SSCC News for October 2003

Coping with Computer Viruses
A New Terminal Server
SSCC Fall Training

Coping with Computer Viruses

The SoBig and Blaster computer viruses wreaked havoc as students arrived on campuses and plugged in infected PCs to networks. Many campuses shut down their mail servers (DoIT included) and even entire campus networks as they fought to prevent the further spread of these viruses. We fared much better at SSCC. In addition to handling about 14,000 incoming messages, our mail server blocked over 20,000 viruses on the peak day of the SoBig virus. Fortunately, our mail server was well-equipped to handle the load. It would have been much worse though if we didn't have measures in place like mail server filters that block incoming viruses, a firewall that blocked the Blaster worm, and an automated system of delivering updates and patches to PCs. As it was, we cleaned over 75 PCs (mostly laptops) that were either brought into the building or were not protected because the owners don't log into the PRIMO domain where we send out the updates.

The following advice is worth repeating:

• If you are bringing in a Windows PC or laptop for use in the Social Science Building, please take it to the SSCC Help Desk in Soc. Sci. 4315 prior to connecting it to the building network. This includes PCs that were used in the building previously but which have been away. We will check it and install any necessary patches. This process usually takes 30-60 minutes. SSCC's Help Desk is open 8-12, 1-4, Monday through Friday.
• Windows computers connecting to the PRIMO domain automatically receive operating system patches and antivirus updates. Please keep in mind that these updates cannot take effect until you reboot your computer. So, it's very important that you reboot your PC daily. We would like you to leave it powered on, however, so we can do patches overnight. Simply tell your PC to restart when you're leaving for the day, and it will be ready for you to log in when you arrive in the morning.
• If you don't log into the PRIMO domain (many people in Economics), it is extremely important that you keep your operating system patched and your antivirus software up-to-date. If you need assistance, contact our help desk by phone at 2-9917, by e-mail at consult@ssc.wisc.edu, or drop in 4315 Social Science 8-12, 1-4 M-F.

SSCC staff are experimenting with a free software tool called NetReg which restricts network access to PCs that get plugged into the network for the first time. NetReg is widely used on college campuses in residential networks (ResNets). With NetReg, when a new computer is plugged into the network and accesses the web, it is automatically redirected to an SSCC web site first. Here we can gather information such as the name of the user and the room number where the computer is to be used, as well as automatically grabbing a unique identifier for each computer (the MAC address) and running a simple virus scan for known vulnerabilities such as the Blaster worm. This way, when there is a problem (either illegitimate users or infected PCs), we will have a useful tool to track down and solve the problem. We are in the process of setting up a small isolated network for testing this software and hope to have it fully implemented in January.

A New Terminal Server

We've added a new terminal server to better accommodate an increasing number of log ins through the Citrix ICA client. (The Citrix ICA client is a very convenient tool for connecting both on campus or remotely via a PC.) The new computer, with two 2.4GHz Xeon processors (compared to 1GHz processors in the older machines) has been designated Winstat2. It is ideal for large Windows-based statistical jobs. The former Winstat2 has been reformatted and is now Wincenter3. Recall also that KITE was recently replaced with a dual processor 2.6GHz Intel Xeon Dell computer. This makes our top-of-the-line servers significantly faster than the others, but it's still important to spread the computing load so they don't get bogged down. Unless you need your results immediately, please continue using Winstat1, our UNIX servers, and especially Condor.

SSCC Fall Training

There is still time to take advantage of SSCC's training offerings this semester. Upcoming classes include "Reading Your Email with Outlook Express" (Oct. 9, 1:30-2:30), "Using Adobe Acrobat Effectively" (Oct. 14, 10:00-11:00), "Running Large Statistical Jobs using Condor" (Oct. 15, 10:00-11:00), "Programming in Stata" (Oct. 16, 10:00-11:15), "Flexible, Reproducible, and Error-Free Research Computing" (Oct. 22, 10:00-11:00), "How to Tune Up Your PC" (Oct. 30, 1:00-2:00), "Introduction to PowerPoint" (Nov. 5, 10:00-11:30), and "Introduction to PC-Pine" (Nov. 12 1:30-2:30). More information including required class registration is on SSCC's training web pages.

Go to previous editions of SSCC News.
Go to the SSCC Home Page.