Winter 2002 Issue                        Publication of Information Technology  

Members of the IT staff are noticing an increase in users remaining logged into their computer while not at their desk, classroom or labs. Shutting off your monitor is recommended to conserve energy. We also recommend logging out of the account. Please log out of your account and shut off the monitor when you are not at the machine and power down the computer(s) and shut off the monitor at the end of the day. Please contact the Support Desk if you need specific instructions for the computers you use.

 

Academy Pursues Network Security Audit
by Shelley Nason, IT Director

In the coming months the Academy will engage an independent company to perform a comprehensive network security audit. Many people on campus will be involved in this audit, since it includes an organizational and physical audit in conjunction with a technical review.

Electronic communication is never 100% secure and users of the network need to evaluate what they are sending electronically over voice and data connections. Potential security issues arise during the transfer of files and if you are sending sensitive information via email you may want to consider using the secure mode through the web mail or using traditional means of transferring data, such as the US/interoffice mail system. If you plan to use the secure email mode note that this will encrypt the email from your account to the mail server. The user receiving the email on the other end also needs to enter via the secure mode, which then encrypts the email from the mail server to their account.

Other potential security breaches occur when users leave computers logged in or write down and leave passwords in obvious locations. IT recommends everyone log out when not at their machine (in addition to powering down monitors and shutting down machines that are not in use).

There is both a human and technical side to security. This means everyone on campus using the voice and data network has responsibility and accountability for an aspect of maintaining the integrity of private and copyrighted information.

Shared Network Resources

Student dorm Internet problems can be resolved by education or more resources
by Shelley Nason, IT Director

This fall students experienced intermittent slowness and sometimes the inability to get to the Internet from their dorm rooms. Although students are faced with a defined period of time when they are in their rooms and able to use the Internet we do have sufficient resources for all students to access the Internet concurrently.

Unlike five years ago, students now arrive on campus with experience and comfort with computers although many have not used computers in a networked environment, especially a shared environment like ours. None of us at the Academy has a dedicated long distance telephone line and similarly none of us has our own "line" to the Internet. We have a dedicated connection from the jack in the wall to a wiring closet in the building. From that point our data joins other data and is directed to the appropriate server for action.

If we are accessing the Internet, we travel through a firewall, also called a gateway, to get outside our network. A firewall is a computer that protects us from people outside the Academy and it acts as a checkpoint when we go out to the Internet. Once outside the firewall, the Academy has four T1s, large pipes, for both outbound and inbound traffic.

The Academy has several gateways and one is dedicated to student use since they have time restrictions on when they can access the Internet. This gateway can serve up to 50,000 concurrent connections without users experiencing slowness. Web browsing, opening AOL Instant Messenger, FTPing, or downloading software can all be defined as connections. While web browsing and AOL IM open one physical connection, other activities require opening multiple connections. It is difficult to fathom that 800 students are connecting from their dorm room and exceeding the maximum number of possible connections.

We have made attempts to inform students that they have the ability to resolve these problems by encouraging them not to leave connections open when not in their rooms nor to queue up multiple downloads simultaneously. While we are trying to educate our community and change behavior, we also introduced a second student gateway after Thanksgiving to augment the first one and provide redundancy. This additional server may alleviate problems students experience getting to the Internet for a period of time. Our experience with other technological resources has been, provide it and use will be maximized, i.e., we have increased from two T1 telephone lines to five, and one T1 Internet connection to four.

Since resources are not unlimited, education and augmenting resources need to go hand in hand. We welcome your assistance in educating students and or inviting us to dorms to address student issues and concerns.

Software Piracy

Lion Links Update

by Celia Abrams, MIS Director

Faculty and students were given access to Lion Links, the Academy's web interface to our administrative database, this Fall. Faculty entered their midterm grades in October, and about 250 students made changes to their courses for the Winter and Spring terms. Final grades will be entered by faculty in December. Lion Links is now available from machines on campus and for off-campus use via VPN or dial-up remote access.

Users encountered some common problems when they first began entering data in Lion Links. One problem reported by several users was that their process timed out before they submitted their document. Lion Links will time out if there has been no activity on the screen for 5 minutes. This is a security feature so if a user walks away from his/her machine without logging out, someone else can't walk up to the machine and change or view the grades or courses of the person who logged in. This is a system-wide parameter, not one that can be set on an individual basis. We are reluctant to set a longer interval because of the security issues. We recommend you submit your transaction promptly then revisit the screen to view and make changes if necessary. We also found that an incorrect time zone setting can cause a premature timeout if you are using Lion Links from your home or dorm computer.

Some users gave us suggestions for enhancements, which we have passed along to our software vendor, Datatel. Several faculty requested an enhancement to the grading, roster and my advisees processes so the term does not have to be re-selected each time. Datatel has heard the same issue from other schools and has it on their top priority list.

Another request was to display the name of the advisee at the top of screens under the My Advisees faculty option. The omission of the name is a security feature common to all screens in Lion Links to preserve the data privacy of the user or student in case the computer is in a somewhat public area (classroom/lab/library) and the user might walk away from it or print a screen and forget to pick up the output.

We are looking at new features to add to Lion Links. The Program Evaluation option on the Student menu and My Advisees faculty option is designed to compare a student's academic history and current courses with graduation requirements. We hope to have that available later this year. We may create a custom version of the Scores option to let students and advisors view student standardized test scores, such as SAT's and AP's. We are also hoping to have faculty enter course absences via Lion Links and make some attendance history available for viewing. We welcome any suggestions from the community for what they would like to have available through Lion Links.

Blackboard

by Vi Richter, Academic Technology Support Coordinator

At the time of this writing, we've almost completed a full term of using Blackboard 5.5—the course management software tested last spring by a pilot group and fully implemented in Fall 2001. (To take a look at Blackboard, campus users may go to http://blackboard.exeter.edu.) I would like to thank all those individuals who have supported the use of Blackboard in its implementation, training, and data upload stages. I'd also like to send my appreciation to those courageous instructors who took a risk on a new program after what, for many of you, was a very short training session. I hope you found the program to be worth the leap of faith!

I also used Blackboard for two classes during Fall term. Blackboard has helped me to organize my materials more thoughtfully than I would have, had I just been handing out a pile of paper. It has eased the administrative headaches of classroom management with its built-in email lists, discussion boards, chats, and rosters—the manual creation and maintenance of which pilfered a lot of my time in prior terms. I also enjoyed the benefit of having my course materials available to my class exclusively, but also available via password to my students (and to me) over the internet (but not to the entire internet audience). As a nonresident, I am able to pick up my work from home in the evening via Blackboard without having to change how and where I save materials or worrying about having duplicates in different places.

I've heard the following feedback about Blackboard from students and other faculty this term (paraphrased from my memory):

What's New for Blackboard Teachers:

Known Blackboard Anomalies:

eCal

by Emily Merrill, Technology Training Specialist/Support Desk Specialist

This winter, Phillips Exeter will be introducing to a new calendar program, iPlanet Calendar Express. The impetus behind the move is to provide Exonians with the streamlined capability to access their calendar from anywhere in the world, providing they have Internet access, a browser, and a valid Academy account.

The new calendar program, called eCal at PEA, is part of the iPlanet Portal Solution. iPlanet is a joint venture between Netscape and it's parent company, Sun Microsystems, who provide the architecture for the current e-mail and calendaring systems at Phillips Exeter. Thus, iPlanet was chosen to provide the new calendar software and a new e-mail server.The new products have been created to work together, which reduces integration issues during implementation. In fact, the eCal implementation is already in progress; the new e-mail server is tentatively scheduled for winter break.

The first eCal training class was held on Monday, November 19, for the Administrative Technology Liaisons (ATLs). Further introductions to eCal will be offered to the general community as these plans are developed. For more information, please contact the Support Desk (x3693 or support_desk@exeter.edu) or ask your ATL.

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