PAWS & Other ICT Services to be Unavailable Wed. May 9, 10 PM – 2 AM
PAWS will be unavailable on Wednesday May 9, from 10:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. the next morning for regular maintenance and the installation of important security patches.
Other ICT-provided services which will also be unavailable during this time include:
- Blackboard
- Email, including Exchange, webmail, mailing lists (including access to voicemail via Exchange)
- SiRIUS & UniFI (Banner)
- File services (Cabinet, Jade, Bermuda, TangoWeb (SSAM/gsis), WinWeb (FMD))
- Print services (Green, CPAS)
- Database hosting (Oracle & MS-SQL)
- U-Who
- U-Friend
- Web Services (Cascade, www, homepage)
- MITS
- CAS
- E-valuation (SEEQ)
- Wiki (Confluence)
- QuestionMark Perception (QMP)
- CVMS
- Matterhorn Lecture Capture
For more information, contact:
ITS Help Desk 966-4817 help.desk@usask.ca
February 13, 2008
Improved Access for SaskTel Internet Users
Since early this term, there has been an unexpected increase (almost doubling) in the use of the connection between the University’s and SaskTel’s networks. The connection is being used to capacity, with more demand than can currently be satisfied. The increase appears to be the result of a recent change in SaskTel’s connections to other Internet Service Providers.
The increased demand has resulted in problems for some people trying to use University resources from their home SaskTel connections, and to a lesser extent, when accessing some Internet sites from the University. Difficulties are most apparent during office hours when demand for this access is greatest.
ITS is working to resolve this situation and restore good service to everyone. Steps being taken to resolve the situation include:
- Arranging for more capacity to be added to the connection to SaskTel. This will take some time to complete, as physical changes to the connection will be required.
- Working with SaskTel to re-route the additional network traffic to the University’s connections to other Internet Service Providers in order to relieve congestion.
ITS is continuing to work on making the service as usable as possible. ITS apologizes for the inconvenience this issue has caused.
October 05, 2007
New Monthly Downtimes Begin - First Scheduled October 10
In order to improve the security of the institutional IT services, ITS is implementing a monthly downtime to apply security and related patches to all systems (applications, databases, and servers) that ITS operates. To minimize the impact of service outages, we will coordinate these with other existing scheduled outages (monthly patching of Windows Servers, weekly downtimes of SiRIUS and Unifi) so there is only one scheduled service outage per month.
Monthly outages, occurring on the second Wednesday of the month between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., will begin Wednesday October 10. All IT services provided through ITS, except those listed below, will be unavailable during that time. There will be rare occurrences when the outage will be rescheduled to the third Wednesday of the month and these changes to the schedule will be announced one month in advance.
Services that will be available are:
- About-Us (HR system)
- Network
- Voicemail
Services that will NOT be available are:
- PAWS
- SiRIUS
- UniFi
- U-Who
- U-friend
- File Services (Cabinet, Folder, Jade)
- Web Services (www, homepage)
- Print Services (CPAS, Green)
- Database Hosting (SQL server & Oracle)
- E-mail, including Webmail
- Blackboard/WebCT
- MITS
May 09, 2007
Change to the U of S Wireless Network Security Protocol
ITS is making changes to the wireless network. A significant number of people are now bringing wireless devices (such as PDAs) to the U of S that are not compatible with the PEAP network security protocol currently used at the U of S. By changing the network security protocol, the U of S wireless network will be able to accommodate these devices.
Members of the campus community who use the U of S wireless network will need to delete their existing wireless connection and create a new one that does not use PEAP. Instructions are available online at: http://www.usask.ca/its/services/networks/setup_guides/
Although this change increases accessibility to the U of S wireless network, it also means that information (e.g. usernames, passwords, data) travelling on the wireless network is only encrypted if it is sent using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protection (i.e. the URL uses https://) or over a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Use of VPN software protects your information that otherwise might be viewable by other wireless users.
The VPN service is now available to undergraduate students at the U of S as a result of this change to the wireless network. Previously it was restricted to instructors, researchers, employees and graduate students. To learn about the VPN service at the U of S, visit: http://www.usask.ca/its/services/networks/vpn/
If you have any questions, concerns or need assistance, please contact the ITS Help Desk.
November 20, 2006
Welcome to the ITS Announcements blog!
Welcome to the ITS Announcements blog! ITS announcements will provide you with information on new services, system status, upcoming training, alerts, news and more.