05-Oct-2020

Windows 7 Quarantine Starting Monday, 05-Oct-2020

On Monday, 05-Oct-2020, Cornell's IT Security Office will start using the Network Quarantine to contain, or disable access for, systems running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008. If you have a Windows 7 computer — personal or CLASSE-managed — connected to a CLASSE network (including LNS Protected and CHESS Public), please notify us immediately by submitting a ServiceRequest. Special arrangements will need to be made for any Windows 7 computers on CLASSE networks after 05-Oct-2020.

NoMachine Update: Tuesday, 06-Oct-2020 @ 4:00 AM

On Tuesday, 06-Oct-2020, all CLASSE NoMachine servers will be updated to the latest release. When the update occurs, all remote users will be disconnected. Package updates on Linux are scheduled to occur between 4:00 AM and 10:00 AM every Tuesday.

Testing Internet Speed

If you are experiencing persistent slowness with your remote connections to CLASSE computers (via ScreenConnect, X2Go, NoMachine, or ssh), and you would like to submit a ServiceRequest, please test your home/local network speed as described below and include both sets of results in your ticket:

1. On your home/local computer, browse to https://fast.com
   • After the test is finished, click on "More Info"
   • Please give us the 4 results for:
     • Download speed (large text)
     • Upload speed
     • Latency unloaded
     • Latency loaded
2. On your home/local computer, browse to http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest
   • Look for the box with "Start the test by selecting your connection type:", and click on one of the selections.
   • After the test is finished, you may need to hover your mouse on the graph to see the results.
   • Please give us the 3 results for:
     • Download speed
     • Upload speed
     • Bufferbloat grade

CLASSE VPN on Macs

The next major release of macOS (version 11, known as "Big Sur"), scheduled for late 2020, is known to include new security and privacy features that prevent Tunnelblick from connecting to the CLASSE VPN. Our testing with beta versions of Big Sur has confirmed this failure. We are currently developing a VPN solution that addresses this problem, and we hope to make it available before the end of the year. In the meantime, we recommend that personal Macs not be upgraded to Big Sur. CLASSE-managed Macs will be upgraded only after we have thoroughly tested the official Big Sur release. For more details about this VPN issue, please see https://tunnelblick.net/cTunTapConnections.html.

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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.

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Questions or problems? Submit a service request.

Other resources:

• CLASSE IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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