Patchlink allows us to manage a large number of Windows and software updates very efficiently. We can now see which PCs need which updates, and deliver them in a targeted, distributed fashion. When a reboot is required, Patchlink will warn you - we suggest saving your work and rebooting right away upon seeing the alert window. Patchlink keeps our PCs secure and up-to-date.

The new version 4 of GWAVA significantly improves the accuracy of our anti-spam efforts. We are blocking far fewer messages incorrectly, we are blocking far more garbage, and you users can now release incorrectly-locked messages immediately, instead of waiting for tomorrow's digest. On the back-end, administration is much easier. We've worked through a few bugs - we practically became the vendor's test site - and we're still playing with a few settings, but overall, GWAVA 4 is a winner.

All Resident students are automatically enrolled into the Meal Plan. In order to support this, we are bringing up servers, cash registers and a supporting connection to Banner. Since we cannot send Social Security Numbers to outside vendors, we also initiated a project to change all student ID numbers; see next.

All student ID numbers have been changed (as of August 14) to a number starting with 90. Student Social Security Numbers are recorded in our secure Banner system but are no longer needed to identify students, as long as they know their new ID number. To inform students, we sent out a large-scale "snail-mail" with temporary ID cards. The ID cards also contained Library bar-codes and students' new network/email UserNames. We felt new UserNames were needed; see next.

Since our old UserName scheme used part of a student's Social Security Number, we decided it was appropriate to change the scheme. The new UserNames consist of initials plus a number to make them unique; for example, John Smith might be JXM25 (if there were 24 earlier people with the same initials). We used X where no initial was recorded in Banner. UserName changes will require two days of system down-time over the August 26-27 weekend. All mail will be retained under the new name, since the accounts will be renamed, not replaced. Further, we will enter "nicknames" so that email to the old name goes to the new; we'll retain these until late September. A new website will enable students to (1) discover their new username if they don't know it and (2) reset their password.

Version 3.1 of SpySweeper Enterprise has been distributed to all PCs via the network, at login. We had observed that some PCs appeared to freeze right after login, a problem which cleared after about 5 minutes. The apparent freeze was probably a conflict between SpySweeper 3.02 (prior version) and our antivirus software; it usually only occured once and went away with the 3.1 upgrade. If you have the "freeze" problem you should call the Help Desk at x3445; if it happens more than once we may need to visit your PC.

The PCs in many of our Academic Computer labs have been replaced with newer, more powerful models, freeing up the old Lab PCs to be distributed to Faculty and staff. The process is proceeding slowly but steadily, averaging several PCs per day. The "new" PCs are receiving memory upgrades and a complete Windows and software "wipe" before installation; most of them contain CDRW drives, allowing large-file copies and backups.

Version 7 of GroupWise has been released, with improvements to both the front-end clients and the back-end servers. The Windows client sports a more "Outlook-like" look and feel, while the WebAccess client adds features previously seen only in the Windows client. Virtually all end-users have been upgraded; call the Help Desk if you need an upgrade or a new install of the Windows client.