Tag Archives: email

Improved Filtering of SPAM and Phishing Email

ITS has begun enabling new, proactive anti-spam and anti-phishing email filters intended to improve the filtering of unsolicited and unwanted messages, by leveraging external reputation-based lists of email servers that have been flagged for sending spam and/or malicious email.

We’ve had the new filters in “Tag” mode since October 2014, so we’re confident that they are accurate and we’ll be closely monitoring incoming mail queues during the days after the change. Still, there is a possibility that someone trying to sending you email will have their message blocked, if their email servers have been flagged for sending spam and/or malicious email. The sender, in such cases, will receive an email advising them that their message could not be delivered.

If you encounter such as scenario, (i.e. a legitimate sender is trying to email you, but the message is being blocked by Middlebury’s email servers), or you have noticed legitimate messages recently having been incorrectly tagged as [SPAM?], please contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@middlebury.edu and we will help you identify and resolve the issue.

General questions about this change may be directed to infosec@middlebury.edu.

Webmail’s New Look — Coming Soon

MaskThe upgrade of our email environment over the holiday break will bring a cleaner, more minimal look to Webmail (also known as Outlook Web App – OWA), designed with “touch” devices in mind.  The appearance of the Webmail login screen has already changed, but the workings once logged in will not change until after your account has migrated.

  • Student mailboxes will migrate Wed, Dec 17 through Fri, Dec 19.
  • Faculty & Staff mailboxes will migrate Sat, Dec 20 through Sun, Dec 21.

The most noticeable differences in Outlook’s new “face” are the shift of many buttons/links to the upper right corner and the fact that Public Folders are no longer accessible when using the Web App. You will be able to adjust many settings by clicking the Settings (gear) icon located in the top right corner (beside the ? icon).

Here’s how you can quickly get up to speed on the changes:

* Watch a brief lynda.com movie (under 9 minutes!) to get familiar with the new look:
Exploring the OWA Interface
* Read Microsoft’s brief summary of the highlights:   What’s new in Outlook Web App
* Visit go/webmailhelp for more details, resources and FAQs!

 

 

Friday AM LIS open meeting – Email/Collaboration Tools evaluation

These are notes from the 1st of our new biweekly “Friday Morning LIS” meeting series, open to any or all from within LIS.  The aim of these meetings is to discuss upcoming projects, decisions, issues, and opportunities relating to technology and libraries, as well as to ensure that those in our community most impacted by any given change have a chance to provide input/feedback. Continue reading →

From our Wiki: How to create custom emails for your Drupal webforms

The default email template for the Drupal Webform module will send out the date the form was submitted, the name of the person submitting the form (if they were logged in to the site) or their IP address, the value of each field in the form submission and a URL to a page on the site where the form submission can be viewed or edited. This information is usually sufficient, but you might want to have different fields sent to different people when the form is submitted, or provide a custom message to the person who submitted the form, like a “thank you” note.

To do this, you need to use the Custom Template feature of the module. I’ve put together a guide on using this feature which is available in the Drupal documentation section of the LIS Wiki. If you have any quesetions, please let me know so that we can update the documentation.

Upgrade to FirstClass Server

For many years, the Bread Loaf School of English has been using a mail/conferencing system called FirstClass.  FirstClass was one of the first ‘bulletin boards’ to develop a graphic user interface and the BLSE has used this technology for mail, course conferences, support of the Bread Loaf Teachers Network and general discussion conferences.  Until last May, the server running the FirstClass server software was located on campus and supported by the Enterprise and Network Solutions group.

Last May, LIS decided to outsource the administration and support of this server to WhatIf Networks, a company based in Westbrook, ME that has years of experience supporting FirstClass servers.  The cut over of services took place just before the beginning of the 2010 BLSE summer sessions.   At the conclusion of the summer classes, we began planning to upgrade the server to a newer version of the software, from version 8.0 to version 9.1. One of the driving factors in this decision was the increasing number of requests of the BreadNet community to access their mail and conferences from smart phones (particularly iPhones) and iPads.  Our upgrade now makes this possible and we have a number of happy smart phone users.

However, to prepare for the upgrade, it was necessary to reconfigure the roughly 1000 user desktops so that the upgraded client view was clean and uncluttered. Caroline Eisner, the director of Breadnet;  Margaret ‘Mugs’ Johnson of WhatIf Networks and Shel Sax worked over the weekend reconfiguring the user desktops in preparation for the upgrade.  The upgrade was effected late Saturday afternoon, November 20th and the new software installed without incident

After the upgrade, a typical FirstClass client desktop looks like this:

screen shot first class server

Google Apps for Education Evaluation Underway

Middlebury is evaluating Google Apps for Education as a possible replacement for Microsoft Exchange as its platform for email and calendaring. We’ve set up a website about this evaluation process that includes a summary of the process and the key questions we are asking. We will host an open session on this evaluation in early May in order to ensure that there are opportunities for the entire community to learn more about Google Apps for Education, to understand the evaluation process, and to provide input and feedback. The website is Google Apps @ Middlebury Project.  You can ask questions and make comments via this site, or feel free to contact Michael Roy (mdroy@middlebury.edu) .

Happy New Year

Welcome back and Happy New Year, faithful On That Note readers! The Music Library staff hopes your holiday break was joyous, and we hope your return to Middlebury sees you reinvigorated and ready for more adventures in the land of lurnin’.

As J-Term gets underway, perhaps a few handy links/reminders are in order.

Music Library hours

During J-Term, the Music Library is open pretty much as usual:

  • M-R 9-midnight
  • F 9-5
  • Sat 10-6
  • Sun 10-midnight

Here is the main page with hours for all the branches.

eReserve readings

Need help finding your e-reserves readings? Try this page for starters.

MIDCAT – Library catalog

Search for printed music, DVDs, CDs, and books, too, right here!

Music order requests

Fill out this form here!

Contact your friendly Music Library staff