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Information Technology Services (ITS)

Previous Computing Service Alerts

The following previous notices are provided for reference, but should not be regarded as current information. See the Information Technology Services Web site for current information pertaining to services and resources. If you need assistance, contact the appropriate support staff.

Return to ITS alerts page

September 2006

  • Angel slowness (9/5/06)
    ANGEL is currently experiencing system slowness which is causing delays in bring-up the homepage, logging in, and moving around within a course. Information Technology Services (ITS) is actively working towards a solution to resolve this issue. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

August 2006

  • University Libraries Servers Scheduled Down Time (8/28/06)
    Digital Library Technologies (DLT), a unit of Information Technology Services will disable several of the Library servers on Tuesday August 29th from 8:00 PM until Midnight. The down time will be to address issues that were discovered following a recent power shutdown. There will be intermittent down time for many services such as the LIAS/Libraries home page, The CAT, and other Electronic Resources. All services should be operational by Midnight. Service will be affected starting on August 29, 2006 at 8:00PM. The estimated time of resolution is August 30, 2006 at 12:01AM. For more information, please contact Peggy Myers at the DLT Helpdesk (863-0647). Thank you for your patience!

  • Battery Recall/Exchange Program for iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 (8/25/06)
    Apple has determined that certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances. Please visit their Battery Exchange Program page for more information.

  • Status of WebMail2 (8/18/06)
    The hardware problem with WebMail2's back-end file system that started around noon on Thursday, August 17, 2006, was identified at 6:43 p.m., and we have since replaced the partially failing adapter. The back-end file system was confirmed to be stable before reporting that WebMail2 was no longer experiencing any problems at 8:41 p.m. last evening. WebMail2's back-end file system was designed to have redundancy in place for many failure conditions. Unfortunately the one we had today, was only a partial failure. These types of failures are much harder to protect against. Thank you for your patience during this time. If you are still experiencing problems with WebMail2, please contact the ITS Help Desks at helpdesk@psu.edu. We apologize for any inconvenience that this outage has caused, and appreciate your patience during this time.

  • Safety advisory: Dell notebook battery recall (8/16/06)

  • UPDATE: Penn State WebMail2 Outage - Friday, August 11, 2006 (8/11/06)

  • Power Outage to Affect Library Services August 15 (8/10/06)
    Penn State's Office of Physical Plant will shut off the power in the ITS Digital Library Technologies Computer Room, Tuesday, August 15, from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. in order to reconfigure circuits. The power will be off only in the Digital Library Technologies Computer Room. This outage will affect all Library computing services, i.e., LIAS, and other on-line library resources. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

  • 'Student Services' e-mail is a scam (8/4/06)
    E-mail messages claiming to be from "Penn State Student Services" and offering free laptop computers began appearing in e-mail boxes this morning. These e-mails did not come from Penn State, and may be part of a phishing scam. Anyone who receives these e-mails should delete them, and should not respond to them.

  • UPDATE - TSM Server Upgrade Statuss (8/1/06)
    The TSM server upgrade that was begun at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 29, 2006 is taking longer than originally anticipated. The entire upgrade is comprised of four major phases, all of which took longer than expected to complete - despite rigorous testing on the new system. During the test period, phase 1 took approximately 1 hour, phase 2 took approximately 4 hours, phase 3 took approximately 45 hours, and the final phase took 23 hours. While the test was performed multiple times, any differentials in timing were within one hour. The actual time for each part has been much longer than expected. As of today at 10:30 a.m., the final phase was begun. If it is completed in 23 hours as estimated, then the total upgrade should be completed by 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 2, inclusive of final maintenance. Because of schedules, restores from the old server will no longer function as of 8:00 a.m. on August 2. They will resume on the new server, once the entire upgrade is completed. We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause you/your staff. Thank you for your patience during this time.

July 2006

  • Penn State WebMail Users Migrated to New and Improved WebMail2 During August (7/27/06)
    Beginning on August 3, 2006, ITS will migrate current Penn State WebMail users to the new and improved version, WebMail2. Originally WebMail was designed as an e-mail reader for users-on-the-go. Since its creation in 2000, it has grown in popularity and is now used as a primary e-mail client throughout the entire University community, serving more than 55,000 users per day. WebMail2 is designed to meet this growing demand. In order for the Penn State community to fully enjoy WebMail2's new and improved features, groups of users of the current WebMail service will be migrated to the new system, on a daily basis, throughout the entire month of August. The conversion will be completed by the first day of classes on September 5. Daily migrations will occur only between the hours of 1:00 and 6:00 a.m. Those who are being migrated will not be able to access e-mail via WebMail during his/her migration. Should users attempt to access WebMail during the migration time frame, detailed error messages will be in place within the WebMail client to inform users that migration is taking place for their respective accounts. With the culmination of this effort, WebMail users will be able to enjoy a number of new features, including 500MB of fast and dedicated e-mail storage space (in addition to an original gigabyte of PASS space); a tabbed interface; filters for organizing mail and filtering spam; an enhanced message composition screen with an HTML editor and improved spell checker; and, customizable interface themes. For additional information and migration details, please visit http://aset.its.psu.edu and https://webmail.psu.edu/.

  • NLR planned network outage July 26 (7/19/06)
    Due to hardware work being performed by 3ROX in Pittsburgh, the National LambdaRail (NLR) PacketNet service will be down on Wednesday, July 26 from approximately 6:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. All NLR PacketNet traffic will be carried via 3ROX's Internet2 connection. If there are any questions regarding this planned outage please contact the Network Operations Center at 814-865-4662. For information about NLR, see the Penn State NLR Web site: http://its.psu.edu/nlr/

  • ANGEL to be unavailable during upgrade July 28 & July 29 (7/19/06)
    From 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, July 28 until midnight Eastern Time on July 29, ANGEL will be unavailable to users. During that time period, Information Technology Services (ITS) will be performing a hardware upgrade for ANGEL. While ITS regrets causing any inconvenience, this is a major hardware upgrade that will significantly improve performance and increase storage.

  • Major File Backup Service Upgrade and Outage Scheduled for July 29 - August 1, 2006 (7/17/06)
    Beginning at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 29, Information Technology Services (ITS) will perform a major upgrade to the hardware and software that supports its Distributed File Backup Service, sometimes referred to as TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager). The upgrade will be completed by 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 1. more...

    PSU Gina to End 07/06/06 (7/3/06)

June 2006

  • Emergency Maintenance re: email.psu.edu Scheduled for Saturday, July 1, 2006 (6/29/06)

  • VoIP Outage Resolved (6/21/06)
    Voice over IP services at University Park were degraded this morning from 7:00 am to approximately 12:00 pm. At 12:00 pm, after several hours of troubleshooting, we reverted to a backup image of the system taken yesterday afternoon.

    The operating system upgrades on the call-processing servers appeared to go smoothly, but apparently introduced an issue with the CallManager software causing latency, slow telephone registration, and failed registration of voice mail ports and external call gateways. More investigation remains. TNS is working with Cisco to further troubleshoot the problem.

    Thank you for your patience during our troubleshooting and recovery this morning.

  • Analog Dial-Up Modems to be Decommissioned at University Park University Park, PA (6/14/06)
    On July 1, 2006, Information Technology Services (ITS) will decommission the remaining analog dial-up modems at University Park that answer to 814-863-6666, 814-865-6666, or 814-865-7777. Although these older modem numbers will forward to a working number for a period of time, all dial-up connections to University Park should now be configured with 814-863-2222 or 814-865-2222. Note that consumers are responsible for understanding the options and rates provided by telephone service companies. Inquiries or concerns related to charges for the use of dial-up numbers should be directed to local telephone service representatives. Additional information, details, and dial-up numbers for all campus locations are found at http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/dialup/ and general dial-up modem access information is found at http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/dialup/modem.html. Questions and requests for assistance related to dial-up services should be directed to ITS Help Desk staff at helpdesk@psu.edu.

  • SYMANTEC SECURITY THREAT (6/7/06)
    Penn State users of the Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10 client software for Windows XP and Windows 2000 (hereafter referred to as SAVCE) should patch their software to prevent exposure to a recently discovered security exploit in the SAVCE code.

    NOTE: Using LiveUpdate to update the antivirus file definitions will NOT fix the problem. Users must install a specific "fix" or "patch" to protect against the potential exploit.

    End users or their local computer support staff will need to install the patch. In university offices, departments, and areas running Symantec servers in managed mode, the patch should be handled by system administrator personnel with no end user involvement. If you're not sure which mode you use, please check with your system administrator. Finally, all users of SAVCE10 on their personally owned home computers should install the patch. Additional background information and specific instructions for patch installation on unmanaged/personally owned machines is available at http://helpdesk.psu.edu/sav/sym06-010.html.

May 2006

  • Server Certificate on email Servers (5/23/06)
    On Tuesday, May 23, 2006, Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), will replace the certificates on both email.psu.edu and mail.psu.edu. Users of some clients may note that their respective e-mail clients display an alert about the new certificate. Users should be directed to simply accept the message (by clicking , etc.) to accept the certificate. Inquiries for assistance and/or problem reports should be directed to the ITS Help Desk staff at helpdesk@psu.edu.

  • Electrical Shutdown May 17 Could Affect Cingular Cell Service (5/15/06)
    Physical Plant will conduct an electrical shutdown at Beaver Stadium on Wednesday, May 17, 2006, from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., which will affect power to Cingular's cell site. This may affect Cingular cell phone service for a brief period. If you have questions regarding this shutdown, please contact the Office of Physical Plant at 814-863-2340. See http://www.opp.psu.edu/about/contact.cfm for additional contact information.

  • Problems with email.psu.edu - identified and resolved May 9, 2006 (5/9/06)
    On Tuesday, May 9 at approximately 7:00 a.m., Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), began to experience problems with the machine that supports email.psu.edu and CACTUS (Central Accounts Coordination Tracking of User Services) during regular system maintenance. The following services were unavailable:

    • email.psu.edu
    • the Penn State Access Account Signature Stations at all locations
    • the ITS Digital Identity Management Center (also known as the ITS Consultants' Interface)

    The problem, related to the machine's hardware, was identified and resolved at approximately 8:20 a.m. Questions and requests for assistance should be directed to ITS Help Desk staff at helpdesk@psu.edu.

April 2006

  • Continued Problems With Servers Hosting PASS/DFS/DCE (4/27/06)
    Information Technology Services (ITS) is again experiencing problems with access to the back-end servers hosting Penn State Access Account Storage Space (PASS). Services affected include any that use PASS, such as (but not limited to) the Penn State Portal, Penn State WebMail, Personal Web space/PASS, and Directory Services. Thank you for your patience during this time. Problem reports should be directed to the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@psu.edu.

  • Intermittent Outages Noted with ldap.psu.edu (4/26/06)
    On Tuesday, April 25 and Wednesday, April 26 Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), noted some very short, intermittent outages on ldap.psu.edu. Though most outages were less than five minutes in length, it's possible that the following services were affected:
    • ANGEL
    • Penn State WebMail
    • Penn State Portal
    • https://downloads.its.psu.edu/
    • ITS Secure Server
    An update will be provide once this problem is resolved. Inquiries and problem reports should be directed to ITS Help Desk staff at helpdesk@psu.edu. We apologize if this has caused you or your staff any inconvenience. Thank you for your patience during this time.

  • Update on Internet1 Slowness (4/19/06)
    There continues to be sporadic periods of poor performance reaching various Internet1 sites. Over the past weeks ITS has been working with the PSU service provider, 3ROX, to isolate the source of the slowness or to make adjustments to lessen it's impact on Internet1 traffic. Further updates to follow.

March 2006

  • ITS Ends Support for Older Operating Systems (3/24/06)
    As previously announced, Information Technology Services (ITS) is ending support for Windows 98, Windows 98SE and Windows Millennium Edition (ME) operating systems on June 30, 2006. ITS is ending support for these operating systems, because vendors no longer provide support for them, and a growing number of newer applications will not run on them. As a result, fewer and fewer users still have these systems. ITS urges all users and support personnel to upgrade their software (and hardware, if necessary) to ensure they are running supported operating systems. For assistance obtaining operating system upgrades or new equipment, contact the Computer Store at (814) 865-2100 or (800) 251-9281.

February 2006

  • Special Alert Update re: problems continue with email.psu.edu - February 9, 2006 (2/9/06)
    Problems with email.psu.edu's replacement hardware continue; the ITS E-mail Team is working to resolve this issue and hopes to resolve it as soon as possible. As a result, email.psu.edu is working at limited capacity and intermittent outages may occur.

  • Special Alert: email.psu.edu experiencing problems - update Wednesday, February 8, 2006 (2/8/06)
    At approximately 10:30 a.m. today, email.psu.edu began to experience some problems with its hardware. The ITS E-mail Team has been working throughout the day with the vendor, IBM, to fix the problem, and hope to have a resolution soon. Though email.psu.edu is running, connections are being limited until a solution can be fully implemented.

January 2006

December 2005

  • Scheduled Maintenance to Impact Several Penn State Access Account-related Services, Beginning December 17, 2005 (12/8/05)
    On Saturday, December 17, 2005, Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), will perform a two-level maintenance upgrade to the dce.psu.edu authentication cell. As a result, several services reliant upon Penn State's digital identity management infrastructure will be unavailable, as noted below. Please note that in order to insure optimal maintenance conditions, Penn State Access Account joins will be suspended as of 4:00 p.m. on Friday, December 16. more...

November 2005

  • Internet Outage Resolved(11/28/05)
    This morning we experienced an Internet outage with our Internet provider due to a power outage. The outage has been resolved.
    During the outage, sites outside of Penn State were not accessible.

September 2005

  • Outage scheduled for Tuesday, September 27 (9/23/05)
    On Tuesday, September 27, 2005, between 5:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. (rescheduled from September 19), Academic Services and Emerging Technologies, a unit of Information Technology Services, will perform maintenance to the servers supporting authentication for systems/services that use MIT's Kerberos 5 KDCs for authentication. The following services will be unavailable during this time:
    • Microsoft Windows Active Directory Service at Penn State (and other domains with a direct trust to the ASET-managed MIT Kerberos 5 servers)
    • Linux and Macintosh Lab machines (Student Computing Labs)
    • Identity Management interface (formerly the Consultants' interface)
    • "Change Password" utility furnished via the ITS Secure Server.
    In addition, the change will implement immediate Kerberos replication. This means that any Access Account change (password changes, locks, adds, etc.) will be instantaneous, eliminating the current fifteen minute propagation delay. It is very likely that the total outage time will be very brief, perhaps only a few minutes, but additional time has been allotted for any troubleshooting that may need to occur. Though this update is scheduled during the regular systems/services maintenance window, the services noted above *specifically* cannot be used during this time. We apologize if this outage causes you/your staff any inconvenience. Thank you for your patience during this time.

  • AOL Rejecting E-mail (9/16/05)

  • Outage scheduled for Thursday, September 15 re: Change Password utility (9/14/05)
    On Thursday, September 15, 2005, between 5:30 and 7:00 a.m., Academic Services and Emerging Technologies, a unit of Information Technology Services, will update the "Change Password" utility furnished via the ITS Secure Server. Though the update is scheduled to occur during the regular systems/services maintenance window, this particular utility will not be available until after the update is made. The update will enforce stronger password creation. Specifically, users will be *required* to create passwords that are at least 8 characters but no more than 32 characters in length. Please note that once the update occurs, the new guidelines will be noted on the "Change Password" utility page. We apologize if this outage causes you/your staff any inconvenience. Thank you for your patience during this time.

August 2005

July 2005

June 2005

  • Online Library Services to be Down Starting Tonight (6/2/05)
    All online Penn State University Libraries services will be down beginning at 11 p.m. Thursday, June 2, through approximately 6 a.m. Friday, June 3, for critical maintenance. During this time all services will be offline and unavailable, including The CAT, databases and Web pages. For more information, contact the DLT Helpdesk at (814) 863-0647.

May 2005

  • ITS Ends Support for Older Operating Systems (5/10/05)
    Information Technology Services (ITS) is ending support for MAC OS 8.x, Windows NT, and Windows 98 operating systems. MAC OS 8.x and below will end on June 30, 2005. Windows NT will end on June 30, 2005. Windows 98 and 98SE will end on June 30, 2006. ITS is ending support for these operating systems, because vendors no longer provide support for them, and many modern applications will not run on them. As a result, very few users still have these systems. Microsoft ended support for Windows NT 4 in 2004 and has announced plans to drop support for Windows 98 in June 2006. ITS urges all users and support personnel to upgrade their software (and hardware, if necessary) to ensure they are running supported operating systems. For assistance obtaining operating system upgrades or new equipment, contact the Computer Store at (814) 865-2100 or (800) 251-9281.

  • ANGEL to be unavailable during May 14 upgrade (5/5/05)
    On Saturday, May 14, 2005 from 5:00 a.m. to noon Eastern Time, ANGEL will be unavailable to users. During that time period, Information Technology Services will be upgrading ANGEL to version 6.2. The upgrade will include new course tools as well as enhancements to existing tools. For a list of new features, see http://cmshelp.psu.edu/NewFeatures.htm.

April 2005

  • Special Alert: email.psu.edu experiencing intermittent outages Friday, April 1, 2005 (4/1/05)
    At approximately noon today, email.psu.edu began to experience some problems again with inbound connections. The ITS E-mail Team has been working throughout the day to fix the problem, and hope to have it resolved very soon. Until the repairs are complete, users may experience intermittent connection problems.

March 2005

  • Special Alert: email.psu.edu experiencing intermittent outages Thursday, March 31, 2005 (3/31/05)
    At approximately 11:00 a.m. today, email.psu.edu began to experience some problems with inbound connections. The ITS E-mail Team has been working throughout the day to fix the problem, and hope to have the problem resolved later this evening. Until the repairs are completed, users may experience intermittent connection problems.

  • Emergency Maintenance re: email.psu.edu Scheduled for Sunday, March 6, 2005 (3/4/05)
    On Sunday, March 6, 2005, from 7:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m., Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), will perform emergency system maintenance to the machine that supports email.psu.edu and CACTUS (Central Accounts Coordination Tracking of User Sevices). During this time the following sevices will be unavailable:
    • email.psu.edu
    • the Penn State Access Account Signature Stations at all locations
    • the ITS Digital Identity Management Center (also known as the ITS Consultants' Interface)
    Questions and requests for assistance may be directed to the ITS Help Desk staff at helpdesk@psu.edu. We apologize if this causes any inconvenience to you and your staff. Please share this information with your staff and colleagues, as appropriate. Thank you for your patience during this time.

  • Libraries Catalog to Be Unavailable for 19 Hours (3/3/05)
    Penn State University Libraries will be performing system maintenance on The CAT, the online catalog, from 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 4, 2005, through noon on Saturday, March 5, 2005. The CAT will not be available during this period. more...
February 2005
  • Termination of Symantec Support for NAV 7.6 and ITS Support of Windows 95 (2/9/05)
    Symantec Corporation has announced that it will terminate support for older versions of Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition. Support for version 7.6 will end in March 2005, and support for Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition version 8.0 will end in October 2005. Information Technology Services (ITS) urges all users and support personnel to ensure that they are running supported versions, either version 9 or version 8.1. The Symantec antivirus product for Apple computers is not affected by this announcement. ITS support for Windows 95 will be terminated March 31, 2005. With support termination for Norton AntiVirus version 7.6, the ITS site-licensed Symantec products no longer provide a supported antivirus product for the Windows 95 platform. Because antivirus protection is a key computing requirement and Windows 95 has been replaced by newer Microsoft offerings, the ITS Help Desks and the ITS Workbench will no longer assist users with Windows 95 operating system issues after March 31, 2005. Current Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition client software can be found on the PAC-ITS CD version 7.0 available from the ITS Help Desks in 215 Computer Building and 2 Willard Building as well as on-line at https://downloads.its.psu.edu.

January 2005

  • E-MAIL SECURITY CHANGES MUST BE MADE BY FEB 1 (1/24/05)
    The deadline for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) changes, originally planned for Jan. 25, has recently been extended to Feb 1 to help accommodate individuals who have not yet made the modifications in their e-mail software. Beginning February 1 next month, all students, faculty, and staff who use ITS e-mail services will be required to check e-mail via a secure-only connection using SSL, a type of software that encrypts (or scrambles) individual userids and passwords when users check e-mail via mail.psu.edu or email.psu.edu. The SSL changes are part of Penn State's on-going security effort to make e-mail correspondence at the University safer. University officials urge all computer users in the Penn State community to set up the SSL configuration (outlined at http://helpdesk.psu.edu/email/sslconfig.html) in their e-mail software, if they haven't yet done so. (Note: these changes are not necessary for those who rely solely on Penn State WebMail to access their e-mail.) According to officials at ITS, notices have been sent out to all students, faculty and staff who have not yet made the SSL changes, stating that it's critical the SSL configuration is made, or they will not be able to access e-mail after February 1st. To learn more about Penn State's SSL initiative, go to http://live.psu.edu/story/8931. Students, faculty and staff who have questions regarding how to configure e-mail software for SSL should contact the ITS Help Desk at (814) 863-2494 or (814) 863-1035.

  • FIT & AIMS Outage on Friday, February 4 from 5:00 p.m. to 12:01 a.m. (1/24/05)
    On Friday, February 4 from 5:00 PM to 12:01 AM there will be an outage for FIT & AIMS services which retrieve data from the mainframe. The mainframe will be undergoing a software update at this time. During this time frame FIT & AIMS will not be available for use.

  • SSN Conversion Complete: New PSU IDs in Effect (1/3/05)

December 2004

November 2004

  • Shields Building Power Outage (11/23/04)
    The Shields Building will be upgrading its backup electric generator system Sunday, December 5 from 12:01 a.m. to 10 a.m. Electrical Power will be shut off to the building during this period. Some AIS systems and services -- including ACOM, BCOM, ADA227, eLion, EIS, eDDS, FIT and AIMS -- will be temporarily unavailable from approximately 11 p.m., Saturday, December 4 through 10 a.m., December 5. Those systems/services NOT affected by the outage will be: CCOM, DCOM and ANGEL. For questions, please contact the AIS Support Center at ais-support@psu.edu or at 863-2276. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

  • Shields Building Power Outage updated (11/2/04)
    Shields Building will be upgrading their backup electric generator system Sunday, November 7 from 12:01 a.m. through noon. Electrical Power will be shut off to the building during this period.  Some AIS systems and services -- including ACOM, BCOM, ADA227, eLion, EIS, eDDS, FIT and AIMS -- will be temporarily unavailable from approximately 11 p.m., Saturday, November 6 through noon, November 7. Those systems/services not affected by the outage will be: CCOM, DCOM and ANGEL.

October 2004

  • TNS will be taking Telecom1 router offline to complete hardware upgrades. (10/20/04)
    On Thursday 10/21/04, beginning at 5:30 AM, TNS will be taking Telecom1 router offline to complete hardware upgrades. All services provided by Telecom1 router to include Internet1 and Internet2 traffic will be unavailable during the hardware upgrade. All work will be completed and services restored by 7:30 AM. If you have any questions regarding this planned outage please contact the TNS NOC at 865-4662. If you are unsure whether your network will be affected by this work, please visit the following URL for a complete listing of router interfaces and users: http://argon.ops.tns.its.psu.edu/data/interfaces.html

August 2004

July 2004

June 2004

May 2004 April 2004 March 2004

February 2004

January 2004

  • Virus alert: W32.Novarg.A@mm (Mydoom) mass-mailing worm (1/30/04)

  • Virus alert mail from "psu.edu's Internet Virus Department" not legitimate: (posted 1/16/04) Fake e-mail messages are circulating. The message purports to come from "psu.edu's Internet Virus Department" and invites the user to click a link. This is not a legitimate message. Do not follow the instructions in the message. If you are in doubt about any message you receive, contact SOS at 814-863-9533.

November 2003

October 2003

September 2003

  • New MS RPC Vulnerability, Immediate Patch Required (posted (9/10/03) A new RPC related critical patch has been released by Microsoft. It is imperative that all system and network administrators ensure that machines in their areas have the applicable patches for the MS RPC vulnerability addressed in Microsoft security bulletin MS03-039. more...

  • ANGEL System Outage - Sept. 4, 2003 (posted (9/4/03) Due to a recent performance decline we are performing an unscheduled hardware upgrade on the ANGEL system. ANGEL was taken offline at 4:30 p.m. and we expect to be back online by 8:00 a.m. Friday or earlier. more...
August 2003
  • MS RPC Vulnerability, Immediate Patch Required: (posted (8/8/03) It is imperative that all system and network administrators ensure that machines in their areas have the applicable patches for the MS RPC vulnerability that was addressed in Microsoft security bulletin MS03-026. more...

July 2003

  • Google Search Appliance Replaces Current Penn State Search Engine: (posted (7/28/03) In an effort to improve the current Penn State search engine, Ultraseek, Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), will transition to the Google Search Appliance on August 11. more...

  • Blocking of Ports at Campus Border May Cause Change in Access to Penn State Network: (posted (7/28/03) This notice is important to those who use a non-Penn State network connection to access Windows and Windows-like file services at Penn State, including the PASS space via the PASS gateway, the UDrive, and shared folders on college, departmental, and private computers. Beginning on July 28, users will need to install and use software (a Virtual Private Network, "VPN" client) to access these services. No other applications will be impacted by this change, such as web servers, mail, remote desktop, FTP, SSH, etc. more...

  • Cable TV Outages Planned at University Park (posted 7/1/03) The following campus buildings will experience University Park Cable TV service outages (of up to 8 hours in duration) while TNS completes the final phase of a multi-year project to relocate fiber optic feeds. more...

June 2003

  • Virus Alert: W32.Sobig.E@mm Virus (posted 6/25/03) A recently discovered variant of the W32.Sobig.A@mm worm poses a threat to Windows operating systems. W32.Sobig.E@mm is a mass-mailing worm that sends itself to all the email addresses that it finds in files with the certain extensions (.html, .txt, etc.) more...

  • Virus Alert: W32.Bugbear@mm (posted 6/6/03) W32.Bugbear.B@mm worm is a variant of W32.Bugbear@mm. A mass-mailing worm that also spreads through network shares, possesses keystroke-logging and backdoor capabilities, and attempts to terminate the processes of various antivirus and firewall programs. more...

May 2003

  • Virus Alert: W32/Palyh (posted 5/22/03) A recently discovered worm known as W32/Palyh-A poses a threat on Windows operating systems at Penn State. The Palyh-A worm, which is also known by the names W32.Sobig.B@mm, W32/Mankx, and W32.HLLW.Mankx@mm, spreads by e-mail. It appears to arrive as a .PIF attachment, pretends to originate from support@microsoft.com, and attempts to copy itself to network shares. more...
February 2003
  • Penn State WebMail Upgrade (posted 2/10/03) In an effort to improve the performance of Penn State WebMail, ASET has upgraded the "leave e-mail on server" default option. more...

January 2003

  • Virus Alert: Sobig - W32.Sobig.A@mm (posted 1/20/03) The Sobig virus is spreading rapidly throughout the Penn State community. more..

2002

  • Netnews News Server Upgrade Scheduled for January 7, 2002 (posted 12/19/02) In an effort to continue password protection and security for Penn State Access Account users, ASET will upgrade its Netnews server (news.psu.edu) to a secure server. more...

  • Mobile Port Login Changes, Effective October 14, 2002: (posted 10/11/02) The web pages for the mobile port authentication services are moving from dsg.cac.psu.edu to clc.its.psu.edu. Beginning 10/14/02 at approximately 10:00am, users may begin using the new server. more...

  • Penn State Online Directory Enhancements, Effective August 21, 2002: Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET) will implement several enhancements to the Penn State Online Directory, which will provide additional, more standardized directory search options for users within and visitors to the Penn State community, by migrating the current directory from PH (ph.psu.edu) to LDAP (ldap.psu.edu). more...

  • GURU Browser Compatibility Alert: To avoid problems in secure areas of the General University Reference Utility (GURU), individuals should be using Netscape version 4.06 or higher, and Internet Explorer for the Macintosh version 4.51 or higher. more...

  • AFS and Kerberos 4 Realm Will Be Decommissioned Effective August 5, 2002: To complete the final stage in the upgrade to Penn State authentication services, Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET) will fully decommission AFS and the Kerberos 4 authentication realm on August 5, 2002. more...

  • Update to Network Time Protocol (NTP) Effective July 1, 2002: As of July 1, 2002, Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET) will update its Network Time Protocol (NTP) server from clock.cac.psu.edu to clock.aset.psu.edu. As a result, clock.cac.psu.edu will be decommissioned as of July 1, 2002. While clock.cac.psu.edu will point to clock.aset.psu.edu prior to July 1, it is recommended that all users update their date and time preferences from clock.cac.psu.edu to clock.aset.psu.edu as soon as possible. more...

  • Security Measures Underway to Increase Password Protection for Penn State Access Account Users: In an effort to increase password protection for Penn State Access Account users, Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), a service unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), will upgrade its File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server ftp.personal.psu.edu on June 1, 2002 to provide for "secure-only" file transfers. This means that Penn State's academic computing users will no longer be able to use popular FTP software such as WS_FTP for Windows and Fetch for Macintosh, to transfer files to their respective Penn State Access Account (PASS) Storage Space; however, a variety of alternatives have been established to help Penn State faculty, staff, and students make the transition from current file transfer methods to more secure options. Please note that this change affects all ASET FTP services, including access.psu.edu, the lab systems, armstrong.cac.psu.edu, splogin.cac.psu.edu, rs6klab.cac.psu.edu, and all other UNIX systems. more...

  • Willard Building Help Desk Schedule Change Effective August 5,2002: (posted 08/05/02) Beginning Monday, August 5, 2002, the Willard Building Help Desk will be closing at 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday evenings. In addition, the Willard Building Help Desk will also be closed on Sundays. more...

  • Virus Alert: Klez H Virus: (posted 05/15/02) Penn State faculty, staff, and students should be on the lookout for the Klez.He-mail virus, a modified version of the Klez.E virus, which attempts to trick recipients by sometimes promoting itself as a provider of antivirus software. Sybari Software, Inc., a premier developer of antivirus and security software,reported last week that the mass e-mail worm virus known as Klez.H is spreading via the Internet. more...

  • LDAP Server Outage: (updated 03/01/02) TheLightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) service, which provides directoryservices to the University community, became unavailable after its scheduledupgrade on Tuesday, February 26, 2002. more...

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer flaw (posted 02/26/02) Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) contains a new flaw that would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a victim's system when the victim visits a Web page or views HTML contained in an e-mail message. more...

  • Virus Alert: W32.Klez.E@mm Virus: (updated 02/24/02)The virus/worm designated "W32.Klez.E@mm" or more familiarly "Klez" appeared at Penn State on Tuesday, February 19, 2002. Klez affects users who open e-mail attachments containing the virus. It rewrites an e-mail message's "From" line and then mass-mails e-mail messages and attachments. more...

  • File Backup Server scheduled for outage: (posted 02/15/02) The Center for Academic Computing (CAC) will upgrade its file backup server, known as the Tivoli Storage Management (TSM) server, between 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 24, 2002. During this time, you will not be able to communicate with the TSM server. more...

  • Server Outage Alert: (posted 01/15/02) On Tuesday, January 15, 2002, the Center for Academic Computing experienced server outages between 2:45 and 4:10 p.m. more...

  • Microsoft Outlook XP Bug Notice: (posted 01/06/02)The e-mail program Microsoft Outlook XP currently cannot be used at Penn State due to a bug in its program. more...

  • Alert for AT&T@Home Customers: (posted 12/3/01)On Saturday, December 1, 2001, the Excite@Home Corporation shut off service to its AT&T customers. The Center for Academic Computing (CAC) is aware of the interruption of this service and is taking the necessary steps to alleviate its impact to the Penn State community. more...

2001

  • The CAC Help Desk located in Willard Building at University Park will be closed on Friday, November 23, 2001: (posted 11/17/01) Consulting services in this help desk location will resume on Sunday, November25, 2001 from 6:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. more...

  • Notice to Change Password: (posted 10/26/01) On Wednesday, October 31, 2001, we are making changes to our email server. These changes will be invisible to most users; however, users that have not changed their password in a number of years will not be able to check email on this date until and unless their passwords have been changed. more...

  • A virus/worm designated "W32.Nimda.A@mm": (posted9/21/01) A virus/worm designated "W32.Nimda.A@mm" or more familiarly"Nimda" appeared on the computer scene on Tuesday, September 18, and has spread through an estimated hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide running Microsoft operating systems. more...

  • New Kensington Campus Dial-up Number Change, September 4,2001: (posted 9/4/01) As previously announced at http://cac.psu.edu/internet/dialup/,the number has changed. Please update your information. more...

  • Scheduled mail.psu.edu Server Outage, Sunday, August 19,2001: (posted 8/08/01) In an effort to improve Penn State e-mail service performance and efficiency, the Center for Academic Computing (CAC) will upgrade the e-mail server mail.psu.edu on Sunday, August 19, 2001 from 6:00 a.m. to noon.

  • CAC Willard Help Desk to Close Early on August 20, 2001: (posted 7/27/01) The CAC Help Desk located in Willard Building at University Park will close at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, August 20 for staff training. Consulting services will resume at 9:00 a.m. the following day. See http://cac.psu.edu/consulting/ forinformation about the CAC's consulting services, locations, and hours.

  • Virus Alert: SirCam Virus: (posted 7/26/01) TheSirCam virus, an executable file that arrives via e-mail and propagates by sending itself to users found in the victim's e-mail address book files, has been spreading throughout the University's e-mail system. more...

  • Non-secure telnet service to be turned off - August 6, 2001: (posted 7/10/01) On August 6, 2001, the Center for Academic Computing will turn off non-secure telnet service to all interactive CAC UNIX systems. This action will begin a year-long process to eliminate all "clear text" passwords on our networks. more...

  • Authentication and File Service Migration - May 7, 2001: The Center for Academic Computing is in the process of changing its current method for authentication and file service to the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and the Distributed File System (DFS). During the break, from Monday, May 7, 2001 through Sunday, May 13, 2001, the CAC will migrate all Departmental Web (http://www.psu.edu/dept/) and Course On-Line Accounts (COLA) (http://www.courses.psu.edu/) to DFS. more...

  • TSM Outage Notice - March 25, 7am-4pm for upgrading to TSM3.7.

  • Internet connection problem - March 22, 2001: Although OTC has resolved a problem with an Internet outage earlier today, incoming and outgoing mail service may be delayed.

  • CAC Lab Schedule for Spring Break - March 2-11, 2001

  • Network Outage Notice - February 27, 2001: The Center for Academic Computing (CAC) experienced a network outage on Tuesday morning,February 27, 2001, at 8:45 a.m. that affected services provided by the CAC. more...

  • Malicious Code Advisory - VBS/OnTheFly (AnnaKournikova): The "VBS/OnTheFly" malicious code is a VBScript program that spreads via email. It affects users of Microsoft Outlook who have not applied previously available security updates. more...

  • Scheduled email.psu.edu Server Outage - Sunday,February 4, 2001: On Sunday, February, 2001, the Center for Academic Computing will be perform maintenance on the hardware that provides the University's e-mail services. more...

  • Authentication and File Service Migration Notice: The Center for Academic Computing is in the process of changing its current method for authentication and file service to the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and the Distributed File System (DFS). During the holiday break, from Monday, December 18, 2000 through Sunday, January 7, 2001, the CAC will migrate over 30,000 user accounts to DFS. The migration to DFS will affect all users who currently have personal Web space and CAC UNIX lab home directory space. At this time, the migration will not affect departmental Web space(http://www.psu.edu/dept/) or course Web space (http://www.courses.psu.edu/). more...

2000

  • Computer Building Help Desk Service Alert - Monday and Tuesday, December 11 and 12, 2000: The Center for Academic Computing Help Desk located in 215 Computer Building will undergo renovations on December 11 and 12. Therefore, limited service will be available. more...

  • Email.psu.edu Server Outage - Saturday, November 25, 2000: On Saturday, November 25, 2000, the Center for Academic Computing will be performing maintenance on hardware that provides the University's email services. The scheduled email outage will be from 6:00 a.m. until 12 noon and will affect those users who use the email.psu.edu server. more...

  • Scheduled Outage, Friday, November 24, 2000: On Friday, November 24, 2000, the Center for Academic Computing will be performing maintenance and upgrades on the CACTUS system. During this outage, the CAC Accounts office will not be able to assign and distribute new user ids, reset passwords or retrieve user information. more...

  • Network Outage Notice - Tuesday, October 31, 2000: The Center for Academic Computing experienced a network outage that affected the following services. more...

  • Hardware Failure Notice - Sunday, October 22, 2000: The Center for Academic Computing experienced a hardware failure that affected mail.psu.edu and ph.psu.edu. more...

  • Recent Outage Alert - Tuesday, September 26, 2000: The Center for Academic Computing experienced an outage that affected www and smtp. more...

  • Outage Alert - Tuesday, September 19, 2000: The Center forAcademic Computing experienced problems with the machine that routes for smtp and www. more...

  • Service Outages - Thursday, September 14, and Friday September15, 2000: The Office of Telecommunications (OTC) is currently experiencing routing problems with access to certain non-University sites. more...

  • File Service Outages - Thursday, September 7, - Tuesday,September 12, 2000: Recently, the CAC has experienced serious file server outages that affected a number of services. more...

  • File Service Outage - Thursday, March 16, 2000: The CAC experienced a file service outage between 6:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m which affected the AFS file system and Web service. more...


  • Extended E-mail Service Maintenance - Sunday, February 13, 2000: In an effort to improve Penn State e-mail service performance and efficiency, the CAC will upgrade the current e-mail server email.psu.edu onSunday, February 13, 2000 from 5:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. During this time, e-mail services will not be available. more...

  • Dial-up Service Change: In an effort to improve modem service, the CAC has increased the number of digital modems that support highspeed (V.90) connections to over 2,000. As a result, most of the slower speed(V.34) modems, which answer at 814-863-7777, are being decommissioned. more...

1999

  • Outgoing E-mail Change Reminder: To ensure that only valid Penn State e-mail is sent, the CAC has changed the way outgoing mail is processed. You will be unaffected by this change if you are sending mail using Penn State exclusively as your Internet Service Provider (ISP) through the campus backbone, computer labs, residence hall Ethernet connection or a C&IS University dial-up connection.


  • Browser Secure Certificate Alert: Some digital security certificates, the electronic credentials included in a browser that ensure the identity of a user, were set to expire on December 31, 1999. This affects individuals who use Internet Explorer 4.5 for Macintosh, Netscape Navigator/Communicator 4.05 for Macintosh and Windows, and any version below 4.x. The result is that some users will not be able to use secure servers. more...

  • E-mail Storage Limitations: In order to make sure our service is efficient and performs well for you, the CAC discards old mail from the server every Saturday according to certain limitations. more...

  • Year 2000 Testing - 3/12/99
    This test will affect IBIS only. See the FAQ for details.

  • Dial-up Modem Connection Inactivity Drops - 2/17/99
    As of Wednesday, February 24, 1999, dial-up modem connections will be dropped after ten minutes of inactivity. more...

  • Additional Modems for Internet Access - 1/27/99
    The Center for Academic Computing (CAC) has installed additional V.90/ISDN modems for dial-up Internet access at University Park. The new modems can be accessed at (814) 689-2222. more...

  • Extended System Maintenance on Saturday - 1/30/99: The Center for Academic Computing (CAC) will perform extended system maintenance on Saturday, January 30, from 12:01 a.m. to noon. During that time, the CAC's Web,mail, news, and dial-up servers will not be available. Authentication services will also be affected, making CAC lab machines unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. Forinformation about the current status of servers and labs, see the CAC system statuspage.
1998
  • Computer Building Power Outage - 12/21/98
    On December21, a power outage will be required in the Computer Building (University Park)in order to upgrade the transformer for the building. This outage will take place from 2:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. This will mean an interruption in Internet and system services provided by the CAC such as electronic mail and access tothe World Wide Web. Please note that the CAC tests systems every day between 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. During this time, one or more services may not be available. See the CAC's winter break schedule for information about break hours.

  • VM/CMS Service Update - 11/9/98
    The CAC will cease operation of VM/CMS on June 30, 2000. The functions provided by the IBM mainframe system VM/CMS have been replaced by the distributed computing model.For those who need help doing so, we will assist in moving applications to other environments. more...

  • Mail Older Than 30 Days to be Discarded from Pop E-MailServer - 11/5/98
    Starting on November 14, all mail that is more than 30 days old will be discarded from the CAC's POP e-mail server (email.psu.edu). If you need to set your e-mail client to temporarily leave mail on the server, please be aware that your mail will be stored there for only 30 days. more...

  • Incorrect E-mail Settings Will Cause Errors - 11/4/98
    In order to improve e-mail service, the CAC will implement changes on November 9 that will cause outgoing mail from incorrectly configured mail software such as Eudora to be rejected. more...

  • Major Y2K test on November 27 - 11/19/98
    In an unusually thorough test for potential computer problems when the year 2000 rolls around, Penn State is shutting down two of its largest computer systems on Friday, Nov. 27, and resetting their clocks to see if the years of Y2K preparations are on target. more...

  • Telnet Service Change - 8/22/98
    Telneting to CAC3270.PSU.EDU to logon to PSUVM will be discontinued as of August 31, 1998. Mainframe users can logon to PSUVM by telneting to VM.CAC.PSU.EDU using Telnet software clients with their Access Accounts. Macintosh users can use the TN3270 client software; Windows users can use the QWS3270 client software. See the Internet software distribution Web page for links to the Telnet clients.

  • Security flaw in Eudora for Windows - 8/13/98
    A serious security flaw in Eudora 4.0 and 4.0.1 for Windows has been discovered and fixed by QUALCOMM Incorporated. According to QUALCOMM, "This risk involves the ability for users to include hostile Java applets or scripts in an email message. The offending code has the potential to allow a person to attach to an email message an executable program, as is possible with any email program,while 'hiding' the name of the attachment as a URL in the email message. A user could then potentially click on that URL and launch the email attachment." more...

  • Warning message for Netscape 3 users - 8/13/98
    Netscape 3 users will get warning messages when connecting to secure sites (via https) that are certified by Thawte Consulting. Thawte certifies approximately 20% ofthe secure sites including some run on CAC web servers (www.work.psu.edu andwww.worldcampus.psu.edu most notably). The cause of these warnings is anexpiration for Thawte's certification authority in the built in certificatesthat come with the Netscape 3 browser. This is the first of several certificates built into Netscape 3 that will expire in the next year. more...

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