New service lets K-State office phone ring to cellphone
by B. Edwards, Computing and Network Services, and A. Brenner, Telecommunications
published Feb. 14, 2006
Want your office phone to ring on your cellphone at the same time?
A new service being offered by Telecommunications will allow K-State faculty/staff to do just that.
The service, which started this month, allows K-State employees to be away from their desk and still receive
office phone calls via their cellphone. It also lets the office number be the official contact number at all times.
The cost is $10 per month for K-State cellphone accounts, and $20 per month for non-K-State cellphones.
The service is available for local Manhattan cellphone numbers only.
It can be activated and deactivated simply by dialing a specific campus phone number and entering a code.
Calls made to a subscribed office phone will reach the recipient wherever the cellphone is in service
(and will use the cellphone plan's minutes if answered on the cellphone).
To sign up for the service, a telephone work order must be approved by the department and submitted to
Telecommunications. For more information, contact Adalee Brenner, 532-7075.
Reminder: Remove illegally downloaded files
by R. Gould, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Feb. 14, 2006
K-Staters are reminded to remove any files stored on K-State machines that are not part of the university's mission.
The Recording Industry Association of America (www.riaa.com)
continues to crack down on individuals who have illegally downloaded materials such as music and music videos.
Other materials are also subject to sanctions, including copyrighted materials.
For more about RIAA's campaign against online music theft, see its Jan. 31 article:
Recording Industry Continues Campaign Against Online Music Theft In Latest Round Of Lawsuits.
E-mail addresses to change Feb. 16 in People Directory
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published Feb. 14, 2006
The K-State People Directory (formerly the "White Pages") will change to @ksu.edu e-mail addresses
(from @k-state.edu) at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 16.
On other web matters, the new K-State homepage will debut Sunday, Feb. 19,
as part of the university's new web presence. See the Feb. 7 article
for details.
Webcast on identity theft Feb. 16 in Union 213
by A. Hagedorn, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Feb. 14, 2006
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (US-CERT) and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC)
will present their national webcast about identity theft 2-3 p.m. (central standard time) Thursday, Feb. 16.
It will be shown in Union 213 as a convenience to all K-Staters.
Those who prefer to view the webcast from their own desktops can
register online now. (Registration requires a one-time,
free download of Microsoft Live Meeting 2005 software.)
The hour-long event is free of charge and requires minimum technical knowledge. Scheduled speakers include:
- Howard A. Schmidt, president and CEO, R & H Security Consulting LLC
- D. Scott Parsons, deputy assistant secretary, Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Compliance Policy
of the U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Joe Martucci, senior security engineer, Symantec Consulting Services
For more information about the event, visit the
MS-ISAC website.
Reasons for proposed antivirus software switch
by S. Coulson, SIRT Antivirus Committee chair
published Feb. 14, 2006
[This is the second in a series on the proposed switch in K-State antivirus software.
The first part was published Jan. 31.]
When the SIRT Antivirus Committee recommendation to switch to Trend Micro was
announced last year
in InfoTech Tuesday, the committee's reasons were omitted due to space limitations. A brief list of those original reasons:
1. Better protection. The committee felt that both products were
very good, but in tests, Trend Micro detected some threats that Symantec missed, and had better antispyware capabilities.
2. Licensing based on headcount. Symantec is licensed on a per-computer
basis. The number of licenses needed for home and on-campus
computers is difficult to determine, and compliance is hard to verify.
Trend Micro is licensed by "headcount", based on a combination of
full-time faculty, staff, and student figures. No estimate or count
of the number of computers protected would be needed, and K-State would
always be confident it was in compliance.
3. Very significant cost reductions. K-State currently pays Symantec
about $54,000 per year to protect Windows-based computers. Trend Micro
would cost about $65,000 the first year, but less than $25,000 per
year thereafter, a savings of about $30,000 per year. Symantec's future
costs are expected to rise in step with rising numbers of home and
on-campus computers. Trend Micro's future costs are expected to be
relatively stable, in line with historically modest growth trends in
campus head count of 1 percent to 2 percent per year.
4. Significantly better management. Both Symantec and Trend Micro allow
local management (by college, department, etc.), but our current Symantec
product has no provision to
allow management information to flow upward to K-State's networking and
security staff. Trend Micro allows management information to flow
upward, which would improve campus security. The committee found
Trend Micro's management software the best "fit" with K-State's
distributed IT support system.
5. Transition effort comparable to Symantec upgrade. The committee
considered the relative costs in time and effort of staying with Symantec
versus switching to Trend Micro, and found them to be roughly equal.
Staying with Symantec would mean upgrading to Version 10 at some point,
which the committee found to be very difficult, time-consuming, and
problematic in self-service installs on home machines. Trend Micro
removes Symantec as it installs, making the transition simple, and their
proposal included on-campus assistance from their transition team.
6. Remotely manageable integrated firewall. Trend Micro includes an
integrated, remotely manageable firewall, which would allow K-State security
managers to change firewall rules to deal with many kinds of
imminent threats or attacks.
In summary, after considering proposals from five vendors, the committee
found that Trend Micro stood out from all the rest, offering significant savings
and outstanding value with an enterprise-class product.
New 1GB iPod nano, plus price drops on iPod shuffle
by C. Loehr, K-State Student Union Computer Store
published Feb. 14, 2006
On Feb. 7, Apple introduced the 1GB iPod nano
(in addition to its 2GB and 4GB models which debuted in September)
and reduced prices on its iPod shuffle models.
These products will be in stock soon at the Union Computer Store.
- The 1GB iPod nano is available for $129 educational price (a $20 savings over retail).
It has a capacity of up to 240 songs and 15,000 photos, and
all the features that make iPod nano so popular.
- Prices have dropped $30 on both iPod shuffle models.
The 512MB shuffle is now $69. The 1GB shuffle is $89 educational price (a $10 savings over retail).
Hardly bigger than a pack of gum, the iPod shuffle is ideally suited
to be used as both a USB flash drive and a personal audio player. There's no need to
carry two devices when one will do the job.
IT by the numbers: Password changes
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published Feb. 14, 2006
- 25,000 password reminders e-mailed Feb. 1
- 5,000 password changes Feb. 1
- 2,168 password changes Feb. 6
- 6,044 password changes Feb. 7
- 2,183 password changes Feb. 8 (the password deadline)
- 8,975 K-State eIDs were disabled Feb. 9 due to no password change
- About 1,000 password changes Feb. 9
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