A reboot of the Department firewall is required. This will take place at 6 pm on Friday, January 29. Our access to sites outside the Department will be interrupted for around one minute. Open sessions may need to be restarted. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
News
Important News for Chemistry’s Supported Users
How to contact support for the best results
The single best way to contact support is by sending email to support@chemistry.ohio-state.edu. We have the RT ticketing system in place to grab emails sent to that address and create work tickets- we are far less likely to lose track of your issue if you have sent email to support. We understand that this system is not perfect, but since it is a system we can ultimately improve on it.
I’m back from being out sick for 2 and a half days (and over the weekend). While I was out I received a few calls and messages on my office phone. I don’t want to dissuade anyone from contacting me- I am here to help, so call me whenever. But know that on occasion I am indisposed or out of the office, so you should also send email to support@chemistry.ohio-state.edu to ensure that someone receives your request for help.
Sometimes you can’t send email. Say, when email is down, for instance. In such a case, the general support number is 614-292-0848. This is your best hope of reaching a person and getting help- especially when people are out on vacation, sick, or otherwise indisposed.
Emailing a single member of support with a support related issue is a bad idea. If your request isn’t seen- for whatever reason- then there is no way for the rest of the support team to know you need help.
As always, you can stop in for emergency help. If your need is not an emergency, consider sending an email to support instead of dropping by. We can prioritize our work better when we have a list of work tickets, rather than a queue of people seeking immediate resolutions to non-emergent issues in addition to work queue tickets.
Windows Disk Usage Diagnostics
I am running windows disk space usage diagnostics on the Windows file server. If you notice slow downs, they should be short in duration. Please let us know if any performance issues become problematic.
-Mike
Large Format Printer News
Yes! The department has a large format printer. This means fewer trips to Kinkos for posters and such.
We are busy with beginning of quarter tasks, so the printer is not available for general use until we can carve out some time to get it configured and operating. Expect availability in next next few weeks or an update sooner with additional information.
All Systems are Go
When nothing new is posted here, that means all systems are working normally. In time we’ll be able to get more helpful, proactive information on this site as well.
MySpace, Facebook problems with IE 6,7
Apparently, there are some real security problems with Facebook and MySpace plug-ins for IE 6,7 (ActiveX).
From Slashdot:
According to the Washington Post’s Security Fix blog, cyber criminals are populating the Internet with Web sites designed to exploit several recently-discovered security holes in a half-dozen widely used ActiveX plug-ins for IE 6 and 7, most notably the one offered by Facebook and MySpace to help users upload photos. The sites, advertised via links in email and instant message spam, also ‘probe for other vulnerable IE plug-ins, including two recently discovered from Yahoo! and one for QuickTime (this one attacks a vulnerability Apple patched just last month). The sites also throw in an exploit against a six-month-old IE flaw.’ The article notes that the SANS Internet Storm Center has released a GUI tool to help users safely deactivate the vulnerable plug-ins in the Windows registry.
Users of these social networking sites should aim to secure their personal machines against possible exploitation.
New Chem Computer Support Blog
Welcome to the new Chemistry Computer Support Blog. This site is hosted outside of the chemistry department such that in the event of problems that would normally prevent communication (such as the email server failing, etc.), we will be able to maintain a lifeline of information regarding the outage to chemistry’s supported users.
In addition to handling the odd emergency, this site will also serve as the primary font of information regarding planned outages, system updates, urgent security issues, and other news related to the provision of support services in the department.
The site is currently in its infancy, so please feel free to check back regularly or subscribe to the syndication feeds so that you may be notified when new information is posted.
-Scott Ziegler
OSU Dept. of Chemistry, Computer Support