Archive for August, 2003
August 29th, 2003 by Dana Roode
UCI faculty and staff have access to a wide range of discounts on software, including operating systems, business applications, and research software.
Because some of these licenses are available only to subscribing schools and departments, the Computing Support Coordinator in your department or school is the first person to contact for software license information.
NACS works through a number of agencies, including the UCOP Technical Acquisition Support (TAS) team, vendors, and resellers to explore license opportunities on behalf of UCI. If there is software you feel would be of value to large numbers of faculty or staff, please e-mail nacs@uci.edu
If you are not sure of the local contact in your school or department, please visit:
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/csc/csc.html
Information on most campus software licenses can be found at:
http://licenses.nacs.uci.edu/
August 29th, 2003 by Dana Roode
NACS Distributed Computing Support (DCS) provides a full range of UNIX system administration services for UCI research and other computing environments on a contract basis.
DCS staff members provide direct Unix system administration services for some computer systems. They also serve as consultants to departmental system administrators.
DCS staff keep abreast of emerging applications and system technologies as well as the latest security fixes in order to provide high quality system support.
System support also includes remote monitoring and proactive trouble resolution. In fact, problems are often diagnosed and resolved before departments are even aware of any problems!
The various staff members of DCS bring a mix of people skills and technical skills to bear. Some staff read, “triage” and respond to the daily influx of phone and e-mail inquiries from clients and trouble reports generated by computer systems. Other staff ensure that security fixes and system upgrades are distributed and installed as promptly as possible.
The broad range of services and professional level of support provided by DCS usually matches and frequently surpasses those offered in the private sector.
August 29th, 2003 by Dana Roode
NACS announces the completion of a Nextel cell site located at Engineering Tower. On June 28, the site was activated by Nextel engineers to improve their service coverage and boost capacity to the campus.
Cellular service at UCI has been limited by terrain and building layout, as well as the large number of subscribers on campus and the surrounding areas. Verizon and Nextel approached NACS and proposed construction of cell sites at Engineering Tower to alleviate the coverage and capacity issues. NACS worked with appropriate campus units and with both companies to construct those cell sites (Verizon completed their site Nov. 2002.) As most know, cellular coverage is very important here at UCI not only for everyday use but for emergencies that might arise.
NACS is working hard with all local cellular carriers to provide quality service to UCI’s faculty, staff, and students. Currently UCI provides space under contract with Cingular (2 sites), Verizon, and Nextel. NACS is in open discussions with campus administration and other carriers for sites to be located at UCI.
For information on cell site safety, please visit our NACS web site. www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/cellsitesafety.html
August 6th, 2003 by Dana Roode
E. Scott Menter has joined NACS as the Assistant Director who will oversee the efforts of Central Computing Services, Network & Support Programming, Distributed Computing Support, and Network Planning& Security.
Scott has over fifteen years of experience with information technology management. As the CEO of ESM Services Inc. (an IT consulting firm), Scott built client relationships and supervised teams of IT consultants for clients including: Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, UBS Warburg, Bear Stearns, Mount Sinai Health and SAIC.
Previously, Scott served as a First Vice President of Lehman Brothers, New York, where he led a staff of forty-five in worldwide systems engineering. Scott has also worked for Sun Microsystems and for UCI.
Scott feels getting to know his staff and his clients is a top priority, and invites your suggestions to escott@uci.edu.
August 6th, 2003 by Dana Roode
Brush up on your office skills this summer. NACS offers Office XP hands-on training beginning August 14th. NACS’s Mobile Computer Lab, comprising 16 notebook computers with wireless network connections travel to various rooms for these workshops. For course outlines and registration, see http://www.nacs.uci.edu/training. Classes are between $50 and $90, depending whether the course is a full or half day and a departmental recharge number is required to register.
August 6th, 2003 by Dana Roode
The popular local broadband ISP, Cox, has made recent changes to how it handles electronic mail. These measures were taken to prevent malicious users from exploiting Cox for Spam or e-mail based network attacks.
Technically speaking, they have blocked port 25 (SMTP) except for Cox subscribers sending mail through Cox’s mail server. This will not have an impact for most subscribers. If you have not already followed Cox’s recommendations for outbound mail, you must reconfigure your mail application to use their server.
This will also affect users who use a laptop both with the Cox service and UCInet and have been able to use the same mail configuration in both places, which is no longer possible.
Cox provides detailed information at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,7081800~root=cable,ath~mode=flat