The world is facing a dwindling supply of IPv4 address space and significant and growing demand for IP addresses. Here, at the University of Minnesota, we have allocated more than 97 percent of our IP(v4) address space and cannot get more. In order to address this issue, OIT is adopting a new Internet protocol known as IPv6. By moving as many users as is possible from the current 32-bit address in IPv4 to a 128-bit address in IPV6, we will be able to significantly increase our supply of IP addresses.

Please join us for a Town Hall meeting, in 402 Walter Library, on September 16, 2009, and listen as OIT engineers explain more about adopting IPv6 at the University of Minnesota.
More details about this event to follow.

If you have any questions, contact OIT-IPv6@umn.edu.

Posted 11:03 AM | Permalink

Plug all of your electronic equipment, such as computers, monitors, and printers, into one power strip and turn the strip off when you're not using your computer for an extended period of time. Computer equipment can continue to draw power, even after it has been shut off. Turning off the power strip or unplugging the equipment ensures that your electronics are not drawing any unnecessary power.

Posted 11:02 AM | Permalink

Due to the rapid expansion of the University of Minnesota's wireless network and the decreasing supply of unallocated IP addresses, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) plans to change the addressing scheme on the University's wireless network.

On Saturday, Aug. 15, OIT plans to deploy a technology on the "U of M" SSID called Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT is a technology that translates an end user's private IP address to a public IP address, thus reducing the University's need for IP addresses. This deployment will not affect the other SSIDs on campus ("UofM Secure" and "UofM Guest").

Once this technology is deployed certain applications that require the user to have a unique IP address may not function properly. One example of a type of application that might be affected is outside VPN clients. OIT expects this process to be completely transparent for most general wireless Internet users.

If you experience any problems running an application over the "U of M" SSID after Aug. 15, you can check to see if your application is affected by NAT, or you can switch to the "U of M Secure" SSID, which will not be affected by this transition.

For more information about NAT, visit the NAT wiki page, or contact wireless@lists.umn.edu with any questions.

Posted 10:53 AM | Permalink

The University of Minnesota is partnering with Google to offer Google Apps for the University of Minnesota to registered students, faculty, and staff. The optional service is slated to launch in October.

Partnering with Google will give University students, faculty, and staff access to a suite of state-of-the art communication and collaboration tools that will enhance their ability to work together. Faculty, staff, and students will be able to choose U of M Gmail and Apps including Google Docs (word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations), Google Calendar, Google Talk (instant messaging), and Google Sites as an option beginning in late September. The long-term goal is to have all students using U of M Gmail, so at some point, all incoming students will be required to use it as their official University e-mail account.

In addition to increased productivity opportunities, Google Apps also will allow the University to save costs in the long run by reducing the need to buy and support software, hardware, and storage to maintain our own independent e-mail service.

U of M Google accounts will be set up and administered by University staff. The University also will provide user support through the help desk and Office of Information Technology (OIT) technical staff.

For more information on Google Apps for the University of Minnesota, visit the Google Initiative Web site.

Posted 10:50 AM | Permalink

The University of Minnesota was mentioned in an article on Google's work with universities that are either implementing or near implementation of Google Apps for their institutions.

Posted 10:46 AM | Permalink

The University of Minnesota has partnered with Apple to launch the University of Minnesota on iTunes U. The partnership provides the University an opportunity to use Apple's iTunes software to privately share content with the University community, as well as a dedicated presence for public content on iTunes U in the Apple Store.

Posted 10:42 AM | Permalink

Antivirus software is required on all computers connected to the University network. One copy of Symantec AntiVirus is provided at no charge to University faculty and staff members.

Posted 10:41 AM | Permalink

You can use Gopher Messaging to access telephone-based voicemail, as well as to access your messages online, send voice messages to an e-mail address, send text messages to a voicemail account, and much more.

Posted 10:40 AM | Permalink

Approximately 300 students attended each day of new student orientation this summer, and many of them visited the Office of Information Technology's (OIT) resource booth for answers to their questions regarding computing on campus.

During this summer's new student orientation, nearly 900 orders were placed for discounted Microsoft software media through the Microsoft Campus Agreement program for students. Of the ten available pick-up locations, nearly half of the student orders were picked up at the new Coffman Union Tech Stop location. Students also have the option to have the software sent to them for an additional fee. In addition, approximately 100 laptop computers have been purchased through the new OIT certified laptop bundle program for students. For more information about the Microsoft Campus Agreement program for students, visit the UTools Web site. For more information about OIT certified laptop bundles for students, visit the UMart Web site.

Posted 10:33 AM | Permalink

The Office of Information Technology offers a number of technology training courses through the University Technology Training Center (UTTC). Please visit the UTTC Web site for a complete listing of training courses.

Google Apps training coming this fall
New this fall: Google Apps for the University of Minnesota. A variety of training opportunities are planned including presentations, hands-on training, and self-paced options. Check the UTTC Web site for updates as well as the complete listing of UTTC's fall courses. The UTTC fall schedule will be published online in early August.

Technology Training Courses
Registration information for all classes is found on the UTTC Web site.

Excel 2007: Managing and Analyzing Data
Aug. 4, 6
1-4:30 p.m.
90 Blegen Hall
Minneapolis/West Bank Campus
Windows

Dreamweaver CS3: CSS for Page Layout
Aug. 5, 7
8:30 a.m.-noon
210 Walter Library
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus
Macintosh/Windows

UMContent: Contributor Basics
Aug. 5
9:30 a.m.-noon
90 Blegen Hall
Minneapolis/West Bank Campus
Macintosh/Windows

Moodle 1.9: Grades
Aug. 6
1:30-4:30 p.m.
210 Walter Library
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus
Macintosh/Windows

WebVista 4: Creating Basic Course Web Sites
Aug. 7
8:30 a.m.-noon
90 Blegen Hall
Minneapolis/West Bank Campus
Macintosh/Windows

SAS 9: Programming I--Essentials
Aug. 11, 12, 13
1:00-4:30 p.m.
90 Blegen Hall
Minneapolis/West Bank Campus
Windows

Access 2007: Advanced Database Development
Aug. 12, 13, 14
9 a.m.-noon
90 Blegen Hall
Minneapolis/West Bank Campus
Windows

Designing Accessible Web Sites
Aug. 12
1:30-3:00 p.m.
210 Walter Library
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus
Seminar

Mobile-Friendly Web Pages
Aug. 12
8:30 a.m.-noon
210 Walter Library
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus
Macintosh/Windows

Moodle 1.9: Collaboration
Aug. 13
1:00-4:30 p.m.
210 Walter Library
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus
Macintosh/Windows

myU Portal: Group Collaboration
Aug. 18
1:30­­-4:00 p.m.
210 Walter Library
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus
Windows

ImageNow 6: Basics
Aug. 21 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
90 Blegen Hall
Minneapolis/West Bank Campus
Windows

Moodle 1.9: Creating Basic Course Web Sites
Sept. 1
1:00-4:30 p.m.
210 Walter Library
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus
Macintosh/Windows

Posted 10:18 AM | Permalink

Each airing of this program is repeated every six hours for a total of four airings at 7 p.m., 1 a.m., 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Broadcast of talk, "The Internet, the Public Intellectual and the 'War on Terror,'" given by Juan Cole at the IAS on April 5, 2007. The program will appear on TPT-Channel 17 on broadcast television, and on satellite and most cable stations; Channel 13 on the Comcast Cable system in Minneapolis. A few excerpts of this program can be viewed online through the Institute for Advanced Study's Media Page.

Contact: Institute for Advanced Study, (612) 624-2921 or ias

Posted 10:15 AM | Permalink

10:30-11:30 a.m.
101 Walter Library
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus

The meeting will include information about the Google Apps for the University of Minnesota initiative.

Those planning to attend the meeting should R.S.V.P to KT Cragg by Tuesday, Aug. 11. Those unable to attend in person can attend via UMConnect.

Posted 10:13 AM | Permalink

2-6 p.m.
TCF Bank Stadium
Minneapolis/East Bank Campus

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities staff and faculty are invited to Celebrate U! an employee appreciation celebration to be held on Tuesday, August 25, from 2-6 p.m., in the brand new TCF Bank Stadium. U of M employees can enjoy a preview of the new stadium, complimentary refreshments, a video presentation on the second largest screen in the nation, a performance by members of the U of M Marching Band, an opportunity to visit with senior leaders and Goldy Gopher, and informational and vendor booths.

More info: Celebrate U!
Contact: celebr8u

Posted 10:10 AM | Permalink

On July 30th at 9:17 a.m., the University suffered a network outage on the Saint Paul Campus in the area near Bio Sciences Building.

The Network outage was caused by a power supply failure in the Bio Science Core Router that affected both power supplies. Both power supplies affected the main electrical panel, and in turn, caused the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to fail. This is our current best understanding.

We have replaced the failed power supply. Service was returned at 11:34 a.m.

We are continuing to evaluate this issue and how to appropriately mitigate it. Further updates will be posted on this page as they are available.

If you have any questions, call (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus).

Posted 8:49 AM | Permalink

Due to the rapid expansion of the University of Minnesota's wireless network and the decreasing supply of unallocated IP addresses, the Office of Information Technology is planning to change the addressing scheme on the University's wireless network.

On August 15, 2009, OIT plans to deploy a technology on the "UofM" SSID called Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT is a technology that translates an end user's private IP address to a public IP address, thus reducing the University's need for IP addresses. This deployment will not affect the other SSIDs on campus ("UofM Secure" and "UofM Guest").

Once this technology is deployed certain applications that require the user to have a unique IP address may not function properly. One example of a type of application that might be affected is outside VPN clients. OIT expects this process to be completely transparent for most general wireless internet users.

If you experience any problems running an application over the "UofM" SSID after August 15, you can check to see if your application is affected by NAT, or you can switch to the "UofM Secure" SSID, which will not be affected by this transition.

Read more about NAT.

If you have any questions, contact wireless@lists.umn.edu

Posted 9:38 AM | Permalink

The instability that was reported in the OIT/ NTS Data Center Network early July 9th has been identified as a physical wiring problem that caused one of the Data Center Edge Nodes to intermittently spike its processor to capacity. This network connection was continually requesting the EtherSwitch Stack to recreate the VLAN trunk port. (This is provisioned to provide several VLANs on the same port so that servers can take advantage of multiple networks on the same interface.)

OIT identified and isolated the physical issue by 8:45 a.m. and worked to resolve it. Between 10:20 and 10:40 a.m., the problem returned as trouble shooting was performed. NTS and OIA worked together to verify proper that the server was operating properly and that the service was fully restored.

Unfortunately, this problem caused some additional intermittent disruption within the Data Center network on that switch. The physical port was also damaged as a result of the failed wire, and the service had to be moved to a new port.

It is difficult to identify the full scale of the disruption, as it should have been intermittent only while the port and CPU on that Ether Switch were attempting to initialize the Interface's VLAN and integrated trunks.

We know that some servers behind the Load Balancer were affected as well as other servers intermittently during the timeframes explained above.

The event began on Wednesday night. OIT opened a ticket Thursday morning and worked all day Thursday to identify and mitigate the problem. Early Friday morning, the Wire and Port were put back into production and normalized. OIT is reviewing methods to improve detection of events such as this.

If you have any additional questions, contact (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus).

Posted 12:04 PM | Permalink

The Office of Information Technology offers a number of technology training courses through the University Technology Training Center (UTTC). Please visit the UTTC Web site for a complete listing of training courses.

Course Sections Starting the Week of July 6-10

SAS 9: Introduction to Programming Concepts
SAS101 Jul 8, 10 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Windows

Designing Accessible Web Sites
DSIGN111 Jul 9 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. McNamara Alumni Center, Rm. 180 Seminar

Moodle 1.9: Creating Basic Course Web Sites
MDL112 Jul 9 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Macintosh/Windows

MS Office 2007: Working between Applications
OFC07201 Jul 9 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Walter Library 210 Windows

Podcasting: Orientation
POD101 Jul 9 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Walter Library 210 Seminar

Computer Security: Issues for System Administrators
SEC201 Jul 10 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Walter Library 210 Macintosh/Windows

Course Sections Starting the Week of July 13-17

Dreamweaver CS3: Creating Basic Course Web Sites
DW102 Jul 14, 16 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Macintosh/Windows

Networking Basics
NET101 Jul 14 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Walter Library 210 Seminar

Wikis: Collaborative Content Development
WIKI101 Jul 16 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Walter Library 210 Macintosh/Windows

Course Sections Starting the Week of July 20-24

Moodle 1.9: Assignments and Quizzes
MDL231 Jul 21 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Macintosh/Windows

NetFiles: Basics
NF111 Jul 21 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Walter Library 210 Macintosh/Windows

Presenter 6: On-Demand Web Presentations
PRSR111 Jul 21 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Walter Library 210 Windows

Relational Database Design Basics
DB102 Jul 22 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Walter Library 210 Seminar

Excel 2007: Spreadsheet Basics
XL07102 Jul 22, 24 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Windows

HTML/XHTML: Fundamentals
HTML102 Jul 23 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Walter Library 210 Macintosh/Windows

Media Production and Publishing
ML101 Jul 23 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Walter Library 210 Seminar

Course Sections Starting the Week of July 27-31

Access 2007: Basic Database Development
AC07102 Jul 28, 29, 30 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Windows

ImageNow 6: Basics
INOW103 Jul 28 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Windows

Moodle 1.9: Creating Basic Course Web Sites
MDL113 Jul 29 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Macintosh/Windows

UMCal: Managing Calendars for Others
UC211 Jul 29 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Walter Library 210 Macintosh/Windows

Collaborating with Web-Based Tools
WGC101 Jul 30 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Walter Library 210 Macintosh/Windows

Dreamweaver CS3: CSS for Presentation
DW211 Jul 31 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Blegen Hall 90 Macintosh/Windows

Posted 8:26 AM | Permalink