Windows 7 & Upgraded Network Wiring

Library Services has always tried to take a leading roll in experimenting and implementing new technologies in the college. Over the past week Information Technology Department (ITS) has been upgrading our student computers with Windows 7.

For those people that were not fans of the Vista stations, we hope that you will be pleased with this implementation. The machines will continue to provide the Microsoft Office 2007 Professional suite of applications, Adobe Photoshop Elements, SMART Board and Classroom Performance System tools, and more.

Additionally, ITS and Pro Comm have been upgrading the network cables in the Vera Bracken Library, which should translate into a faster and smoother network experience on those computers.

There is more to come, so stay tuned as we continue to move forward and coordinate with ITS to enhance your computing experience in the libraries.

Changing Passwords

As a student starting at Medicine Hat College, the default user name and password follows this pattern (click here for more details):

• User name: firstname.lastname (all lowercase)
  
  
• Password: last four digits of student ID#, followed by first three letters of last name (with the first letter capitalized; e.g., 1234Las)

If you misplace your registration papers or Campus ID Card, it is possible for someone to intuit this information and access your personal accounts. To this end, it is in your interest to change these passwords.

In the past, if you changed one password, that change would be recognized/synchronized by all online services (Blackboard, computer log-in, and e-mail). These online/system services are now independent, so you will have to change them each manually. If you desire to do this, follow these directions for each:

BLACKBOARD

1. Log-in with default user name and password.
2. Select "Personal Information" in "Tools" box (left-hand side of screen).
3. Select "Change Password."
4. Enter and verify new password > click "Submit."
5. Once verified, click "OK," and continue with your Blackboard session.
6. Use your new password for your next Blackboard session.
   

COMPUTERS

1. Log-in with default user name and password.
2. Once logged in, click: Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
3. From the options, select: "Change a password..."
4. Follow onscreen directions (enter current password > enter new password > confirm new password >click "OK" or arrow buttons to continue).
   
   1. Password Creation Rules (3 of 4 conditions must be used, computers only):
      
      1. At least one upper case letter must be used.
         
      2. At least one lower case letter must be used.
         
      3. At least one number must be used.
      4. At least one special character must be used from the following set: @ # % - _ .
         
5. Change of password confirmation should be given.
6. Use your new password for your next computer session.

myMHC STUDENT PORTAL

When using the student portal, you will create your own unique password when creating this account. You can modify this password by:

1. Log-in with default user name and current password.
2. Select: "Menu" (near top left corner of portal's interface) > "My Profile" > "Change Password."
3. Enter: "Old Password" > "New Password" > "Confirm New Password" > Click: "Change Password"
4. Once verified, continue with your myMHC session.
5. Use your new password for your next myMHC session.

STUDENT E-MAIL

1. Log-in with default user name and password.
2. Select "Settings" (near top right corner of interface).
3. Select "Accounts and Import" tab.
4. Select: "Google Account settings"(in "Change account settings" area).
5. Click "Change password."
6. Enter: current password > enter new password > confirm new password > Save
7. Once confirmed, continue with you e-mail session, the next time you log-in, you will use your modified password.

If you want to test your relative password strength, click here.

For password assistance, please see the library's Information Desk or the Information Technology Services' Help Desk (located near B223 on the second floor of the B-wing).

Default User Name & Password

When logging into most online services (Blackboard, computers, and e-mail) at the college, you will initially use the following pattern:

• User name: firstname.lastname
  
  
• Password: last four digits of student ID#, followed by first three letters of last name (with the first letter capitalized)
  

For more information about the Campus ID Card, click here.

Click here to learn about changing your passwords.

Office Professional Academic 2010 Edition for $89

It might not be called the Ultimate Steal anymore, but students can still purchase the Microsoft Office 2010 suite at a significant discount. As in years past, this is a legitimate offer.

Microsoft is offering the Office Professional Academic 2010 edition for Windows for $89 CAD. This suite of products contains the 2010 versions of: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and OneNote.

To purchase this suite from academic/campus stores, a student might normally pay approximately $250. To buy the suite from other retailers, you could expect to pay as much as $650. Even for the Microsoft Office Home And Student 2010 edition (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote), you might need to spend more than $135.

To take advantage of this and other academic offers from Microsoft, click here.

Please Note:

• The Mac version of Office is not available through this offer.
• Medicine Hat College will be supporting the Office 2007 suite of products for this current academic year.

UPDATE (14 September 2010): Some students encountered an issue where the new *@mymhc.ca e-mail domain was not accepted by the offer's site. MHC Information Technology Services has resolved this issue with the vendor and students should now be able to access the offer without issue.

WARNING: Beware of Fake Wireless Networks on Campus

IMPORTANT: When connecting to the wireless network on campus, only connect to MHC-Public (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The one and only official college wireless network you should connect to.



DO NOT connect to any other wireless network on campus, because they are not official college networks—this includes one that might say MHC-Library.

WHY THE WARNING?

Unfortunately there are individuals on campus that are creating “rogue” networks. These rogue networks might look like free wireless access points (see Figs. 2 & 3), but you are not connecting to a network, you are connecting to someone’s computer directly. An intention of these rogue networks could be to steal your private information (e.g., user name and password sets) that you use to access secure information online (e.g., banking and credit card information, Facebook, myMHC, etc.).

Fig 2. A rogue computer-to-computer network.





Fig. 3. Another rogue computer-to-computer network.





Another problem these rogue networks create is that they will disrupt the functions and services of the MHC-Public network. The effects of which include: making the network unavailable or unstable.

HOW DO YOU PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY?

• Do not access banking and other confidential information using the public wireless network (this includes MHC-Public).
  
  
• Do not have your laptop configured to automatically join networks—always manually connect to networks out of your home network.
  
  
• Never make a computer-to-computer connection—regardless of what the name of the network is.
  
  
• Do not accept any prompts when you are asked to allow someone to join you.
  
  
• Turn off your wireless card if you are not browsing the Web—this also saves power.
  
  
• Have up-to-date security software installed on your computer—antivirus, firewall, etc.
  
  
• If you have the technical expertise, create a personal virtual private network (VPN) before connecting to a public wireless service.
  

Information Technology Services (ITS) is actively seeking a solution to resolve this issue.

Laptops to Loan . . .

Occasionally students might find that they need to do a little mobile computing around campus, but do not have a computer where they want to work. To this end, Library Services now provides laptops to students that need some mobile computing power where and when they need it. Internet services can be easily accessed using the laptops' built-in wireless cards and our wireless network.

Students can borrow and schedule laptops from the Vera Bracken Library for use on campus only. A laptop can be borrowed for 4 hours and renewed for an additional 4 hours if there are no holds on it. See the Audio Visual Desk in the library for additional details.

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The laptops' software profiles are as follows:

• Microsoft Office XP (SP3)
  
• Microsoft Office 2007 Professional (Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, etc.)
• Classroom Performance System (CPS)
• SMART Notebook 10
• CD/DVD burning application and more

Some quick hardware specifications include:

• 17" screen (great for collaboration)
  
• 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• 250 GB hard drive
  
• 3GB RAM
  
• Wireless network card & Bluetooth
• Built-in Web-cam and microphone
• CD/DVD player
• SD card reader
• Firewire (1394a)
• USB 2.0

Printing Issues

As many of our patrons have encountered, we are still having printing issues in the Vera Bracken Library. Some of things that users have encountered include:

• no printing from the classroom
  
• periodic (or no) printing from Drop-in and Reference stations
• insufficient administration privileges to print
• printer cannot be found
  
• prints a page or two of a multiple page file and stops
• prints several successful documents, then print services stop while under the same user profile
  
• will print the document single sided, but not duplex it
• Java update window (not printing related)
  
• etc.

These are all known issues and the Information Technology Services (ITS) department is continuing to investigate the issue. If you are encountering problems, please see the Information Desk in the library and we will investigate. Failing a resolution to the issue, we will print the document for you from our computer.

Thank you for your patience as ITS works towards a solution.

Java Update - Do not panic!

Some of our patrons have encountered a pop-up dialogue window that appears as follows:

If you encounter this message, disregard it and click Cancel. Please do not abandon the station that you have logged on to, your personal information and print account might be vulnerable to others if you do.

Java is trying to update itself and this cannot be done with a standard student computer account. Information Technology Services (ITS) is aware of this issue and is seeking a means of making the update less obtrusive.

Office Ultimate 2007 Deal for $64 Still On

You can still get Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for as low as $64 CAD; and yes, this is a legitimate offer. At present, Office 2008 for Mac is not offered as part of this promotion.

How good of a deal is this? To buy Microsoft Office Professional at the Campus Store, it will cost you approximately $250. Office Professional includes the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and Accounting Express. Office Ultimate includes the entire Professional bundle, but also includes InfoPath, Groove, and OneNote. To buy Office Ultimate 2007 at regular retail price, you could spend in excess of $900.

The Ultimate Steal offer ends 31 December 2010 -- though Microsoft reserves the right to terminate the promotion at any time. To get the deal, go to www.theultimatesteal.ca to check for pricing and qualifications.

Streaming Media Services Limited

Some of you might have noticed that access to streaming media sites (e.g., YouTube, Google Videos, etc.) is currently being limited in areas of the college. Due to bandwidth restrictions beyond the college's control, certain restrictions have been placed on these media sites. Streaming media sites will only be accessible from 4:30 p.m.–midnight each day. Certain streaming media (e.g., Internet radio and television) will remain blocked.

Streaming media services that the college and Library Services subscribe to will not be affected. This includes resources such as Atomic Learning and unitedstreaming [Discovery Education]—you can discover more information about each source by clicking here.


The college's Information Technology Services (ITS) department is currently working with the college's Internet service provider to resolve this issue in as timely a manner as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate and ask for your patience in the meantime. A notice will be posted as soon as regular Internet service is restored.

It's back... Office Ultimate 2007 for $64?!

Once again, you can get Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for as low as $64 Canadian; and yes, this is a legitimate offer.

How good of a deal is this? To buy Microsoft Office Professional at the Campus Store, it will cost you approximately $250. Office Professional includes the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and Accounting Express. Office Ultimate includes the entire Professional bundle, but also includes InfoPath, Groove, and OneNote. To buy Office Ultimate 2007 at regular retail price, you could spend in excess of $900.

The Ultimate Steal offer ends 31 December 2010 -- though Microsoft reserves the right to terminate the promotion at any time. To get the deal, go to www.theultimatesteal.ca to check for pricing and qualifications.

Office Ultimate 2007 for $64?!

Yes, it is true! You can get Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for as low as $64 Canadian.

How good of a deal is this? To buy Microsoft Office Professional at the Campus Store, it will cost you approximately $250. Office Professional includes the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and Accounting Express. Office Ultimate includes the entire Professional bundle, but also includes InfoPath, Groove, and OneNote. To buy Office Ultimate 2007 at regular retail price, you could spend in excess of $900.

The Ultimate Steal offer ends 30 April 2008. Go to www.theultimatesteal.ca to check for pricing and qualifications.

Services Disruption, August 16th - Computer Updates

On Thursday, August 16th, the Vera Bracken Library computers will be updated, and some services will not be available on this day.

STUDENTS: Printing will not be available on this day. You will be required to use you own unique user name/password set to login on and after this day, and you will have to logout at the end of each session to protect your privacy. Your future print privileges and network drive storage space is dependent on this unique user name/password combination.

VISITORS/COMMUNITY MEMBERS: Printing will not be available on this day. The means to access a computer after this day, has yet to be determined.

Upgrades will begin in the library classroom at 9 a.m., and move to drop-in and reference computer areas afterwards.

No other library service will be affected. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Wireless Network Down

The wireless network in the Medicine Hat Campus's Café and Vera Bracken Library is down indefinitely. Computer Services is working to isolate this hardware relate issue. Please stay posted for updates.

We apologize for the inconvenience.