February 13th, 2012

Today's topics:

Cornell NetID password change

In the near future, about 2000 Cornellians, some at LEPP, will be receiving notices that they need to change their NetID passwords. When they set their passwords quite a few years ago, their passwords were encrypted using an algorithm (2DES) which is much less effective than the one in use today (3DES). Whether or not you are affected by this problem, it's a good idea to change your passwords occasionally. Instructions for changing your NetID password are available on the Web page http://www.it.cornell.edu/security/identity/passwords/change.cfm The change itself can be done on https://netid.cornell.edu/

Often you will receive fradulent notices that you need to change or verify your passwords for various accounts, but with links to inappropriate Web sites. Such notices are commonly called "Phishes". Always verify that password change notices direct you to the correct Web sites.

LEPP Windows computers Anti-Virus update

LEPP will begin pushing updates on Wednesday, February 15th, 2012, of Cornell's antivirus software, Symantec Endpoint Protection, to managed Windows computers on both LNSNTCAD and CLASSE domains. We will be upgrading from v11 to v12.1. This antivirus upgrade will eventually require a reboot. That reboot will be scheduled to happen several days later, at 1AM on Monday, February 20th -- the same reboot which will be required by Microsoft's monthly Windows updates.

On Windows 7, some antivirus upgrades have resulted in the "Windows Action Center" claiming that no AV is installed. This message is incorrect, so please submit a service ticket so we can fix the problem for you. Please do NOT try to enable Windows Defender.

Macintosh OSX Lion - updating 10.7.x to 10.7.3

Updating a Macintosh running 10.7.x to 10.7.3 via "Software Update" should now work - "Software Update" now downloads and uses the combo updater.
Two links for downloading the combo updater directly are provided below:

• http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1484
• https://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~software/private/software/MacOSXUpdCombo10.7.3.dmg

Use the link that works best for you. The second link is likely to perform better than the first link if you are on the LEPP network.

Office Documents should be updated to the new Office "x" format

There have been several reports of Office 2007 applications (Word, Excel) freezing when working with "old format" (Office 97-2003) files. These are files that end in .doc, .xls, and some others. A file is in an "old format" if your Office application has [Compatibility Mode] in the titlebar, where it also shows the file's name.

You should make an effort to convert all files to the new format which ends in "x", like docx, .xlsx and some others. You can do this by opening a file, and selecting the menu option "Save as.." (File, Save As). Where it says "Save as type:" select "Word Document (.docx)" for example. Using the new file formats is especially important if you are working with files stored on a Network Share such as \\SAMBA. Bugs in the processing of old formats frequently cause Office programs to freeze. The new formats are processed correctly.

Note: You can also select several other file types that can be useful. If you are going to be collaborating with Linux users, saving as .odt will allow Open Office to easily open the file. In Excel .ods is the equivalent Open Office format.

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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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