or received from external senders including students.  Mailboxes that are used to send SPAM will be immediately suspended and users will be contacted so we can work to properly secure the account.

Below is additional information on what we are doing and what you can do to protect the UMW email system.

Here’s how we protect you:

• SPAM filtering. UMW IT utilizes a robust industry-standard SPAM filtering utility. While the SPAM filter or junk mail settings may occasionally catch legitimate email, they block email that can compromise your account and computer.  We typically block over 80 percent of incoming email messages as spam per day.
• Password reset requirement. Our additional password requirements help to safeguard your account.  For more information on setting a secure password please visit: http://technology.umw.edu/information-security/passwords/
• Anti-virus, security awareness training, and SPAM/Phishing alerts. These are designed to keep your computer secure and you informed.

Here’s how you can protect yourself:

• Verify that emails are from a trusted sender.  Do not reply to emails from unknown senders that ask for personal information or attempt to get you to click a link.  Do not click on links from unknown senders.
• Allow your anti-virus updates to run.  This is the last line of protection for your computer.  Run full and quick scans on your PC using the installed Symantec Anti-Virus program.  If you need assistance, please contact the Help Desk  at HelpDesk@umw.edu or (540) 654-2255
• Report suspicious emails. Suspicious emails or concerns about your account being compromised should be reported immediately to it-abuse@umw.edu.

Phone is frozen or displaying “configuring ip”

If your VoIP phone is not working this morning try unplugging the Ethernet cord from the back of the phone for 10 seconds then plug back in. The cable needs to be unplugged and replugged from the jack labeled “10/100 SW”.

Your phone should reset.  This could take up to ten minutes.

Unable to access voicemail

Please see the campus-wide emails that were sent about this issue.

Changing your pin

Once you have accessed your mailbox select ”set up options – option 4″, then select “preferences – options 3″, finally select “change pin – option 1″.  Your new pin is required to be six digits long.  This is an enhanced safety feature.  Your pin cannot contain your directory extension.

Other issues

Please contact the Help Desk at 540-654-2255 or helpdesk@umw.edu