Monday, September 30, 2019

Papercut and Kramer VSM Down

Update:
Outage resolved at approximately 2:30PM.  All affected servers are backup.  Systems needed a hard reboot.

We are aware of a system outage affecting Papercut and Kramer VSM.  The outage is currently being investigated.  An update will be provided here when the issue has been resolved.

See when someone is out of office in Gmail and Hangouts Chat

What’s changing

Now, when you have an Out of office (OOO) entry on your calendar, a notice of that OOO status will appear in Gmail and Hangouts Chat when people try to contact you.

In Gmail, we’ll show a banner about the recipient being out of office and when they’ll be back in the email compose window.




In Hangouts Chat, you’ll also see a small notification in the chat compose window alerting you that the person you’re trying to message is out of office.



Why you’d use it

With this launch, before people even hit “send,” your time out of office is visible in more places across G Suite, meaning you get more uninterrupted time away. As a sender, you’ll also have more confidence that you’re messaging people at an appropriate time.


If you’d like to disable sharing of availability information to other G Suite apps, you can do so in Calendar under Calendar settings > Access permissions. Just deselect “Show calendar info in other Google apps, limited by access permissions.”

Helpful links

Reach out to IT Services with any questions:


This feature will be ON by default and can be disabled in your Calendar settings.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2019



Welcome to National Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2019. Held every October, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) is a collaborative effort between government and industry to ensure every American has the resources they need to stay safe and secure online while increasing the resilience of the Nation against cyber threats. 

Themes and Key Messages for October 2019 This year’s overarching theme is “OWN IT. SECURE IT. PROTECT IT.” NCSAM will emphasize the role each individual plays in online safety and stress the importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity at home and in the workplace. 

In support of this national cybersecurity initiative Manhattan College will be releasing weekly tips on our blog aimed at raising awareness on this important topic.

“OWN IT.” Understand your digital profile. Internet-based devices are present in every aspect of our lives: at home, school, work, and on the go. Constant connection provides opportunities for innovation and modernization, but also presents opportunities for potential cybersecurity threats that can compromise your most important personal information. Understand the devices and applications you use every day to help keep you and your information safe and secure. 

“SECURE IT.” Secure your digital profile. Cybercriminals are very good at getting personal information from unsuspecting victims, and the methods are getting more sophisticated as technology evolves. Protect against cyber threats by learning about security features available on the equipment and software you use. Apply additional layers of security to your devices – like Multi-Factor Authentication – to better protect your personal information. 

“PROTECT IT.” Maintain your digital profile. Every click, share, send, and post you make creates a digital trail that can be exploited by cybercriminals. To protect yourself from becoming a cybercrime victim you must understand, secure, and maintain your digital profile. Be familiar with and routinely check privacy settings to help protect your privacy and limit cybercrimes. 

Be Secure Online! Refer to Manhattan College's Cyber Safety site for additional resources.


Refer to Manhattan College's Email Signature Knowledge Base 
Article for instructions on how to create your own email signature.
Using a Manhattan College email signature is important because it is the perfect opportunity to brand every message you send. By creating a cohesive email signature for each employee on your team, you create brand recognition in every person to whom your employees sends emails. 










Friday, September 27, 2019

Horan Hall - Brief Network Outage 10/1 at 2pm

Physical Plant will be conducting a generator test in Horan Hall on Tuesday, October 1st at approximately 2pm.

There will be two brief outages, one while switching to generator power, the other while switching back to main power.

This will not affect the rest of campus.

If you have any questions, please contact ITS at its@manhattan.edu or at extension x-7973. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Mail Merges Made Easy

formMule is an add-on for Google Sheets that allows you to easily and quickly send mail merges. Mail merging makes emailing many recipients easier by utilizing tags, which takes data from a spreadsheet and uses that to organize and send personalized emails to multiple recipients. 

formMule sends targeted, personalized emails from a Google Sheet. Run as either a manual email merge or -- more powerfully -- as a triggered merge that runs automatically on form submit or on a timer. 

A great way to use formMule is when you are gathering responses in a Google Form, and later on, you want to email everyone who signed up using your form. Create a spreadsheet from the responses. Make sure to collect their email addresses!




For more instructions, including a video tutorial please refer to Mail Merging using formMule.

Reach out to IT Services with any questions:


Updating Your Personal Email on Self Service

Your personal email address on Self Service is used for verification purposes.  
For this reason, it is very important that is it kept up to date. 

Sometimes you may have an old personal email on file, if you ever lose access to your Jaspernet account, your personal email is the easiest way to verify who you are in order to quickly restore account access.  If there is no personal email on file for verification purposes it becomes necessary to come in person to an IT Services office on campus and show a representative your identification.

The following step-by-step article How to Update Your Personal Email will guide you through updating your personal email. 

Reach out to IT Services with any questions:

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Authentication System Maintenance Thursday September 19 @9pm

The single sign on authentication system will undergo urgent maintenance tonight September 19 at 9pm.

The will affect new signons to all single sign on services for approximately 5 minutes. Already authenticated users and applications will generally not be affected.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

LabStats Features Manhattan College on Homepage

Check out Rich Musal, Director of Client Services & Operations, and Anita McCarthy, Training Manager, IT Services, discussing how LabStats helped Manhattan College make better, more informed budgeting decisions for their computer labs. 
This interview is featured on the LabStats home page.

Software usage data was used to accurately adjust the amounts of licenses being purchased. A request to make more open computer labs available to students was proved unnecessary when hardware usage data was presented to administration.

IT Services uses the data from Labstats to support LabSeat. Which can be found on inside.manhattan.edu Quick Links (see image below.)  This  is a new web application that is installed on our lab computers.  These simple computer lab maps show computer availability in real time before you leave for the lab. This is especially useful during busier times such as midterms and finals week as students can choose where to study by how many computers are available.




Often times a lab is underutilized because students don’t know it exists. They flock to common areas like the library or student center, walking past smaller labs in department buildings or multi-use classroom labs. The data LabSeat provides solves this challenge.


For more details please review LabSeat: Find an Open Computer on Campus.

Partially reposted from the LabStats home page.



Thursday, September 12, 2019

Wireless SSID Changes

The Networking Department within IT Services has been working hard over the last two years to upgrade all of the wireless access points throughout the campus. This includes both dorm and academic spaces.

The wireless upgrades were completed on Thursday, September 5, 2019. These new wireless access points are faster, more reliable, and much stronger than the previous wireless access points that were installed. Because of these vast improvements, ITS will be changing the wireless SSIDs that are currently being broadcasted throughout campus.

Currently, Manhattan College community members have the option to connect to one of three wireless SSID networks: Jaspernet-legacy, Jaspernet, or Jaspernet5. Starting on Friday, September 20, 2019 at 6AM, the only wireless network that will be broadcasted will be Jaspernet.

If your device is configured to automatically connect to Jaspernet-legacy or Jaspernet5, you will need to configure your device to automatically connect to Jaspernet instead. If your device was already configured to automatically connect to the Jaspernet wireless network, you will not need to make any changes.

If you have any questions or need help connecting your device to Jaspernet wireless network, you can contact ITS at 718-862-7973 or via email at its@manhattan.edu.

Schedule Meetings More Efficiently this semester with Google Calendar or Doodle

Google Calendar Information:
As part of our ongoing effort to spread knowledge about productive new Google Calendar Features, want to let our clients know they are able to be very efficient when using Google Calendar to schedule meetings.  

The easiest way to access Google Calendar is to click on the Google Calendar app from your Google Apps launcher at the top right of your Google Desktop Home screen:

Click here for detailed instructions from the G Suite Learning Center Get Started with Calendar.
The following instructions include how to quickly and easily schedule a meeting with a group of colleagues who are using Google Calendar:

** Be sure to explore the "Find a meeting time" section **
If the other guests have shared their calendar with you, you can use the "Find a time" feature to schedule an event at a time that works for everyone. You can compare up to 20 schedules at one time.
  1. Create a new event, or open an existing event (you may need to click Edit event first).
  2. Click the Find a time tab. If the other guests' calendars are shared with you, you'll see their schedules.
  3. Find a time. Use the arrows at the top to navigate between days.
  4. Once you've found a time, click the area within the calendar grid. The time will update at the top of the page.
  5. Click Save.
Note: You can only edit the event if you created the event yourself, or if the event organizer gave guests permission to modify the event.
All-day events: All-day events are shown at the top of the calendar grid. If a guest has an all-day event, they will appear available in the "Find a time" tab unless their event is set to show as "Busy." To schedule an all-day event, click the Week button and then click the area at the top of a day column.

Doodle: Another Excellent Scheduling App
Great idea to use as an alternative to Google Calendar


What is Doodle?

Doodle is an online scheduling tool that can be used quickly and easily to find a date and time to meet with multiple people.  First you suggest dates and times for your event participants to choose from, then Doodle creates a polling calendar that can be sent to participants for feedback.  As each participant selects the dates and times from the polling calendar that he or she is free, Doodle aggregates the responses and tells you which option works best for everyone.
Getting everyone on the same page is hard enough with just five other coworkers, let alone fifty new volunteers you may have never met.  Doodle can be a valuable tool for coordinating a large event like volunteer training as well as a small event like a monthly meeting with the board.


Doodle in Action

Part of Doodle’s appeal is that it’s so easy to use.  The site walks you through the four steps of creating a polling calendar:
  1. Schedule an Event
  2. Propose Times
  3. Choose Settings
  4. Invite Participants


Each step of the way there are options to make the whole process easier for you and the people you’re trying to meet with.
1. Schedule an Event
The first step in scheduling an event with Doodle is to fill out a simple form with the title, location, and description of the event.  This information will be visible on the poll, letting participants know exactly what the event is.  On this page you will also enter your name as administrator and your e-mail address so that you can receive the link to view, update, or edit the poll.
Notable Features:
  • Easy Directions: The location automatically links to Google Maps, making getting directions a breeze.
  • Your Own Doodle Account: Although you are free to use the site without creating an account, signing in makes checking up on your scheduling polls a lot easier (especially if you have several out at a time).
2. Propose Times
The next screen asks you to choose days and times that you are considering for the event.
Notable Features:
  • Time-Zone Support: If you’re scheduling an online event, such as a Twitter chat or a video conference, you can enable time-zone support to keep participants across the country or across the world on the same page.
3. Choose Settings
In this third step, Doodle offers some options so that you can modify the basic poll to suit your specific needs.  These customizable settings allow you to tailor your Doodle scheduling poll to each event.  Among other things, you can use these different settings to transform your scheduling poll into a registration sheet, or to offer extra options to your event participants such as greater privacy.
Notable Features:
  • Yes-No-If need be Poll: In a basic poll, the people you invite can only respond “Yes” or “No.”  This option adds a third possible response, “If need be,” to give you more detailed information on participants’ availability and flexibility.
  • Hidden Poll: Perhaps you are looking to schedule times to meet with donors.  This option allows you to keep each donor’s schedule and availability confidential from the other donors.
  • Limit Number of Participants per Option: For example, setting the group limit to ten people per time slot would be handy if you are looking to conduct feedback meetings with past volunteers.  Once a timeslot has ten names, it will stop being shown as an option.
  • Participant Can Only Choose One Option: This option coupled with limiting the number of participants per option turns the poll into a registration sheet, allowing each participant to sign up for a timeslot on a first-come-first-served basis.
4. Invite Participants
The final step is to send out the invitations.  Doodle has three methods of delivering your poll to participants: email, Facebook, and Twitter.
For smaller or internal meetings, email is the way to go.  But if you are putting together a larger event, like a cookout to thank your volunteers, then a social media platform might be a better choice.  By posting the Doodle poll link on Facebook or Twitter, you can simultaneously advertise your event and find a good day for it.
Notable Features:
Import Contacts: Link your Doodle account to your email account to easily import the email addresses of the participants you’re interested in inviting.
The Poll
For the people you have invited, the finished basic poll will look something like this:
The people that you invite will enter their name or an ID number in the field that says “Your name” and check the boxes in the time slots when they are free.  In the image above, the best time to meet would clearly be Monday at 1:00pm.
Notable Features:
  • Load Your Calendar: If you do open a Doodle account, you can sync your Google, Outlook, or iCal calendar to Doodle.  This lets you avoid switching between calendars, making it easier to respond quickly to scheduling requests.
  • Comments: There is even a comment section at the bottom of the poll where participants can note dates that they would prefer over others or ask questions about the event.
  • Different Viewing Options: The image shown above is the table view, which allows your participants to see which dates and times are popular.  There’s also an option to look at the schedule on a calendar view, shown below.  The calendar view is helpful if you have loaded your own calendar to Doodle for comparison.

Reach out to IT Services with any questions:


Wednesday, September 11, 2019

UPDATE 7:10am Emergency Maintenance Thursday September 12 @6am

UPDATE 7:10am September 12

All services are operating normally we will continue to monitor closely throughout the day.

---------------


The networking team has been troubleshooting an ongoing issue the evening of September 11 affecting internet routing to the college.

All services are up and we expect all services to remain up through the night.

There may be a disruption to the college's Internet connection tomorrow morning staring at 6am while we continue to troubleshoot and repair.

The next update will be by 7am tomorrow September 12.


Temporary Theme Change to Self-Service

Temporary changes to Banner Self-Service have been made to address a defect in class rosters.  As a result, anyone accessing Self-Service will notice a legacy web page theme and menus (green with white background) instead of the normal "blue" webpage theme.

This temporary change will be in effect through Wednesday 9/18.  After this time, we will revert to the existing "blue" theme.  While the web page theme may look different, menus and navigation will operate the same.

Normal Theme:

Screenshot of SSB Normal Theme


Temporary Theme: (9/11/2019-9/18/2019):

Screenshot of SSB Temporary Theme

Information Security To Go!

Protect your data and devices when you travel.

Almost 88 million Americans traveled abroad in 2017, and whether for business or personal use, our technology devices seem indispensable during our travels. Unfortunately, traveling with devices also means that you must take care to protect those devices—and the data contained on them—while you are away from home. That preparation begins before you leave, and you may need to restore settings when you return.
Many people love the adventure that traveling provides: meeting new people, seeing new places, and having new experiences are part of the allure. Technology makes it easier than ever to satisfy our wanderlust. We can use our connected devices to discover the exotic locales we wish to visit, book tickets on planes and trains, practice driving virtually, and seamlessly navigate once we get to our final destination. For all this ease that technology brings, we should prepare our technology for travel as carefully as we plan our travel itineraries.

Travel tips
  • Back-up your data! Backing up your data ensures that you won't lose information if your device is lost or stolen. Consider encrypting your data as well, but check with your IT support staff first about how best to implement encryption.
  • Protect your devices with a strong password or lengthy passcode. Sometimes devices get lost or stolen, even when we are being careful. By protecting your device with a passcode or lengthy password, you make it harder for your device to be used and data to be accessed by others.
  • Make sure your devices and applications are up to date. Keep your applications and devices up to date and patched. This helps protect your device and data from security vulnerabilities and threats.
  • Just say no to unsecured public Wi-Fi. Having a wireless connection is almost a necessity for the modern traveler. However, using an unsecured public Wi-Fi hotspot can allow others to view the contents of your electronic activity. Never access your sensitive financial accounts from an unsecured network. If you must access sensitive data from an unsecured network, be sure that you use a VPN service.
  • Double check your MFA settings. Many of us rely on multifactor authentication (MFA) to secure both personal and work-related accounts. Be sure that you know how (or if) that will work in the countries that you are visiting. For instance, if your MFA relies on SMS, be sure that you will be able to receive that message in the destination that you are visiting. If the option is available to you, consider using a physical token option to ensure you'll be able to login to your accounts.
  • Update your physical location with your password vault. Many people use password vaults to manage all of their account passwords. Don't be surprised if your password vault requires additional verification steps when logging into it from a location that is not in your home country. (After all, we count on these vaults to be secure!) Check the vendor documentation or your account settings to make sure that there are no country restrictions or settings that you need to change before your trip. Also double-check that you're able to access your recovery/secondary email address just in case there is an issue.
  • Consider leaving your daily devices at home. If you are traveling to a location where you are concerned about your individual privacy rights, consider leaving your primary mobile device at home and purchasing a replacement device to take with you instead. Put only the apps, services, and data that you need for that trip on the device. Some businesses and colleges and universities offer programs where a traveler can check out a "clean laptop" when traveling for business purposes. Using these types of devices help limit any exposure of your personal data. Check your data plan as well. A "burner phone" or car GPS may be cheaper.
  • Be smart about posting on social media. It is always fun to post vacation pictures in the moment, but online postings on social networks (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) can let other people know that you are not at home and that your home may be empty. Posting vacation pictures on social media once you are safely home helps protect your physical belongings.
  • Use hotel safes to protect your technology. Here's another place where there is an overlap between online safety and physical safety. Just like you would put your passport, jewelry, and money in a hotel safe, consider using that safe to hold your electronic devices when you are not carrying them with you. Not only are the devices themselves expensive to replace, your personal data contained in the device can be irreplaceable (especially if you skipped the first tip on this list).
  • Remember your adapters! Make sure you have power adapters that will work with three-prong plugs and that they fit the country's outlets. Some travel adapters only accept two-prong plugs. (If you're attending a conference, you may be able to borrow a charging cable temporarily.) Outlets also vary, even, for example, between the UK and Ireland. Your technology gadgets are not very helpful when they run out of charge or cannot be powered on. Charge and take a portable battery pack.
  • Mind your voltage! Like plug types, different parts of the world use different voltages. Make sure that your technology devices can run on the voltage used at your destination. Getting shocked with 220V is not the same as 110V.
As surely as you can reduce wrinkles in your clothing with careful packing, so too can you avoid the most common technology travel woes by preparing before you leave home.
Refer to Manhattan College's Cyber Safety Site site for additional resources.
Refer to Manhattan College's Email Signature Knowledge Base Article for instructions on how to create your own email signature.

From The Barefoot Nomad's How Not to Fry Your Smartphone Overseas: A Quick Guide
Partially reposted from Educause September 2019: Information Security To Go!


















































































Tuesday, September 10, 2019

COMPELTE: MCS, ProDev, and LMSCourseDev System Issues

UPDATE 10:15AM: MCS, ProDev, and LMSCourseDev systems are back up. ITS will further investigate the problem and will take steps to prevent this from reoccurring.


MCS, ProDev, and LMSCourseDev Systems are currently down. ITS is investigating and will post updates as soon as possible.

Monday, September 9, 2019

Dorm Wired Changes

Campus Community,

Over the last year, Information Technology Services (ITS) has been monitoring the wired port ethernet use in the dorms. It has been found that less than one-fourth (¼) of the wired ports are in use across all five dorms on campus as more and more people moved towards wireless Internet connections. The resources it takes to manage all of the equipment that services these network jacks has been increasing over the years. In order to reduce this maintenance cost, ITS will be disconnecting all wired ports in Horan Hall, Lee Hall, and Chrysostom Hall only starting the week of September 16th, 2019. Offices within these dorms will not be affected. If a student or RA has already put in a request to continue using the wired ports in their dorm room, these will continue to stay active for the current academic school year. This change will not affect the wireless network in any way nor will it affect any other building on campus.

If any student would like to use the wired ports in their dorm room, please put in a ticket with ITS. There are several ways to put in a ticket with ITS:
  • Emailing us at its@manhattan.edu
  • Calling us at 718-862-7379
  • Visiting one of the Client Services offices (north end of Jasper Hall or within RLC 103 computer lab), or
  • Clicking Request Service at this link

Thank you for your understanding in this matter and good luck in your future classes!

-Network Engineer, ITS, Manhattan College

Glance MC Mobile App

Glance MC is an app developed by Manhattan College students that puts all the resources you will need at Manhattan College in one place. With the Glance MC app, you can:
  • Search for employees and quicklinks
  • Access Digital Jasper card to use as your Campus ID on campus to purchase food.
  • Save employees and Quicklinks to your Favorites
  • View the feed which displays pertinent information such as Announcements, News, Twitter, Campus Alerts, ITS News and Outages.
  • View the calendar featuring events happening on campus.
  • Read the latest articles from the Quadrangle
  • Access Moodle for course information and more

We are interested in your feedback, please take a few moments to complete the following Glance MC Mobile App Survey

Additional Resources:
Using Glance MC

Reach out to IT Services with any questions:

Thursday, September 5, 2019

COMPLETE: Campus Wireless Maintenance - Friday 9/13 6am

UPDATE 7:30AM: This scheduled maintenance has been completely successfully

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In order to improve the reliability, stability, and security of the wireless network throughout Manhattan College's campus, ITS will be conducting maintenance on the campus wireless server on Friday, September 13, 2019 from 6am-8am.

During this maintenance, the wireless network will be down sporadically throughout the entirety of campus. This maintenance will only affect the wireless network; the wired networks will not be affected.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. If you have any questions, please contact ITS at extension x-7973 or via email at its@manhattan.edu.


ITS Service Catalog is Full of Features

In addition to tracking any tickets you submit to the ITS HelpDesk the TeamDynamix Service Catalog has a variety of useful services.

The ITS Service Catalog screen offers a variety of productive applications.  This screen provides a snapshot of IT Services: from Equipment loan, to A/V & Event SetUp and Support, to customized Google Email and Calendar services:


Another useful feature: The "Ticket Request" tab offers a quick way to check on your outstanding ITS tickets.


Reach out to IT Services with any questions:

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Access Lynda.com with a New York Public Library Card

Lynda.com  is an online educational site that includes over 5,000 courses (and over 130,000 videos) in popular fields like web design, web development, IT, education/instruction, media production, and business. Experts create and deliver all courses as well as provide supplemental materials like exercise files and relevant work samples.  These courses allow anyone to achieve personal and professional goals.  Users will need to create accounts in order to track course progress, create playlists of potential coursework, and keep course notes.
This is a valuable subscription based resource that is available for free with your New York Library Card or your local library to access Lynda.com.

Please note that you can only access course content through the New York Public Library's Lynda.com login page, and not by directly visiting the Lynda.com homepage.


Representatives from the NY Public Library will be on campus to distribute NYPL cards:
Tuesday, 9/10 from 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm 
Wednesday, 9/11 from 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Location: O'Malley 5th floor entrance.
Students must bring Manhattan College Student ID's. 

If you are not available at the above mentioned times:
Please review this KBA on  Applying for a New York Public Library Card

Please review this KBA on Accessing Lynda.com with a New York Public Library Card

This short video which gives an overview of what Lynda.com has to offer:



Introduction to Lynda.com



Reach out to IT Services with any questions:


Partially reposted from Apply for a NYPL Library Card & Introduction to Lynda.com