News - Jan 2006

Jan 25 2006 - Blackboard will be down for maintenance on Weds. Jan 25 from 2:00 AM to 6:00 AM. We will be upgrading database storage.

Jan 12 2006 - We are experiencing network problems with the network that feeds several of our servers. You will experience problems in ACCC labs, applications via server services among others. We are working to fix the problems asap. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Jan 12 2006 - All systems are back online.

Jan 11 2006 - Blackboard will be down for maintenance on Weds. Jan. 11 from 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM. We will be upgrading networking on the server.

Jan 11 2006 - Icarus will be down for hardware maintenance (to replace a bad CPU) Friday morning 1/13/2006 from 12:01am-6am.

Jan 09 2006 - ACCC is again offering the free ACCCeSS Helpdesk to all students, faculty and staff. Stop by any of the 3 locations to receive support for Res-Net, UIC-Wireless and UNAS-related access issues.

Until further notice, the hours of availability are:

• Monday, 12-5pm, South Campus, TBH 181 (near the laundry area)
• Tuesday & Wednesday, East Campus, 12-5pm, SRC LRC (below the Atrium)
• Thursday, West Campus, 12-5pm, SRH LRC (Room 203, next to the staircase)

Jan 09 2006 - UICalendar (Oracle Calendar) will be down from 10pm thru 11:30pm tonight as we add more memory to the server. The additional memory should alleviate the recent instability somewhat. We are still working with Oracle to determine the underlying problem.

Jan 09 2006 - There has been power loss affecting many ACCC labs. Additionally, some labs may have electricity but no network access. Please be patient as we work to restore service. Thank you.

Jan 06 2006 - We are still experiencing problems with the upgraded server software when it is under heavy load. We are working closely with Oracle on solving the problem. In the meantime, there will be sluggishness or a total freeze-up during peak periods. To date we've been averaging one freeze-up per day, which means a complete system restart. You'll know this has happened if your desktop client reports it has lost contact with the server.

We regret the incoveniences caused and appreciate your patience.

Jan 06 2006 - We are experiencing some delays in mail delivery because we are for the first time spam-filtering of all incoming @uic.edu mail. This week, the spammers seem to have ramped up the action. We're in process trying to make adjustments to fix this, and regret any inconviences caused.

Jan 03 2006 -

Important: A Critical un-patched flaw in Microsoft Windows has been discovered and is already being actively exploited by hackers. Simply viewing images on your computer may lead to your system being compromised.

Images are obviously present on almost all Web pages and are frequently sent in e-mail as well. Although only visiting well-known web sites will help mitigate the risk, it will not eliminate it. There is already one report of a well known web site (knoppix-std dot org) being compromised by hackers to cause it to include a corrupt image.

Microsoft has announced that it will release a patch for the vulnerability on Tuesday Jan 10, 2006. Until the patch is released and applied to your system, your Windows system is vulnerable.

As usual, ACCC will filter any machine that is compromised and starts misbehaving from the network, so it is in your best interest to prevent your machine from being infected.

For more information and instructions on how to avoid it, see: Security Exposure in Windows wmf Image File Support.