Click to return to CIT home page

 

 

* Students * Facult/Staff * Tips for Everyone *

Network access is available to students in their residence halls, and faculty and staff in their offices, for access to the Internet and campus resources, including e-mail, web pages, Blackboard, Stu and Staff LOCKERs (personal storage space on a server), Library resources, etc.

Network access is controlled to ensure compliance with security and safety procedures. This controlled access has become extremely critical due to the prevalence of viruses, spyware, and continuous hacking attempts. Windows computers are most susceptible, but other systems are subject to viruses and hacking attempts as well (Macs, Linux, UNIX, etc.).

In the summer of 2003, Oberlin College, as was the case with most other colleges and universities, had to deal with a large influx of viruses from student computers accessing the network at the beginning of the academic year, which resulted in a basic shutdown of Resnet until all systems could be cleaned and updated. As a result, CIT put in place a product to check systems prior to accessing the network. This product, known as the Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) Appliance (formerly Cisco Clean Access), has been in effect for three years on Resnet and has proven to be quite successful in keeping the network free of viruses and other security issues. With this product, CIT has the ability to force reauthentication at any time, providing a mechanism for dealing with any emerging threats.

This product will be put in place for all other computers connecting to the Oberlin network (faculty, staff, etc.) in the fall of 2006. An overview of how the product functions can be found online.

Students:

Students access the Residential Network (Resnet) through the Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) Appliance. This product ensures compliance with established security & safety procedures for all devices seeking to access the network (desktops, laptops, game boxes, etc.). With the NAC Appliance, user systems are first checked to see that they have the latest operating system security patches installed (especially critical on Windows computers), and that they have the latest virus-checking software updates installed.Once the verification process is completed, users are "authenticated" for access to the network.

Complete details on getting connected can be found on the Resnet web pages.

Faculty and Staff:

Faculty and staff office computers are set up by CIT staff prior to delivery, ensuring properly patched and updated systems are put on the network. However, with the increasing use of laptops, which are taken to off-campus locations and connected to other networks, CIT can no longer be assured of the status of these computers. Thus, in the fall of 2006, CIT will put all campus computers into the same Cisco NAC process as computers that access Resnet. Once this occurs, faculty and staff personnel will need to access a web browser, enter their e-mail usernames and passwords, and follow any instructions presented.

Tips for Everyone:

It is essential that all users install operating system security updates on a routine basis. Faculty and staff using Windows computers should be receiving updates through the Novell login process. However, the updates will not actually be installed until the computer gets rebooted. Please ensure that you reboot your computer once a day. Systems that do not require logins (research computers, servers, etc.) should be set to receive updates automatically from the Microsoft website. Faculty and staff should also follow this practice for home computers, as well.

People using Macintosh computers should also set their systems to receive updates automatically.

Instructions for receiving updates automatically can be found online on the CIT Alerts web page. Also, check out the CIT Security web page for more information on security issues.

Users should also set their anti-virus software to receive updates automatically and should always allow the anti-virus software to run in order to check their systems. Do not just quit the program because you think you're computer is running too slowly. These virus checks are critical to the safe and secure operation of your computer! Updates can be found on the CIT Software Download web page for virus protection.

.