The CIS Blog

Furman University protects many secure servers and systems with the campus firewall. These protected systems include systems used by administrative offices, as well as shared network drives. If you are a member of the Furman campus community, and need to use these resources when off-campus, you may be interested in the Furman VPN (Virtual Private Network) solution. Furman makes VPN client software available for faculty, staff, and students living in the Vinings. For more information about Furman’s VPN, please call the help desk at (864) 294-3277, or see this information about Furman’s VPN solution.

Computing and Information Systems staff are planning to evaluate alternative anti-virus solutions in the coming months. Our current campus anti-virus license ends at the end of the academic year, and we have learned that renewing the existing license will require a substantial cost increase.

In addition to evaluating the effectiveness of alternative anti-virus solutions, CIS also will consider how such a switch will affect the campus community; such as:

• Switching to a different anti-virus software program will require significant work to upgrade all University-owned computers.
• Supporting multiple anti-virus programs will likely increase the cost of providing University technology support. Given our limited technology support resources, we would prefer not to have to support more than two anti-virus solutions on campus.
• If we move to a different anti-virus program, we’d like to avoid a situation where all students would need to change their anti-virus software at the same time.

We expect to provide updates as our anti-virus evaluations progress.

The 2009 Furman University Faculty/Staff Techqual survey has begun! The student Techqual survey finished on November 1. Now, by responding to the survey, faculty and staff can help improve campus technology service quality, and also be entered in a drawing to win one of 4 pairs of movie tickets. Individual survey invitation emails were sent to faculty and staff this afternoon. The faculty/staff survey will run through the end of November.

If you responded to last year’s survey, thanks so much for your help! This year’s survey is similar, and includes new questions about Furman’s campus email service. The 2008 Furman Techqual survey results are linked from this blog post.

Everyone wants a campus network that is as fast and reliable as possible. In the past year, Furman University has made more Internet bandwidth available for students, and has improved the reliability of the campus Internet connection. CIS staff have also improved the reliability of the wired campus network, and are working to improve the campus wireless network. If you do encounter a problem with your network connection, calling the CIS help desk at (864) 294-3277 is a good way to ensure that your problem gets resolved promptly.

There are many things that can affect the performance of your computer’s network connection. These include: your computer, the campus network (wired or wireless) and the campus Internet connection. Knowing more about Furman’s Internet connection, and the wireless network, may help you better understand things that can affect how your computer works on the campus network.

The campus Internet connection

• Furman University has 200Mbps total Internet bandwidth (megabits per second.) This is more capacity than most institutions our size. All of this bandwidth is shared by people on campus trying to use the Internet, and people on the Internet trying to use University network resources (e.g., the campus website.)
• When computers request more than 200Mbps of total data to/from the campus Internet connection, we can expect to see some slowness in Internet performance. CIS uses packet shaping technology to help prioritize campus Internet traffic. Packet shaping lets us set a higher priority for some types of network traffic, and limit other types of traffic.
• Flash video from sites like Youtube, Hulu, and others, have caused increased demand for Internet bandwidth for nearly all residential campus networks (not just Furman.) Please watch Internet videos responsibly; consider others needing to use the campus network, especially during times of high network demand (e.g., Sunday and Monday nights.)

Wireless connections in general

• Unlike wired network connections, wireless connections are a shared resource. When you connect to the wireless network you connect through one of Furman’s many wireless access points. A single wireless access point can provide wireless network service to a local area and multiple computers. All computers using that wireless access point connect to the campus network through that wireless access point’s single wired network connection. If you are using a wireless access point, and somebody else is using that same wireless device for a big file download, your wireless speed may suffer.
• Bittorrent connections (and similar peer-to-peer applications) are especially hard on shared wireless connections. If someone is trying to use bittorrent on a wireless connection, everyone else using that wireless access point may see performance problems. (We also limit bittorrent traffic with packet shaping.)
• Microwave ovens and certain cordless phones can also interrupt wireless network service for computers using a nearby wireless access point.

Wireless connections in residence halls

• The North Village residence halls have partial wireless coverage. Wireless in North Village was designed to provide access in the common areas of residence suites. The quality of wireless connections will decrease the further away you are from those common areas. Most other residence halls have similar wireless coverage for common areas (although fewer common areas than North Village.)
• The residence hall with full wireless access to all rooms is the wireless system we’re testing in Blackwell. The next residence hall where we expect to test a vendor’s wireless access points is McBee.
• If you find you are having trouble with a wireless connection in a residence hall, a good first troubleshooting step is to try connecting your computer to the campus wired network.

Summary
If you experience times when it appears that the campus Internet connection is not working properly, the source of the problem could be something other than the campus Internet connection. Wireless network performance in particular can vary more due to local factors rather than the volume of campus Internet traffic. Reporting connectivity trouble to the CIS help desk at (864) 294-3277 does help resolve such problems. The help desk tracks all calls for help, and, if you call when the help desk is closed, a help desk staffer will be in touch with you when the help desk opens. In the event that the University experiences a campus-wide information service outage when the help desk is closed, please report the outage to Public Safety at (864) 294-2111.

CIS staff are working to improve the campus network, and resolve network problems as quickly as possible. Calling the help desk helps CIS identify and fix problems that may arise. We appreciate your patience as we work to help improve the operation of your computer on the Furman campus network.

The CIS Help Desk is in the Duke Library

While CIS staff have been testing both Windows 7 and Mac OSX 10.6, we are not yet ready to announce full support for these operating systems. Here is a brief summary of where we stand with our evaluation of these new operating systems:

Windows 7: At the moment, McAfee anti-virus software requires a manual install before Windows 7 users will be able to pass through the Bradford network access control device. We expect the next update from Bradford will help simplify this process. If you are running Windows 7, and need assistance installing the latest McAfee anti-virus software, please call the help desk. Please also be advised that CIS is not deploying Windows 7 on Furman systems at this time, and Furman printers do not yet have drivers loaded for Windows 7.

Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard): McAfee VirusScan 8.6 is not compatible with OSX 10.6. We are testing a new version of McAfee VirusScan that will work with OSX 10.6. If you have already upgraded to Snow Leopard, please call the help desk for assistance.

In September, CIS began a test of wireless networking in the Blackwell residence hall. We are pleased to announce that, later this semester, CIS Systems and Technology staff will be starting a second evaluation of a new wireless solution. This second test will be for the residents of McBee Hall. While we will be providing wireless services to all residents of McBee, residents should be advised that this is a test, and the test will running through the rest of the fall semester, and possibly into the beginning of the spring semester. Testing will also require configuration and performance testing that may cause service interruptions. Regardless of the outcome of the test, CIS is planning to provide McBee residents with wireless networking for the spring 2010 semester.

Furman students responses to the 2008 Techqual survey indicated that additional wireless networking in the residence halls was the highest student technology concern. CIS is using this tests in Blackwell and McBee to help prepare our future campus wireless networking strategy. We appreciate your patience as CIS staff conduct these wireless networking tests in Blackwell and McBee.

If you have questions about these wireless tests, or questions about any other campus information technology service, please call the CIS Help Desk at (864) 294-3277, or email  help.desk at furman.edu

The 2009 Furman Techqual surveys contain new questions about the Furman University email system. This year the survey asks respondents to rank how well the University provides an email system that meets your needs. The survey also asks this question:

Google offers universities an email service that provides individuals with more than seven gigabytes of personal storage. If Furman were to switch to using Google, you would keep your existing Furman email address, and use Google’s web mail (or a program like Microsoft Outlook) for your campus email. FirstClass would still be available for conferences (aka “databases”.) This change would require you to make some adjustments for the transition; and, if the campus lost access to the Internet, you would not have email while the campus Internet connection was down. Given this information, do you think Furman University should move its campus email from FirstClass to Google?

The Furman student Techqual survey started on Monday, 10/12. So far over 200 students have responded. The student survey will remain open through the end of October. The faculty/staff Techqual survey will begin in November.

Protect your passwords from identity thieves – they could could cause damage to more than just your computer. Keep your network and email passwords safe – never share them with anyone. Remember: Furman University Computing and Information Services staff will never ask you for your password.

If you have questions about your Furman University passwords, please contact the CIS Help Desk.

The 2009 Furman University Student Techqual survey has begun! By responding to the survey students will not only help us to improve campus technology service quality, but will also be entered in a drawing to win one of 10 pairs of movie tickets. Individual survey invitation emails were sent to students this morning. The student survey will be open through the end of October. The faculty/staff survey will be conducted in November.

If you responded to last year’s survey, thanks so much for your help! This year’s survey is similar, and includes new questions about Furman’s campus email service. The 2008 Furman Techqual survey results are linked from this blog post.

Sample Radar Chart produced from the 2008 Techqual Survey

One of the best ways you can protect you computer and your personal information is to be aware of security risks, and good security habits.

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) offers good information on how to protect your computer. These tips include:

• Lock your computer when you step away from it. Even if you only step away from your computer for a few minutes, that could be enough time for someone else to destroy or corrupt your information. Locking your computer prevents another person from being able to simply sit down at your computer and either access all of your information, or accidentally destroy your work.
• Check your security settings. Many software programs, such as Internet browsers and your computer’s firewall, offer features that you can tailor to improve your computer’s security. Enabling certain features to increase convenience may leave you more vulnerable to being attacked. It is important to examine your software’s security settings, and select options that best meet your needs without putting your information at risk.
• Back up your data. Whether or not you take steps to protect yourself, there will always be a possibility that something will happen to destroy your data. This CIS web page has additional information about how to backup data from a Windows computer. We also recommend Apple’s Time Machine software as a way to regularly back-up Macintosh computers to an external hard drive.

For more information about computer security, see the US-CERT Cyber Security Tips web site. (Tips above adapted from the US-CERT “Good Security Habits” web page.) You may also want to review our CIS Information Security Awareness page.