News
Monday, June 30, 2008
by Nathan Gamber
We've had complaints that the Kaspersky updater and scans are slowing some older systems to a crawl,
so we've rescheduled all scans to run late Saturday night/Sunday morning, and for those users whose systems are slow enough that
updates alone impact their work, updates to run later in the evening.
We realize that MSU recommends shutting your systems down for the weekend in order to mitigate energy costs,
but they also strongly urge users to ensure that their systems are clean, and so this is a necessary measure. If you do
choose to turn off your system for the weekend, the scan should run when you turn it on again. We've also tweaked the
scan so that it skips files if there is a lock on the file and so that it only scans new and changed files from the previous scan.
This should ensure that your systems are impacted as little as possible while still providing the necessary protection.
If you would also like your updates to be delayed until the evening, submit a ticket to helpdesk
and we'll get your system switched over.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
by Ehren Benson
There have been reports from other campus IT departments that a program going around on the internet that is presented to users to install by a Trojan or some other delivery method called “XP Antivirus 2008” or “Vista Antivirus 2008”. If you see this, be aware that either of these are malware masquerading as a useful program to remove malware. It is difficult to remove and can infect your system further if it is installed. If you see anything like this ignore it and do not install it. If you already have this on your system submit a helpdesk case at helpdesk.pa.msu.edu and someone can assist you.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
by Ehren Benson
As some of you may well be aware already, and may even already be using it, the physics department has installed a new mail system based on Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 that we are currently migrating users to. This system which includes extremely powerful new hardware and storage systems should alleviate any headaches that exist with the current system. We have already migrated 80+ users to the new system and are migrating more each day. If you would like to be a priority for migration please fill out a helpdesk request on our helpdesk site at http://helpdesk.pa.msu.edu and we will bump you up on the list. One scenario where this would be beneficial is if you are going to be away in the near future for more than a few days.
All the client documentation for the new PA Exchange Mail system is online here for most departmentally supported mail clients. There are a couple that are less commonly used which the documentation is being completed for.
If you ever experience any trouble with the mail system or any other PA computing system check the news feed at the top of the http://support.pa.msu.edu (this site) for the latest updates on known issues.