Tech Support Team

Here is the functional arrangement of cables on our document cameras:

Document Camera Connections

XGA Out is the video connection, with a 15-pin plug (3 rows of pins, fat cable).  RS-232 is the control connection, with only 9 pins (2 rows, skinny cable).  And then the power connection, which is just a little round plug.  If you find them unplugged, feel free to plug them back in.

New voicemail system implemented 13 August: how to set up your messages and options:

• When you return to your office you should press the message button on your VOIP phone (the one that looks like an envelope)
• When asked for your code or pin use 0000 which is the default.
• You will be guided through a self-enrollment process
o You need to set a new code. This code will not change until the next new system so pick something memorable
o You need to set up your personal greeting that callers will hear when they call you and you do not answer
• After setup you will be able to reach new voice mail by using the message button on your VOIP phone or by calling 8-3000 or 438-3000 if off campus and you will be prompted for your phone number 8-XXXX, and your code
• We recommend you listen to your old voicemails and clear them before August 13th. If you do not you will have to reach them by calling 8-4000 or 438-4000 after the change. You will not be able to reach them with the other instructions above. After September 13th all of your old voicemail that was recorded before August 13th will be lost.

Other Important Voice Mail Notes:
• After the transition our VOIP phones will provide a visual list of voicemails, similar to Visual Voicemail features on some cell phones. We will send out more details on this when we have seen it in operation.
• Departments need to consider main numbers that are not associated with a specific user. You will need to call 8-3000 after the change, put in that number and set the pin and the greeting.
• We need to remember to ask departing faculty to reset their voicemail code to the phone number as part of our clearing procedures or it is a $25 charge for resetting.

Our users are often directed to download Malwarebytes from the University Help Desk.   Since Malwarebytes is a free program, it is hosted off-site at Cnet or MajorGeeks or a similar download host.  Clicking the Help Desk link takes you to one of the downloading sites which are supported by advertising.  The actual download page might have one link that downloads Malwarebytes (for example) and two or more paid advertisements that download something else:

Download page at Cnet, showing link confusion

Which link downloads Malwarebytes?  Probably the one at upper-left in the light-blue box.  In any case, pay attention to the file name and to the startup screen, because the other two programs could do more harm than good.  In this case one of them actually IS malware.

Probably the most useful new feature in Outlook Web Access (OWA) is message threading. OWA actually puts replies in a “thread” with the messages they’re replying to so the whole conversation is easy to follow. But the control for that feature is – to say the least – a bit “low-key”. As in; “easy to miss if you didn’t know it was there”.  Here’s some screen shots to help you get started:

The little triangle next to the subject line means it's a threaded message

Did you miss the little triangle?  It IS really tiny.  Here’s an enlarged view:

"Threaded conversation" triangle is really, really tiny. But powerful.

The barely-visible triangle next to the subject line means it’s a “threaded” conversation.  Click on the triangle: you will see the original message plus the replies to it, with the subject line at the top and each sender’s name next to their messages:

Click on the triangle to expand the message. The subject line remains at the top, with each sender's name in the order the message was sent or received.

Now you can see the conversation (both sent and received messages) in one place, in chronological order.  Even better, the messages are displayed in order in the reading pane below or at right* on your screen.  The message highlighted with the red circle is also highlighted in the reading pane:

Select a message in the thread, and it will be highlighted in the reading pane. You can scroll up and down in the reading pane to see all the messages in order.

Message threading is just one of the improvements in Outlook Web Access.  Others include:

• Search actually works now… and it’s fast!
• Folders work in all browsers now – Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, whatever.
• Your calendar works . Task list works.  Contacts work.
• OWA remembers your typed addresses no matter which machine you are using.
• In short, OWA now functions like an enterprise client right in your web browser.

* To change the location of your reading pane, click on the View menu within OWA (shown in the first screen shot above) and set the position to the right or below the message list.  Try both positions to see which you like better.

**The little triangle purposely works just like the folder controls in My Computer or the Macintosh “Finder”.  You might wonder why it is so tiny.  This is actually one of the biggest problems in system interface design: if you make a feature so obvious that even a beginner will notice it, your interface will be too cluttered for an experienced user.  Tone down the feature for the experienced user and the beginner might not see it.  No satisfactory solution to this conundrum is known to exist.

Here’s College Of Business Technology Director Scott Christner:
"Office 2010 uses the same file formats as 2007, eliminates the unpopular “Office Button”, brings back the classic file menu, and introduces some really cool improvements in file handling and printing."

(For a better view, click on the “Full-Screen” icon in the lower-right of the embedded video.)

Beginning in March of 2011, ISU started moving to Exchange 2010. One of the largest changes to our exchange email system was the inclusion of a new version of Outlook Web Access (in 2010 called Outlook Web App).

One of the key changes in the new Outlook Web App is the login page. There is going to be an additional amount of security that you need to be aware of as a user of the system.

The page will prompt you to login as normal, however, there are two additional choices:

• This is a public or shared computer: When you select this, your session will be given a maximum idle time of 60 minutes before you will be asked for your password again.
• This is a private computer: When this option is selected, your session will be given a maximum idle time of 6 hours before you will be asked for your password again.

Based on a 13 March 2011 email from Scott Christner:

New VOIP Phones Offer New Capabilities and Options

Cisco VOIP office phoneGetting Started:

1.    The first thing to remember is that your new phone will work as the old one did.  You can pick up the receiver and make calls.  A few features you probably will want to check out are the buttons on the right hand side below the silver surround for the screen.

Buttons:

a.    Beside your phone number on the main screen will be an icon that looks like a phone, normally which will change to an envelope when you have new voicemail.  The button that looks like an envelope allows you to pick up voice mail.  Just press it and you will be prompted for your code
b.    The button that looks like a book provides you with the ability to review missed, received, placed, and numbers you set up in your directory (see the user guide for more details on personal directories
c.    The button that looks like the world is directory info, but this is not currently set up.
d.    The button that looks like a check box allows you to get to User Preferences.  From this you can browse for available ring tones and even select the image that goes on the screen.  By the way there are at least two pictures of our building or other ISU themed choices
e.    The buttons below that include volume control, Mute, and speaker.
f.    All phones being given to faculty and staff have full speaker phone The main screen will show an envelope beside your phone number button when you have a voicemail speaker phone capability for you talk without lifting the handset
2.    CAMPUS VOIP PHONE USER GUIDE
Of course to get detailed information on more advanced features requires a longer document.  Here is the link for the full quick start guide for the new phones.  My recommendation is that you open this and then bookmark it in your browser so you can refer to it when you have questions.
Quick Start PDF (the fully-detailed Illinois State University version.  Does 30 pages qualify as “Quick”?)
3.    Your tech staff has been using these phones for more than a year.  If you have questions that are not answered by the guides please contact us and we can provide assistance.

New Capabilities: All phones that have been installed for full time faculty and staff are associated with your ULID.  This provides you log on permissions to use the features discussed below.  Unfortunately because our NTT Part Time faculty are not assigned on a long term basis to their offices these features are not available, nor are they available for students.

Soft Phone: The University has licensed with Cisco for use of the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator (CUPC).  This is a software package that can be installed on your office, laptop or home system allowing you to use the computer as your phone, and it will appear to those you are calling as if you are working from your phone, including the capability to use your long distance code.  To use this you will need to do the following.
1.    You will need to install the software.  If you want to use the features in your office you will need to send us a note and we will respond as quickly as possible after your phone has been delivered
2.    If working from home you will need to download and install the appropriate software.  It can be found on the help desk web site for both Windows and MAC OS X.
Download Personal Communicator
3.    If installed in your office you can use the software to manage your calls without a headset.  In this mode it makes checking your calling history or setting up a Personal Directory of frequently used numbers much easier than with the phone itself and you can even answer the phone and use the speaker phone capabilities without touching the phone, or pick it up when you want to use the phone normally.
4.    If you using the software on a laptop you will need a microphone/headset.  The COB Technology office will not be providing these as they are a personal item, but you can get good ones at any number of outlets including Wal-Mart.  Choose a set that is comfortable with connectors for connecting to the headphone and microphone jacks on your computer.
5.    When working from home or a laptop you will need to establish a Cisco VPN connection so you are authenticated to ISU before starting the phone.
6.    Start the software.  You will log on with your ISU ULID and ULID Password.  In the Login Server put   stv7dcups
7.    Cisco User Guides: For Windows, For Mac (these are generic to the phone, not specific to our campus)
8.    You can use the settings to decide whether to give your VOIP Phone or the Software control, so if mobile you need to set to the soft phone/CUPC by going to FILE, PHONE MODE, and selecting the Softphone.  If using in your office it will ring both in the soft/CUPC phone on the computer and your desk and you can pick up either.
9.    IMPORTANT NOTE:  The softphone will only work when you have started it as a program and if off campus connected through VPN before starting it.  If the program is not started you will not receive calls and they just go to your office phone.

Mobility: When people call your office, Mobile Connect allows you to forward their calls to your cellular or home number (as long as it isn’t long-distance from campus).  If you are frequently working outside of your office during the day you can set up this feature and after ringing in your office it will then ring to your personal number.  It can even be set up to only do forwarding during specific days of the week and hours of the day, which is the feature I use to get my calls to my work phone only Monday through Friday from 7 AM to 6 PM.
1.    First you must request this service.  It is not an automatically set up capability.  Send an e-mail to cobsupport@ilstu.edu and please copy your chair as there is an approval required related to a $25 setup fee.  This fee is being waived this month, so request early if you think you want this capability.
2.    Once you have been notified that you have your account set up you can use the instructions at the help desks sites below
Setting Up Mobile Connect
How to Answer Your VOIP Phone with your Cell
3.    Depending on your settings for your forwarding, voicemail from this feature may end up on either your office phone or the cell/home number so you may have to experiment a bit with the timing settihngs for the forwarding

Q: “What does “VOIP” mean?
A: “Voice Over Internet Protocol”.  You are making phone calls on the the computer network using the same data protocol that your computer uses.

External Wireless Adapter

Recent updates to the security model of campus wireless access could mean that older systems (that do not support WPA2) might be left unconnected.  We found a workaround.

Using an inexpensive external wireless adapter (this one was $13 on Amazon, but there were many models) we connected a 4-year-old Lenovo X60 using the current security model with no problems.  While running in Windows we used the “SetupISUnet” utility, and on the same system were even able to connect while running Ubuntu Linux by entering the connection manually.  As a bonus, the large external antenna gives excellent signal strength in areas where other adapters gave poor connections.

(The manual connection specifications that we used in November 2010 are: ISUNET, WPA2-Enterprise, AES, PEAP, EAP-mschap v2 with fast-reconnect enabled, user authentication, PMK caching 720 minutes, 128 entries.  User’s identity entered as adilstu\ULID plus user’s password.)

Extra tip: using a USB extension cable it is possible to situate the adapter out of your way if it obstructs the use of an external mouse.  Also, be sure your operating system is fully patched with anti-virus enabled and updated for any connection.

We have completed set up of the new Xerox networked copier/printer in the Self Service Copy Center. It is now available for use by faculty and staff in support of your work. The new copier will require an accounting code.

·Faculty will get their codes from their department Chair or secretary

·Faculty working with the Katie School will get their codes from the FIL department

·Staff members of the Katie School and MBA will get their codes from their Director/Associate Dean/Secretary

·Other staff including Advising, Tech Staff, FRC, and Dean’s staff will get their codes in the Dean’s Office

·SBDC/IES staff will get their codes from the MQM department

Accountability Notes:

Both copies and prints made by faculty and staff will now be tracked and charged back to the appropriate department. This is not intended to discourage your use of the copier and only your supervisors will be involved in reviewing usage. Your department will be charged for each print made whether it is sent to the copier through the network or is a copy made while at the machine. Printing items dual sided does not decrease the count of prints, but we encourage the use of this feature where possible to assist us in managing costs for the College and Departments.

It is also important to point out that each individual is charged for the separator page with your name on it. This may seem like a waste of money but is necessary based on the volume of different jobs this printer will be handling.

Printing:

When printing from your office you need to select the Xerox WorkCentre 245 PCL 6 (Windows 7) or Xerox Global Driver (Windows XP) as your printer. Once you have selected this printer you can go into "Properties" and then "Printing Preferences" and make adjustments to the defaults to customize your printing. This copier supports double sided printing, several stapling options, and three hole punching.

When you hit OK it will ask you for your User ID. After you have printed successfully this code will be remembered, but will not travel with you to other computers. If you enter the wrong code you will not get a message at your computer, although we are working with Xerox to find a way to display a message if an improper code is used. If your code is not correct you will see a sheet printed at the copier that says a print job was cancelled due to an improper code. For assistance please refer to the Technical Support note below.

Copying:

You can make copies while standing at the copier. The default screen that appears on the display/control panel is asking for your User ID. Here you will need to enter your copier code which will then allow you to access the various menus to manage the set up of your job. The copier code will become non-active and return you to the logon screen after 30 seconds of no activity or you can hit the CLEAR ALL button to the Right of the control panel to exit.

Technical Support:

For technical support for the copier please contact Joyce Parmenter in Room 214 or call her at 8-2994. She has been doing a fantastic job of supporting the Self Service Center and we have appreciated her assistance. If she is not available contact the Tech Support staff at 8-2813.