Services & Systems Outages & Alerts

Postponed! - Banner Services Unavailable on 06/20/08 due to planned upgrade (20 June 2008)
Banner Services Unavailable on 06/20/08 due to planned upgrade (19 June 2008)
Exchange E-Mail Services Restored following UNPLANNED Outage (17 June 2008)
Exchange Server Down (17 June 2008)
STUDENT Exchange Mailboxes Unavailable Due to Planned Maintenance (16 June 2008)
Postponed! - Banner Services Unavailable on 06/13/08 due to planned upgrade (9 June 2008)
Library Catalog Unavailable (29 May 2008)
Planned Matlab License Server Downtime (16 May 2008)
Web Server (www.wpi.edu) Planned Downtime (13 May 2008)
Phishing Email Attempt (12 May 2008)
Remote Use of Academic Software License Server Will Require VPN (6 May 2008)
Deployment of Office 2007 to ADMIN domain users (28 April 2008)
myWPI Downtime – 05/05/08 8am - Noon (25 April 2008)
Warning: Beware of bogus email purporting to be from members of the WPI IT Department to prevent Phishing attacks (24 April 2008)
Windows Account Password Expiration Notices Now Available Via Email! (27 March 2008)
Computer Science Oracle Database server (oracle.wpi.edu) - planned outage (4 March 2008)
myWPI Unavailable 5/3/08 – 5/6/08 (planned outage) due to major system upgrade (7 February 2008)
Problems Accessing and Mapping File Shares to \\admin (4 February 2008)
URGENT: Required File Server Maintenance (unplanned) for enterprise.wpi.edu (30 January 2008)
CMS (Content Management System/ RedDot) unplanned outage (29 January 2008)
Domain Name Server Down Time (23 January 2008)
IEEE Xplore Digital Library Upgrade (23 January 2008)
Helpdesk Closed 01/14/08 (14 January 2008)
Internet Explorer 7 Upgrade (2 January 2008)
Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1 (11 December 2007)
Tonight - Banner (Production) Server Downtime (30 November 2007)
Required Banner INB Server Reboot (27 November 2007)
(Planned) Server Outage (13 November 2007)
New Windows Print Server (13 November 2007)
Some Exchange mailboxes unavailable following an unplanned server crash (12 November 2007)
Resolved: Problems with Student Exchange Mailboxes (10 November 2007)
Banner Database Upgrade (Planned) (9 November 2007)
UPDATE: Problems with Student Exchange Mailboxes (UNPLANNED) (9 November 2007)
UPDATE: Problems with Student Exchange Mailboxes (UNPLANNED) (7 November 2007)
Resolved: Intermittent problems with terminal server (windows.wpi.edu) (30 October 2007)
Intermittent problems with terminal server (windows.wpi.edu) (24 October 2007)
myWPI Server Reboot (unplanned) - 10/16/07 at 10:00 pm (16 October 2007)
myWPI (my.wpi.edu) planned outage - 10/19/2007 - 4 am - 8 am EDT (15 October 2007)
(Re-Scheduled) Matlab and Maple license servers unavailable - planned outage 10/17/2007 @ 6:00 am (12 October 2007)
(Re-scheduled) Sourceforge (soureceforge.wpi.edu) Unavailable - planned outage for 10/22/2007, 6:00 - 10:00 am (10 October 2007)
Matlab and Maple license servers unavailable - planned outage 10/15/2007 @ 6:00 am (9 October 2007)
Reports of troubles accessing myWPI and Outlook Web Access (6 October 2007)
New Windows Print Server (5 October 2007)
Terminal Server Upgrade (windows.wpi.edu) (5 October 2007)
Cable TV unavailable - planned outage (5 October 2007)
Banner Web Information System “Self Service” Web Site Unavailable (3 October 2007)
Some Academic Software unavailable 5:30-6:30 pm TODAY due to power outage (27 September 2007)
WPI Web Server Down (9 September 2007)
Helpdesk availability 8/16/07-8/31/07 (14 August 2007)
Banner Production Forms (INB) unavailable during Banner Server Upgrade - planned outage (8 August 2007)
Exchange Upgrade (17 July 2007)
Brief Planned outage of the WPI web server (www.wpi.edu) (10 July 2007)
myWPI Outage (25 June 2007)
Squirrelmail Outage (4 June 2007)
Computer Science Oracle Database server - planned outage (3 May 2007)
Maple license server - planned outage (3 May 2007)
Matlab license server - planned outage (3 May 2007)
RedDot Content Management System (CMS) server – planned outage (19 April 2007)
Computer Science Oracle Database server (oracle.wpi.edu) - planned outage 3/12/2007 @ 6:00 am (6 March 2007)
Interwise (web conferencing tool) is now working! (12 February 2007)
Interwise issues following Friday night patch (12 February 2007)
myWPI issues following Friday night patch (10 February 2007)
CMS (Content Management System) Publisher offline during winter break (21 December 2006)
Internal Voice Activated Attendant unavailable today (12/20/06) (20 December 2006)
Library Services Outage: Journals List, FullTextFinder, EBSCOHost Journals (17 November 2006)
Planned outage for SMTP Mail Server (smtp.wpi.edu) (15 November 2006)
New restrictions installed for web forms in use on the WPI web server (www.wpi.edu) (25 October 2006)
myWPI sluggish (25 October 2006)
Library Catalog Voyager System Unavailable (13 October 2006)
New license file (license.dat) required for use of Maple software (11 October 2006)
Matlab software and license server upgrade. (10 October 2006)
The myWPI server (my.wpi.edu) will be unavailable from 5:00 AM EST – 7:00 AM EST on October 13, 2006 (6 October 2006)
Various Windows services impacted briefly by server moves (6 September 2006)
Wireless Setup Clinic today in the Campus Center Odeum A & B (5 September 2006)
Helpdesk and CCC Shop Closed to Walk-in Service 8/21/06 3:15 - 5:15 pm (21 August 2006)
Gordon Library ENCompass System Unavailable (17 August 2006)
myWPI (my.wpi.edu) planned outage (11 August 2006)
Library Voyager and ENCompass Systems Downtime (8 August 2006)
Emergency outage - ADMIN File share and Exchange email (exchange.wpi.edu) unavailable TODAY 5:00 - 7:00 PM (08/03/06) (3 August 2006)
Banner Self-Service Maintenance (25 July 2006)
Some IT Services unavailable due to Server room maintenance - planned outage (17 July 2006)
Brief outage - File share access for ADMIN and STUDENT domain users (10 July 2006)
Computer Users Asked to Shutdown and Power Off Systems (including computers, monitors and printers) During Power Outage (29 June 2006)
STUDENT Domain Temporarily Down (27 June 2006)
Windows Services (ADMIN and STUDENT Domains) unavailable - this is a planned outage (16 June 2006)
Library systems unavailable during UNIX systems move (7 June 2006)
Multiple CCC Systems shutdown - this is a planned outage (5 June 2006)
Multiple ATC Systems shutdown - this is a planned outage (5 June 2006)
E-Mail format issues have been resolved (24 May 2006)
Beware of Email Phishing schemes (24 May 2006)
Library main floor construction project (28 April 2006)
Library Catalog System Downtime (24 April 2006)
Forced password change for STUDENT Domain (Windows) accounts. (10 March 2006)
Planned Banner Outage - 3/06/2006 at 5:00 PM (28 February 2006)
Brief Outage of the Network File Server (toaster.wpi.edu) / Network Appliance (5 January 2006)
Banner, Exchange (exchange.wpi.edu), and McTeer (mcteer.wpi.edu) outages (19 December 2005)
myWPI Upgrade (16 December 2005)
WPI testing use of "Greylisting "to combat SPAM (junk email) (2 November 2005)
ENCompass System Downtime (26 October 2005)
Planned outage of Windows and Exchange servers (14 October 2005)
Planned Exchange Server Outage (13 October 2005)
Brief planned outage of users' web server (users.wpi.edu) (30 September 2005)
myWPI Maintenance (31 August 2005)
POP3 & IMAP Connections to the Microsoft Exchange Server Discontinued (24 August 2005)
Services that use WPI ID cards will switchover to use NEW ID cards (12 August 2005)
Software products served from Higgins Labs' servers unavailable during scheduled power outage (26 July 2005)
Library Catalog and Voyager System Downtime (25 July 2005)
Planned Windows & Exchange Servers Outage (25 July 2005)
Planned Network Appliance (toaster.wpi.edu) Hardware Upgrade (20 July 2005)
Outage of all Banner systems; Banner-dependant systems/processes will be impacted (Thursday - 7/21/05 @ 5:00 PM) (13 July 2005)
Outage of all Banner systems; Banner-dependant systems/processes will be impacted (Friday - 7/22/05 @ 5:00 PM) (13 July 2005)
Repair Outage of the Network File Server/Network Appliance (15 June 2005)
E-mail appearing to be from spoofed WPI e-mail addresses - block now in place (7 June 2005)
Planned outage of primary email gateway servers (mcafee.wpi.edu and smtp.wpi.edu) (1 June 2005)
Repair Outage of the Network File Server (toaster.wpi.edu) / Network Appliance (12 May 2005)
Library Catalog Downtime (21 April 2005)
Mail forwarding issues Resolved (5 April 2005)
IEEE Xplore Unavailable (25 March 2005)
ACM Portal and Digital Library Unavailable (25 March 2005)
Cable Television Network Outage for entire Worcester WPI Campus (UPDATE) (3 March 2005)
Cable Television Network Outage for entire Worcester WPI Campus (2 March 2005)
Mail Server Repair Outage (mail1.wpi.edu) (14 February 2005)
Planned Outage - Admin Exchange Server (2 February 2005)
ADMIN Domain File Shares Served on \\admin\ Will Be Unavailable (25 January 2005)
Banner web server change & outage (25 January 2005)
RESCHEDULED - Mail Server Outage (mail1.wpi.edu) (11 January 2005)
Planned Mail Server Outage (mail1.wpi.edu) (5 January 2005)
Networking, Systems and Services Planned Outages (20 December 2004)
Users' web server planned upgrade/intermittent access (users.wpi.edu) (17 December 2004)
PHP temporarily re-enabled on users.wpi.edu (10 December 2004)
PHP disabled on the users web server (users.wpi.edu) (10 December 2004)
Brief repair outage for the primary E-mail server (mail1.wpi.edu) (8 December 2004)
Planned Outage - Admin Exchange Server & McTeer (19 November 2004)
myWPI: Limited Access (17 November 2004)
Uniprint workstations powered by Pharos unavailable (15 October 2004)
Banner Job Submission Outage (10 September 2004)
Banner Outage (9 September 2004)
Exchange mail server outage (ADMIN and STUDENT) (27 August 2004)
Network File Server outage (toaster.wpi.edu) (18 August 2004)
Academic Exchange Server downtime (18 August 2004)
Planned outage of the Banner Production Database (28 May 2004)
Planned outage of adminmail.wpi.edu (brief); ADMIN Exchange server (13 May 2004)
Planned Banner Services outage - TODAY at 6:00 PM (14 April 2004)
ECE Computer Services unavailable, Saturday, March 27th (26 March 2004)
Library Catalog Unavailable (11 March 2004)
Planned Outage of the Banner Production Database (5 March 2004)
Potentially harmful attachments now being blocked at the mail server (5 March 2004)
Planned Outage of the Banner production database (4 February 2004)
myWPI Upgrade (8 December 2003)
Banner Database unavailable (planned outage) (19 November 2003)
Outage of Primary Mail server (mail1.wpi.edu) (14 November 2003)
Network File Server - repair outage (toaster.wpi.edu) (11 November 2003)
Library Catalog Unavailable (21 October 2003)
Electrical Shutdown & Computing (16 October 2003)
WPI mail now accepted by Yahoo (10 October 2003)
Apparent block on E-mail sent from WPI to Yahoo addresses (9 October 2003)
MSN Messenger Unavailable in Public Computer Labs (7 October 2003)
Primary Mail Server back online (mail1.wpi.edu) (26 September 2003)
Unplanned E-mail server outage (mail1.wpi.edu down) (26 September 2003)
Network File Server planned outage (toaster.wpi.edu) rescheduled (15 September 2003)
CANCELLED: Network File Server Planned Outage (toaster.wpi.edu) (11 September 2003)
Mail Services Restored (mail1.wpi.edu repaired) (11 September 2003)
Mail server outage - Update (mail1.wpi.edu) (10 September 2003)
Mail server outage update (mail1.wpi.edu) (10 September 2003)
Mail server outage - mail1.wpi.edu (unplanned) (10 September 2003)
Network File Server planned outage (toaster.wpi.edu) (9 September 2003)
Banner systems unavailable - Fri. 9/12/03 - 4:00 PM (29 August 2003)
Blocking of E-mail with Specific Subjects (21 August 2003)
Some software will be unavailable due to planned power outage in Higgins Labs (15 August 2003)
No Exchange server access via Outlook client using VPN (14 August 2003)
Brief outage of incoming mail server (mail1.wpi.edu) (5 August 2003)
FINAL REMINDER - Termination of access to CCC Computer systems via Telnet, FTP and Modem (WPI Modem Bank) (31 July 2003)
Decommissioning of Administrative Server: Elwood (elwood.wpi.edu) (18 July 2003)
REMINDER - Termination of access to CCC Computer systems via Telnet, FTP and Modem (WPI Modem Bank) (9 July 2003)
Elwood issues (problems running applications on administrative server elwood.wpi.edu) (18 June 2003)
Survey and Web Registration Services RESTORED (18 June 2003)
Survey and Web Registration Services Disabled (17 June 2003)
PHP Unavailable on www.wpi.edu (17 June 2003)
Planned outage of the Network File Server Appliance (toaster.wpi.edu) (13 June 2003)
Planned outage of Network File Server Appliance (toaster) (11 June 2003)
Planned outage of Banner Administrative systems (4 June 2003)
E-mail virus scanner is currently down (13 May 2003)
Unix File Server reorganization/brief outage (3 April 2003)
Changes to Web Services on users.wpi.edu (3 April 2003)
Web Server Share Unavailable (2 April 2003)
PHP disabled on users.wpi.edu (2 April 2003)
Planned Outage for Network Appliance (toaster.wpi.edu) (17 March 2003)
End of ScienceDirect Non-Subscribed Article Downloads (11 March 2003)
Unix Network File Server Outage (Brief) (12 February 2003)
Library Voyager Upgrade Completed! (14 January 2003)
Library Catalog Downtime (13 January 2003)
Cable TV system (20 November 2002)
Banner System Outage (5 November 2002)
ADMIN Exchange mail server outage (25 October 2002)
Mail Server Upgrade (Outage) (18 October 2002)
Mail Server problems (4 October 2002)
Brief outage of mySQL servers (23 September 2002)
Brief file server ("toaster") outage (23 September 2002)
Toaster Upgrade (2 August 2002)
Academic PC LAN (21 June 2002)
Computer Room Reorganization (5 June 2002)
New web server, users.wpi.edu, for serving user pages. (15 April 2002)
New web server, users.wpi.edu, for serving user pages. (22 March 2002)
Mail Server Planned Outage (20 March 2002)
WPI Webserver Downtime (5 March 2002)
myWPI (4 March 2002)
ELWOOD Logins, Printers and Shares (22 February 2002)
Online Course Registration Outage (13 December 2001)
WPI Administrative Systems Outage (13 December 2001)
Banner System (9 November 2001)
CCC Systems Downtime (26 October 2001)
Interruption of services on stat.wpi.edu (12 September 2001)
WPI Information System (Banner) Availability (28 August 2001)
The Gordon Library's Voyager system on library.wpi.edu (27 August 2001)
Main Web Server Downtime (27 August 2001)
Web server upgrade (13 August 2001)

Postponed! - Banner Services Unavailable on 06/20/08 due to planned upgrade
Posted 20 June 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Previously scheduled for Friday June 20, 2008 at 5pm EDT, we will notify at a later date regarding when the upgrade will occur.
How long? Approximately 24 hours
Why? An Oracle upgrade is needed on the Banner database.
Groups Affected Faculty, Staff, and Students who use Banner / Web Information System
Impact During the upgrade, faculty, staff, and students will be unable to access the services mentioned in the details section (below) of this notice.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Testing has uncovered unforeseen problems which will not allow us to upgrade our Banner database today (06/20/08). We will need to postpone the upgrade until a not yet determined date.

An Oracle upgrade is needed on our Banner database.

The following Banner services will be unavailable during the upgrade:

-Banner Web Information System
-Banner Forms (Production)
-ARD
-ODBC Connections to the Banner Database
-On-line conference payments
-Web Admissions applications
-On-line giving
-Course Schedule lookup
-CCC account creation and maintenance

Please feel free to contact the Helpdesk with any questions on the down time. Should there be a major conflict, please let us know.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to improve the systems we support.

Banner Services Unavailable on 06/20/08 due to planned upgrade
Posted 19 June 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Friday, June 20, 2008 starting at 5 pm.
How long? Approximately 24 hours.
Why? An Oracle upgrade is needed on the Banner database.
Groups Affected Faculty, Staff, and Students who use Banner / Web Information System
Impact During the upgrade, faculty, staff, and students will be unable to access the services mentioned in the details section (below) of this notice.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
An Oracle upgrade is needed on our Banner database. Expected downtime is approximately 24 hours.

The following Banner services will be unavailable during the upgrade:

-Banner Web Information System
-Banner Forms (Production)
-ARD
-ODBC Connections to the Banner Database
-On-line conference payments
-Web Admissions applications
-On-line giving
-Course Schedule lookup
-CCC account creation and maintenance

Please feel free to contact the Helpdesk with any questions on the down time. Should there be a major conflict, please let us know.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to improve the systems we support.


Exchange E-Mail Services Restored following UNPLANNED Outage
Posted 17 June 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Tuesday June 17, 2008
How long? Services were restored around 1:00 pm
Services had been unavailable from 7:30 AM – 1:00 PM EDT (5.5 hours)
Why? A storage error occurred early this morning which prevented access to individual mailboxes.
Groups Affected All WPI community members using the Exchange email system (exchange.wpi.edu).
Impact Access to Exchange email through the following methods was unavailable during the outage:

•Outlook Client
•Outlook Web Access (OWA); exchange.wpi.edu
•Mobile Device ActiveSync and Blackberry Devices

No e-mail was lost during the outage. All incoming and outgoing mail was queued for delivery, and will arrive over the next few hours.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Overnight, our Exchange e-mail infrastructure encountered a storage problem and automatic preventative software measures cleanly shutdown our Exchange databases to prevent data corruption. IT staff worked continuously to remedy the issue and bring our Exchange services back online. Their efforts were successful and services were restored around 1:00 pm.

Please contact the Helpdesk with any follow-up questions or concerns that you may have about the outage.

We apologize for the inconvenience this outage caused. We thank you for your patience and understanding while we worked to restore e-mail services and maintain the integrity of WPI e-mail data.


Exchange Server Down
Posted 17 June 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? First Report 6/17/2008 at 7:47:59 AM
How long? Not Yet Known
Why? An issue with the WPI exchange server has resulted in a temporary disruption of email services.
Groups Affected WPI members that have their email residing on the Exchange server.
Impact Outlook Web Access (http://exchange.wpi.edu) and mail residing on the WPI Exchange server accessed by email clients such as Microsoft Outlook will not be available until services are restored.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
The Helpdesk received its first report of the Exchange server being down on 6/17/2008 at 7:47:59 AM. Our administrators are working very hard to correct this issue. No estimated down time is available.

WPI members that have their email residing on the Exchange server will not be able to access their mail via Outlook Web Access (http://exchange.wpi.edu) or through email clients such as Microsoft Outlook.

Should you require additional assistance or have questions, please contact the Helpdesk at the contact information above.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.


STUDENT Exchange Mailboxes Unavailable Due to Planned Maintenance
Posted 16 June 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Monday, June 23,2008 - Friday, July 4, 2008
How long? Daily – 2 a.m.-5 a.m. EDT.
Why? Required maintenance needs to be performed on STUDENT Exchange mailboxes.
Groups Affected All WPI students using the Exchange email system (exchange.wpi.edu)
Impact Access to Exchange email through the following methods will be impacted:

•Outlook Client
•Outlook Web Access (OWA); exchange.wpi.edu
•Mobile Device ActiveSync and Blackberry Devices

Individual Mailboxes will be unavailable for about 15 minutes. It is not possible to know which mailboxes will be affected on what days or at what times. Students who are impacted during the scheduled service time are advised to wait until after 5 a.m. to access their mailbox.

All mail will be queued for delivery following the maintenance.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
During the dates of Monday, June 23rd through Friday, July 4th maintenance will be performed on all STUDENT exchange mailboxes. Work is set to run during the 2 a.m. - 5 a.m. service window on the mentioned date time frame.

This maintenance will allow us to continue to achieve high performance on our Exchange databases and reorganize the number of mailboxes per database as defined by Microsoft’s best practices.

Maintenance is performed per mailbox and will take approximately 15 minutes on average to process. Some mailboxes may be impacted for shorter or longer periods of time. Affected users are advised to wait until after the 5 a.m. service window to attempt to access their mailbox.

Please contact the Helpdesk with any questions or concerns you may have about the maintenance.

Thank you for your understanding while we work to improve the services we provide to the WPI community.

Postponed! - Banner Services Unavailable on 06/13/08 due to planned upgrade
Posted 9 June 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Previously scheduled for Friday June 13, 2008 at 5pm EDT, rescheduled for Friday, June 20, 2008 to begin at 5 pm.
How long? Approximately 24 hours
Why? An Oracle upgrade is needed on the Banner database.
Groups Affected Faculty, Staff, and Students who use Banner / Web Information System
Impact During the upgrade, faculty, staff, and students will be unable to access the services mentioned in the details section (below) of this notice.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
An Oracle upgrade is needed on our Banner database. We have re-scheduled it for next Friday the 20th, beginning at 5pm. Expected downtime is approximately 24 hours.

The following Banner services will be unavailable during the upgrade:

-Banner Web Information System
-Banner Forms (Production)
-ARD
-ODBC Connections to the Banner Database
-On-line conference payments
-Web Admissions applications
-On-line giving
-Course Schedule lookup
-CCC account creation and maintenance

Please feel free to contact the Helpdesk with any questions on the down time. Should there be a major conflict, please let us know.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to improve the systems we support.


Library Catalog Unavailable
Posted 29 May 2008 by Don Richardson
When? Tuesday, June 3, 2008
How long? Starting at 7:30 A.M. and lasting possibly all morning
Why? Installation of the latest patch to the Voyager library management system. The patch will add a direct link from the library catalog to Google Book Search.
Groups Affected All library users and library staff
Impact Library users will not have access to the catalog to search for or to request materials or to check their library accounts. Library staff will not have access to the circulation, cataloging, and other staff modules of the system. Library materials will be charged out manually until the system is back online.
Questions Contact the Library by calling x6700 or
e-mail library-answers@wpi.edu

Details
The Gordon Library Catalog will be unavailable on Tuesday, June 3, 2008, starting at 7:30 A.M. so that library staff can install the latest patch to the Voyager library management system. The patch adds a direct link from the catalog record view page to Google Book Search and allows users to take advantage of Google Book Search features such as full text, book previews, cover thumbnails, and more. If there is a match between library catalog search results and Google Book Search, users will see a "Google Books" link on the catalog record view page.

Planned Matlab License Server Downtime
Posted 16 May 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 A.M.
How long? Approximately one hour
Why? To upgrade the CCC Matlab software to the latest release.
Groups Affected WPI staff, faculty, and students running a CCC licensed version of Matlab.
Impact Matlab licenses will not be available during the software upgrade. Those looking to run CCC licensed versions of Matlab during the upgrade will receive a license server error and will not be able to run the application.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
On May 23rd 2008 Matlab will be updated on the CCC Matlab server. As a result, the license server for Matlab will be down for an hour until the software update is complete.

Those looking to run CCC versions of Matlab during the upgrade will not be able to do so and will receive a license server error. The license server will be restored once the server upgrade is complete.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Helpdesk.

Thank you for your understanding while we work to improve the services that we provide.


Web Server (www.wpi.edu) Planned Downtime
Posted 13 May 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Monday, May 19th 2008 at 06:00 AM
How long? Approximately 30 minutes
Why? The web server (www.wpi.edu) will be taken offline briefly for required maintenance.
Groups Affected Anyone looking to access WPI internal and external web page(s)
Impact During the downtime, no WPI web page(s) served from www.wpi.edu will be accessible by internal or external users (including off-site visitors).


The following sites will be impacted:

www.wpi.edu
www.me.wpi.edu
www.cs.wpi.edu
www.gatewayparkworcester.com
www.infire.org
admissions.wpi.edu
www.mgt.wpi.edu
www.goddard.gigapop.net
www.wjfc.org
www.massacademy.org
www.grad.wpi.edu
www.wpiventureforum.org
www.faberc.org
cpe.wpi.edu
www.ece.wpi.edu
www.math.wpi.edu
www.vocesdelcaribe.org
alumni.wpi.edu
lego.wpi.edu

Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
The WPI web server will be taken offline in order to install security updates and apply bug fixes. During the short down time, there will be no access to WPI web pages.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Helpdesk.

Thank you for your understanding while we work to improve the services that we provide.

Phishing Email Attempt
Posted 12 May 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? First Message Received: Sunday, May 11th 10:00 AM
How long? NA (Not Applicable)
Why? Phishing attempt for WPI CCC computer account passwords
Groups Affected All campus community members
Impact An email purporting to be from Wpi Internet Support was sent to WPI stakeholders in an attempt to solicit passwords from our community. Do not reply to this email with your password! If you have already done so, please contact the WPI Helpdesk as soon as possible.

You are welcome to delete the phishing email. Please be cautious in the future of similar fake emails. WPI IT staff will NEVER ask you for your password. Additional details about this attempt below.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
On Sunday May 11th, the first report of this phishing attempt was reported to the WPI Helpdesk. The message appeared to come from Wpi Internet Support. The email was sent to campus in an attempt to solicit passwords from our community, and was not from WPI IT. This is the second recent occurrence, as a very similar phishing attempt was made against WPI in April.

Phishing is a method of tricking people into giving up their personal information. This can be done by asking users to reply with information, and/or, with spyware. For example, perpetrators may get victims to click on a link that takes them to a Web site where they are subject to a drive-by download.

In the future, if you receive a similar message that you are unsure of, please contact the Helpdesk prior to following any of the links. You also do not want to download or open any of the attached files.

If you have received the mentioned message in your inbox, please delete the message and contact the Helpdesk to look into junk mail filtering options. Do not reply with your password!

Should you have any questions or concerns about phishing or the recent attack, please contact the Helpdesk at the contact information provided above.

For more ways to avoid becoming a phishing victim, please see the following link:
http://www.apwg.org/consumer_recs.html

For more general information on phishing, please see the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

Thank you.


Remote Use of Academic Software License Server Will Require VPN
Posted 6 May 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Beginning on May 12th 6:00 A.M.
How long? Henceforth
Why? To restrict access of CCC software licenses to WPI users only.
Groups Affected All WPI students, staff, and faculty who use CCC licensed academic software from off campus.
Impact Use of the following academic software will be impacted by this change:

• Any version of CCC licensed Matlab
• Maple
• Femlab
• Intel Fortran compiler

In order to run these applications from off campus, it will now be necessary to connect to the VPN (Virtual Private Network) prior to launching the application. Details below.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Starting on May 12th all WPI students, staff, and faculty who wish to use CCC licensed academic software from off campus will need to first authenticate using the WPI VPN (Virtual Private Network).

On-campus access to our CCC licensed academic software will not change. The VPN is not needed for on-campus access.

Should you have any questions, please contact the WPI Helpdesk.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation while we work to secure the services we offer to the WPI community.


Deployment of Office 2007 to ADMIN domain users
Posted 28 April 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? End of Business (5:00 pm EDT), Monday May 19, 2008
How long? Each installation should take approximately an hour
Why? To install the newest version of Microsoft Office on all WPI Staff and Faculty ADMIN domain computers
Groups Affected WPI Faculty and Staff with PCs on the ADMIN domain
Impact The installation process should take approximately an hour for most computers. Please log off and leave your computer on when you leave on Monday.

The following Microsoft Office 2007 products will be installed: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, InfoPath and Publisher. All previous versions of these products will be removed during the installation process.

3rd party add-ins may need to be reinstalled or upgraded to work properly with Office 2007.

Installations of the following Microsoft products will NOT be affected by this deployment process: Visio, Project or Front Page
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Office 2007 will be deployed to all Faculty and Staff ADMIN domain systems after business hours (5:00 pm EDT) on Monday, May 19. Systems may be rebooted once the installation is finished. Systems with Office 2007 already installed may have additional patches installed to bring them fully up to date and may be rebooted as well.

On the evening of the scheduled deployment, please log off, but leave your computer powered on. Do not shutdown your computer. We recommend you add a reminder to your calendar to log off of your computer at the end of your workday on May 19. Deployments for machines not on the network at that time will be done the next day after 5pm.

Should a department be adversely impacted by the May 19th rollout please contact the Helpdesk to reschedule the upgrade to an earlier date or at some point prior to the end of June, 2008.

The installation procedure will take approximately an hour for most computers. Any previous versions of Microsoft Office Products will be removed (or uninstalled) from the computer and the new versions of the following products will be installed: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook, InfoPath and Publisher.

Other Microsoft product installations will not be affected, including installations of Visio, Project and FrontPage. We plan to deploy updated versions of Visio and Project later in the summer. More information about this will come in a later IT News bulletin.

Access databases should work as expected under access 2007. Users who encounter database problems can contact the Helpdesk who can recommend a consultant to assist. The CCC does not support custom Access databases.

More information about known issues and workarounds can be found on the helpdesk website at http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/CCC/Help/Software/office2007.html.

Training for Microsoft Office 2007 topics are currently available from the ATC instruction website at
http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/ATC/Instruction/. To register, click the ‘Schedule & Registration’ link.

Please contact the Helpdesk (call Ext. 5888 or e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu) with any questions or concerns regarding this process.

Thank you.


myWPI Downtime – 05/05/08 8am - Noon
Posted 25 April 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Monday, May 5, 2008, 8:00 am (EDT) to 12:00 pm (EDT)
How long? Approximately 4 Hours
Why? A minor security upgrade and maintenance will be performed. Note: This is a change. A full Upgrade was originally scheduled for this weekend. That upgrade has been postponed to August in order to take advantage of anticipated vendor offerings.
Groups Affected Faculty, Staff, and Students who use myWPI
Impact During the duration of the upgrade, myWPI will be unavailable for use.

This includes:
•No login access for students, faculty or staff
•No access for site maintainers to create or modify content
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
We are delaying plans to upgrade myWPI (powered by Blackboard) and are instead opting to perform system maintenance.

The vendor is expected to make offerings available later this summer that will benefit the WPI community. Postponing the upgrade to August will allow us to take full advantage of the anticipated offerings. Specific upgrade dates and details of the new features that will be included in the upgrade will be publicized in the near future.

During the May 5th downtime, regular system maintenance will be performed and will include the application of a security related patch.

If you have any questions regarding this or the August upgrade, please contact myhelp@wpi.edu.

Thank you for your understanding while we work to improve the services that we provide.

Warning: Beware of bogus email purporting to be from members of the WPI IT Department to prevent Phishing attacks
Posted 24 April 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Around 8:00 pm on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 after 8:00 pm - fake message was received
How long? NA (Not Applicable)
Why? Phishing attempt
Groups Affected All campus community members
Impact Errors in the message and a lack of specific or credible information make it possible to recognize this as a fake. Recipients of messages such as these should not perform any activities as specified in the message and simply delete it. NEVER supply your password to anyone. No one at the WPI Helpdesk or from the WPI IT department will ever ask you for your password.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
WPI IT staff will NEVER ask you for your password. If you have provided your password mistakenly, contact the Helpdesk immediately.

Phishing is a method of tricking people into giving up their personal information. This can be done by asking users to reply with information, and/or, with spyware. For example, perpetrators may get victims to click on a link that takes them to a Web site where they are subject to a drive-by download.

In the future, if you receive a similar message that you are unsure of, please contact the Helpdesk prior to following any of the links. You also do not want to download or open any of the attached files.

If you have received the mentioned message in your inbox, please delete the message and contact the Helpdesk to look into junk mail filtering options.

Should you have any questions or concerns about phishing or the recent attack, please contact the Helpdesk at the contact information provided above.

For more ways to avoid beocoming a phishing victim, please see the following link:
http://www.apwg.org/consumer_recs.html

For more general information on phishing, please see the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

Thank you.

Windows Account Password Expiration Notices Now Available Via Email!
Posted 27 March 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Immediately
How long? Henceforth
Why? To ensure users are notified that their Windows password is about to expire.
Groups Affected All WPI Students, Staff, And Faculty.
Impact People with Windows accounts whose password is due to expire within the next 15 days will receive an email notification from helpdesk@wpi.edu warning of the impending password expiration.

The first notification will arrive 15 days prior to the scheduled expiration. The second will arrive 7 days prior, and the last warning will arrive the day before the scheduled expiration date.

Each notification includes the scheduled expiration date as well as instructions for resetting the password online. Once the password is reset, the notifications will stop.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
For security purposes, Windows account passwords expire every six months. Previously, people were only notified of a password expiration upon login to a WPI domain computer or when accessing WPI Exchange email (exchange.wpi.edu). Since not everyone logs in using these methods, some people never knew their password was about to expire.

In an effort to move toward single sign-on, the Windows password is often used by 3rd party systems like myWPI (my.wpi.edu), the Web Information System (bannerweb.wpi.edu) or the VPN (Virtual Private Network) client. While convenient, these tools are unable to interpret the Windows password expiration warning. As a result, people accessing these systems are unaware of a password expiration. Once the password has expired, access to these systems fails until the password is reset.

To address this problem and minimize disruptions, we have added a new email notification to the password expiration warning process. Now, people whose Windows passwords are due to expire will receive an email notification. The notices will be sent to the WPI email address by helpdesk@wpi.edu prior to the expiration date at 15 days prior, 7 days prior, and the day before the expiration date until the password expires or is reset.

Once the password is reset, the notices will stop. Directions for resetting the password online are provided within the notification. For help choosing a secure password, please see: http://www.wpi.edu/+Helpdesk/Accounts/securepassword.html

Should you have any questions, please free to contact the Helpdesk.

Computer Science Oracle Database server (oracle.wpi.edu) - planned outage
Posted 4 March 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Thursday, March 6th, 2008 starting at 6:00 AM
How long? Approximately 2 hours
Why? It will be necessary to take the CS Oracle Database offline to apply security patch updates.
Groups Affected All Oracle clients that use the CS Oracle Database; CS students, faculty and staff and some Management students.
Impact While the database server is offline, clients will not be able to connect to the database to use it.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
On Thursday, March 6, 2008 starting at 6:00 am, the Computer Science (CS) Oracle database server will be taken offline for about two hours. The oracle database will be patched with the latest security updates.

Thank you for your understanding while we work to improve the services that we provide.


myWPI Unavailable 5/3/08 – 5/6/08 (planned outage) due to major system upgrade
Posted 7 February 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Saturday May 3, 2008, 8:00 am (EDT) to Tuesday, May 6, 2008 8:00 am (EDT)
How long? Approximately 3 days
Why? In order to complete a major upgrade of the myWPI software
Groups Affected Faculty, Staff, and Students who use myWPI
Impact During the duration of the upgrade, myWPI will be unavailable for use.

This includes:
•No login access for students, faculty or staff
•No access for site maintainers to create or modify content
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
A major upgrade of myWPI will address known issues and will offer additional features to myWPI users. No action is required by users. Details on new features available as a result of the upgrade will be forthcoming in April.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation as we work to improve the systems we support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some answers to questions users may have about the upgrade:

What about D-term and Spring semester grades?
This upgrade has been scheduled to occur after the D-term and Spring semester course grades are due to the Registrar on May 2, 2008 at 5:00 PM (EDT). Students may check their final course grades online from the Student Web Information System at http://bannerweb.wpi.edu. Course sites remain available for 21 days after the end of a term, so students will still be able to access their D-term sites following the upgrade to review grades on individual assignments. If you need a course site to remain available for longer than 21 days after the end of D-term, send a request to myhelp@wpi.edu.

I need a course/organization/project-group site. What should I do?
Course or Organization site requests submitted using the forms found at http://www.wpi.edu/+Collaboratory/HowTo/MyWPI/forms.html will still be processed before and after the upgrade, usually within two business days. However, during the downtime, we will not be able to process any site requests. Any submissions during this time will be queued until after the upgrade is complete.

What will happen if I am working on a course or organization site prior to the upgrade? Will I lose my content?
No content will be lost in any myWPI sites. You will simply lose access to your site during the upgrade. Following the upgrade your myWPI site will appear exactly as it did before. The only major changes will be to an improved Gradebook.


Following the upgrade, will I still be able to copy content from prior courses like I could before?
Yes, prior course content will still be available for copying into current and future course sites.

What resources will be available for learning about the new features that will be available?
Prior to the upgrade, an announcement with details about the new features will be sent via e-mail. That announcement will include a link to a webpage showing the new features. Also, the myWPI Help and Support Site (http://www.wpi.edu/+Collaboratory/HowTo/MyWPI/) is being updated to reflect the changes in the upgrade. Additionally, training sessions will be offered near the beginning of E-term and the myHelp team will be happy to provide one-on-one assistance if you contact them at myhelp@wpi.edu.


Problems Accessing and Mapping File Shares to \\admin
Posted 4 February 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Beginning Saturday (2/2/2008) at noon – Resolved today at 10 AM (EST)
How long? Approximately 46 hours
Why? Complications following scheduled File Server maintenance for enterprise.wpi.edu
Groups Affected WPI Faculty, Staff and Students trying to map \\admin File Shares
Impact Following the maintenance of the file server (enterprise.wpi.edu), drive mapping to \\admin file shares was unsuccessful.

Services were restored at 10 AM this morning. Mapping \\admin file shares should function as expected.

The following services were not impacted:
-Mapping \\student file shares
-Accessing \\admin shares from the run command (Ex. Start -> Run -> \\admin\fc\ccc)
-Mac users connecting to smb://shares.wpi.edu
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Following the weekend maintenance to the primary file server (enterprise.wpi.edu), there were reports of problems mapping drive letters to \\admin file shares. Services were restored at around 10 am this morning.

If drive mapping problems persist, the drive mapping may need to be disconnected and then remapped to restore connectivity. Please be sure to map shares to \\admin\fc (for on campus users), and \\admin.wpi.edu (for off campus users). More information about drive mapping can be found via: http://www.wpi.edu/+Helpdesk/Network/Mapping/

Note: the use of \\enterprise and \\enterprise.wpi.edu has been discontinued. Please replace existing enterprise drive mappings with \\admin paths mentioned above.

If you continue to experience trouble connecting, or require any assistance with using \\admin files shares please contact the Helpdesk for assistance.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your understanding as we worked to restore full functionality to the business file shares.


URGENT: Required File Server Maintenance (unplanned) for enterprise.wpi.edu
Posted 30 January 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? This weekend; February 1, 2008 5 pm through February 4, 2008 8 am
How long? Troubles began to appear Monday, January 21, 2008.
Why? Server maintenance will be performed to address recnt intermittent problems with Business File Shares
Groups Affected WPI Faculty, Staff and Students using Business File Shares; those who connect to enterprise.wpi.edu
Impact Please note that all file shares will remain accessible during this maintenance.

Network drive mapping changes may be required for some Windows users and all Macintosh users and are explained fully in the details section below.

Over the past week the CCC has been troubleshooting issues with the file share servers that have caused intermittent issues. Reported Symptoms have included: slow system start-up, non-responding applications, and significant lag times when opening ‘My Computer’.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
All file shares should remain accessible during the maintenance.

Over the course of the past week, Helpdesk has been fielding reports of issues with the file share servers that have caused intermittent disruptions such lag times when opening ‘My Computer’, unresponsive applications and the inability to connect to shared drives. These disruptions typically have been cleared within 10-15 minutes once discovered. The maintenance planned for this weekend should resolve the situation.

In order to make sure all files are available we are making changes to how some Windows users and all Macintosh users access business file shares. These changes will take effect immediately and should be used going forward.

Macintosh Users:
When connecting to a business file share please replace “ENTERPRISE” with “SHARES” in the connection path (e.g. “smb://enterprise.wpi.edu/fc_ccc” becomes “smb://shares.wpi.edu/fc_ccc”. Users should begin making this change immediately. For assistance please visit:http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/CCC/Help/Network/Mapping/onosx.html

Windows Users:
Users connecting to file shares using the \\admin.wpi.edu or \\students.admin.wpi.edu path require no change.
Off-campus VPN users mapping shares with \\enterprise.wpi.edu should map shares using \\admin.wpi.edu or \\student.admin.wpi.edu as appropriate from now on.
For more information about mapping drives visit: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/CCC/Help/Network/Mapping/

We apologize for the disruptions that have been caused. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we work to restore the stability of these services.



CMS (Content Management System/ RedDot) unplanned outage
Posted 29 January 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Troubles began around 9 a.m. this morning, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008
How long? Time to repair is unknown at this time
Why? Reason unknown.
Groups Affected RedDot editors/approvers who want to makes changes to their site.
Impact Pages can not be edited in the Content Management System until the issue is resolved. Any changes already made will not be lost and the live site will not be affected.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Over the past week the CMS has been experiencing intermittent slow response times. We are working with RedDot Support to resolve this issue. Prior known resolutions have proved unsuccessful.

We will continue to work with RedDot to get this issue resolved as soon as possible.

We will notify RedDot editors and approvers once editing and approval capabilities have been restored.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation while we work to restore these services.


Domain Name Server Down Time
Posted 23 January 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Friday January 25th, 2008 at 6:00 A.M. EST
How long? Approximately ten minutes.
Why? To swap out hardware on our primary domain name server.
Groups Affected All computer users connected to the WPI network during the down time.
Impact Minimal. Users may experience network address resolution failures, and/or network slowness.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
We are scheduling a down time in order to swap out the hardware on our primary domain name server this Friday 01/25/2008 at 6:00 A.M.

The down time should only last a few minutes, and additional name servers are in place. Computers connected to the WPI network may experience network name resolution slowness or failure.

Should you have any questions, or, notice residual issues after the down time please contact the Helpdesk.

Thank you for your understanding as we work to improve the systems and services we provide to the WPI community.


IEEE Xplore Digital Library Upgrade
Posted 23 January 2008 by Don Richardson
When? Saturday, January 26, 2008, 9 A.M., EST
How long? 8 hours
Why? IEEE Xplore Digital Library will be upgraded to the latest release.
Groups Affected WPI faculty, students, staff, and visitors to the library.
Impact The IEEE Xplore Digital Library (http://www.ieee.org/ieeexplore) will be unavailable during the upgrade, and there will be no online access to IEEE journals and transactions, conference proceedings, or standards until the upgrade is finished.
Questions Contact the Library by calling x6700 or
e-mail library-answers@wpi.edu

Details
An upgrade of the IEEE Xplore Digital Library is scheduled for Saturday, January 26, 2008. During this deployment, the system will be unavailable for up to up to eight hours beginning at approximately 9:00 AM ET. As a result of this new release, the IEEE Xplore digital library will be enhanced with: Support of OpenURL images and custom text will enable customers to post their logo or text in their OpenURL links. Conference Proceedings weekly update alerts will allow a user to receive weekly update alerts for every conference title via either email or RSS whenever a new conference proceeding title is added to IEEE Xplore. Scitopia.org search from the IEEE Xplore home page will enable users to easily search scitopia.org, the free federated search portal to the digital libraries of leading science and technology societies. Draft standards search will let users limit their search to IEEE draft standards only from the Advanced Search page in IEEE Xplore.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience. Please contact the library if you have any questions.



Helpdesk Closed 01/14/08
Posted 14 January 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Monday, January 14th, 2008
How long? All Day
Why? Due to inclement weather, the Helpdesk has closed.
Groups Affected WPI members (staff, faculty, and students) looking for computer assistance.
Impact Response to submitted emails and phone messages will be delayed.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
As a result of poor weather, the Helpdesk is closed today. Please email the helpdesk should you require computer assistance.

If your issue is urgent, please email the Helpdesk with a high importance flag. We will do our best to get back to you as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

Internet Explorer 7 Upgrade
Posted 2 January 2008 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Tuesday, January 8, 2008 at 5:00 am
How long? This is a one-time upgrade.
Why? Internet Explorer will be upgraded to version 7 on personal computers connected to the ADMIN or STUDENT domain. The new version provides new features and important security protections.
Groups Affected WPI Faculty, Staff and Students with computers connected to the WPI Windows domains (ADMIN or STUDENT).
Impact Internet Explorer 7 will be deployed via Windows Automatic Updates . This will occur overnight without the need for action on the part of our users. Systems will be rebooted following the installation to complete the process. Laptops and Windows machines that are disconnected or off at the time of the deployment will receive the update the next night that that the machine is on and connected to the domain.

For those using a third party browser, this update should not impact your ability to use that third party browser.

Existing settings such as Favorites, Proxy Settings, Trusted Sites and Pop-up settings will not be affected by the upgrade.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Before classes resume, we will deploy the Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) upgrade to all windows systems (ADMIN and STUDENT domains). IE7 provides many security updates that make using the browser safer.

This upgrade was released last year, at which time we began testing. We have verified that it works properly with all of our web services. Over the summer we deployed IE7 on all new PCs as well as the public computer labs, electronic classrooms, and ATC loaner laptops.

Some of the major features of IE7 are the following:
• Tabbed Browsing – allows for multiple web pages to be open in a single window.
• Integrated Search – integrates the ability to access various search engines (Google, Yahoo, Live, Wikipedia, and Amazon) directly from the browser.
• RSS Feeds – Allows you to subscribe to RSS syndicated web pages within Internet Explorer.
• Phishing Filter – Includes an option to check a page against known Phishing sites. Phishing is the process of using fake sites that look like real sites (such as PayPal, eBay, various banks) to acquire identity information.

For more information on IE7 check out: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/features.mspx

This software will be deployed via the Windows Automatic Updates and will occur overnight without the need for action on the part of our users. If you are using a third party browser then this update should not impact your ability to use that third party browser.

Existing settings such as Favorites, Proxy Settings, Trusted Sites and Pop-up settings will not be affected by the upgrade.

Please address any questions or concerns to the Helpdesk calling x5888, (508)831-5888 or e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu.

Thank you for your cooperation as we work to ensure the safety and security of WPI information technology resources.


Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1
Posted 11 December 2007 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Wednesday December 26th, 2007 from 6:00AM – 10:00PM
How long? Permanent
Why? Microsoft Exchange 2007 SP1 Upgrade
Groups Affected All WPI Community Members utilizing the Exchange (Outlook) email system.
Impact The current Microsoft Exchange email system on campus will be upgraded to Service Pack 1. Access to Exchange email through Outlook, Outlook Web Access, Mobile Device ActiveSync, and Blackberry Devices will be unavailable during the scheduled service time to allow for the upgrade and any required reboots necessary. All mail will be queued and delivered immediately following the upgrade.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
With this upgrade, Outlook Web Access (OWA) functionality is greatly improved. For those using OWA (Not RPC over HTTP), you are now able to utilize many of the powerful features the Outlook client application has available such as:

•Create or edit personal distribution lists and server side rules
•View Office 2007 attachments as a web page
•View a monthly calendar
•Move or copy folders using a command in the right-click menu of the folder list
•Move or copy individual items in message folders by right-clicking inside the item list or by clicking an icon on the toolbar
•Use the Recover Deleted Items feature

Thank you for your understanding while we work to maintain the services we provide to the WPI community!

Tonight - Banner (Production) Server Downtime
Posted 30 November 2007 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 09:00 P.M. EST
How long? Approximately 1 hour
Why? We need to perform emergency hardware maintenance on our Banner Production database server storage controller (a battery will be replaced). Data loss will not incur as a result of our maintenance.
Groups Affected People who use WPI’s Banner Production Database; primarily staff, some faculty, some student workers.
Impact All users still logged into Banner at the time of the downtime will be disconnected from the server. A short, hour downtime will follow.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Emergency maintenance is needed on a battery that powers a storage controller for Banner (Production). All users connected to Banner (INB or Self Service) will lose their connection at 09:00 PM. Users will again be able to access Banner again at approximately 10:00 pm tonight.

Following the downtime, all users should be able to log into Banner Production through the “Banner Production” link on www.admin.wpi.edu.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Helpdesk at the contact information above.

Thank you for your patience while we worked to resolve this problem.


Required Banner INB Server Reboot
Posted 27 November 2007 by CCC Helpdesk
When? TODAY at Noon; Monday, November 27th, 2007 at 12:00 P.M. EST
How long? 15 minutes
Why? To correct a security issue with the Banner INB server.
Groups Affected People who use WPI’s Banner Production Database; primarily staff, some faculty, some student workers.
Impact All users currently logged into Banner INB forms via “Other Banner Options” will be disconnected from the server. Following the reboot, all users should be able to log into Banner Production through the “Banner Production” link on www.admin.wpi.edu.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
This morning, users trying to access Banner INB forms received a Forbidden access error. We have corrected the security settings that are causing the problem, but those corrected settings will not take affect until we reboot the server.

All users connected to INB forms through “other banner options” will lose their connection.

Following the reboot, all users should be able to log into Banner Production INB through the “Banner Production” link once again.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Helpdesk at the contact information above.

Thank you for your patience while we worked to rectify this problem - we appreciate it!


(Planned) Server Outage
Posted 13 November 2007 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 6:00 A.M. EST
How long? 30 minutes (approximately 10 minutes per system)
Why? To install and load software security updates and bug fixes.
Groups Affected Students, Faculty and Staff that use WPI’s Public and internal web services, All users of Unix webmail, All math students and faculty users of web work.
Impact All public and internal web services and virtual hosts serviced by www.wpi.edu will be unavailable, the Unix webmail web service will be unavailable , and Web work (webwork.wpi.edu) will be off-line while these systems are updated and rebooted.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
A reboot is required in order for security updates and patches to take effect. We will reboot our systems on 11/19/2007 at 6:00 A.M. EST. Down time should only last approximately a half hour.

The following services will not be available during the planned down time: www.wpi.edu, webmail.wpi.edu, and webwork.wpi.edu

Should you have questions or concerns, please contact the Helpdesk. They will be happy to be of assistance.

Thank you for your understanding while we work to maintain the services we provide to the WPI community!


New Windows Print Server
Posted 13 November 2007 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Monday December 3rd, 2007 EST
How long? Permanent
Why? Upgrading to a new Print Server
Groups Affected All WPI Community Members utilizing on campus Windows Printers
Impact Minimal, we do not foresee any printing issues as a result of the upgrade
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
The current print server “UNIPRINT” is being phased out. All print requests are being moved to our new print server “PRINTERS”. Beginning on Monday December 3rd, 2007 we will be decommissioning “UNIPRINT” and only supporting printing to “PRINTERS”. Existing printers on all computers in the ADMIN and STUDENT Domain have already been migrated to the new print server. For example, if you had an existing printer named \\uniprint\printername, it was automatically replaced by \\printers\printername.

This is the final notice for users still manually using printers on “UNIPRINT”, to change over to “PRINTERS”. It is encouraged for people who have computers not on the domain to migrate their printers to the new print server. Please utilize the following script to perform this printer change for computers not on the domain.

\\enterprise.wpi.edu\installpoint\printers\

Please follow the instructions in the ReadMe.txt file.

Some Exchange mailboxes unavailable following an unplanned server crash
Posted 12 November 2007 by CCC Helpdesk
When? Exchange server crash at about 3:40 pm today
How long? Most users regained access shortly after the crash. Estimated time to recover for remaining users is 4-9 hours.
Why? One of the Exchange servers unexpectantly crashed this afternoon.
Groups Affected Most mailboxes were available shortly after the crash. Some mailboxes remain unavailable at this time. Students impacted have Exchange mailboxes and Last Names that begin with D-H (plus one other student). Faculty, staff and students who try to email these students may be impacted.
Impact Student Exchange mail users who last names end in D-H are still unable to access their mailboxes following the unexpected server crash this afternoon.

Affected students will be unable to use their mailboxes until repairs have been made. They will be unable to send or receive mail via Exchange until the problems are resolved. Incoming mail will be queued up for delivery once the database has been repaired.

Faculty, staff and students who are trying to send email to affected students should be mindful of these problems. They may seek alternate means of communications or be aware that email receipt will be delayed (through no fault of the student).
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Unfortunately, the newly restored database housing affected mailboxes had not yet had a chance to replicate to the other servers prior to the unexpected server crash. The database store was corrupted again during the crash. For this reason, these users are still unable to access their mailboxes.

Since we have a good recent backup of this data store, restoration will be quicker than it was over the weekend. We anticipate restoration will complete prior to Midnight tonight. We hope it may complete several hours pior to midnight, but we cannot be sure.

We are deeply sorry for the impact this will have on affected students who were just getting back to normal. We could not have forseen this server failure. Server failures do happen, but redundancy usually minimizes the impact. The circumstances of this failure are unique as they came at a time when this particular database store was unusually vulnerable.



Resolved: Problems with Student Exchange Mailboxes
Posted 10 November 2007 by CCC Helpdesk
When? November 10, 2007
How long? Henceforth
Why? We have repaired the corrupt Exchange storage database.
Groups Affected Students impacted have Exchange mailboxes and last names that begin with D-H (plus one other student.)
Impact All Exchange services are functioning as expected.
Questions Contact the Helpdesk by calling x5888 or
e-mail helpdesk@wpi.edu

Details
Wednesday morning, November 7th, just after 8:00 AM (EST), there was a database failure for a group of users in Exchange. This problem has affected STUDENT Exchange users with last names beginning with the letters D through H plus one additional student.

The database merge is complete, and all mail should be restored to the affected students' mailboxes.

We believe the cause of this failure can be tracked to our virus scanning software, which caused the corruption of the database. We have taken steps to ensure that this issue will not occur again.

We apologize for the inconvenience this outage has caused to both the students affected and the faculty, staff, students and external users who have attempted to contact them via email.

THANK YOU for the patience you have expressed while we worked to rectify this problem – we appreciate it!


Banner Database Upgrade (Planned)
Posted 9 November 2007 by CCC Helpdesk
When?