ITLA Headlines

Liberal Arts Server Maintenance Schedule

In an effort to standardize our scheduled maintenance for server patches, updates, upgrades, or hardware replacements, we have adopted a formal schedule for server maintenance within the College of the Liberal Arts.  This schedule is the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month from 5:30pm-7:30pm.  This does not mean that we will be performing updates or changes every 2nd and 4th Thursday; this only means that if we do perform any updates or maintenance that it will be done during these windows of time.  We will be implementing this schedule starting Thursday, May 14th for Microsoft's patch Tuesday releases.  Please plan your schedules accordingly.

Summer-Fest 2009: Technology Training for Faculty and Instructors

Faculty and instructors are invited to sign up for free technology training offered during the break in the academic schedule, May 11-15. Summer-Fest 2009 is a weeklong training event developed to target technology as it relates to pedagogy. Scheduled topics include ANGEL, Blogs at Penn State, Adobe Connect, Penn State Wikispaces, Podcasting, and more. Some sessions will be offered live through Adobe Connect meeting and training software in order to give those who are unable to travel to the University Park session the opportunity to attend via the Web. View Seminars!

University Park Modem Pool Lines Scheduled to be Reduced

The option to use Penn State as a dial-up internet service provider will no longer be available as of July 1, 2010.

On July 1, 2009, during the regularly scheduled maintenance window (5:00-7:00 a.m.), Information Technology Services (ITS) will reduce the number of active dial-in lines for the University Park 814-863/865-2222 modem pool. The July 2009 reduction is in preparation for this modem pool's complete termination, scheduled for July 1, 2010. While dial-up modems are still provided to the Penn State community as an option for Internet connectivity, the use of such modems has decreased steadily over the last few years. Given this trend, modem users are strongly encouraged to transition to alternative Internet connectivity options (for example, AOL, Netzero, Verizon's DSL service, or Comcast's cable modem service) prior to July 1, 2010.

To learn more about this initiative (including instructions, troubleshooting information, and alternative options), please visit the ITS Knowledge Base at http://kb.its.psu.edu/. A! dditional information about the University's dial-up modem services is available at http://css.its.psu.edu/internet/dialup/. Inquiries and requests for assistance should be directed to helpdesk@psu.edu.

Service may be affected during the ITS maintenance window (5:00-7:00am) on July 1, 2009.

Disabling Auto-Run Across the College

There are several viruses/trojans that have the ability to infect the host computer via the auto-run feature within Windows (window pops up with action options when you insert a USB thumb drive or CD/DVD).  In order to eliminate this threat, we will be disabling the auto-run feature on all systems.

The following are ways to locate the contents on your inserted USB thumb drive or CD/DVD:

1. Open the "My Computer" window. You can access this window in two ways.
- By opening the Start Menu, and clicking "My Computer"; or
- Double-clicking the "My Computer" icon on your Desktop.

2. This will bring up the "My Computer" window with a list of drives available on your computer.  Including your local C: drive, your CD/DVD drive, as well as, any shared or departmental network drives that are connected.  You should also see your removable USB thumb drive. Double click the drive to access your files.

To see screenshots with these instructions, click here.

Any questions or problems, please contact the Help Desk at 865-3412.