June 20th, 2011
Today's topics:
Updates for Windows desktops
Firefox, Adobe Updates for Windows
These updates are scheduled for Tuesday between 10 and 11Am on June 21st. Firefox and Adobe reader will have to close.
Laptop Virus Infection
One of LEPP's laptops was recently infected with a phony Anti-Virus program when its user looked at what was supposed to be a review of the upcoming Green Lantern movie. The infection was not caught by Symantec AntiVirus, but was immediately recognizable. Fortunately, he was using a standard user account with no privileges, so the infection was limited to only a few files in his personal profile. We were able to disenfect it and return the laptop to him the next day.
Administrative Privileges
In general, all software and hardware installation requests must be made to the computer group through a service request. As the computer group is extremely busy, these requests must be made as far in advance as possible. This requires careful planning to avoid unnecessary delays for new computers, users, or projects. In the long run, this helps protect the labs resources, mitigates the damage that can be done by virus infections (such as described above), and saves the lab a great deal of time and money. For more information on this policy, please see
AdministrativePrivileges (
https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/AdministrativePrivileges)
General network and server maintenance will occur every Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. The CLASSE-IT group will always announce any expected disruptions in our
NewsLetter and via
CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L, but with the size and complexity of our network there is always the potential for something to go wrong. We will do our best to contain all network maintenance and planned outages to Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM.
Unless other arrangements have been made,
CLASSE-managed Windows systems may be updated and rebooted on Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM, so please avoid critical or lengthy operations at that time. For more details, please see
SystemExpectations.
Questions or problems? Submit a service request.
Other resources: