SHSU Information Resources Update

Connecting Through Thick and Thin

The new AT&T Diversity Circuit to allow our GigaMAN redundancy is still in the works. This new protected circuit will allow our Internet connection to be rerouted in case of an AT&T outage.

Lots of testing has been going on by AT&T and will soon be completed by SHSU and LEARN (Lonestar Education and Research Network). A short time will be needed for the changeover and this outage will be scheduled for a Friday evening or during the night.

Sharing Responsibility

The Division of Information Resources strives to secure the campus cyber world as a whole, and each staff and faculty member shares the responsibility to protect personal accounts, the network, and confidential information. October was Cyber Security Awareness Month. The State of Texas posted the Top Ten Cyber Security Tips as reminders.

Two of their tips, "Think Before You Click" and "Protect Your Identity" go hand-in-hand. Many campus users enjoy the social networking on Facebook. Quizzes (taken by you OR your friends) allow harvesting of your private information. Researchers have found thousands of Facebook applications have vulnerabilities which have impacted 218 million users. If you are working on a campus machine as the local administrator, or doing SHSU work while at home, think before you click!

Updating Your View

Anyone still using a CRT monitor? If so, you can have it replaced with a used LCD monitor. Login to the SamWeb Work Order system to request your old CRT be switched out.

Updating Your Applications

Effective November 1st, the current SPSS license keys are no longer valid with the current installation of SPSS on your University-owned or personal laptop. In order to continue using SPSS on your laptop, you will need to place a work order through SamWeb requesting the re-installation of the software. All other current add-on modules (i.e. Missing Values, Forecasting, Custom Tables, Categories, and AMOS) will be usable until 12/01/09.
We are looking for more testers for:

SPSS 17.0

AMOS 17.0

Maple 13

SAS 9.2

Please e-mail the Helpdesk to offer your testing assistance. These software version updates will be made during the Christmas break. These four mathematical packages are the major software changes planned for December. Other changes are expected to be minor.

Using Your Phone to Its Fullest

Take advantages of the many features your Voice over IP phone permits. You can forward your calls straight to voice mail if you are going to be out of the office, personalize the ringer, and initiate conference calls. Here are the steps for the conference call:

Placing a Conference Call

During a call, press the more soft-key and then the Confrn soft-key. The first party is placed on hold.
Dial another number or extension.
When the call connects, press Confrn again to add the new party to the call.
Repeat the first three steps to add additional participants.

Note: If the person at the number that you are attempting to conference in is not available, press the Resume soft-key to return to the first party on the line.

Navigating the New SHSU Web Site

The University's new web site, introduced by President Gaertner in August, will go live this month. Check out the Today@Sam story for details on the changes.

Each University department will be migrated based on meeting the University web site goals as established by the Web Site Redesign Committee.

***Chairs/Director/Administrators:you may complete the sign-up form to help streamline the web migration process. ***

Thanking You for Responding to the Surveys

We do appreciate your taking the time to let us know how we are doing. The Call Log surveys and the Work Order surveys are two ways to help us assess your satisfaction. Congratulations to Kathy Roberts from Purchasing and Dorothy Roberson in the Academic Affairs office. Kathy and Dorothy will receive a 4GB flash drive for their department's use. To be entered in November's drawing, just take a couple of minutes to fill out our surveys after you have contacted the Helpdesk or after your SamWeb WO has been completed.

Staying Up-to-Date

All SHSU technological purchases must be processed through the Computer Services SamWeb Work Order system in accordance with FO-IR-12 policy regarding SHSU Technology Acquisition Oversight.

The Helpdesk provides support for SHSU equipment and software on the local area network. Each month's update will include the versions of software and minimum requirements for hardware with the new or changed information highlighted and bolded.

Memory Sticks: Purchase (and encourage your students to buy) flash drives that are USB Mass Storage Compliant.

Floppy disks (3 1/2" or 5 1/4") should not be used as a storage device for University information.

Wireless peripherals such as mice and keyboards have proven problematic in the campus environment and should not be purchased and/or installed.

Operating Systems: The supported version of Macintosh machines is OS X, version 5. The supported version of Microsoft's operating system is Windows XP.

Software Packages: The supported versions of office suites are Microsoft's Office 2007 for PC's and for Macintoshes Microsoft Office 2008. Available packages are listed.

Hardware Configurations:

The minimum requirements for the SHSU local area network support for a PC are a 2.5 GHz processor, 1.5 GB RAM, and an 80 GB disk, with 15 GB free. Our recommended configuration is a 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB memory, and a 250 GB hard drive.

The minimum configuration for a Macintosh on the LAN is a 1.6GHz PowerPC single processor, 1GB RAM, and a 40GB hard drive.

The Information Resources division may schedule significant periods of downtime for major system upgrades and maintenance. For your planning purposes, the weekend following each graduation will be set aside for scheduled outages. Additionally, certain systems may be unavailable on Friday nights after 6 p.m. and on holidays. To permit patches and routine updates, managed Macintosh nodes may be automatically rebooted between Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday morning at 8 a.m.

All offers, training, and software above pertain to faculty and staff at SHSU only. If you have any questions, compliments, comments, or concerns, please let us know.

The Update was approved by the Associate Vice President for Information Resources for e-mail distribution to SHSU faculty and staff.