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Lake Campus Network Outage for 12/17

Thursday, December 10, 2020

On Thursday, December 17, CaTS will be performing an upgrade to the Lake campus networking equipment. All network connectivity for Andrews and Dwyer Hall will be unavailable from 7:30 a.m.—3 p.m.

If you have any connectivity issues after 3 p.m., contact the CaTS Help Desk at 937-775-4827 or email helpdesk@wright.edu with your location so we can troubleshoot the issue.

Quarterly Security Update: Call Spoofing

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Quarterly Security Update: Call Spoofing

Welcome to the Winter 2020 edition of the Quarterly Security Reminders email, brought to you by Wright State's Chief Information Security Officer. This quarter's newsletter will provide you with information about a form of social engineering called call spoofing; hopefully you will find it somewhat interesting!

In the past year or so I have noticed an increase in the number of phone calls that appear to be from a location in or around our area—numbers beginning with area codes like 937, 614, 513, etc. The majority of these calls are not truly coming from our area. Callers now have the ability to spoof an area code in the hopes that individuals will be more likely to answer a call that appears to be from their location. In addition, they can also spoof a prefix with an area code, such as 614-775-xxxx. At a quick glance it may appear to be a call from Wright State.

Most of these calls are just vendors trying to get your attention; others seem to be malicious in nature, coming from individuals who hope to gain personal information or make an offer that sounds too good to be true. This is social engineering and we all need to be careful in how we respond to such calls.

Unless you know for certain who you are talking to, take care in giving out information about Wright State or yourself, such as home addresses, birthdates, where you bank, etc. Seemingly innocent information can be gathered over time to build a profile about you. This can later be used in a more sophisticated social engineering attack to gain access to bank accounts or your Wright State account. They may try to guess your security questions that are used to reset your passwords, or call a help desk pretending to be you. If they have enough information it may be possible to trick the help desk personnel.

Personally, I have adopted the practice of not answering calls from telephone numbers I don't recognize. I do this not only on my personal cell phone, but also with calls coming in to my Wright State business phone, and just let them go to voicemail. I have also found that callers spoofing area codes do not leave voicemails, whereas legitimate callers will oftentimes leave voicemails if they are reminding you about appointments, due dates, etc.

More information and helpful tips to avoid this type of social engineering can be found on McAfee's website: https://bit.ly/3m5II2r.

Resolved: Pilot Access Issues for 12/1

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Previous issues with accessing Pilot have been resolved.

If you are a student or staff member and still experiencing issues with Pilot, contact the CaTS Help Desk at 937-775-4827, or email helpdesk@wright.edu. If you are a Faculty member still experiencing issues with Pilot, please contact The CTL at 937-775-2885, or email ctl@wright.edu.

Pilot Access Issues for 12/1

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

CaTS is aware that students and faculty members are currently experiencing issues accessing Pilot and course materials. We are working with the vendor to get these issues resolved as quickly as possible.

CaTS will notify campus once the issues have been resolved. If you have any questions, contact the CaTS Help Desk at 937-775-4827, or email helpdesk@wright.edu.

Best Practices for using Live Virtual Classrooms

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Cisco Webex Best Practices

  1. Be consistent. Using the same video conferencing tool is a student-centered approach to instruction.
  2. Clarify the access procedures. Communicate technology and browser requirements to your students at the beginning of the term. Before a class is scheduled to meet, make sure the students know procedures and basic troubleshooting tips for joining the session. 
  3. Web Browser tips: Completely close your browser before beginning a session, always use the most up-to-date version of your browser (preferably Chrome or FireFox) and limit open browser tabs to ones you are using for that session.
  4. Have a backup plan in case a live session gets interrupted, and participants cannot immediately get back into it. Create a plan for when things go wrong and communicate this plan including how you will notify them and where they are to go BEFORE class sessions begin. Microsoft (MS) Teams is the backup video conferencing tool for Webex.  Setup at this link https://www.wright.edu/information-technology/microsoft-teams - try to setup before you need MS Teams.​
  5. Provide students with information on where to get tech support if they have an issue. If you need Webex support, contact the CaTS Help Desk.
  6. Set clear expectations within your sessions. Do you want students to use profile pictures, have their webcams on, mute their mics, raise their hand before opening their mics, how you expect them to use the chat function, etc.?
  7. Breathe. Take a deep breath and contact the CaTS Help Desk if you need any assistance including questions, features and overviews of how Webex works. We’re here to help!

Contact Information

CaTS Help Desk 
helpdesk@wright.edu 
937-775-4827

Webex and Collaborate Ultra Quick Tips

Friday, November 20, 2020

Webex

Quick tips to avoid or quickly recognize common problems:

  • If possible, use the Cisco Webex Desktop App for your computer or device
  • If using a web browser, make sure it is the latest version (Chrome and Firefox are strongly recommended)
  • Connect via Ethernet or ensure you are as close to your WiFi router and that your Wifi connection is strong AND stable

Have a Backup Plan:

  • Create a ready-to-use backup session OR your personal Webex meeting room (if recordings are critical to remote students, create the session via Webex in Pilot so the recordings are listed there!)
  • Communicate to your students where the backup session is located and how you will communicate the need to switch to the backup meeting BEFOREHAND, so they know where to go.

What to do when issues come up:

  • An issue that impacts only a single user or very few users
    1. Turn off the webcam if it is on
    2. Have the user check their connectivity and connect via ethernet if possible
    3. Stop application/screen sharing (if running) if the person having the issue is presenting
    4. Quit the Webex App or Web browser being used and try to reconnect (if the above steps do not resolve the problem)
    5. Contact the CaTS Help Desk
       
  • An issue that affects all users or the entire session:
    1. Have everyone turn off their webcams (if on)
    2. Mute all microphones (if on)
    3. Have everyone leave the session, quit the app or web browser they are using and rejoin the session
    4. If the above steps do not resolve the issue, go to your Backup Plan session.

Collaborate Ultra

Quick tips to avoid or quickly recognize common problems:

  • Completely close your browser and open a fresh window before beginning a session
  • Only have browser tabs/windows open that you will be using during your session.
  • Make sure ALL PARTICIPANTS are using the latest version of their web browser (Chrome and Firefox are strongly recommended, especially for presenters and moderators)
  • Connect via Ethernet or ensure you are as close to your WiFi router and that your Wifi connection is strong AND stable
  • Know how to access your own experience indicator (either in the participants list or the MyStatus and Settings at the bottom of the page.)
  • Instructors: Keep the Participants list open if practical so that you can see EVERYONE’s experience indicators to readily see if a participant is having an issue (their experience indicator will show 2 bars or less and will turn yellow or red.)

Backup Plan:

  • Create a ready-to-use backup session OR use your Collaborate Ultra Course Room so you have a “go-to” solution if a session is disrupted and participants are unable to rejoin
  • Communicate to your students where the backup session is located and how you will notify them to use the backup session BEFOREHAND, so they know where to go if an issue arises that disrupts the entire session.

What to do when issues come up:

  • An issue that impacts only a single user or very few users
    1. Turn off the webcam(s) if it is on
    2. Make sure they are using the latest version of their web browser (preferably Chrome or Firefox)
    3. Have the user experiencing the issue stop application/screen sharing IF that person is presenting
    4. Refresh the browser page containing the open Collaborate Ultra session
    5. Quit the browser and try to reconnect (if the above steps do not resolve the problem)
    6. Contact the CaTS Help Desk
       
  • An issue that affects all users or the entire session:
    1. Have everyone turn off their webcams (if on) and ONLY have the presenter use theirs
    2. Mute all microphones (if on)
    3. Have everyone leave the session, quit their web browser, and rejoin the session
    4. If the above steps do not resolve the issue, go to your Backup Plan session.

Banner Outage for 11/18

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

CaTS will be conducting emergency Banner Admin maintenance beginning at 11 a.m.,  lasting approximately 15 - 20 minutes. During this time, Banner 9 Admin, Extensibility, and Communication Management for PROD will be unavailable.

If you have any questions, contact the CaTS Help Desk at 937-775-4827, or helpdesk@wright.edu.

Important Information About macOS Big Sur

Monday, November 16, 2020

Please disregard if you are a Windows PC user

Wright State Faculty and Staff macOS users,

Recently, Apple announced their latest Mac operating system update ‘Big Sur’ will be released in late 2020. At this time, certain CaTS applications may not support this latest update for Mac devices.

Please do NOT update your university-owned macOS. CaTS will be testing various applications on the new operating system, and will notify campus when it's appropriate to update your system.

If you have questions, contact the CaTS Help Desk at 937-775-4827, or email helpdesk@wright.edu.

Panopto Cloud Scheduled Downtime: 12/19/20

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Please note: the text of this article is quoted directly from an official Panopto outage announcement.


On Saturday, Dec 19, 2020, Panopto Cloud will be updated with the latest features and improvements. These updates will require downtime. Panopto expects up to 3 hours of downtime, with a target start time of 9:00 pm EST. Panopto will confirm the start time and duration of the downtime on Tuesday, November 24.

During the downtime, we will not be able to access videos on our Panopto site, and any attempts to upload from recording clients will result in a "Server unable to connect" message.

Banner Outage for 10/26

Monday, October 26, 2020

CaTS will be conducting emergency Banner Admin maintenance from 12:30-12:45 p.m. During this time, Banner 9 Admin will be unavailable.

If you have any questions, contact the CaTS Help Desk at 937-775-4827, or helpdesk@wright.edu.

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