Personal wireless routers are not permitted because they interfere with regular network access for other students located near them. 

If you have a wireless router connected to the network, please disconnect it immediately. Otherwise, your access to the network will be disabled until the router is removed.

Please note that this requirement is clearly stated in the college’s Policy on Acceptable Use of Computer Resources and Wireless Network Policy. 

Thank you for your help in ensuring that the Smith network is available to all students.

The college switched to this simpler form to save keystrokes, streamline our email processing, and give Smith addresses the same format used by most other academic institutions.

IMPORTANT: Use your @smith.edu address to log in to the MessageScreen quarantine system. Also, if you subscribe to any email lists, you may need to change your subscription setup so you can continue posting to the list..

For more information, click here. 

Wireless is a shared resource with relatively low bandwidth. Imagine that the wireless router is a sprinkler, and each computer connecting to the router is a bucket — so when one computer requests a lot of bandwidth from the router (imagine they’re using a larger bucket), everyone else’s available bandwidth can decline. So, for better performance, please use an Ethernet connection to download large files, run Windows Updates, watch streaming video, use VoIP, and so forth.

Wireless is insecure. All wireless networks are less secure than wired connections. Moreover, the wireless in the residence houses is not encrypted, so please do not use wireless for any services that require you to enter sensitive personal information (for example, your Banner PIN, credit card number, or online banking information).

Wireless in the houses is monitored by CCA. When you use the wireless in a residence house, instead of signing in through Blue Socket (like all other access points on campus, in the library, campus center, etc), you will sign into Cisco Clean Access. So, if you need a Windows Update or new Virus Definition, run your updates on a wired connection (it will be faster) before you try connecting to the wireless in your house. For more information on accessing wireless from a residence house, click here.

More Questions? Email 4its@smith.edu or call the User Support Center at x4487.

McAfee Avert Labs posted this example: Valentine Nuwar

The spoof e-cards prompt you to download a file or visit a website to make the download. Before clicking on any links or downloading anything, examine the URLs and filenames to determine if they are legitimate. Malicious files often end in .exe (example: hallmark.gif[1].exe).

To examine the URL or filename of a link, follow the instructions below:

Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari: The Status bar at the bottom of the window shows you where a link is directed. To turn on the Status Bar, click on the View menu and enable it.

GroupWise Client: To view the URL of a link, you can look at the Message Source. Click on the Message Source tab or toggle between HTML and Plain Text using the View menu.

Apple Mail: To examine the URL of a link, move your cursor over the link and hover there until the URL is revealed.

Most of the spoof e-cards have been blocked, but some particularly well crafted spoof e-cards have gotten to quarantine. Many of the e-cards look like they have been sent by a known recipient, so if you are in doubt, confirm that your friend intended to send you an e-card before opening it.

For extra protection against spoofers and phishers, consider installing McAfee Site Advisor for Firefox.

For a fast download, go to Version Tracker.

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

Also, remember to be a “good citizen” and don’t download your Windows Updates while you’re connected to wireless.

For technical information from McAfee: Puper.dldr

Edit: for more information on DNS-changing trojans: DNS attack could signal Phishing 2.0 [MacWorld.com]

Power PC Macs (iBooks and PowerBooks), OS X 10.4.10 and lower, OS X Leopard, and silver iMacs are not affected.

There is no fix yet from Apple or Microsoft, but here is a work-around: if you are giving a presentation on a computer that you think could be affected by this problem, convert your presentation to a PDF. This way, you can use Adobe Acrobat to view the slides if PowerPoint is crashing.

Mac OS X Convert to PDF:

1. Open the file.
2. Select Print from the File menu.
3. Click on the PDF button and choose “Save as PDF.”
4. Choose a name and location for your file then click Save. (If you get the following warning: You cannot save this document with extension “.ppt” at the end of the name. The required extension is “.pdf”, select “Use .pdf”)

Windows Convert to PDF: read Compatibility Issues with PowerPoint 2007 and Mac OSX

When it’s time to give your presentation, if you do need to use the PDF version of your slides, open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat then select Full Screen Mode from the View menu. To advance a slide, click the mouse or use the space bar. To exit the slideshow, hit the escape key.

A: As you’ve probably guessed, keeping your computer free from malware (which include viruses, adware, spyware, and annoying popups) isn’t easy — but it can be done if you have the right tools.

The first step is Prevention. Secure your browser to keep malicious code from executing on your computer and be careful of what you download!

Always update your web browser. Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari all periodically release updates. Sometimes these updates improve functionality or add features, but most often they patch security holes. However, depending on which internet browser you use most often, “securing” your browser will require different steps:

Internet Explorer 7
The main threat to Internet Explorer 7 are add-ons (toolbars, helpers, skins, etc) that may be malicious or just slow down your computer. You can manage add-ons from within IE 7 (Internet Explorer add-ons: frequently asked questions) , but should also uninstall them using Add and Remove Programs (XP) or Uninstall a Program (Vista).

From the Tools menu, choose Internet Options then the Security tab to change your security “zone” settings. IE splits up all the websites that you visit into Internet, Local intranet, Trusted sites, and Restricted sties. For each “zone” you can setup a security level. The default settings are appropriate for most people, but for more information: Setting Up Security Zones (this article is about IE6, but the feature works the same way in IE7).

If you are having a lot of problems with Internet Explorer 7, and you think they could be related to an add-on or configuration setting that you can’t isolate, you can reset the browser to its default configuration.

Firefox 2.x
The most important change you can make to Firefox’s settings is to set the browser to ask you where to save files — this prevents you from accidentally downloading something when you thought you were just clicking on a link to another webpage.

From the Tools menu, choose Options then the Main tab. (Mac users: From the Firefox menu, choose Preferences then the Main tab.) In the Downloads section, check “Always ask me where to save files.” To protect yourself further, click on the Security tab and check “Warn me when sites try to install add-ons” and “Tell me if the site I’m visiting is a suspected forgery” for more information on this feature: Firefox Phishing Protection FAQ [Mozilla.com]

Like Internet Explorer, Firefox can also suffer from poorly designed add-ons that drain your computer’s CPU, so if you notice that your computer is running slowly after installing a toolbar or extension, uninstall the extension or theme. Uninstalling add-ons [mozillaZine.org]

Safari
Safari for (now available for Windows and Mac OS X) is a very good browser for Mac OS X, and the version for Windows is coming along… but use it with caution for this reason: There is no way to set Safari for Windows so that it will ask you if you want to download a file. When you click on a link to a file, Safari automatically begins downloading the file instead of asking you what you want to do with the file. So, with that in mind, feel free to give Safari a spin, but don’t rely on it to keep you from accidentally downloading malicious or unwanted files.

Once you have “secured” your browser, you will want to remove any existing malware. (And even after following the steps above, you will occasionally want to check your list of installed programs and run the following malware removal tools.) Use Ad-Aware Personal SE, Spybot Search & Destroy, and CCleaner to look for spyware and adware that McAffee Virus Scan does not remove. Downloads and instructions are available on the Smith Software downloads page.

Have you ever installed a new piece of software and noticed that all of a sudden there are two or three new programs in your system tray?

YES? How can you avoid this? Read every pane of the installation wizard when you install a program and only install the parts that you want. (Be especially wary of software that claims to scan your computer for viruses. This is a common tactic of malware developers.) If you end up with unwanted software anyway, remove it as soon as you notice the application using Add or Remove Programs (XP) or Uninstall a program (Vista), both found in the Control Panel. If this does not completely remove the program, do a Google search using the name and “uninstall” or “remove” for manual removal instructions.

You may also want to try Windows Defender, a free download from Microsoft that protects “your computer against pop-ups, slow performance and security threats caused by spyware and other potentially unwanted software.”

Unfortunately, if a computer gets seriously infected, the only option is to reinstall Windows. With that in mind, work to prevent your computer from being infected and keep backups of your data. That way, in the unfortunate case that you do need to reinstall, the process will be easier.

While Microsoft puts the finishing touches on Office for Mac 2008, there is no simple solution for PowerPoint file compatibility between Office 2007 and Mac OS X.

The best way to send your Mac-using professor a PowerPoint presentation (and the only way to guarantee that it will look the way you intended on their screen) is to export the slides to a PDF.

1. Open the PowerPoint presentation on a Windows XP lab computer. (If the presentation does not open automatically or gives you an error about using the proper text converter, right-click on the file, mouse over “Open With…”, and select Microsoft Open XML Converter.)
2. In PowerPoint, click on the Adobe PDF menu and choose Convert to Adobe PDF.
3. If prompted, save the PowerPoint presentation.
4. Choose a filename and location for your PDF.
5. Wait! Converting a large or complicated PowerPoint presenation to PDF can take a few minutes.
6. When the conversion is done, Adobe Acrobat Professional will open your PDF automatically.

Note that Word files sent between Windows computer and Macs do not have the same conversion problems. For more information: Converting Microsoft Office 2007 Documents [TARA].

Questions? Leave them in the comments.