Technology news for UMD faculty, staff and students
December Workshops
12/04: Website Security and Password Control 101
Viz Lab Presents
12/5: 3:00pm, Erik Brown, LLO, "Developing innovative ways of visualizing records of tropical climate history, showing change in both time and space"
12/12: 12:00-1:00, Phil Choo, Art & Design, "Effective visual communication interface on the World Wide Web: Visualization and Digital Imaging Lab website project"
December 2003
Document imaging available on campus
UMD now has the capability to image most paper that is handled within a department. This new technology, ImageNow, scans documents into a computer and indexes them, making them available immediately to all staff with the click of a button.
Benefits of this technology include reducing paper and increasing staff efficiency due to the work flow features that make documents move electronically through the office. No more misplaced or misfiled documents because everything is indexed.
ImageNow, a document imaging system from Perceptive Vision, Inc., was first used in the Twin Cities Financial Aid department and the project proved highly successful. The UMD Office of the Registrar in both the areas of Financial Aids and Student Records have been using ImageNow since January. Three more departments on the Twin Cities Campus (Registrar, Human Resources Management System, and Admissions) and two additional Twin Cities' departments in the implementation phase (Graduate School and Sponsored Projects Administration) have chosen to take advantage of the benefits of the ImageNow technology.
If you would like to learn more or have questions about document imaging at UMD, contact Debbie Wing, ITSS (email:dwing@d.umn.edu or call 726-8784).
Connecting to Appletalk servers with OS 10.3 (Panther)
When using Macintosh OSX you connect to AppleShare servers by choosing "Connect to Server" from the bottom of the Finder's "Go" menu. In OS 10.3 (Panther) things have changed a bit.
When using Macintosh OSX you connect to AppleShare servers by choosing "Connect to Server" from the bottom of the Finder's "Go" menu.
One way of doing this is to enter the name of the server in the "Address:" box at the bottom of the "Connect to Server" window. However, this only works for servers that use AppleShare IP. Some older Macs, and ITSS's current Novell Office Server use an older AppleShare protocol. To connect to these servers in the "Connect to Server" window with OS 10.1-10.2 you'd select the AppleTalk zone the server is in and then select the server you want to connect to. AppleShare IP servers show up in the zone list, too.
In OS 10.3 (Panther) things have changed a bit. The "Connect to Server" option is still available under the Finders's "Go" menu, but you can now only type in a server's name. If the server doesn't share itself using AppleShare IP (or you don't recall its name) you can't use this window to connect since there are no AppleTalk zones displayed in the "Connect to Server" window any more.
Instead, in OS 10.3 you'll find the list of AppleTalk zones by clicking on the "Network" icon in the left-hand panel of any Finder window. (If you don't see this left-hand panel, click on the white button in the upper right-hand corner of the Finder window to change the window mode.)
After clicking on the "Network" icon in an OS 10.3 Finder window you should see a list of AppleTalk zones displayed (you'll probably want to have the Finder window set for List or Column view, rather than Icon view). Under each zone name you'll see a list of AppleTalk servers available (these may take a few seconds to display) and you can connect to a server by double-clicking on it.
You may also see other items displayed when selecting the "Network" icon such as "Local", "AppleTalk" and "DULUTH SCOPE". "Local" may display the servers in your zone/building and "AppleTalk" may display a duplicate list of AppleTalk zones. "DULUTH SCOPE" will probably be empty.
Just as in previous versions of OSX, to be able to see AppleTalk zones you'll need to have first enabled AppleTalk in the AppleTalk tab of the Built-in Ethernet settings of the "Network" System Preferences pane. This is off by default on new Macs.
A few buildings on campus (Library, Kirby Plaza) do not have AppleTalk "routed" outside of the building and Macintoshes in those buildings cannot see the list of AppleTalk zones to connect to AppleTalk servers outside of their building. They can, however, still connect to Appleshare IP servers by entering the server name in the "Connect to Server" window. When ITSS completes its upgrade of our Novell Office Server in the next few months it will be available through AppleShare IP to all Macintosh users on campus by entering its name in the "Connect to Server" window. OS 10.3 users will also be able to connect to it using the Novell server's native SMB protocol. Look for more information on that when the server upgrade is completed.
Email lists offer variety of info
ITSS maintains several email lists that provide information for the UMD campus. Each list is geared toward a particular subject; users who subscribe to a list receive periodic email updates and information from ITSS staff on the chosen subject.
ITSS currently maintains the following email lists:
| List Name | Description |
|---|---|
| infotech.announce | Find out about system status of ITSS services. Get the infotech.News email newsletter. |
| studenttech.announce | Find out about system status of ITSS services that affect students. Get the infotech.News email newsletter. |
| technology-training | Find out about training opportunities for faculty and staff. |
| webdev | Get weekly updates about current web design and development issues in the industry. |
It's easy to sign up for these and other UMD email lists. Just visit the Email Lists web page, enter your name and email address, select the email lists you'd like to join, and select "Subscribe". You can also use this web page to unsubscribe or to check your current list selections.
More information: Email Lists www.d.umn.edu/umdnews/email_lists.html
Check your email settings for best performance.
We're in the process of making more changes to our email system, and the result of these changes is that some email server settings that once worked do not, or soon will not, work.
What's changing?
Many years ago the server for all email settings was just "mail.d.umn.edu". We stopped recommending this quite a while ago and now recommend using:
- imap.d.umn.edu - for your incoming IMAP server
- pop.d.umn.edu - for your incoming POP server
- smtp.d.umn.edu - for your outgoing SMTP server
We're eliminating the "mail.d.umn.edu" address for incoming and outgoing email in order to have better control on how the mail load is distributed among our servers and to make sure that all mail gets screened for viruses and spam.
The mail.d.umn.edu setting stopped working for POP service a year or two ago, but still worked for IMAP service until last week. Before we made that change, we sent information to accounts that we detected were still using mail.d for their IMAP setting, but may not have caught everyone. If your IMAP email program hasn't been able to connect since last week, contact the ITSS Help Desk (x8841, helpdesk).
At the moment, the mail.d.umn.edu setting still works for outgoing SMTP service. However, we'll soon be eliminating that, and smtp.d.umn.edu will be the only setting that will work for SMTP (outgoing mail) service.
So please check your email program's settings to make sure you don't have "mail.d.umn.edu" listed for your incoming or outgoing servers. Mulberry users likely won't have to worry about this since their default settings would have been correct.
How often do you check for mail?
Another setting you might want to look at is how often your email program checks the server for new mail. The default for Mulberry and many other email programs is every 10 minutes. Some folks (anxious to get every message as soon as it comes in) have their setting boosted up to 5 or even 1 minute increments.
Each request to the mail server for a check for new mail puts additional load on the server, so making these checks more frequently can increase that load by 2 to 10 times. We recommend keeping this setting at 10 minutes.
If you have questions or problems with email settings contact The ITSS Help Desk (x8841, helpdesk).
More information: Configuring email clients at UMD www.d.umn.edu/itss/email/configure.html
Phishing scams on the rise
Phishing is the latest Internet scam to get people to share personal or financial information, such as passwords and credit-card numbers. The scammer sends an email that appears to be from a legitimate company (such as an ISP or bank). The email asks the recipient to update or validate billing information to keep the account active, and includes a link to a forged web site that looks nearly identical to the real company's site. If the person fills out and submits the form on the fake site, the data is sent to the scammer. Recent scams included eBay and Best Buy, where the emails directed people to web pages that looked nearly identical to the companies' sites.
In a recent article, the FBI called phishing the "hottest, and most troubling, new scam on the Internet."
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is working to protect consumers from identity theft and offers the following tips for avoiding this scam:
- If you get an email that warns you, with little or no notice, that an account of yours will be shut down unless you reconfirm your billing information, do not reply or click on the link in the email. Instead, contact the company using a phone number or address you know to be genuine.
- Before submitting financial information through a Web site, look for the "lock" icon on the browser's status bar. It signals that your information is secure during transmission.
- Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to determine whether there are any unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.
- Report suspicious activity to the FTC. Send the actual spam to uce@ftc.gov.
More information: ID Theft http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
info.tech.News is published monthly during the academic year by ITSS. An email digest is also sent to all users subscribed to the infotech.announce, UMD.business.announce and studenttech.announce. The goal is to distribute information useful to the daily routines of the University of Minnesota Duluth campus community in conjunction with computer and telephone technologies. Comments or suggestions may be sent to the editor at: sbradt@d.umn.edu.