UC Merced IT Happenings
Contents
- IT Tip of the Week: Viewing past and future appointments in Outlook
- IT Tip of the Week: Common problems sending email
- IT Tip of the Week: How to set a vacation or away message for email
- IT Tip of the Week: Don't fall victim to scammers!
- IT Announcement: Migration to new & expanded email service
- IT Tip of the Week: Trying to access UC Merced Services from off campus?
- IT Tip of the Week: What's a U: or L: drive?
- IT Tip of the Week: Looking for Software or a Cell Phone?
IT Tip of the Week: Viewing past and future appointments in Outlook
Publish Date: June 6, 2008
Are you unable to see appointments in Outlook Calendar more than two weeks back? Don't worry! They haven't disappeared. By default, Outlook Calendar only shows appointments two weeks back and two weeks forward. To view more appointments, simply click on Tools-->Options. Click on the "Oracle Connector" tab, then click "Calendar Options." Select "Display Range" in the drop down menu next to Settings. Now you can configure the range of appointments you'd like to see in terms of weeks and/or years. The setup may be a bit different depending on what version of Oracle Connector you are using. If you should need assistance or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the IT Help Desk at: 209.CAT.HELP or helpdesk@ucmerced.edu.
IT Tip of the Week: Common problems sending email
Publish Date: May 15, 2008
Having problems sending email? Outgoing email is handled by a different service than incoming mail that is referred to as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). Hard to understand problems can occur if this is configured incorrectly in your email client.
Two common problems are:
- when you bring a laptop home from the office and use it with an ISP (AT&T, Clearwire, Comcast, ...) you can't send email. This can occur because some ISPs block outgoing email to deter spammers. You can get around this by changing your SMTP settings to those recommended by the ISP, or, even simpler, changing the SMTP port setting for UC Merced's SMTP service to 587 (from 25). For assistance, you can contact the help desk or look at the client set-up instructions at http://it.ucmerced.edu/support/guides/email/email2.cfm#client_list.
- people outside the campus or still on the old email service don't receive email you send. This can occur if the SMTP settings have inadvertently been changed to mail2.ucmerced.edu (or something else) rather than smtp.ucmerced.edu. With Outlook, you can verify this setting under Start | Settings | Control Panel | Mail. If you have any questions or need further assistance with verifying your email settings, please visit our IT website at: http://it.ucmerced.edu or contact the IT Help Desk @ 209.CAT.HELP.
IT Tip of the Week: How to set a vacation or away message for email
Publish Date: April 30, 2008
If you are headed out of town or not going to be near a computer to check your email for a while, did you know that you can set up an automatic reply to anyone who sends you email? To do so, simply visit the Portal (my.ucmerced.edu), click on the Tech Services tab, and then on "Change Email Vacation/Away Message" in the Identity Management Channel. From there, you'll be able to set a different custom reply for both internal and external senders. We suggest that you include when you are leaving and returning, and whom to contact in your absence. You may also want to include whether or not you'll be checking email periodically. If you have any questions about this or any other technical issue, please do not hesitate to visit our website: http://it.ucmerced.edu or contact the IT Help Desk (helpdesk@ucmerced.edu or 209.CAT.HELP).
IT Tip of the Week: Don't fall victim to scammers!
Publish Date: April 17, 2008
Have you ever received an email with one of these subject lines: "PayPal - Notification of Account Limitation", "Gain Access to lost family fortune!" or "Verify Your Account Details?" If you have, you aren't alone. They, and emails like them, are scams known as 'phishing attacks.' Phishing is the act of sending an email to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to fool the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.
Simply put, these emails are the bait, and you are the fish to be lured by the prospect of free money or protecting yourself against a potential security breach. With your personal information in hand, identity thieves can purchase expensive materials and/or conduct illegal activities in your name, damaging your credit or reputation, and potentially exposing you to legal pursuit. Please do not follow the instructions provided within these emails. If you receive what looks like what might conceivably be a valid email from your financial institution, don't click on any links within the email, but rather go to their web site using the bookmark you've already set up in your browser, or use the URL or phone number listed on your credit card, bank statement, or other authentic document you may posess.
Universities have become a big target for these types of phishing attacks, although our SPAM filter will eliminate most of them. Also, please be aware that representatives of UC Merced, such as the Help Desk, will never email you asking you for your UCMNetID and/or password. If you ever have a question about potential phishing attempts or suspicious e-mails, feel free to request more information from infosecurity@ucmcerced.edu or visit our site at: http://it.ucmerced.edu/security . If you need any further assistance with this or other computer problems, don't hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk at helpdesk@ucmerced.edu or at (209) 228-HELP.
IT Announcement: Migration to new & expanded email service
Publish Date: March 31, 2008
Information Technology has begun migrating users to our new email service which incorporates improvements requested by the user community. Features of Email 2.0 include:
- 1 GB quotas for everyone
- Automatic, centralized SPAM handling
- Tagging of Junk email
- Automatic deletion of SPAM and Trash after 14 days
- New server with greater capacity and reliability features
Faculty and staff are being migrated to the new service over the coming two months (students will be migrated between semesters). Our plan is to migrate one or more departments and/or other groups on a nightly basis. Although the conversion is simple from the user perspective, we are migrating people in groups so that desktop technicians can be on site in the department to lend assistance if needed. Ask your MSO or other administrative officer to go to it.ucmerced.edu/email to request that migration be scheduled for part or all of your department (starting April 7th; for early migration, contact Bobby Bliatout at bbliatout@ucmerced.edu); complete information about Email 2.0 is also available at that web location now.
IT Tip of the Week: Trying to access UC Merced Services from off campus?
Publish Date:March 26, 2008
Trying to access UC Merced Services from off campus? Having any VPN connection problems? You may need to upgrade to the latest version of the Virtual Private Networking (VPN) client that allows you to establish a remote connection to the UCM network. By using the client, you can access your network drive, printers and other applications from somewhere other than a UC Merced location, such as at home or a cyber cafe. To download the latest version of the client, or look at the online tutorial on how to configure it, visit the IT website at http://it.ucmerced.edu/support/guides/remote_access/. If you need any further assistance with this or other computer problems, don’t hesitate to contact the IT Helpdesk at helpdesk@ucmerced.edu or at (209) 228-HELP.
IT Tip of the Week: What's a U: or L: drive?
Publish Date: March 19, 2008
I say "U" drive, You say "L" drive! I say toe-may-toe, you say toe-mah-toe! It's all the same thing. The "U" or "L" drives are mapped network drives and you can actually attach any letter you'd wish to it. A network drive is a folder location that allows you to access and/or save files over the network. You may access these files from anywhere so long as you are connected to the UC Merced network (Campus, Castle, Mondo, VPN.) Every UC Merced staff, faculty and student has access to a network drive. For instructions on how to access your network drive or to get more information, please visit our website at: http://it.ucmerced.edu/support/guides/doc_storage or if you need any assistance, please contact the IT Help Desk at: helpdesk@ucmerced.edu.
IT Tip of the Week: Looking for Software or a Cell Phone?
Publish Date: March 10, 2008
As a staff or faculty member, we sometimes find ourselves wondering what are the costs and availability for software, cell phones and cell phone accessories and/or plans. To assist you with this, IT has created an Individual IT Acquisitions Channel within the UC Merced Portal, http://my.ucmerced.edu. For information on what is currently available and the costs associated, please login with your UCMNetID and Password, click on the "Tech Services" tab and locate the channel identified as "Individual IT Acquisition Channel". For best viewing, click on the [] to maximize the channel and then click on either the Software or Mobile Device link to begin searching for your software or cell phone. If you should have any questions, please contact the IT Help Desk.
Looking for help?
We offer a number of tutorials and FAQs available in the Guides & FAQs section.
If you have any questions, problems, or comments, please contact the IT Help Desk via email at helpdesk@ucmerced.edu, via phone at 209.228.HELP (4357), or visit them in the Classroom and Office Building room 132A.