CIT News: 2007 Archive

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CIT News

CIT Billing centralizes CIT bills (12/17/07)

Cornell Information Technologies is pleased to announce the new CIT Billing Office. This is part of our ongoing effort to consolidate billing for all of our "for fee" services and to provide the campus with a single place to go to for billing-related needs.

Starting December 17, the CIT Billing Office will be handling billing-related inquiries for CIT's phone and network services, as well as all tasks related to online bills. Please visit www.cit.cornell.edu/billing/ for a detailed list.

Aug. 4, 2-3 AM, CU Internet repair (8/1/07)

From 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Saturday, August 4, Cornell's primary commodity Internet connection -- along with NLR, NeLR, Internet2, and the Teragrid -- will be unavailable.

Cornell's backup commodity Internet connection will still be available, so there should *not* be any interruption in general Internet use for the campus community, or in the use of the campus networks.

The Teragrid will remain unavailable during the outage. Most of the sites on NLR, NeLR, and Internet2 will be reachable via Cornell's backup connection.

Please note that the backup connection is lower speed (100 Mbps) than the primary connection, so performance may seem slower than usual. The user community is asked to defer high-bandwidth traffic during the outage to preserve usability for the community at large.

This outage is necessary so that One Communication, the provider of Cornell's primary Internet connection, can repair damaged fiber. CIT staff will test and verify the repaired fiber.

Questions or concerns may be directed to Ed Kiefer at ehk8@cornell.edu or 254-6749.

Thank you for your understanding.

Aug. 5 computing services outage (posted 7/24/07)

From 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 5, many central computing services will be unavailable.

Affected services include e-mail, Cornell University Library online services, CUinfo, Blackboard, the Electronic Directory, Cornell mailing lists, PeopleSoft, and many others.

Please see the complete list.

Cornell's main site (www.cornell.edu) is expected to be available during this outage, with the exception of some features, such as the event calendar.

You should be able to access the Internet and Cornell online services that are not affected by the outage. We expect that ResNet, RedRover, building networks, EZ-Remote, Express Lane, Kerberos, CUWebLogin, and the Permit Server will all be available; however, there may be brief interruptions.

This outage is necessary so that CIT can upgrade the switches in its server room.

During the outage, concerns or questions can be directed to 255-9900. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Computing services unavailable during Aug. 5 shutdown
(5 a.m. through 2 p.m.)

This list represents many, but not necessarily, all of the services that will be affected.

E-mail services, including Eudora, Thunderbird, WebMail, and
uPortal.Cornell E-mail (all mail will be delivered when outage is over)
eList (Cornell's mailing lists)

Directory services (including Electronic Directory, LDAP, and Who I Am)

CUinfo (www.cuinfo.cornell.edu)

Blackboard

Cornell University Library online services

Course sites hosted on Instruct1

Course Technologies web hosting

Faculty Support Services discussion boards

HeinOnline law journals (heinonline.org)

Instruct3/Research accounts and web sites

Instructional streaming audio/video service

Law School services on LAW1 server

Computing at Cornell web site (www.cit.cornell.edu)

Cornell events calendar

CU People web pages

CyberTower (cybertower.cornell.edu)

EZ-Backup

Lab of Ornithology web wite (www.birds.cornell.edu)

Net-Print (printing in labs, public spaces)

NUBB (Network Usage-Based Billing)

Oracle Calendar

PeopleSoft

Human Resources and Facilities web services

Many administrative systems [COLTS II and Kronos, Conflict of Interest, CoursEnroll, Faculty Advisor, Grad School systems (Field Reports, RUR, SCSC), Joint Records Processing, Just the Facts, PEDL (Position and Employee Data Lookup), Registrar Transcripts, SES (Student Employment System), SJP (Student Job Postings), SPD (Staff Position Description), WTL (Warning and Termination Letters)]

Active Directory

ARTS imaging

CATS (Asset Transfer System)

CIT FTP server

CITFS

CornellC mainframe

EZ-Print

EZRA (Easy Research Administration)

GuestID self-service

Identity Management Developers web site

Identity Management Request Tracker

KEW HR Data Access

kProxy

NetID Administrator

NetID Manager (activation, password reset)

Pinnacle billing

Policy Acknowledgment Architecture

Request Tracker (RT)

ResNet registration server

Remedy

Shibboleth

SourceForge

SSL certificate service

UseNet

Vantive

VPN

WebSurveyor (CIT-hosted)

Wondering about iPhone and Cornell? (6/29/07)

With the much anticipated arrival of the new Apple iPhone, there are a few points that we in CIT feel are prudent for Cornellians to understand regarding this service.

First, the iPhone is being offered exclusively by AT&T Wireless (previously Cingular) at AT&T retail store locations, in Apple Stores, or by going to Apple's online store.

Second, the iPhone is currently being released as a consumer product. That means that, until further notice, these phones are not eligible to receive any type of discounted pricing or plans that Cornell currently qualifies for as part of our existing cellular procurement procedures.

Third, procurement of an iPhone is considered a "personal" expense and must be paid for and activated under an individual, not corporate, plan. In signing up for this service as an individual, you'll need to provide personal information, including a valid credit card, and taxes will apply. With such an arrangement, you will be the owner of record with AT&T, not Cornell. It is anticipated that there may be corporate plans rolled out in the future; however, this has not been substantiated by Apple or AT&T to date.

If there is a departmental need for an iPhone and associated service, it is recommended that the proper authorizations within your department be obtained if reimbursement(s) are expected for employees.

More detailed iPhone information from Apple:

EZ-Backup available for Windows Vista (5/7/07)

EZ-Backup software is now available for Windows Vista.

To install and configure EZ-Backup for Vista, go to this link. If you are on a departmental network, please consult your technical support staff first. This software is version 5.4.0.2 of Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM). For details on this version, see the frequently asked questions link.

EZ-Backup is a fee-based service that automatically backs up files on computers and servers and allows you to restore files yourself. It is available for Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, Linux, Novell, and other operating systems.

CIT Onsite Solutions can install and configure EZ-Backup software for departments upon request. Email onsitesolutions@cornell.edu or call 254-3535. There is a fee.

E-mail file size increased to 50 MB (3/6/07)

Effective March 1, 2007, you can send larger e-mail messages on weekdays. The e-mail file size limit has been increased from 15 megabytes (MB) to 50 MB per e-mail from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. The existing 100 MB limit for evenings and weekends remains the same.

Please note some important factors:

The size of an e-mail message is the text of the message plus any attachments. Keep in mind that the encoding needed to attach a file to an e-mail message increases the size of that file.
If you use WebMail, the largest email message you can send is 50 MB at all times.
If you use the uPortal.Cornell e-mail channel, the largest email message you can send is 3 MB at all times.
Every Cornell e-mail account holder can only have 300 MB of mail stored on CIT's e-mail servcrs. Sending large e-mail messages may fill up the recipient's mailbox and prevent any other mail from being received.
Cornell account holders may experience time-outs when sending large files over slow connections (such as dial-up).

CIT's newest spam defense is TrafficControl (3/6/07)

CIT is continuing to reduce the amount of spam that reaches Cornell e-mail users with a new spam defense, MailChannels's Traffic Control. When high-volume or poorly behaved sites (for example, spammers) send e-mail to Cornell, Traffic Control responds by slowing down the speed of their e-mail traffic.

If a site or domain is mistakenly slowed by Traffic Control, CIT can reinstate (or whitelist) it so that its e-mail comes in full speed.

CIT began testing TrafficControl late in 2006 and determined that TrafficControl assists PureMessage, CIT's antispam/antivirus software, by reducing the amount of spam that Cornell servers have to process.

Some computers may need Daylight Saving Time update (3/6/07)

As you may know, Daylight Saving Time will start 3 weeks earlier this year, on Sunday, March 11, and end 1 week later, on November 4.

Most Windows and Mac computers require an operating system update to accommodate the new Daylight Saving Time period.

Your computer should be all set if ... (a) it runs Windows XP (SP2), Mac 10.3, or Mac 10.4, and (b) it is set to allow automatic updates from Microsoft or Apple, and (c) it has been updated since Feb. 16, 2007

Windows Vista does not need updating.

If your computer does not allow automatic updates, or if it is running an older Windows or Mac OS, you will need to update it manually. Please see CIT's Daylight Saving Time page.

If you use other networked devices, such as a smartphone or PDA, you may also need to update them to accommodate this change; look for instructions from your device's manufacturer.

Not updating your computer may result in problems in mid-March to early April and again in late Oct. to early Nov. each year when software and services that interact with your computer's clock are used. (Your computer will still be adjusting for the old Daylight Saving Time period, which began the first Sunday in April and ended the last Sunday in October.)

If you have questions or concerns, please email the Contact Center at helpdesk@cornell.edu or call 255-8990.

PeopleSoft, CornellC services outage 2/17-18

CIT will be moving the PeopleSoft and COLTS systems to different servers, and installing a new mainframe, over the weekend of Feb. 17-18.

From approximately 9 p.m. on Fri., Feb. 16, through 8 a.m. on Mon., Feb. 19, these systems will be unavailable: PeopleSoft 8.9 (Human Resources, Payroll, Alumni Affairs and Development, and Student Administration); COLTS; SES (Student Employment); PEDL (Position Employee Data Lookup); WTL (Warning Termination Letters); Just the Facts; NetID creation; and NetID activation for faculty and staff.

Also, from approximately 6 am through 12 noon on Sat., Feb. 17, CornellC mainframe services will not be available. The mainframe hosts services for Accounting, Admissions, Budget, Bursar, Campus Life, Financial Aid, Institutional Planning, Inventory Management, Loan Management, Purchasing, Registrar/Student Information (including Just The Facts) and Traffic. Specific services include VM/CMS, MVS batch jobs, MVS/TSO, EZ-Print printing, FTP to VM and FTP to MVS.

During the outages, concerns or questions can be directed to the Network Operations Center at 255-9900.

Last modified: December 31, 2007