Network & Systems

To accommodate the installation of a watchdog receiver to track master keys, a the network switch in the heating plant was upgraded this afternoon.

Along with this switch upgrade, we’ve started requiring that computers that connect to the heating plant network are registered with Campus Manager.

Also as part of the network upgrade a wireless access point was installed. I still need to test the coverage fully, but it is expected that this network should cover the entire heating plant including the art studios upstairs.

LIS and Dining Services are pleased to announce a new service allowing students and staff to check their Luther ID card activity.

NorseCard.luther.edu allows students to check their meal plan
balances, Dining Dollars, and NordicCash balances. Students no longer need to contact Dining Services to check their balances.

To use the NorseCard.luther.edu website, use your NorseKey username and password to access your NorseCard account information. If you need assistance, please contact the LIS Help Desk.

Datatel.luther.edu web interface will provide Mac or PC users with the same access to all information, reports, and screens that you use on your desktop application or icon.
Off-campus availability to datatel.luther.edu is limited to college-owned laptops with the VPN Client installed. With this new mobility, it is especially important not to share your Datatel password and logout of your session and web browser. Visit http://lis.luther.edu/learn/datatelwebfaq for more information.

Wireless Network Coverage has been extended to cover the Baker Village Commons, and the Farm House Next to Baker Village. Coverage for the rest of the Baker Village buildings is planned to come online soon.

As previously mentioned old mailing list addresses ending in @lists.luther.edu have continued to work during a transition period ending April 15. From this point forward only the new list addresses ending in @discuss.luther.edu will work, and discuss.luther.edu is our only Sympa mailing list server.

The coverage of our wireless network has been expanded to include Brunsdale Lounge. Coverage is currently best in the Center Section of the study lounge, and the computer lab. We are making plans to improve coverage on the east and west sections of the lounge over the next few weeks.

Google has added the ability to create and insert drawings into documents, presentations and spreadsheets. More information is available in their blog

I’m planning to do a firmware upgrade on one of our main routers tomorrow morning at 6AM. The actual amount of downtime should be pretty brief, but given the central location of this router in our network topology it will result in almost no connectivity within our network or to and from the internet during the period of time that the router is rebooting.

Bradford Networks will be upgrading Campus Manager to the newest version of the software beginning at 2PM on 3/25/09.

Most network users will not notice that this work is going on. There will be a short period of time during the upgrade where users that are newly connecting to the wireless network will not be able to do so. I don’t expect that users who are connected to the wireless network prior to the upgrade will be disconnected.

It’s been reported that Norse Apps is not accessible to users that attempt to access it from China. After consultation with Google Tech Support I have a work around for users in this situation.

Instead of accessing the services through the luther.edu URL’s (http://mail.luther.edu, http://calendar.luther.edu/, etc.), access them through their default URL’s. I’m told that the default URL’s will work, where our luther.edu URL’s will sometime fail.