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Dawgbytes, Fall 2007

Volume 6, Number 2

About This Issue...

Information Technology's newsletter, Dawgbytes, is now available online. Dawgbytes is available via a subscription to a list server, DAWGBYTES-L. To subscribe to this mailing list, e-mail a message to listserv@listserv.siu.edu. No subject is needed, but the body or text area of the message should contain only "SUB DAWGBYTES-L Firstname Lastname" without the quotes.

This Fall 2007 issue of Dawgbytes includes articles on the Greening of Campus Wide Printing; Saving Energy Through Efficient Use of Your PC; Protecting Yourself, Your Computer and SIU; a Wrap-Up of the Fall 2007 RezNet Move-In Project; Helpful Info from Telecommunications Services; and a profile of a new hire at the Computer Support Center. Links to archived issues of Dawgbytes are available at the end of the newsletter.

Campus Wide Printing Services Goes Green

Campus Wide Printing Services is proud to announce they’re greener than ever before. There are thirty Xerox Phaser® 8550 printers located in computer labs and libraries across campus. These Xerox printers use solid ink imaging as opposed to powdered or liquid medium. According to information released by Xerox through the link listed below, the solid ink technology results in almost 100% ink-to-page transfer efficiency and results in 95% less waste per use than a standard color laser product. For every 100,000 printed pages, a solid ink printer will produce approximately 5 pounds of waste, while a traditional color laser printer produces approximately 157 pounds. The solid toner is shaped much like an artist pastel but is made of a material reminiscent of a crayon. The sticks are resin-based and contain no solvents. The danger of chemical emissions from laser toner products made the news in August 2007 after the American Chemical Society released the results of an Australian study at Queensland University of Technology. However, with its solid ink technology, the Xerox Phaser printers do not produce any styrene or particles (dust) at detectable levels. Anyone who has ever encountered a black powder toner spill will appreciate that they can’t leak or mark your clothes.

Solid ink printouts can be recycled just as you would a page from a laser printer or office copier. Your prints come out in vivid colors and print just as well on recycled paper as standard or extra-white paper. The use of recycled paper is an additional step CWPS has taken in it an effort to be environmentally conscious. The paper used in all our printers contains 30% post-consumer content.

For more information, visit: http://www.infotech.siu.edu/clc/print/faq/pdf/green.pdf

Saving Energy Through Efficient Use of Your PC

Saving energy is easy and painless by making just a few simple setting changes to your PC. These suggestions are based on information received from Dell and specifically relate to PCs with Microsoft Windows XP. For assistance with settings for computers with the Microsoft Vista and Macintosh operating systems, please contact the Computer Support System at 453-5155.

Set your PC to “hibernate”. Hibernate allows for the same level of energy savings as turning the PC off. “Hibernate” powers down your PC from 42.7 watts to 2.3 watts, virtually the same as turning the PC off. A PC when turned off still uses around 2.3 watts of “flea power” to maintain local-area network connectivity, among other things. A PC only uses zero power when it is unplugged from a power source. The advantages of the “hibernate” mode are that it is set up to save power after a certain amount of inactivity, allows for energy savings during the day as well as at night, and the startup times are much quicker than if the system has to perform a complete cold boot when restarted. The advantages of turning the PC off are less network traffic, better security when unattended, and flushing any memory bugs or “cobwebs” out of the system at the start of the day. Turning the PC off does not use more power than leaving it on. That is a myth as well as the idea that turning it on and off wears it out.

Placing your monitors in “sleep mode” will power-down a standard monitor from 75 watts to around 5 watts, and a flat-panel monitor from 22 watts to 3.3 watts. A monitor that is turned off uses zero energy. We feel this makes a very strong case for turning off monitors when not in use and especially at the end of the day.

To put figures to the theory, one PC that runs continuously for one year will emit approximately 840 pounds of CO2 in a year. A single laptop will emit approximately 300 pounds of CO2 in a year. (Results figured from calculations based on three-year CO2 emission statistics as listed by Dell computers on their website. http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/environment/en/tree_faq?c=us&l=en&s=corp&~ck=anavml ) If there are approximately 7500 PCs on the SIUC campus, at the above figures, we are responsible for 3,150 TONS of CO2 emissions per year if we leave our PCs powered on continuously.

Protect Yourself - Protect SIUC

Everyone has heard about a computer virus. Everyone has heard about malicious attackers who break into computer systems for criminal gain. Most people have heard about computer worms, especially after several worms ran rampant a few years ago. While these three are still very real threats, security measures have changed the playing field and the attackers are changing their approach.

We can classify the threats to a computer system, network and/or data in various ways, but for the sake of this article, we will discuss outsider attacks. Outsider attacks can happen in many ways, but one of the most common is an attempt for an outsider to get someone to open up a malicious link through an email message or a web page. Any possible way that an attacker might convince a person to click on a link is fair game. Fake notices from banks, the IRS, and commerce-related internet sites are a method often used in ‘phishing’ scams where the attacker seeks to obtain banking or other sensitive access data. Don’t be fooled! Never click on an email or unknown web link to visit a site where you will perform banking or any other sensitive operation. Visit the site directly via your personal bookmarks or enter the URL manually into your browser. In addition to phishing sites, attackers are using Trojan horses (named after the Trojan horse of old) in an attempt to compromise sensitive data and gain access to computer systems.

There are a few ways to stop Trojan horses. The first and most important is not to click on unknown links and don’t fall for lures. The second is to ensure that all software on your systems is up-to-date and configured properly. Old software often has security vulnerabilities that attackers will take advantage of and to install malicious code of their choice. Some recent attacks involve the attacker setting up hostile websites and then tricking or finding a way to redirect users to these sites. On these hostile websites, malicious code tries to take advantage of security holes found in vulnerable versions of software such as Internet Explorer, QuickTime, WinZip, Firefox, Windows Media Player, Adobe Reader, Flash, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, and more. It can be challenging to ensure that all such applications are up-to-date, as in some cases a convenient automatic update function may not exist or only be partially effective. One helpful tool to determine if you are running vulnerable client software is the Secunia Software Advisor. An online version can be found at:
http://secunia.com/software_inspector/

and other versions exist that can be downloaded and installed. The third thing you can do to avoid most Trojan infections is only to use your system with non-Administrative rights. Only use Administrative (or root-level) access to your systems when you must do so in order to administer the system. The rest of the time, you should be using a restricted account.

The risk is greater for Microsoft Windows systems, as Windows has the largest user base and presents the most attractive target for cyber criminals. People using other operating systems such as OSX and Linux should not become complacent, as there are attacks for these platforms as well but the threat is not as severe.

Some of the most important things to protect is sensitive data such as Social Security Numbers, credit cards, bank information, and sensitive research. Do not store sensitive data on your systems unless you must. If you must, you need to ensure that this data is protected by keeping the operating system and applications up-to-date, using the system wisely, and encrypting the sensitive data. Encryption can be complex and opens up new challenges that will be discussed in a future DawgBytes article.

See The SIUC IT Security site at http://infotech.siu.edu/security for further information.

RezNet Wrap-up

RezNet Move-in Project (RMP) is an initiative that is geared towards helping students in the residence halls with Internet connectivity issues. RMP starts the Friday of move-in weekend and continues through the second week of each fall semester.

During the move-in weekend, RMP staff went door-to-door assisting with various aspects of connectivity. Staff members helped with Clean Access remediation, removal of malware and viruses, as well as password or PIN issues that students may have had. A Satellite Computer Support Center (SCSC) operated in the basement of Trueblood for the first two weeks of the semester where students received the same assistance as is offered on the weekend. The SCSC schedule was an eight-hour day except for the first two days, when the SCSC was open 9AM until 9PM in an effort to resolve students’ connectivity issues as quickly as possible.

RMP started four years ago with only nine people working in the residence halls. The volume of work has caused this project to grow to over 100 people providing assistance. Each of the past two years, approximately seventeen hundred students received assistance through RMP. Many RMP staff members have expressed satisfaction in being able to interact with, and provide assistance to students first-hand and they also view RMP as great opportunity for student recruitment and retention. Thanks to all who helped make this project a continuing success.

Did You Know?

Here are a couple of important phone numbers that may help you.

Have you ever questioned the actual phone number associated with a telephone or fax line unfamiliar to you? Dial 536-0049 and an automated voice response will respond with the phone number from which you are calling. This instant information may help you in checking your bill or requesting changes associated with that number and location.

"Express Messaging" is a service that can be used after hours or when a message needs to be left in a VoiceMail box bypassing the owner of the mailbox. Dial 536-0100, follow the prompts and record your message. When transferring a call, knowing the person is not available, utilize "Express Messaging" to save time and provide better "Customer Service". The same message may also be sent to multiple VoiceMail boxes. This assures everyone hears the same communication in a timely manner.

Also, as of mid-October, the division of Telecommunications Services that was housed on the first floor of the Student Center near the Information Desk relocated to Lentz Hall.

Questions or comments? Please call SIUC Telecommunications Services Department at 453-2484.
http://www.infotech.siu.edu/telecom/

A New Hire in the Computer Support Center (CSC)

In late August of this year, Erik Burton, an IT Support Associate, joined the Computer Support Center. His primary duties include resolving computer problems received in the CSC Call Center and assisting walk-in clients with solving computer issues. We took a few minutes to get to know Erik better and the answers we received show once again, our employees’ devotion and attraction to things technological.

Erick received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Grinnell College in Iowa. He confessed he has always been around and attracted to computers, as his father has been a developer since the days of punchcards. As a child, he would go to work with his father, playing games on the computer where he would fill up the screen with characters and make paths through the text by overtyping spaces, so he feels it may have been inevitable he’s end up in the computer field.

Erik came to Carbondale with his fiancée, who was hired as the Special Collections Cataloger at Morris Library, and this is his first position with SIU. Previously, Erik worked for American Family Insurance’s national headquarters in Madison, WI performing system testing, second level support, and writing queries for an in-house customer management and quoting tool. He also did programming in the summers and computer support in college.

Not counting his time in college and just building computers for fun, Erik has worked with computers for eight years. When asked if there was a special aspect of computing that attracts him he responded, “Computers can be an amazing tool and incredibly frustrating, and whether it’s through programming, testing, or support, I like trying to make them more the former than the latter. I also have a very analytical mind, so any opportunity to do problem solving or troubleshooting appeals to me.” This mindset makes Erik a perfect fit for his duties at the CSC.

Lest you think Erik is all work and no play, he also enjoys sailing, violin, and leather tooling along with what he terms “geeky vices” such as comics, computers, and sci-fi TV shows. He and his fiancée share their home with two crazy orange cats, a hedgehog and a turtle he has had since he was ten.

Archived Issues of Dawgbytes

This Summer 2007 issue of Dawgbytes includes articles on Electronic Forms and Digital Signatures; the Fall 2007 RezNet Move-In Project; and a new hire at the Computer Support Center. Links to archived issues of Dawgbytes are available at the end of the newsletter is available at this link.

The Spring 2007 issue of Dawgbytes, which includes articles on protecting computers and personal data at SIUC; Progress on the SIS Banner project at SIUC; SIUC campus wireless access maps; Microsoft Windows Vista; New Office 2007 Products Coming to Computer Learning Centers; Training from Microsoft for Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007; Identity Management; Subscribing to the Schooner News Server; and Data Encryption Software is available at this link.

The Fall 2006 issue of Dawgbytes, which includes articles on The RezNet Move-in Project; Campus Wide Printing Services; Software Site Licenses at SIUC; The Student Information System; The New Electronic Forms Service; Security Tips; and The SMART Boards Web Site is available at this link.

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