News and Updates

Campus Phone System – Scheduled Maintenance

At 6:00 am on Sunday, March 5th, Windstream will reboot the campus phone server which is expected to take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Although no outage is expected, it is possible that the phone system will be unavailable during this time.
 
In case of emergency, Public Safety can be reached during the phone outage at 814-332-2314 instead of their usual number. Please note that you must use a non-Allegheny College phone, such as a cell phone, to reach this number during any outage. Campus phones will not be able to complete any outgoing calls during the outage.

Windows 10 – Major version update

Beginning Monday, March 6th, ITS will roll out the 22H2 update for Windows 10. This update will apply between the hours of 6pm and 7am. Any active users during this timeframe may see a prompt to restart.

As always, please make sure to save your work and log out at the end of each day to avoid potential data loss, since Windows updates often necessitate a restart.

​Campus Wide Internet Outage

​On Wednesday the 25th at approximately 11:00am a campus wide power incident caused an equipment malfunction with our Internet Service Provider’s connection stack. ITS has implemented a temporary workaround and is working with our ISP to replace and reconfigure their equipment as needed.

Internet access was restored at approximately 11:30am. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

Spear Phishing Attempts via Text

The ITS Help Desk has been informed that several campus community members have been the target of a spear phishing attack via text message, with the threat actor posing as President Ron Cole. These messages, which appear to have been sent from a 380 area code phone number, are not legitimate; please delete them and do not reply. As always, be alert to any such messages you receive, particularly when you are not expecting the message, the message is worded oddly, or request fast action unnecessarily. These are all typical signs of phishing or scams.

Emergency Network Maintenance

Allegheny’s internet service provider, FirstLight, needs to perform emergency maintenance early Saturday morning. This will result in loss of service for up to 6 hours, starting at 12am. Services should be restored by 6am.

Network Issues Resolved

Allegheny’s ISP reports that all issues from Wednesday’s network event are resolved. Anyone still experiencing difficulty should contact the ITS Help Desk.

Call: 814-332-2755

Submit a ticket: webhelp.allegheny.edu

Walk-in: Murray Hall lobby, 11am to 5pm weekdays

Intermittent access to external websites

Allegheny’s Internet Service Provider has acknowledged an outage in our area that is affecting access to some external websites. Our network support provider, Apogee, is actively working with our ISP to resolve this issue.

Ongoing Wireless Connectivity Issues

Apogee, the College’s network service provider, continues to investigate wireless connectivity issues across campus. In the meantime, those with trouble connecting should contact the Help Desk for a temporary workaround.

Phone: 814-332-2755

Walk-in: Murray Hall lobby, 11am to 5pm weekdays.

Submit a ticket: webhelp.allegheny.edu

Antivirus Software Migration

As ITS finalizes the migration to a new Antivirus product, users may see the previous product (Trend Micro Apex One) display with a red icon in the taskbar (seen below). In this instance, the red icon indicates that the product has been uninstalled and will need a restart to complete the process. Users may do this at their convenience during the day, otherwise the process should complete overnight. If the icon persists, please call the Help Desk at 814-332-2755, or submit a ticket at WebHelpDesk.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Join a Google Meet call from Docs, Sheets, or Slides

From within Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides, you can now join a Google Meet call right in the same window. Students working on a group project, faculty discussing an assignment with students, or colleagues collaborating for work now have more convenient ways to work together.

Just click on the Google Meet icon next to the Share button to see your upcoming scheduled meetings, start a new meeting, or add a meeting code for an existing meeting. The meeting will open in a sidebar in the document you’re working on.

If you create a new meeting, Google Meet will provide you with a link you can share with others to join you.

The first time you use this feature in your browser, you will need to give permission for Google Docs to use your microphone and camera.

Screenshot of Google Docs dialog asking permission to use microphone and camera

You may also see a popup alerting you that you’re not presenting the document and giving you a link to share the document in the Meet.

Screenshot of an alert in Google Docs reading "You're not presenting in this call" and providing a link to share for others to collaborate on the document

You will also have the option to shrink the Meet panel using the Picture-in-picture feature, or to pop the Meet panel out to a separate tab in your browser.

Feel free to suggest topics for future Tech Tips you’d like to see!
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