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Over the past several years Information Technology Services has been trying to stay on top of virus protection on campus. Initially several low cost products we used, Vi-Spy and Leprechaun's VirusBuster, were adequate. In recent years, however, viruses have become more complicated and dangerous. A decision was made to utilize Symantec's Norton Antivirus as the campus virus software. It was also decided that each department would be responsible for purchasing licenses for all their users. Below is the information necessary to order a license from Compusult for a two year period (2nd year maintenance license must be ordered):

07-96-06760 Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition 7.6 Win32/Netware License Only ($11.00)
07-29-06772 Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition 7.6 Win32/Netware 2nd year Maintenance License Only ($5.00)

To get this special price you must order at least 10 licenses. If you would like to order less than 10 licenses please contact your Information Resource Consultant.

Once you have received your license certificate please contact your Information Resource Consultant. The software will be installed on your system AND regular upgrades to the software will be scheduled with no action necessary by the user.
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It has been a long, slow transition from the old Novell based e-mail system to the new Unix based e-mail. What that means for the rest of us is easy access to our Coastal e-mail accounts from anywhere on the planet that has an Internet connection. Over the past year we have transitioned every student, old and new, to the new system (Webmail). All new employees of the university are automatically put on Webmail. We have been systematically moving all other users from the old to the new system. To date there are 9,234 active users on Webmail. There are less than 125 faculty and staff that still need to be switched over to Webmail and this should be accomplished sometime in February. If you are not sure what system you are on please contact your Information Resource Consultant.

Some important things you need to know about Webmail:

Client Software: Client software is the software that the user utilizes to access e-mail. Pegasus has been a campus standard for years but more and more users are now using Outlook and Outlook Express. To access your Webmail via the Internet (mailbox.coastal.edu) using Internet Explorer or Netscape your user client is IMP. Which client you use is up to you.

Quotas: With so many users on the same system there is a limit to the amount of storage space on the mail server. It is necessary to set limits for the amount of mail any user can store in their account. Currently faculty and staff have a limit of 30MB. As e-mail messages are typically very small (less than 5 KB) you can store several thousand messages without exceeding your quota. E-mail attachments (Word documents, graphics, spreadsheets, etc.), however, do take up space (graphic files in particular). It is recommended that you save all attached files to your local system or diskette and delete them from your Inbox.

Departmental Lists: The Novell based e-mail system had a handy feature that is unfortunately not available on Webmail. E-mail distribution lists were automatically created and updated and users belonged to certain lists based on their function at the university. These lists could be used by entering #listname in the "To:" field in your e-mail message. Please be aware that these lists are very outdated and new users to the system are not on them and employees no longer here are. We hope to offer a similar convenient feature such as this in the future. Lists can still be created but need to be manually updated and maintained. Please contact your IRC for more details.

AN INTERESTING NOTE: The Webmail server transfers on the average more than 7.6 GBytes of mail per week!
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The Amistad ticket sales project was a joint effort between CCU and the South Carolina State Office of Information Resources. Coastal designed an informational website that offered specifics about the schooner's visit and allowed visitors to purchase tickets. The visitor went to an order page that required them to add information such as their name, address, phone number and number of tickets desired. After submitting this information they were brought to OIR's web site where the credit card information was obtained. OIR's system went through the credit card verification process then passed the necessary information back to CCU's server. Once approved Coastal's system would generate an e-mail message to the customer indicating how many tickets had been purchased and the total charged to his credit card. This e-mail message served as the visitor's ticket which was then checked against a list at the Amistad site. A total of 713 tickets (Adults 513 Children 200) from a total of 191 online transactions were sold.

The Amistad America organization was so impressed with the reservation system that they want to make the application available to all Amistad Host Committees around the country. Mr. Will Mebane, Jr., Vice President of Marketing and Development for Con Amistad (With Friendship) contacted Debbie Connor, Director of Community Relations and Special Events for Coastal and made this special request. Rick Matthews, Web Manager for ITS, deserves the credit for developing, designing and implementing this impressive program.

Although no longer accepting orders you can view Coastal's Amistad site at:
www.coastal.edu/amistad. Follow the link to the Reservation page.
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Another resource is available for Coastal students! On January 28, 2002 the Edwards Computer Lab officially opened for business in Room 241 of the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts building. The new student lab boasts 30 Dell 800mhz desktop units each with a 17" monitor, CD drive, audio system, Internet connectivity and printing capabilities. Software installed includes Windows 2000 Professional, Office 2000 and Internet Explorer. The lab is staffed with a student assistant while open. Hours for the spring 2002 semester are:

Mon-Thurs 9:00 a.m.- 6:00 p.m. and Fri 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.