Announcing
Coastal's Portal!
After
many months of planning and development the ITS department is pleased
to announce the availability of a campus portal - aptly named MyCoastal.
What
is a portal? A portal is an application that offers a broad array
of resources and services that can be customized for different user groups,
e.g. faculty, staff, students and alumni. The Coastal portal site offers
a single point of entry for WebMail, WebAdvisor and WebCT. In addition
it contains announcements, news and other CCU information. The new portal
is a dynamic application that we will continue to expand and improve upon
over the coming months.
What
is a single point of entry? A single point of entry allows users
to enter their Coastal ID and PIN and log in only once to most
campus services that require a log in.
How
can I find MyCoastal? Users can access the portal at uportal.coastal.edu.
From the university web site's Faculty
and Staff page select the link for MyCoastal.
A note on PINs! In order to utilize all functions of MyCoastal,
a user's email and WebAdvisor PIN must be the same. Over the next month
we will be contacting many users in order to synchronize PINs. You will
be notified via email or contacted by your IRC when this synchronization
is scheduled.
You can read all about the new portal at the MyCoastal
link. We encourage everyone to visit this exciting new
site!
Windows XP Service
Pack 2 - UPDATE
In
the last edition of CyberCHANT Windows XP users were cautioned against
installing the Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) on their systems. After
testing the upgrade and gradually adding it to users' systems it has been
determined that the upgrade is fine. In fact, we are recommending that
users upgrade to SP2 in order to take advantage of some beneficial new
features, most notably the pop-up blocker.
Determining
if SP is on your system: If you are not sure if you have SP2
on your system you can check as follows. Right click on the My Computer
icon on your desktop. Select Properties. If SP2 is installed
you will see it listed under the System section.
Installing
SP2: For those who choose to install the upgrade on their own
it is recommended that the following article be reviewed prior to installation:
What
to Know Before Installing Windows XP SP2.
Recommended
Settings: ITS recommends the following settings:
NOTE:
We have opted to bypass the SP2 Virus Protection monitoring as Symantec
offers the same service and the two applications may cause conflicts.
Modifying Existing Settings: Once you have installed
SP2 you can change settings under Control Panel, Security Center section.
Questions
and Concerns: If you would like to have SP2 installed on your
Windows XP computer or if you have inadvertently installed SP2 on your
machine and are getting error messages or warnings, contact your IRC via
the online ITS Job Request
System.
Music
to Our Ears?
Due to recent upgrades in the university phone system, callers who are
put on hold are no longer waiting in silence! While waiting, people can
now hear music or a customized promotional message informing them of events
on Coastal's campus.
"Phishing"
There
have been some reports from different Agencies of Phishing Fraud. Below
is information on Phishing Fraud and a web site where you can get tips
on what to do if you receive one of these emails and ways to protect yourself.
Phishing
Fraud - What it is and How Not to Get Hooked
Email
schemes, called "phishing" or "carding", are an attempt
to trick consumers into disclosing personal and/or financial information.
The emails appear to come from companies with whom consumers may regularly
conduct business (e.g., AOL, Earthlink, Paypal, eBay, or a credit card
issuer). Oftentimes the email threatens termination of accounts unless
consumers update billing information. Many of these email schemes contain
links to "look-alike" web sites that are loaded with actual
trademarked images. The web sites then instruct consumers to "reenter"
their credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank PINs, or other
personal information. If consumers actually provide the information requested,
the data goes to scammers, not the legitimate company whose name is on
the site. Thereafter, the data is often used to order goods or services
and/or to obtain credit in the name of the consumer.
Caution should always be used when receiving any unsolicited communication
requesting personal information. We are offering the following FTC
Consumer Alert page with tips for people that receive emails as described
above and how not to get hooked by one of these emails.
This information was provided by the CIO Help Desk,
Division of the State Chief Information Officer SC Budget and Control
Board Columbia, South Carolina 29210
A Way Around
Attachments
As the number of users on Coastal's email system continues to grow so
does the concern that large email messages are being sent to thousands
of users at one time. A message that is 500KB (.5 MB) sent to 10,000 user
accounts amounts to 5GB in hard drive space on the mail server. Users
may want to send out formatted documents created in Word or other packages
and retain the specific fonts and images. Frequently the user sends these
files as email attachments created in Word. If the recipient of the attached
file does not have the Word software they cannot open or use the file.
In order to conserve server space, decrease traffic on the network AND
still be able to send attractive, formatted documents to users you can
do the following in Word.
- Name and Save
your document
- Select File,
Send to, Mail Recipient from the top menu bar
- A window will
open that will allow you to enter the "To" and "Subject"
header information
- You will notice
that your formatted document is contained in the body of the email message
- Once you have
completed addressing the email select the Send a Copy button
Please
note, however, that including several images in a document will increase
its size dramatically. Sending the file via email as described above will
not fix that! When sending emails to multiple users it is recommended
that formatting and images be kept to a minimum. Messages sent to all
faculty and staff or all students should be less than 50 KB in size. If
you are not sure how to ascertain the size of an email message read on
. . .
How
Do I . . .
Question:
View the size of email messages through Outlook?
Answer:
- From inside Outlook,
click View from the top menu bar
- Click on Arrange
By, select Current View then Customize Current View
from the drop down menu
- In the Customize
View screen select the Fields button
- In the Show Fields
screen you will see two columns, Available Fields on the left
and Show these fields in this order on the right
- In the left column
highlight the Size entry then select the Add button
- To change the
order of the column, highlight the field you want to move and select
the Move Up or Move Down button.
- Select OK.
Coming
in the next edition of CyberCHANT . . .
WebCT 6.0, Videoconferencing,
ARTstor and more!!
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email to CyberCHANT Online!
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the CyberCHANT archives
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