Security Is Everyone’s Concern –

Free Computer Anti-virus Software from RUCS:

Rutgers has a site license agreement with Network Associates Inc., makers of McAfee Anti-virus products. All Rutgers faculty, staff and students may use the McAfee Total Virus Defense (TVD) suite of software, free of charge, on both University owned and privately owned computers. Protect your computer from virus attacks. Additional information on the available suite of products and how to download them is available at the Rutgers Site Licensing web page located at:

http://mssg.rutgers.edu/license/McAfee/default.htm

Virus Scanning:

Computing Services has started running a virus-scanning program, AMaViS (A Mail Virus Scanner), that scans all email received by the RUCS supported computer systems (email.clam, email.crab, clam and crab) for viruses. With recent outbreaks of computer viruses throughout the Internet, the Rutgers community should see immediate benefits from these efforts to protect the integrity of its email. This scanning resulted in blocking over 11,000 messages containing viruses in December alone. For additional information, contact our Help Desk.

Web-based Password Change: Change your password through the web. It is always a good practice to change your password regularly on an account (minimally, once a year). Naturally, in order to change your password you must know your password and then be ready to enter a new password. Visit this address for the service:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/RUCS-Camden/Announce/accttools.html

Secure Your Telnet Session: A new program, known as Secure Shell (SSH), is now available for a more secure “telnet” to your clam (or crab) account from home or work. There are versions of SSH available for download that run on a Unix, PC, or Macintosh system from various sites. SSH is better than telnet because it uses encryption to scramble the data sent between your computer and the server which makes it very difficult for a 3rd party to "snoop" on your communication. Thus, it is very unlikely that anyone could read your password or your email as you communicate over the Internet. "Snooping" on connections has become increasingly easier particularly on shared medium networks like the cable modem network and wireless networks. For this reason, we strongly recommend that anyone using a cable modem to start using SSH for your “telnet” connection to your Rutgers account.

For information on obtaining and installing SSH to connect to RUCS servers, please refer to the online document at:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/Documentation/Unix/S50-1019_ssh.html

Education Series – The Spring Education series will begin on Friday, February 8, 2002, with hands-on workshops on the new, upgraded version of Webmail and MS Word 2000. Other seminars available this semester include Netscape Email, Introduction to Microsoft Powerpoint, Dialup Access to Rutgers with Windows 95/98/Me, and Introduction to Creating Web Pages with Netscape Composer. An overview of the workshops offered, as well as online registration is available at:

http://edseries.camden.rutgers.edu/

Copies of the Edseries Bulletin will be mailed to faculty and staff at the beginning of the semester.

RUCS staff will make group presentations to classes, faculty meetings, student organizations and departmental office staff. If interested in a group presentation, please call our office at extension 6065 to discuss the proposed topic and date.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) are now Online - RUCS lab consultants began participating in a project to create a FAQ database of computer related questions and answers based on the ones they've fielded at the Help Desks. The database is available 24 x 7 and is Searchable through the RUCS Help Search software as well as software that searches only the FAQs based on a keyword. The database is accessible at:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/content/faq/

RUNet 2000 in Camden – The Outside Plant Construction (OSP) for the campus was completed in the fall. Trenches had been dug (causing some disruption of the flow of traffic) to install the conduit and a few large holes for new manholes were also excavated. The grounds have been returned to their original state either by pouring new concrete or by installing new sod grass. We do not anticipate any further digging on the campus. The fiber to interconnect the buildings is being pulled and terminated to eventually activate most of the buildings on the campus.

The Fine Arts, Science and Campus Center buildings have had their interior wiring completed. The Law building is in the progress of being wired, while the Robeson Library and Gymnasium are the next buildings on the campus list. Upon completion of the final electrical work and the installation of the electronic components, the Fine Arts building will be ready to be transitioned to RUNet 2000 during the spring semester (with the Science building and Campus Center to follow over the summer).

319 Cooper Street was added to the campus network in September and 323 Cooper was put online in December. General descriptions about the RUNet 2000 project are available at:

http://runet2000.rutgers.edu/

More detailed descriptions and specifications about RUNet 2000 are available from Rutgers locations at:

http://runet2000i.rutgers.edu/

Public Lab/Central Services Updates – The following hardware and software changes were made to the public lab systems since last summer:

PCs:

All of the PCs in the public computer labs are running Windows 2000 as the standard operating system. The conversion over the summer went extremely well with most applications being stabilized for the start of the fall semester. Check out the latest system upgrades in BSB 108-110 with the Flat Panel monitors.

The PCs located on the first floor of the Apartments for resident students have been moved to a new location around the corner. Additionally, Housing has added two systems to bring the total available for residents to six public systems.

Renovations:

BSB, room 134 - This classroom is in the process of being expanded into BSB 133 and outfitted with tables similar to the design in BSB 116. Upon completion (expected to be by the summer), this room will seat twenty-four students and have desktop network access. Once a new, larger Instructional Computer Classroom is completed and available, this room will become the training room for RUCS seminars.

Unix Lab (BSB, rooms 132/133) – As a result of moving the wall ten feet into this lab, the unix lab is now being condensed and the moveable partition wall was removed. Although the table space will be reduced slightly, the end result will still provide space for up to 40 unix workstations to remain in this lab.

Printing:

Our survey of students has indicated that a majority of students feel the printing of banner pages in the labs is a waste of time, paper and toner. Since most students go immediately to the printers to retrieve their printouts, the banner (or, header page) is unnecessary. Thus, the banner pages will no longer print in any public computing lab on the campus.

Instructional Labs Reservation Schedule is Online:

As an added service for reserving the Instructional Lab (BSB room 117), BSB 108 or BSB 132/133, the schedule of reservations may now be viewed online at:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/roomreserve

or, select “Lab Reservations” in the left margin of the RUCS Camden home page. Faculty and staff will now be able to tell quickly if the lab may be available for a class or presentation. Your reservation must still be made by sending an email to help@camden requesting the day and time.

Resident Hall Connectivity – This fall saw a change in the method for resident students to establish connectivity to the Rutgers network from their rooms. Computing Services provided information and step-by-step instructions on how to connect to RUNet through a new brochure entitled, “Your Guide to Computer Networking at Rutgers.” Through this process almost eighty percent of the students who tried were able to connect to the network. This process continues into the spring semester and students are encouraged to obtain a copy of the brochure from the RUCS office in the resident hall, the Campus Center Help Desk or the BSB Help Desk. Additionally, all resident addresses were put into a separate address space called a “private address space” that permits Rutgers to allocate a significant number of new addresses specifically for the resident halls. Additionally, students are required to register their address through a web page identified as the last step in the process. This new procedure was not without challenges and RUCS staff worked with students who encountered problems to resolve their connectivity issues. Due to the significant overall increase of connections and activity by students, we experienced a problem with available bandwidth for connecting to the Internet. Students encountered slow network response time for about a month until our Internet provider installed the requested increase in bandwidth. Additional improvement of connection speed was obtained by increasing the link that connects each of the buildings to the RUNet backbone from 10Mbps to 100Mbps.

The number of systems attached to the network in Camden continued to increase with over 325 now active on RUNet with a regular activity rate of 250 simultaneous connections.

Bandwidth Enforcement – RUCS-TD continues to monitor bandwidth usage across the university. Although not enforced during the first month of the fall semester, bandwidth limits on students in the wired resident halls was returned and will continue to be measured throughout the remainder of the academic year. Students violating the bandwidth limits are sent an email message and shut down for seven days from Internet access (although they may still access all of the Rutgers internal network and use public lab facilities to access the Internet for class work). Since the amount of bandwidth (traffic allowed) is a limited resource to be shared by all of Rutgers, it is important to monitor usage and check for any abnormally high patterns that may impact everyone's access.

More information about Residential computing and tools for self-monitoring of activity may be found at:

http://resnet.rutgers.edu

Student & Faculty/Staff Email – As a reminder to the campus community, RUCS recommends that all email be addressed to “name@camden.rutgers.edu” for delivery to your Rutgers email address.

With the addition of the email servers last year, incoming email is now stored on separate systems. As RUCS moves forward to complete the transition to these independent email systems, access definitions on your email readers should be changed. We recommended that you change your preferences (or options) last summer to have your incoming mail server (and, outgoing mail server if attached to RUNet) designated as email.crab.rutgers.edu for faculty/staff and email.clam.rutgers.edu for students.

Faculty may generate a list of your students' email addresses in a format compatible with Camden's Majordomo mailing list service. The Web Rosters themselves can be accessed from the Camden Registrar's web page:

http://registrar.rutgers.edu/CMINDEX.HTM

RUCS instructions for implementing a class roster into majordomo may be found at:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/Documentation/Email/majordomo-webroster.html

RUCS Printer Support - RUCS would like to remind all departments that the only printers we fully support are the Hewlett-Packard line of laser printers (both black & white and color). It is in all of our best interests if you would contact RUCS prior to purchasing any printers that will require printer support from RUCS.

Wireless Computing Coming to the Campus Center - Students in Camden will see the installation of wireless networking in the Campus Center this spring/summer with access throughout the first level including the lounge and eating areas. Students, faculty and staff will be able to access the network using their Rutgers computer account as the method of authentication. Presently, RUCS has a pilot of wireless on the first floor of the Business & Science building. Anyone wishing to try this out now may contact RUCS (help@camden). Otherwise, watch for the Campus Center activation message in an upcoming REACT email.

Lab Surveys – The survey of students using the labs was again taken in late November covering such areas as connecting to RUNet, communications, RUCS assistance, and performance of lab systems. The overall satisfaction rating of these services remained steady with eighty-nine percent of the responses indicating a medium or high rating. The only area with a significant service reduction was in resident hall connectivity where close to one-third of the residents responding to the survey gave a low satisfaction rating. This was anticipated due to the fact that the Internet bandwidth was not increased to handle the significant increase in traffic until mid semester. We believe this problem has been resolved and we look forward to improved service in the resident halls.

Open Ethernet Data Jacks - In an ongoing effort to provide varied access to the Rutgers network (RUNet) and the Internet, RUCS has expanded the locations that now support open Ethernet data jacks that allow Rutgers members to “plug in” to the network. There are thirty active jacks in the Robeson library (open shelving areas on the 2^nd & 3^rd floors), ten jacks in the Law Library (open shelving 3^rd floor past the computer lab), five jacks in the Campus Center lab, four jacks in BSB 110 (north wall), and ten jacks in the lobby of Armitage Hall. In order to connect to the network you must first register your system with RUCS. Information and the online registration form is found at:

http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/HELP/Documentation/Windows/S50-4310_dhcp.html

Classroom connections:

As an added service to faculty and students, room 116 in the Business & Science building has had the data jacks activated onto the Rutgers network. The electrical connections to the tabletop are in the process of being completed for the spring semester. This service provides faculty and students the opportunity to connect to the Internet from their seat for instances where Internet searching may be needed during classroom or special seminar activity. All laptops must be registered (see above) in order to connect. Additionally, you will be asked to supply your Rutgers account name and password (ie, you clam or crab account information) upon connection.

Rutgers Account Creation - Faculty, students and staff easily create new Rutgers accounts to gain access to the variety of services offered to the Rutgers community - Email, student registration, student transcripts, class rosters for faculty, and course analysis to name a few. Information and instructions are located at:

http://rucs.rutgers.edu/services/account/index.html

WebMail to Access Rutgers Email – Started in the fall, RUCS made available to the Camden campus a web-based email reader that allows you to access your clam or crab email from anywhere that you have access to the Internet and a browser. This application is called Internet Messaging Program (IMP) and functions similarly to other webmail applications like Hotmail^TM. By simply pointing your browser to:

http://webmail.camden.rutgers.edu
you have access to your Rutgers Camden email account without any of the hassles of setting up preferences, incoming and outgoing mail servers,
or learning commands that must be typed. This application also provides a secure communications connection over the Internet using a service called Secured Socket Layer (SSL).

Since September we have logged over 33,000 webmail logins to our systems demonstrating the popularity of this new mode of email access.

Future Activity -

BSB, room 117 (Instructional Classroom) - Renovations planned for this room will be converting it to a "three-tiered" classroom with tables and seating similar to BSB room 106 and is scheduled to be done over the upcoming summer.
A Firewall will be installed on the subnet supporting the unix faculty/staff servers (crab/email.crab) to provide further protection for the central systems against attacks by hackers on the Internet.
Additional disk space is planned for the unix faculty/staff servers utilizing RAID technology for improved performance (and limit failures).
Improved web service for faculty/staff streaming video applications (additional disk space and computing power).

Student Reminders -

Web-based student services available and online:

http://www-acs.rutgers.edu/Apps/studweb.htm

Student Grades/Transcripts/Class Schedules
Student Online Directory Management
Student Permanent Home Address Update
Student Financial Services Statement of Accounts
Financial Aid Application and Document Status
Financial Aid Award Status

A new brochure entitled, “Student’s Guide to Computing Services at Rutgers,” is available in all of the public labs on the campus.

RUCS extends lab hours in the Business & Science Bldg. on Sundays for the last three weekends of each semester (opens at 9am).

Computer Problem Report Forms - Report problems quickly to the computer center staff by completing a “Computer Problem Report Form” found in the wall pockets in each lab. The collection pocket for the completed forms is located near each lab door.

Faculty Reminders -

Web-based faculty services available and online:

http://www-acs.rutgers.edu/Apps/adminweb.htm

Address Update for Faculty
Class Rosters - the ability to create e-mail lists for Camden classes by downloading the roster to be used in Majordomo.
Course Analysis
Faculty Survey
Student Grades and Transcripts

Create a “firstname.lastname@camden” email address – send a request to help@camden

Mailing Lists are available to faculty - for more information see:

http://www-ns.rutgers.edu/services/mailinglists/index.html

A new brochure entitled, “Faculty/Staff Guide to Computing Resources at Rutgers,” is being sent to all faculty over the next few weeks. If you do not get a copy, you may pick one up in BSB 132 in February.

Staff Reminders -

Web-based staff services available and online:

http://www-acs.rutgers.edu/Apps/adminweb.htm

Data Dictionaries
Address Update for Staff
Oracle Password Utility

Student Grades and Transcripts

Create a “firstname.lastname@camden” email address – send a request to help@camden

Mailing Lists Available to Staff - for more information see:

http://www-ns.rutgers.edu/services/mailinglists/index.html

A new brochure entitled, “Faculty/Staff Guide to Computing Resources at Rutgers,” is being sent to all staff over the next few weeks. If you do not get a copy, you may pick one up in BSB 132 in February.

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Security Is Everyone’s Concern –