Smith College TechNotes blog

Check out this recent post at Smith College Mac User: Make your PowerPoint Presentations PC-Compatible

Over the past year, the college has received 70 notices from the RIAA, with 11 arriving in the last week. Please remember that copyright infringement is against Smith’s Acceptable Use Policy, and that violation of this policy can result in the “removal of network access privileges” on the Smith Residence Network.

If you receive a notice indicating that the RIAA has detected illegal file sharing from your computer, it is important that you respond to the notice from ITS immediately and remove all peer-to-peer (P2P) software from your computer.

If you do not respond, you will no longer be able to use the Smith College Network until all P2P file-sharing software is removed from your computer, regardless of academic responsibilities. Students who violate the Smith College Acceptable Use Policy on copyright infringement may also face the Smith College honor board.

So, with classes about to end and exams just around the corner, please be extra vigilant about your network use! (Read more…)

As a follow-up to last week’s post on extending the life of your laptop…

You probably can’t count the number of times you’ve been told to “Backup your data!” This phrase also probably doesn’t mean much to you unless you’ve ever lost some important data (and whether it was a term paper, your iTunes music library, or all your photos from spring break, it’s all data). (Read more…)

What can you do to keep your laptop healthy? Aside from regularly running antivirus and spyware removal software, there are a number of steps you can take to extend your laptop’s life. (Read more…)

Hot on the heals of the Valentine Storm Worm e-blast are more emails spoofing well-known e-card services. These spoof emails pose as e-cards but actually attempt to install trojan virus software on your computer. (Read more…)

Dear Smith Students,

Since the beginning of the spring semester, ITS has been receiving increasing reports from students of network slow-downs and “sluggishness.” Our network usage statistics show this is primarily due to an increase in the overall volume of peer-to-peer traffic on the campus network. (Read more…)

Released yesterday (2/12), Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.4 Update “fixes a vulnerability that an attacker could potentially use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.”

For a fast download, go to Version Tracker.

For more information, visit the Microsoft Office for Mac website.

Over the past few days, a number of people at Smith have received emails that claim to be from an organization soliciting feedback on ‘campus’ related software development. Users who visit the website are prompted to submit personal information that could lead to additional phishing attacks.

Please remember that Smith will never send you emails asking for personal information, and if you are unsure about the source or reliability of an email, call ITS at (413) 585 4487 (or email us at 4its@smith.edu) before responding to the message or following any links. (Read more…)

The ITS Spring 2008 Technology Training Schedule is now available on-line. The schedule includes hands-on workshops for Smith students, faculty, and staff on essential computing skills, web development, and digital media development.

For class descriptions and registration information: Spring 2008 Technology Training

Starting today, Smith web servers now only accept secure connections. What does this mean?

If you maintain a web site on a Smith web server, you will need to switch from non-secure file transfer (FTP) to secure file transfer (SFTP) to continue transferring files to and from the web server successfully.

For more information and instructions on how to switch, see the TARA page, Using Secure File Transfer to Transfer Your Files.