How to install new printers

We are switching to a new and improved printing system called iPrint. Once the client is installed, it will try to update all installed printers automatically. This will work for the majority of printers district-wide, if they have not changed in any way. Many printers have changed over the summer, most notably copiers. At least one copier in each building has been replaced with a newer model, so these will have to be re-installed by whomever prints to them. Also, some printers were renamed to conform with a uniform standard. All printers are now named based on the "building-room-type" model, i.e. HS141_Laser or DO130_Copier. (High School room 141 laser and District Office, room 130, copier).

What it means for you
The simplest thing to do now is delete all the printers currently installed on your computer, then reinstall them with the new names.

Step 1 - Go to START, settings, Printers & Faxes.
Step 2 - Hold down "ctrl" while clicking once on each printer that is either an old P-something, says "DISTRICT" somewhere in the description or is a copier of any kind. Then press the delete key to remove them all at once. (This may take a few moments, depending on how many you select at once.)
Step 3 - when all old printers are gone, close the Printers & Faxes window, then open a Web browser to the Internal Home page.
Step 4 - Find "Install a new printer" under the "Online services" menu, and go to that page.
Step 5 - You'll now be looking at a list of ALL printers in the district. All printers will be grouped together by building alphabetically. Simply click on the printer you wish to install and say "Yes" to the 'Do you want to install this printer' question. There is also a check box to set a printer as default, choose that for the appropriate printer. Repeat for as many printers as you need to setup.

As usual, if you have any questions call us on the helpline (4025)

Trial run of Google Calendars for Computer Lab Reservations

We are doing a trial run of using Google Calendars for Computer Lab Reservations.
After much persistence by Dan at Brooklyn, we created an online calendaring system to allow teachers to reserve the Brooklyn computer labs online.

Zach made a cool tutorial on how to use the system. You can view it here (staff login required).

Currently, this is available only in the elementary schools while we test it. If everything works well, we will expand it to the other schools.

website [update]

The school website is now back up and running okay as of 4:15 CST Fri Aug 22.

www.oregonsd.org website

The school's website stopped responding at about 3:25PM CST on Friday Aug 22. No word yet on the cause, but the hosting company has been notified of the issue.

Caller ID Spoofing AGAIN

It seems that the telemarketers are back at it.
They are able to manipulate the caller ID information so that it appears that their call is coming from The Oregon School District. This happened last year as well, but it appears that they are trying it again.
Beware...

new fiber installation

A new fiber-optic connection directly from OSD to WiscNet is coming in the next few days. While we're routing the fiber, we are going to re-route the Charter cable coming into the DSO, so there will be a brief interruption in the CATV service to the district. More details when we get a schedule.

If you have been infected with a virus

Anyone who has been affected by the malware that is circulating via email please read on. 

 

If you have been affected on a school computer please submit a helpdesk ticket asap.

http://helpdesk.oregonsd.org/

 

If you have been affected on a home computer don't fret; we have found a program that will remove it quite efficiently. 

 

This is the link to download this program: 

http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html

 

To remove the malware

1 download and install the program

2 update when it asks if you want to update

3 run a full scan and delete all infected files that it finds.

 

Here is a more in-depth description of those directions if needed:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-antivirus-xp-2008

 

Email malware warning

There has been a recent batch of malicious e-mails circulating the internet. PLEASE do not open any files from e-mail unless you are absolutely certain of who they are from. At least 4 district computers have been affected already, that I know of. All the e-mails have had different messages, but a similar pattern. Two were supposed greeting cards, another was from a fake airline, another from a fake mortgage company. The fake companies message say that a payment has been made or a charge has been made on your credit card and the invoice is attached. All the attached files are .ZIP files. If you open the file, a malware program called "Antivirus XP 2008" is immediately installed on the computer and starts nagging you with bogus reports of over 1000 virus infected files and asking for you to go to a website to register the software in order to remove the files. Undoubtedly, the site will collect as much personal information as it can then rip you off. Uninstalling the program does not work, so we've had to reimage the computers as a result.

 

Once again, DO NOT Open any file and simply delete the message as soon as possible. No need to forward them to us, we know what they are and will be tweaking the filter to try and block them.

 

Thanks,

your friends in Technology

Content filtering issues being resolved today

There has been an issue with the Lightspeed network security system blocking staff access to content that it should allow. This affects only web sites that are allowed for staff but are blocked for students. YouTube is the most prominent example of this.

We have identified the cause of this behavior as being due to the system not knowing if it is staff or students logged in to a particular computer. Today we are deploying a small software program to all the computers, called the Lightspeed User Agent, which will let the network security system know who is logged into the computer so that the proper content filtering settings can be applied.

This should be in effect by tomorrow (Thursday, Aug. 14). Until then, if you are blocked from a site, look or a "Login" link near the bottom of the security warning message. Staff can click on it and log in using Novell credentials to access sites that would otherwise be restricted from students.

ASUS EeePC pilot project has graduated to a supported option

Last year, we ran a pilot project using the ASUS EeePC 2G Surf "mini laptop."

Our pilot projects last year were so successful, that this year we are adding the ASUS EeePCs as a supported project in our schools. Oregon Middle School's Technology Committee chose to purchase 30 ASUS EeePCs instead of the desktop computers originally slated for replacement. OMS already has a wireless network, so the new mini-computers should work well. We are continuing to issue them as unmanaged, Linux-based, application-specific devices. The plans are to use them mainly for web-based research and word processing in classrooms. Students at OMS are required to bring their own USB drive as a basic school supply, so they can save their work on them.

Oregon High School is purchasing ten EeePCs to use in English classrooms through a GT grant. The goal is to alleviate the contention for computer lab time by giving word-processing units to English classes.

Rome Corners Intermediate school, purchased nine EeePCs through building funds to be used by one of our very innovative teachers. They are the answer to the teacher's long-standing desire to provide more information access to her students. Conventional laptops were cost-prohibitive, but the low price of these allows the school to purchase them.

Each of our three elementary schools has purchased one or two of the EeePCs to check out to teachers, and some special education teachers at the high school have also purchased one or two computers to use with the students they serve.

We are collaborating with other districts to find better ways to manage and support these devices. They appear to be very promising, and we look forward to being able to provide them on a broader basis where they meet a specific need.

Getting ready for the return of teachers

We are busily preparing for the return of teachers. Today we began in earnest dismantling the summer school computers and putting them back in their regular rooms. Most of our equipment orders are streaming in, so now we have to inventory it all.

All the new computers have been placed, except for the very recent requests for new staff. Soon the setup of phone extensions and voicemail will begin, though some will have to wait until we get room assignments.

Email and Rome are back up

Email and Rome are back up. Seems to be a strange day here in tech land. I hope no more servers catch the bug.

Email and Rome down

Email and Rome servers are down.

Voicemail is back up

Voicemail service is back up and running.

Voicemail is down- cause unknown

Voicemail is down- cause unknown. Working on it.

Confusion between duplicate external website

We have received reports of changes made to the OregonSD.org website not showing up, and after much head-scratching and hair-pulling, figured out that it appears to be caused by the old instance of the site still being live, and a DNS issue that keeps resolving to it.

We are in the process of changing the hosts file on internal computers so they resolve to the new IP address, and are asking the host of the old site to remove it. This should alleviate the confusion. 

Working on new start page to replace internal page

We're working on a new, customizable "start page" to replace the outdated "internal homepage" that is the default home page on district computers. We're pretty excited about this, since it will interface with our new Google Apps domain, and will provide a customized page for every user. It will also be accessible from outside of the district, so all those helpful links will be available for you even when you are off campus.

If you want to check out the new page, you can go to http://partnerpage.google.com/oregonsd.net and log in with your Novell username and password.