Bell 101 Is 24 Hours Until May 11th

19 Apr 2012 — The Bell 101 public computing lab will be open and staffed 24 hours until the end of exams on May 11th, 2012.

Updated Pine Available on SENS Timeshares

26 Mar 2012 — "Alpine", the successor to the popular "Pine" email utility, has been updated on the SENS Linux and Solaris timeshare systems, and now supports secure IMAP connections by default.

To use it, type "pine" or "alpine".

And please report any problems to "senshelp@buffalo.edu".

Firefox 11.0 and Thunderbird 11.0 Available for Linux

14 Mar 2012 — The default versions of the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email client for Red Hat Enterprise Linux have been upgraded to version 11.0. To use them, type:

    /util/mozilla/bin/firefox
    /util/mozilla/bin/thunderbird

Older versions are available if necessary, but we encourage the use of the latest releases.

North Campus Instructional Technology Support Service Desk Has Moved

23 May 2011 — The North Campus instructional technology support service desk, previously located at 24 Capen Hall, has moved to 214 Lockwood, the same location as the CIT Help Desk. The CIT Help Desk customer service representatives will handle instructional technology service requests and incident reports, including:

• Report classroom technology problems or repairs
• Place service orders for instructional technology equipment and facilities
• Access to classroom podium combination locks
• Receive estimates for equipment rentals
• Help with classroom technology usage

Communication to the instructional technology service desk will continue unchanged; email to media@buffalo.edu or call 645-2803. Scoring services has previously relocated to the Teaching and Learning Center in 212 Capen Hall.

"R" Now Available on SENS Linux and Solaris Systems

21 Apr 2011 — R, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics, is now available on SENS Linux and Solaris systems. From the command line you can type "use R" to get started, and on most SENS Linux systems it can be found under the "Mathematics and Analysis" section of the UB popup menu. The R home page has more information about the project and the software, and the Quick-R site has information on using R from the perspective of a SAS and SPSS user (thanks to Arun Lakshmanan and Dave Costello in the School of Management for making us aware of that site).

SENS Email Address Changes

04 Mar 2011 — Effective Monday, March 7th, 2011. some SENS email addresses will no longer work, and alternatives will need to be used. They are:

Old Address	New Address
nodehelp@eng.buffalo.edu	senshelp@buffalo.edu
nodehelp@nsm.buffalo.edu	senshelp@buffalo.edu
accounts@eng.buffalo.edu	sens-accounts@buffalo.edu
accounts@nsm.buffalo.edu	sens-accounts@buffalo.edu
restore@eng.buffalo.edu	sens-restore@buffalo.edu
restore@nsm.buffalo.edu	sens-restore@buffalo.edu

If you find other SENS service-related email addresses are not working properly. please send an email message to SENShelp. Thank you.

SENS IMAP and POP Services Retired

01 Mar 2011 — As a final stage in the SENS/CIT email consolidation project, the IMAP and POP services have been turned off on both the Engineering and NSM email servers. If you are getting a message in your email client stating that it cannot connect to the Engineering or NSM IMAP or POP server, this is the reason why. If you need help reconfiguring your email client so that it no longer connects to SENS email servers, please send a message to SENShelp.

New Matlab Page

16 Sep 2010 — A web page has been created with instructions on how to access Matlab from various places. The link is http://www.sens.buffalo.edu/software/matlab/. If there are any questions or problems, please send email to SENShelp.

Automatic Forwarding of NSM Email Has Started

20 Apr 2010 — As of May 3rd, 2010, we have started automatically forwarding all incoming user email on the Natural Sciences and Math email server to the Central UBit email server. This affects any users in Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Math, and Physics who have not yet migrated to the central system. We have made every effort to make sure all users have been migrated off the NSM server, but if you find that after May 3rd you are not receiving new messages it's possible you have not been migrated. Please contact us at senshelp@buffalo.edu as soon as possible if this is the case. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Email Hoaxes

22 Feb 2010 — We are seeing an increase in volume for several email hoaxes. They can have subject lines such as:

• A new settings file for the _____@eng.buffalo.edu has just be released
• Conflicker.B Infection Alert

We will update this list as we see other false messages that are received in large quantities. Please remember that no legitimate source (SENS, the UB Help Desk, CIT, Microsoft, etc.) will send you a message with a ZIP file attachment, or ask you for your username and password or other personal information.

SENS Lab and Server Passwords

19 Jan 2010 — This semester we are continuing our process of converting our systems to use UBIT passwords instead of SENS passwords, and in most lab settings your UBIT password should now be the active one. If you find the password you're using (UBIT or SENS) doesn't work, try the other one. If you still can't get access, please send email to senshelp@buffalo.edu.

SENS E-Mail migration to UBIT E-Mail

24 Mar 2009 — As per the UB2020 initiative, SENS is migrating e-mail to the UBIT e-mail system. We will contact you approximately two weeks prior to the start of your department's migration. However, if you would like to get a jump start you can follow this link, Migrate from SENS to UBIT e-mail, to get instructions or you can send an e-mail to senshelp@buffalo.edu and we will assist you through the process.

Matlab for Students

27 Jan 2009 — This is a reminder that students can purchase the annual TAH student Matlab and Simulink license for $29.95 at UBMicro. If you are a student using Matlab in one or more of your courses you may want to consider taking advantage of this offer.

New Email Account Maintenance Hoax

29 Oct 2008 — This email has started going around. Please ignore it, it's yet another hoax:

Subject: EMAIL ACCOUNT MAINTENANCE

Dear Buffalo e-mail User,

A Computer Database Maintainance is currently going on. This Message is Very Important. We are very concerned with stopping the proliferation of spam. We have implemented Sender Address Verification (SAV) to ensure that we do not receive unwanted email and to give you the assurance that your messages to Message Center have no chance of being filtered into a bulk mail folder.

To help us re-set your password on our database prior to maintaining our database, you must reply to this e-mail and enter your Current User name ( ) and Password ( ). Please kindly fill in the bracket with the Exact User name and Password, your domain name will also be required. If you are the rightful owner of this account, Our message center will confirm your identity including the secret question and answer immediately and We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause you.We assure you more quality service at the end of this maintenance.

The Buffalo Campus Web Email Software is a fast and light weight application to quickly and easily accessing your e-mail. Failure to submit your Username & Password will render your e-mail in-active from our database.

Thank you for using Buffalo Web Email!

WEBMAIL TECHNICAL ADMIN

https://www.buffalo.edu

Email Hoaxes Continue

19 Sep 2008 — As we've warned in the past, be careful of emails that look like they are coming from UB staff but really aren't. These often have attachments containing viruses; please do not open any zip files or other such attachments, just delete the messages. A legitimate message from SENS will not have a zip file attachment. Here is an example of these kinds of hoaxes:

Dear user of xxx.buffalo.edu,

Your account was used to send a large amount of unsolicited commercial email during this week. Probably, your computer had been compromised and now contains a hidden proxy server.

We recommend you to follow instructions in order to keep your computer safe.

Best wishes, xxx.buffalo.edu support team.

Welcome Back!

25 Aug 2008 — Welcome back, everyone! We in SENS have been busy this summer with major updates to computer labs, server resources, and other things. If you have questions or concerns about any of these changes, please write to "senshelp@buffalo.edu".

Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 for Solaris

13 Aug 2008 — For SENS-supported Solaris 8 and Solaris 10 systems, the Thunderbird email client has been upgraded to version 2.0.0.16; it can be started by typing "thunderbird" at the command prompt.

Olympics and CNN Fake Email

08 Aug 2008 — Please be aware that we have seen a large increase in the number of fake emails pretending to be from sites such as CNN. These emails contain links that can either redirect you to other sites or install malicious software on your computer, so please don't open them.

With the Olympic Games just starting, we have been told that fraudulent email informing people of winners and other happenings will start coming in, which also have the potential to put viruses, spyware, and other such things on your computer. Please be extremely careful with these messages also, and we recommend that you go to a legitimate web site for this kind of information rather than open these kinds of email messages.

Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 Student Edition

07 Aug 2008 — For students who use Pro/ENGINEER, we wanted to inform you that PTC has announced Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 Student Edition is available for sale from their web site, should you wish to purchase it as an alternative to using Pro/ENGINEER in SENS-supported computing labs.

Firefox 2.0.0.16 and Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 for Solaris

28 Jul 2008 — For SENS-supported Solaris 8 and Solaris 10 systems, the Firefox web browser has been upgraded to version 2.0.0.16 and the Thunderbird email client to version 2.0.0.14; they can be started by typing "firefox" or "thunderbird" at the command prompt, respectively.

Firefox 3 is available on Solaris 10 systems only, and can be started by typing "firefox3" at the command prompt.

Adobe Reader 8.1.2 Update

21 May 2008 — Grants.gov has made some significant changes in their forms which will drastically reduce, if not eliminate the compatibility problems reported earlier. They have created a test page at http://www.grants.gov/applicants/AdobeVersioningTestOnly.jsp where individuals can click a link to see if they have an incompatible version of Adobe Reader. They are also now supporting Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.1.2.

Host on Demand and Java 1.6 Update 6

21 May 2008 — There is a reported incompatibility between Host on Demand and an update of the Java Runtime Environment that was released on May 20th. For more information please refer to this web page. We will post more information as it becomes available, but in the meantime if you have installed the latest Java update and find it is causing problems with HoD, please contact "SENShelp@buffalo.edu".

Adobe Reader 8.1.2

09 Apr 2008 — We have been informed that all Grants.gov applications will soon require Adobe Reader 8.1.2 to open application packages, as well as to prepare and submit applications. Use of any other version of Adobe may result in unknowingly corrupting an application package causing its rejection after submission. Adobe Reader 8.1.2 can be downloaded from here. If you are using a SENS-managed computer and need assistance please send email to SENShelp.

UB Phishing Scam Reported

28 Feb 2008 — If you receive an email with the subject "UPGRADE YOUR UBmail ACCOUNT NOW", please ignore it and do not reply. It is part of a widespread "phishing" scam to collect user names and passwords. For more information: http://ubit.buffalo.edu/virus/ If you have already replied to it, please send an email to "senshelp@buffalo.edu".

Home Directory Quotas Increased

19 Jan 2008 — Home directories for all SENS users have had their quotas raised from 300 MB to 500 MB. Please note that this change pertains to your "/eng/home/UBITname" or "/nsm/home/UBITname" directory, and not to any other server space you may be using.

DNS Change

09 Jan 2008 — If you have a computer at home or at another off-campus location that is configured to use the SENS DNS servers, you will need to change them as we are removing off-campus access to this service. You should be using the DNS servers from your ISP, and should contact them for more information. If you need assistance or advice from us, please send an email to "nodehelp@eng.buffalo.edu" or "nodehelp@nsm.buffalo.edu".

Unix and Linux Software Updates

24 Oct 2007 — The following updates have been applied:
Mathematica 6.01 is now the default version. This can be accessed via the UB menu or type "use mathematica" from a terminal. To access Mathematica 5.2 type "use mathematica5.2" from a terminal.
Maple 11 is now the default version. This can be accessed via the UB menu or type "use xmaple" from a terminal. ("use maple" for the command line version) To access Maple 10.05 type "use maple10.05" from a terminal.
Matlab 7.4.0 (R007a) is now the default version. This can be accessed via the UB menu or type "use matlab" from a terminal. To access Matlab 7.3 type "use matlab7.3" from a terminal.
Pro Engineer Wildfire 3.0 is available for Solaris and Linux. Type "use wildfire3.0" from a terminal. ** Do not run Wildfire 3.0 on a timeshare from a Linux machine**.
GoogleEarth 4.2 for Linux has been installed.  To access type "googleearth" or "/util/bin/googleearth"

Solaris 8/10 Firefox/Thunderbird/SeaMonkey Updated

04 Sep 2007 — The Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client have both been updated to version 2.0.0.6 on all SENS Solaris 8 and 10 systems. Also, SeaMonkey 1.1.4 (the all-in-one client that replaces the Mozilla suite) has been installed. For more information on these programs, please go to mozilla.org.

SENS Web Site Maintenance

28 Aug 2007 — We've been updating the SENS web site over the last few days. If you find incorrect links or other problems, please let us know about them. Thanks!

Fall 2007 Update

24 Aug 2007 — SENS is ready for the fall semester! We want to welcome everyone back and look forward to working with you over the coming months. Shown below are some older news items that are still relevant.

We have a one-sheet handout that briefly describes our services available near our offices on the first floor of Bell Hall, and we welcome you to stop by and get a copy if you are unfamiliar with what we provide. Here is a PDF copy for your convenience.

UB2020 Standard Configuration PCs

23 Aug 2007 — SENS has issued an advocacy statement asking our community to consider purchasing the UB2020 Standard Configuration PCs in all areas where they are appropriate. We are happy to work with the faculty and staff we support to make these systems meet their needs, or to help configure alternative systems where they are not appropriate.

Microsoft Vista

20 Feb 2007 — As many people are aware, Microsoft has released a new operating system, Microsoft Vista. SENS is advising that our community wait before upgrading, as there are many compatibility and educational issues that need to be addressed.

For more info, please read our recommendations.

Bulk email filters

19 Oct 2005 — The SENS email systems have been upgraded with new bulk email (spam) filters. To use these new filters, log on to a SENS timeshare system and run the "mkfilter" command, even if you have done this before.

For more info, please refer to this web page: http://www.sens.buffalo.edu/services/email/filters.phtml

Note: These filters are only intended for users who use the SENS email system to read email, and not for those who have their email forwarded to other accounts.