Virus Protection

ITS is doing a district-wide roll-out of Sophos for your computer and mobile virus protection. Sophos AV is supported on SMCCCD owned devices and supports the following platform: IOS, Windows, Android, OS X.

We ask all end-users place an ITS work request and one of our friendly technicians will conduct the software install. There may be a need to ensure previous anti-virus is uninstalled successfully,

Once installed, definition updates or policy changes can be received as long as the unit is connected to the internet.

NoviSurvey Tutorials

NoviSurvey is the survey tool used at SMCCCD.  It’s easy-to-use and produces anything from simple Yes/No surveys to complex matrices.  It also provides customizable on-line reports.

To obtain a survey account, please email Alan Miller in ITS.

Here are some tutorials to get you started:

https://smccd.edu/accounts/smccd/its/tutorials/novisurvey/basic/ 

http://www.novisystems.com/Survey-Software-Help.aspx

Novi Survey Quick Start Guide (PDF)

 

 

0365 Junk Email FAQs

1) How to block a sender’s domain
Microsoft has removed the feature to easily block a domain from the junk email menu
Steps on how to block a domain and why Microsoft made that change are available here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980552

2) How do I right click on a spam message on a mac in Outlook

“Ctrl-Click” on the spam message

3) My search is not returning messages I know are there

There could be a couple reasons for this:

1)      You can try the advanced find (File -> Search tools -> Advanced find)

2)      Your search index is corrupted (ost file) and you need to have a technician recreate it for you

3)      You search just needs to be reindexed (can take all day to run)

  • Go to Outlook Settings (File | Options)
  • Go to the Search settings
  • Click on Indexing Options
  • Click Advanced
  • Click Rebuild
  • Click OK and then Close to dismiss the dialogs

4) My evites and facebook notifications are being captured by the quarantine filter

We are adding the evites and facebook domains to the white list for Microsoft. If you have a domain you would like us to white list so it no longer appears in quarantine let us know.

5) It’s confusing that the quarantine message says “Report as Not Junk” and when I click on it, it doesn’t automatically release those messages to my inbox.

  • Report as Not Junk  –  Clicking this link sends a copy of the message to Microsoft for analysis. The spam team evaluates and analyzes the message, and, depending on the results of the analysis, adjusts the anti-spam filter rules to allow the message through.  Sometimes you will need to report something as junk multiple times before Microsoft believes you =)
  • Release to Inbox   – Clicking this link sends the message to your inbox where you can view it.

Exciting changes to email

This message is to let you know that we are moving employee email accounts to a hosted solution from Microsoft called Office 365

Moving to Microsoft 365 will give you over 50GBs of space and new features including voicemail transcription, skydrive (similar to dropbox) and integrated Instant Messaging.

 

Pilot

We started a pilot last Fall and have moved about a hundred of your co-workers to the new system.  We will be moving the remainder of the District accounts over this Spring.

 

Quick FAQs

  1. Your email address and password will not change.
  2. All email mailboxes will be increased from 2GB to 50GB of storage!
  3. Your existing email messages will be moved to the new account.
  4. You may be switched to the new voice mail system along with the email move.
  5. SharePoint is also moving to Office 365. We are contacting site owners individually as we migrate their sites.
  6. You will also have access to 25GB of online web storage in OneDrive For Business (similar to Dropbox)
  7. Student email accounts will continue to be hosted by Google and will not be affected by this change.
  8. Please be aware that during the migration period, you cannot see the calendars and scheduling status (free, busy, etc.)  of those employees that have not yet been migrated. This will not be an issue once all employees have been migrated to Office 365.

You will be receiving an email prior to your account being moved with more details.

 

More FAQs

 

If you run into issues, feel free to call the ITS Helpdesk at x6543.

Confidential Student and Personal Information Stored on District Web Servers

****IMPORTANT REMINDER ABOUT YOUR WEB SITES****

Many of you have websites on our servers within one or more of the following domains:

Please remember that ANY files you upload to your web folders using either Webdav or Omniupdate are accessible to the world!! This is true, even if you do not link them from your webpage.  These web servers are for uploading files that you intentionally want to share on your public website.  ITS does not monitor the files uploaded by employees to our web servers.  You are responsible for the contents of any file that you upload to your web account.

It is Important that you do not:

  • Upload any files that contain confidential information to the web server
  • Use the account for storage of your personal data
  • Upload any personal identifiable information of your students, such as:
    • email addresses
    • gnumbers
    • grades
    • phone numbers
    • birthdates, etc…)

If you need to share files with your colleagues in a secure environment where you can control who has access to them, then these are your option:

1)      Create a share on your computer

2)      Use a sharepoint site and do not allow guest access

3)      Work with ITS to create a private server share for you

If you need a space to store your own personal data (not related to work) then we recommend Dropbox:

http://www.dropbox.com

Taking Screenshots

My favorite screenshot utility that comes with Windows Vista and Windows 7 is called the Snipping Tool.  Many people do not realize this little gem is buried in their accessories.

The snipping tool is located here:

Start menu -> All Programs -> Accessories – >Snipping Tool

The snipping tools allows you to draw a box around any portion of your screen to capture it.

Once captured you can paste it into an email, word, anywhere.  You can also highlight portions of it or draw on it using the pen tool.  If you mess up, don’t worry there’s even an eraser for us perfectionist =)

Here is a screenshot of the toolbar.  It’s very easy to use.

Now when you’re ready to do a screenshot, sometimes it’s a pain finding the snipping tool.  Windows allows you to give any application a “shortcut key”  That is a key you will press on your keyboard to launch an application.  it’s very useful for application you use most often.

To add a shortcut key to the snipping tool navigate to the snipping tool in your start menu.

Start menu -> All Programs -> Accessories – >Snipping Tool

Right click on it and select properties

On the properties screen type a key sequence in the “Shortcut key” box

Normally you want a sequence of keys that you will not accidentally press during your normal activity. I used “Ctrl” and “F12” When I press down on these keys together it will automatically launch my snipping tool.

Email Problems Logging in?

A number of users email passwords have been changed as a result of hackers guessing the “default” password for several of our users. These hackers sent millions of spam email messages using the email address and password of these compromised faculty and staff accounts. This lead to our email servers being blacklisted so no one would accept emails from our servers.  Due to the large number of compromised accounts, and the huge security issues this poses for us, we had to make the immediate decision to reset the passwords of all email accounts that were still set to the original default password.  We did not change the password of email accounts of users who have at some point changed their password to something other than the default.

If you are unable to login to your email account, your password will need to be reset. ITS cannot do this by telephone since we are unable to identify you. You will need to contact your Dean or Supervisor and they will contact the appropriate ITS staff member to reset it for you.

Once you login to your account we HIGHLY recommend that you change your password to something that is not easy to guess but you will remember. (on a PC, you can simply press CNTRL+ALT+DEL and select the “change password” button)

Below are some FAQs to help address some of the commonly asked questions and concerns.

Still not working?

If you try to login to your email account too many times with the wrong password, your account will be temporarily disabled.  In this case, you will need to contact your Dean or Supervisor so they can have it reset for you.

What if I’m using a generic email address for my division, department, service, etc…?

If you are logging into an email account that is not associated with a person, such as a department email address, then you will need to contact your Dean or Supervisor to submit a request for the new password:

How do I change my password?

Please choose a password that is not easy to guess.

Windows users  (3 easy options)
1) Press CTRL+ALT+DEL on your PC while logged in. Select the “Change Password” option
or
2)
Visiting the Portal Page at http://www.smccd.edu/portal and click on the “change password” link under “Information Technology Services”
or
3)
Logging into Outlook Web Access (Web based email) http://mail.smccd.edu , select “options” and then select “Change Password”

Macintosh users (2 easy options)
1) Visiting the Portal Page at http://www.smccd.edu/portal and click on the “change password” link under “Information Technology Services”
or
2) Logging into Outlook Web Access (Web based email), select “options” and then select “Change Password”

If you have any questions about changing your email password please contact the ITS Helpdesk by placing an IT Service Request at http:/www.smccd.edu/accounts/portal/

What about when I login to my computer, web folder, sharepoint, faculty door card, IT Services Request Form and other systems (such as Smart Phones) that use my email username and password?

When you change your email password, you will need to login to the computer, web folder, sharepoint, etc… using your new password. On your Smart Phone it is very important that you go into the settings area and change to your new password. If you use the wrong password more than 5 times (or your Smart Phone attempts to download email for you several times with the old password), you will be locked out of your account and will need to call your Dean or Supervisor to assist.

What about my home computer, laptops, mobile devices such as cell phones that I use to check my email?

Ensure any devices you have that connect to our email servers are using the new password. If your smart phone is set up to automatically push your email you may unintentionally lock yourself out of your account if it continues to use the old password.

What would happen if my account gets hacked?

If a hacker can get into your email account they will use it to send thousands of spam emails to servers all over the world.  That will lead to our email servers being blacklisted and everyone with a district email address will be blocked from sending email to the outside world (no sending email to gmail, yahoo, hotmail, Comcast, etc…)  Also that hacker will now have access to everything that uses your email address as a login, regardless of the password, because they can have the password emailed to them.  Everything you have access to from off our network is at risk of being hacked including your sharepoint sites, WebAccess courses and web folders. Everything you may use your district email account for such as banking, social networking, shopping, etc… are also compromised. 

How will I know if my account has been hacked?

If someone is using your account for malicious activities you will probably notice hundreds of bounce-back messages for emails you never sent.  Always make sure your password is at least 8 characters long (ideally upper and lower case, plus numerals included in the password)