Summer is an especially busy time for Communications Network Services. College, department, and office staff planning summer renovations or moves, which will involve new or changed telecommunications services, may find the following helpful:
Departments, understandably, may elect to delay ordering telecommunications services until the spring semester concludes, increasing the volume of summer orders. Additionally, this summer's telecommunications work will be impacted by the university's ongoing implementation of Unified Communications (UC) services.
By sharing this information with staff who order your department's telecommunications services, you will significantly improve CNS' ability to serve you in a timely manner.
Virginia Tech's enterprise EMC VNX5700 storage system is scheduled for maintenance, March 9, 2013.
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. through noon Saturday, March 9th, all virtual machines on the storage system will be UNAVAILABLE, interrupting the following services:
Upgrade to interrupt several Information Technology services
On Sunday July 29, 2012, central NetApp services known as NAS, storage.vt.edu, skipper.cc.vt.edu, minnow.cc.vt.edu and dominion will be unavailable while technology upgrades are applied. The outage is scheduled from 8:00 am through 1:00 pm.
The following services rely on NetApp and will be unavailable during the maintenance:
- Exchange
- Junk Mail Manage
- www.computing.vt.edu
- Mystore and Mystore2 (personal shares for Windows and Mac users)
- Departmental shares on the NAS
- VT Confluence
- JIRA
- Nolij
- Banner Document Management System/Application Xtender
Learning Technologies Applications:
- Scholar
- FDI Registration
- SPOT Survey
- iTunesU
Ensemble Content Management System:
Web Hosting:
- All hosted websites
- MySQL Databases associated with hosted websites
- VT Calendar (calendar.vt.edu)
- VT Survey (survey.vt.edu)
Filebox:
Note: The Virginia Tech web site (www.vt.edu), Banner INB, and HokieSpa will NOT be affected.
Check www.computing.vt.edu after 1:00 pm on Sunday for the latest systems status.
Please forward questions to Wanda Baber, wbaber@vt.edu.
Cable TV System Maintenance
An upgrade of the university's cable television distribution and transmission center equipment began Thursday, April 26, 2012. Over the next few weeks, various channels may be briefly unavailable between 8am and 5pm, Monday through Friday. It is estimated there will be a maximum of 30 minutes of downtime for any channel. It is a priority to ensure all cable television services are available at close of business each day.
Outside project work hours, problems encountered with the university's cable television services should be reported to the Virginia Tech Operations Center at 1-6780. Questions about the upgrade may be directed to Network Infrastructure and Services Public Relations at NIS.PR@vt.edu or by calling 1-6460.
Summer Telecommunications Orders: Volume Heavy
Communications Network Services (CNS) endeavors to provide a high level of service to the campus community. College, department, and office staff planning summer renovations or moves which will involve new or changed telecommunications services may find the following helpful:
- If you have telecommunications work you wish to be billed during the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2012, your Interdepartmental Communications Requests (ICRs) should be received at CNS by May 2nd, to ensure sufficient time to complete the work by May 25th.
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Should you require installation work or assistance with a move to be completed before August 31st, that does not need to be billed during the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2012, CNS will be better able to fulfill your requirement if we **receive your ICRs before the end of June**. ICRs received at CNS later than this time frame may not be completed until after the Fall Semester begins.
The Interdepartmental Communications Request form may be accessed via COLA
Larger departmental moves and most renovation projects should be specified via CNS' Request For Estimate form.
Work order volume is very heavy during the summer months. By sharing this information with staff who order telecommunications services, you will significantly improve CNS' ability to serve you in a timely manner.
For more information, please contact a CNS Ordering & Provisioning team member at 1-6460. We look forward to providing your telecommunications needs!
New VT email service
After a yearlong competitive process, a new email system has been selected for students and some faculty and staff. The email product selection committee, comprised of members of the university's Information Technology staff, as well as representatives of the staff senate and student government, endorsed the “Google Apps for Education” proposal. This is the same email service many Virginia Tech (VT) Alumni have used for the last two years.
“Google Apps for Education” will replace the services (for yourpid@vt.edu) referred to as IMAP and POP email, as well as the existing Junkmail manager and VT webmail login. No advertising will be shown on any VT-controlled Google service. Your Virginia Tech email address will not change.
An agreement is also being developed for a hosted or “cloud” Exchange email service (for yourpid@exchange.vt.edu) with enhanced features. More information will be provided in the future. In the interim, faculty and staff additionally continue to have the option to use an Exchange email account accessed via Outlook.
The target for implementation is the beginning of Fall Semester 2012. Users will receive a Google VT Mail account, similar to a Gmail account, but secured in a segregated VT-only environment, with 25Gb of storage space and unlimited retention time.
Additional features:
- advanced contact list manager
- synchronization with any smart phone using ActiveSync technology
- online word processing
- spreadsheet
- drawing tools
- presentation software (with real time collaboration features)
- full calendaring and scheduling software
- VT-Only version of Google Talk
- personal web pages
There may be opportunities for early adopters, which will be announced over the summer. Questions about the new service should be referred to Network Infrastructure & Services at goinggoogle@vt.edu.
Cable Television Changes
Digital and High Definition (HD) broadcasts of local network stations are now available on channels 65 through 70 of the Virginia Tech cable TV system. The new digital channels are: WDBJ 7 (CBS), WSLS 10 (NBC), WSET 13 (ABC), WBRA 15 (PBS), WFXR 27 (FOX), and ION 38.
After a "channel search" on a television with a QAM (digital) tuner, available on most US TVs sold after 2006, HD channels will map to their virtual designations which correspond to the local television station channel number.
University Channel Listings | Inn at Virginia Tech Channel Listings
Science Channel replaces NASA Channel
The NASA channel was replaced by the Science Channel (campus cable #46) in early August 2011.
Student Residence Hall PhoneMail Change
The Student Residence Hall PhoneMail is set to NOT accept messages by default. Students can set PhoneMail to accept messages by following the instructions available here. This change does not affect departmental PhoneMail.
Many VT-Wireless Certificates Are Expiring
VT-Wireless Personnal Certificates last one year from the date they were created. Several users on campus are going through the process of aquiring new certificates. If you are eligible for Virginia Tech's wireless service, you may obtain a new certificate at any time. You need not wait until the old one expires.
To continue to use the VT-Wireless network, you must:
If you have questions, please contact 4Help online at http://4help.vt.edu/ or by phone at 540-231-HELP (4357).
CNS Phishing Scam Reminder
Virginia Tech e-mail system users are often harassed by online phishing messages. Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft ("phishing" www.webopedia.com). Private information requested in phishing e-mail messages often includes user names, account passwords, credit card, social security, or bank account numbers.
Do Not Respond!
Although Virginia Tech continually warns e-mail system users about phishing scams, some users are still responding to phishing messages. The University does not monitor e-mail content and cannot determine whether e-mail system users are providing their credentials, but responding to these scams in any way can have a negative effect and is likely to increase the amount of spam received.
Never Share Your PID & Password
Virginia Tech will never request your PID and password. No matter how eloquent, realistic, or grammatically correct a note appears to be, if it requests your password or other personal information, it is fake. Do not respond to any e-mail messages requesting your Virginia Tech PID and password. Anyone who requests this information intends to use it in a malicious manner.
More E-Mail Security Tips
- Never send any passwords of any type via e-mail - don't be part of the problem!
- Change your PID password occasionally
- Don't use your VT PID password as a password for other acccounts, especially if you use your PID as your user/account name.
- Consider using an e-mail alias instead of your PID as your e-mail address. For more information, see Using E-mail Aliases With Your VT Mail Account.
To keep up-to-date with current phishing schemes (in email and social network sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others) take a look at http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/.
Student Wireless Access Sign-ups
To all incoming students:
You can save yourself a little time during orientation by activating your University Wireless Network account now using COLA (Customer On Line Access).
It's as easy as 1-2-3!
- 1. Log into COLA at https://cola.cns.vt.edu using your PID and the password associated with your PID.
- 2. Select "Activate Wireless Network" under "Actions" on the right hand side of the screen.
- 3. Click on "Activate" at the bottom of the screen.
It's just that simple! However, if you experience any difficulties, please stop by our office, located at 120 Student Services Building, Monday thru Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, when you are on campus for orientation. You can also contact 4HELP Computing Consultants (4help.vt.edu or 540-231-4357) for assistance. Remember that we are all here to help make this process as easy as 1-2-3.
Student Network Services
(Previously known as "Student Telecommunications Services")
CNS Website Change
The Communications Network Services (CNS) Site is currently undergoing renovations. If you have any trouble locating information on the site, please contact CNS at 540-231-6460 or via email at ASK-CNS@vt.edu. Additionally, please contact the CNS Webmaster if have links to the current CNS site, as many of these links will be changing.
