Throughout November 2010, Information Technology Services is implementing a restriction on its network firewall, which regulates traffic to and from Internet, in order to protect the network from outside intruders who make thousands of attempts daily to access our network resources. The change is being implemented for all academic and administrative buildings; the security change is already in place for student residence halls. W&L faculty and staff have been notified about the implementation date for their building.
This change will NOT affect routine use of e-mail and the Web from on-campus, such as accessing video and other resources on the Web, and sending and receiving e-mails, including attachments. The change also will not affect off-campus access to W&L resources such as Web pages, Outlook Web Access and the Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Faculty and staff will be affected by the change only under the following circumstances:
- Faculty and staff and others, such as authorized vendors, who operate a server in your building (or any campus building outside of the Information Technology Services machine room) for the benefit of an off-campus audience will be affected. Anyone who operates such a server should provide information about the server as soon as possible using this form: go to http://helpdesk.wlu.edu on the Web, and select request type “Network” then “Incoming Firewall Exception.” ITS will use this information to allow access to the servers from off campus.
- Faculty and staff who use RDP (remote desktop protocol) or similar method to connect to computers in Lee Chapel or the Reeves Center from off campus will be affected. Faculty and staff who connect to their computers remotely will need to take one extra step each time they use RDP. They will need to first open a VPN connection (https://vpn.wlu.edu) or use a virtual desktop in The Stable (http://thestable.wlu.edu), and then initiate the RDP session.
Please contact your ITS Client Services representative ( see http://www.wlu.edu/x19688.xml ) if you have any questions or concerns.
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