Exeter On-Line

Spring 2001 Issue                      A Publication of Information Technology  

Results of the IT Survey
by Donna Archambault

In November, the IT Department sent out a survey to all faculty and students. Surveys were also distributed to staff members through departmental meetings where technology needs were discussed. Ninety-two surveys were returned.

Based on the information from these surveys, we found that the respondents appreciate that there is a "help desk" to call and that the support staff is generally patient and friendly, but not always communicative. At times, users feel that questions are not asked to gather all the details to help resolve the problem in a timely fashion. Additionally respondents noted that response time seems to be inconsistent. A number of users feel that response time is acceptable, while others feel it is too long, especially when there is no communication between the times that a problem is reported and later resolved. Follow-up calls are very important to the community.

Services users find most useful are over "the" phone troubleshooting, assistance with specific software applications, computer repair, and technology in the classroom.

We only had a few responses from students, which contained more negative comments than the ones received from the employee community. Given the students' limited exposure to our support services and that the time of their support need, 6pm to 11pm, is not when IT has call-in hours, the comments we received were not a surprise to department members.

Services not currently being offered but that respondents expressed interest in included the use of hand-held devices, assistance with web site design, more MAC support, training on a variety of technology resources, the ability to install software, upgrading equipment more frequently, design software to enable a department to design their own jobs in house, and the use of an expanded calendar. Students would like access to the Internet after 11:00pm, more bandwidth, and more stability with the Internet service. The requested items that are within our purview to provide are either underway or under consideration by technology committees on campus.

Users in one department, which has designated full-time technology support personnel, noted that their needs are being met because of the quick response and assistance of in-house personnel.

Although the responses were strongly positive, the constructive criticism provides us an opportunity to improve our service. The IT Department's priority is to support the community's technical needs given the available resources. We are addressing or have already addressed some of the concerns raised through this survey. IT Support Services has been particularly focused on improving follow-up and communication. In addition to refining some of our internal procedures, you will see a member of the support desk personnel out and about. Our goal is to get out into the community more and to provide not only telephone support but also person-to-person support in a timely fashion. It is a challenge to be in two places at the same time (on the phone and in your office or classroom), but we are experimenting with different types of coverage.

The IT Department would like to thank everyone who took the time to fill out the survey. Your feedback is important to us, and we hope you will continue to provide us with suggestions that better enable us to meet your needs.

Default File Save for All Users
by Marilee Tuomanen

During recent maintenance on network accounts and computers, it became apparent that many students and some of the adult community store documents, spread-sheets and application folders in their personal folder when using shared network computers. This is the default save file location that appears when any user logs into a shared computer on campus. There are several reasons why you do not want to use this area:

1) It is not a protected area and it is not backed which would not allow deleted files to be recovered.

2) By placing files in this folder, you increase the size of your personal profile which lengthens login and logout times.

3) With a spring implementation of mandatory profiles, you will no longer be able to save to this area and any files currently saved in this location will be lost.

The H (or "Home") directory is the safest location for saving files and it is a secure area that is backed up every evening. The process of setting the default save to a network directory is part of an IT setup for users who have access to a dedicated computer. This process is not done for users who do not have a dedicated Academy machine, namely students, and faculty and staff who do not have a designated Academy-owned computer. Because the steps outlined below are not specific to a machine, this is a one-time process. Please contact the Support Desk if you would like to schedule IT to do this for you. We would also appreciate your assistance in stressing to our student community the need to set the default save to H. We will be distributing the following instructions to students at the beginning of spring term.

In order to secure your Microsoft Office documents, we recommend that you change the default save location for files when working in MSWord. In MSWord, use the Tools, Options Menu and select the tab for File Locations. This window describes the location of files, templates, personal dictionary, etc. At the top of the list you will select Documents and click on the Modify button. Browse to H:\ and click OK. This selection should remain your default file location as you move from NT (public) computer to NT computer and can be reached from computers with other operating systems.

Throughout the library there are signs posted reminding students that they should save "early, often and to your H drive." Good advice. If you take a minute to change your default file save location and move your existing files, your files will be saved in a secure area and accessible to you from other computers on campus.

Archiving and Electronic Files
by Ed Desrochers

Electronic files fall under the same restrictions and guidelines as any other records that we might all receive or generate in paper. That is, they are all governed by the same archives policy endorsed by the Academy trustees in 1982, which states that all records generated or received by the various administrative and academic offices of the Academy in the conduct of their business, regardless of the form in which they are created and maintained, are the property of the Academy and constitute archival material. The records covered by this policy include official printed material, correspondence, machine-readable files, record books, minutes, committee files, financial records, and associated papers.

All administrative officers of the Academy and officers of the trustees, as well as those members of the faculty who, by virtue of administrative responsibilities either of a continuing or occasional nature, possess files, records, or documents relating to their official duties, are expected to observe the regulations endorsed by the trustees. Under that policy, the officer in charge of each administrative or academic office, with my help as Academy archivist, is responsible for deciding how long inactive records are to be retained in and under the direct control of the office concerned.

The Academy Archives is the repository for all non-current, inactive official Academy records that have sufficient value to warrant their preservation. Perhaps the question I am most frequently asked is, What am I supposed to keep? The short answer would be: Materials that document the development and functioning of the Academy must be retained. We cannot rely on any electronic format for the preservation of records of long-term value to the Academy until ways are found to guarantee that the information will be retrievable five, 10, 20, or 100 years from now. Until such time, important records should still be printed and filed.

I have prepared a sheet with transfer guidelines for non-current office records that I would be happy to provide on request. If you have questions, or if you would like assistance with your particular records situation, please call me at extension 3562. Meanwhile, when in doubt, do not delete it or throw it out!

Virus vs. Hoax

To find out about a computer virus vs. hoax, visit www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html.

Dedicated Printer Server ..........PRT1
by Marilee Tuomanen

As more and more of our faculty, staff, and students utilize the network, more and more demands are made on the resources of the network. Last year, we anticipated an issue with printing services and prepared to bring a separate print server on line. We now have a dedicated server, PRT1, which will handle all the printing. The server is considered dedicated because the computer is not required to store files or perform any network function other than printing.

In your printer setup, you may have noticed that the HP networked printer that you choose has a description attached, for example, "English on Harkness" or "5si on Chorus." The IT staff has been modifying the printer selections on users' computers by removing the printer on Harkness or Chorus, and adding (installing) the same printer on PRT1. In addition to our modifications, each user needs to select their printer(s) on PRT1 when they are logged in to the network.

To install a PRT1 printer, select Start, Settings, Printers, select Add printers, select your departmental printer under PRT1. Once you have installed the new printer, you can remove the Harkness or Chorus printer by right clicking on the printer icon while in Settings…Printers and choosing to delete.

Disabling File Sharing on Student-Owned Computers and the Impact on Residential
Use of the Network
by Shelley Nason

The Academy network was not intended to support students sharing files and/or programs from their personal computers. An example of this type of use would include, but not be limited to, setting up a server from his or her dorm room in an attempt to make files or services available to other students across campus. By restricting servers to Academy-owned machines, the Academy ensures adherence to copyright law and maintains the ability to manage network performance. Although we have the ability to see what is on a computer connected to the network, we do not customarily review personal machines except when requested by the Dean of Students Office or when investigating a problem with network performance.

Sometime during the past year, network upgrades unintentionally opened up access from dorm to dorm. Students discovered they had access to student machines in other dorms and they started sharing files and playing computer games across the network. During work performed on the network winter term, our network administrators noted numerous instances of students having set up their machines as servers, file sharing and a lot of game playing among dorms. Much of this activity violated copyright law and some of it negatively impacted network performance.

The copyright law says that we do not need to look for these violations, but once we discover them we need to take action to stop the activity. If we do not stop the activity, the Academy and the user can be found liable for violating the law. We decided to run scans on the network that would show us where file sharing was enabled and direct students to disable file sharing. By using our automated tools we reduce the hours it takes to do this work, and do not invade anyone's personal computer. The process allows us to produce reports showing what files were shared, when, and by whom. We then deactivate the student's port, contact the student, and educate him/her about how to turn off file sharing. Multiple violations are reported to the Dean of Students Office.

Most students are adhering to this imposed restriction. When we have explained the reasons to students who ask, they appear to understand the need for the restriction. IT has encouraged students who have expressed interest to discuss and prioritize their uses of expanding file sharing beyond having a personal (home) directory and academic use. We have directed them to take a proposal to the Student Council and to contact the Dean of Students.

MP3 Files and the Impact on Our Backup Process
by Shelley Nason

The number of saved files to the network in the weeks just prior to the break grew drastically to the point that the backup was taking 24 hours. Although disk space is relatively inexpensive, the backup of files is ultimately limited to the number of hours in a day. To resolve this dilemma, IT needed to find a way to ensure the ability to perform a full backup within 24 hours. Upon research, we noted that our backup routine included an increasing number of MP3 (music) files on student file servers.

Since the increase of MP3 saving to home directories occurred in concert with the Napster court ruling, IT assumes that perhaps students have been feverishly downloading these music files in anticipation of Napster's service not being available to them for free in the near future.

We needed to discontinue backing up these files while we await a decision from the Academy's policy makers to determine if they should be removed from our servers. By making this exclusion, we are no longer backing up 5,000-plus music files amounting to 18 gigabytes of disk space. To give you a comparison, 18 gigabytes translates into a million Word documents or millions of email messages. This change results in gaining five hours of backup time.

In light of this research, and the fact that some students informed members of the IT department that they are aware of students searching for available network space to save files, we recommend each faculty member review their shared network folder(s) on Harkness and verify that files saved in these directories by students are files they requested students submit to them for course work. Please contact the Support Desk at x3693 if you have any questions about reviewing your network folders.

Important Notice Regarding Request for New Personal Phone Lines

Verizon has informed us that the equipment to support telephone lines coming into Phillips Exeter Academy is filled to capacity and cannot support any additional lines. This means that any requests on campus for additional personal telephone lines or any other services through Verizon cannot be filled until Verizon has equipment in place to expand their lines. They have not provided us with a time frame for the implementation. We will keep you posted as we receive updates from Verizon.

PEA Username Directory

The PEA Username directory in Netscape's Address book is active. To setup access to the PEA Username Directory from Netscape Messenger:

• Open Netscape Messenger
• Open Address Book, choose File\New Directory and add PEA Directory
• Description: PEA Mail Server
• LDAP server: mail.exeter.edu
• Search Root: objectclass="person"