• June 10, 2008

PuTTY, secure FTP solutions for Unix changes

by Betsy Edwards and Fred Darkow, Information Technology Assistance Center
published June 10, 2008

K-State's June 1 move to the new central Unix servers requires the secure SSH2 protocol. However, previous Unix-terminal clients — including TerraTerm, Unix SSH, and earlier versions of PuTTY — accessed Unix through SSH1 and do not support SSH2.

Customers contacting the IT Help Desk are encouraged to switch to the PuTTY client as their Unix-terminal program. Currently, PuTTY version 0.55 is the only Unix client supported at K-State that uses the SSH2 protocol. A free download is available via K-State's Windows Software Downloads webpage.

Processes affected by not having an SSH2-supported client include Pine e-mail access, uploads to Unix directories, and central website maintenance. Web authors should see the related article in this issue, Secure FTP settings for Dreamweaver, Contribute.

Any questions or problems concerning the Unix upgrade should be directed to the IT Help Desk, 785-532-7722, helpdesk@k-state.edu.

K-REx system now uses K-State eID/password single sign-on

by Betsy Edwards and Marty Courtois, Information Technology Assistance Center
published June 10, 2008

On May 30, K-State Research and Exchange (K-REx) became the latest system to allow single sign-on with a K-State eID and password. This change makes it easier for graduate students to sign in to K-REx when submitting their theses, dissertations, and reports for electronic publishing.

The Graduate School's Electronic Theses, Dissertations, and Reports (ETDR) website instructs students who have sign-in problems to contact the IT Help Desk (785-532-7722, helpdesk@k-state.edu) to check the validity of their eID.

Secure FTP settings for Dreamweaver, Contribute

by Betsy Edwards and Sarah Silva, Information Technology Assistance Center
published June 10, 2008

Due to K-State's recent move to secure FTP access on the central Unix system, some K-Staters may have experienced problems using Dreamweaver and Contribute to access their webpages on the central web server. Here's how to set those web-authoring programs to use secure FTP (aka SFTP):

  1. On the Site menu, click Manage Sites.
  2. On the left, highlight the site you want to enable SFTP for and then click the Edit button on the right.
  3. Click the Advanced tab if it's not selected and then click Remote Info on the left.
  4. Click the Use Secure FTP (SFTP) checkbox.
  5. Click OK and then click Done.

Faculty/staff: Register now for K-State Online 8.0 pre-release training

by Molly Small, Office of Mediated Education
published June 10, 2008

Pre-release training sessions for new K-State Online features will be June 18-19 and June 25-26. The release of K-State Online 8.0 is scheduled for early August. K-State faculty and staff are invited to attend to get hands-on time with the new features in a lab setting, gain insight on upcoming changes, and give feedback on new features. All sessions will be in the Hemisphere Room (501) in Hale Library.


K-State Online trainingDate/time
Student Groups, Attendance, Roster, Course HomepageWed, June 18, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Message Board, Streaming Flash Video, File Dropbox, Chat RoomThu, June 19, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Student Groups, Attendance, Roster, Course HomepageWed, June 25, 9:30-10:30 a.m.
Message Board, Streaming Flash Video, File Dropbox, Chat RoomThu, June 26, 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Registration is required, and be sure to select the date and time desired. Once a class is full, others can still attend and watch but will not have a laptop available to use. Those attending faculty/staff sessions should have prior experience as a primary instructor in K-State Online. Training sessions will be repeated in August after the release of the new K-State Online version. More details will be announced near the end of July regarding future training sessions.

Students-only June 19 K-State Online 8.0 pre-release training

by Molly Small, Office of Mediated Education
published June 10, 2008

A special training session is scheduled for K-State students only, noon-1 p.m. Thursday, June 19, in Hale 501. This is an opportunity for students to familiarize themselves with the changes to the redesigned K-State Online student homepage and to offer feedback on the changes. A free, light lunch will be served as an incentive to attend and provide input.

The session will cover the following topics:

  • My Assignments and Student Gradebook. Assignments and grades are now listed on a single, easy-to-access page.
  • Modules, File Dropbox, and Streaming Flash Videos. Overview of upcoming changes to modules, including multiple file dropboxes and the addition of streaming flash videos, similar to YouTube.com and CNN.com.
  • Student Groups. This tool is redesigned, including the addition of Wimba, and how you submit assignments and upload files. Practice using Wimba as an instructor.

Register for this session at www.k-state.edu/infotech/training/registration.html. Once a class is full, others can still attend and watch but will not have a laptop available to use.

eTips winding down this week with Microsoft Office Tips

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published June 10, 2008

"Microsoft Office Tips" is at 11 a.m. Thursday, June 12, desktop webinar via Wimba. After June 12, there will not be any eTips for the remainder of the month. eTips will resume the week of July 7.

See the eTips registration page for details. Registration is required at least 24 hours in advance to allow time to add you to the session and ensure your workstation is configured properly for accessing the session.

Security tip of the week

Stolen university computers underscore data risk

by Harvard Townsend, IT security
published June 10, 2008

The recent thefts of laptop and desktop computers from three universities are indicative of the risk to personal identity data:

The best protection is to not store confidential data on a laptop or even your desktop computer. It should only be stored on secure servers that are backed up regularly and strictly control who can access the data.

K-State will undertake a concerted effort starting this fall to strengthen the protection of SSNs and other confidential data. In the interim, everyone at K-State should read and understand K-State's policy governing the collection, use, and protection of Social Security Numbers in order to meet our legal and ethical obligations to protect personal identity information and avoid headlines like the three above.

K-State Online

How to add e-mail signature in a course?

by K-State IT staff
published June 10, 2008

How can an instructor automatically apply an e-mail signature when they send e-mail from their course?

  1. From the Course Tools page, click the Configure Email link in the Course Management section.
  2. In the Signature Block box, type your e-mail signature.
  3. Click the Save button.

Where to find new minimum wage, previous IT words?

by Betsy Edwards, Information Technology Assistance Center
published June 10, 2008

What is the new minimum-wage limit at K-State, and where is it posted?

The new minimum wage at K-State will be $7 an hour starting Sunday, June 15, according to K-State's Policy and Procedures Manual. See Chapter 4720, Hourly Student Employees, .080 Wage Rates.

How can I easily find previous IT words of the week?

InfoTech Tuesday's newsletter archive has been updated to include IT words of the week all the way back to the first one on Feb. 13, 2007, when "mashup" started the feature.

Spotlight

Reading list sent to incoming freshmen at Berkeley

by Rebecca Gould, Information Technology Assistance Center
published June 10, 2008

As a respite from filling out forms and other chores in preparation for college life, incoming freshmen at Berkeley are sent a suggested summer reading list on a specific theme. This year's theme is "Bio-Graphy/Writing a Life". Peruse the list at reading.berkeley.edu/2008.html.

The topics from previous years are available from reading.berkeley.edu. There might even be a book that inspires you.