sscc

SSCC News for September 2001

Inside this issue...
WinCenter Expansion
SSCC Fall Training Schedule
Town Meeting October 2nd at 12:20
New SSCC Web Site and Search Engine
New/Revised SSCC Publications
How SSCC's Mail Server Filters Out Viruses
Renewal Information on SPSS for PC Licenses

WinCenter Expansion

Two New Servers

Two additional terminal servers, WinStat1 and WinStat2, are now available for WinCenter users. These new servers give users a much needed increase in CPU cycles and will provide an ideal environment for running computer intensive statistical programs in a Windows environment. With the addition of these two new terminal servers, we can now accommodate an additional 30 simultaneous users (15 on each).

You can access WinStat1 and WinStat2 the same way you do WinCenter1 and WinCenter2: from a WinTerm, from a PC using the Citrix ICA client (link to related documentation), from Internet Explorer at http://ntweb.ssc.wisc.edu/tsweb, or from UNIX by typing winstat1 or winstat2 at the command prompt.

With the addition of these two new servers, we can now begin to segregate application traffic by moving all the statistical software to the new servers. WinCenter1 and WinCenter2 can then be used primarily for office applications and DreamWeaver (web editing software.) We plan to remove statistical applications from WinCenter1 and WinCenter2 in the next week or so. This should significantly improve performance for all terminal server users. Note that all four terminal servers will have Microsoft Office installed and that you can copy/paste between sessions.

We are still working out a few kinks but most of these should be taken care of once we get WinCenter1 and WinCenter2 upgraded to Windows 2000 later this semester. If you have any problems, please report them to consultant.

New Terminals

We are also in the process of replacing the older X-terminals (we all recognize them because of their very fuzzy displays) with new technology Windows-based terminals called WinTerms. Some have already been placed in the 2470 and 7413 terminal rooms and will soon be placed in a few graduate student offices. SSCC Publication Connecting to SSCC Computers Using a WinTerm provides instructions on how to use these new terminals.

Town Meeting October 2nd at 12:20

There will be an SSCC Town Meeting on October 2nd at 12:20 in Social Science 8417. SSCC staff bring two main agenda items to be discussed:

There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and questions about these items or any other issues you would like to raise.


New SSCC Web Site and Search Engine

As you may have already noticed, the SSCC's web site has been revised and expanded. One major goal was to make the SSCC Publication collection more valuable by making it easier to find the information you need. The SSCC Publications page is now organized by topic, and we have added a Search Engine that can search the entire SSCC site (though not members' sites), or just the Publications. The SSCC Publication collection contains a great deal of information, and with these additions it will be quick and easy to find the answers to many of your computer questions on the SSCC web site.


New/Revised SSCC Publications

We are in the process of updating and adding to our collection on PC publications. Below are this month's additions:

The Citrix ICA client allows you to access the WinCenter and WinStat servers with significantly better performance than using either X-Win32 from UNIX or the web client, and can be used both on campus or remotely.

Renewal Information on SPSS for PC Licenses

If you have SPSS installed on your PC, you have been getting messages that the software license is about to expire. The SPSS license must be renewed annually from DoIT for $150. As of 9/5/01 DoIT does not yet have new license codes from SPSS Inc. They report that SPSS will continue to work until the end of October, despite the warning messages. You should go ahead and send DoIT your renewal order anyway. Once they has processed the renewal and the license codes become available, they will send you the updated license codes. You can find ordering information at DoIT's web site. Once you get your codes, we will be glad to assist you with updating your SPSS license.

How SSCC's Mail Server Filters Out Viruses

The number of viruses, and the frequency with which destructive viruses are being distributed, is increasing. Many, though by no means all, viruses are circulated via email. In an effort to reduce the number of viruses that are received or sent by SSCC email accounts, our mail server is removing some attachments that are known to be viruses, and are "defanging" other attachments.

There are a number of viruses, happy99 and PrettyPark for example, which spread by sending a particular file. Since this file always has the same name, it is easy to recognize and remove from an email message. SSCC's mail server removes these known viruses from all email that comes into SSCC, or that goes out through our server. The sender receives an automated message informing him/her of the virus, as well.

In addition to this, all files with two "."s in the name (for example, file.doc.exe) are being filtered. This is because a number of viruses masquerade as innocent file types, knowing that on many computers the second ending won't be displayed. Stopping these files at the server prevents viruses from ever reaching the PC, so it can't be activated.

One example that illustrates the benefit of this is the current variant of the Magistr virus. The virus is widely distributed, and can be quite destructive. For the first two days that this virus existed, anti-virus software was unable to detect it. This meant that PCs were vulnerable to this virus. However, SSCC's mail server acts as another line of defense. Infected files have random names, but one of 4 endings. All files with those endings were defanged, so you had to make an effort to open the file. This prevents casual spread of the virus.

You have probably received an attachment that has been defanged. All this means is that the name has been changed so that you can not just click on the file and run a program. The file itself is intact, and will behave normally if it is renamed. To rename a file, go to where it has been downloaded, and right-click on the file name. Choose the rename option, and remove "defanged#####-" from the file name. You should then be able to open the file as usual, and the icon should change to indicate the file type. You can also open the file without renaming it, by starting the associated program first and then opening the file from within the program.

There is one other complicating aspect to this, which involves an unusual programming choice in Eudora. You can not double-click on a defanged file and open it. If you're using Eudora to read mail from an IMAP account, this means that the attachment doesn't get saved into the designated directory. This can be particularly annoying because Eudora creates a 2 kb file with the same name as the attachment, that is essentially a placeholder and not the attachment itself. In version 5 of Eudora, you can right-click and save the attachment under any name and in any location you wish. In version 4, the only remedy is to set Eudora to download the entire message, not minimal headers only.


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

© 2001 University of Wisconsin Social Science Computing Cooperative