ITSU Policies
CLAHS's Information Technology Services Unit (ITSU) provides technical support for faculty and staff in some of the departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. ITSU troubleshoots problems related to operating systems, application software, computer viruses, and peripheral devices. ITSU strives to stay up-to-date on the latest information regarding hardware and software, and then passes that information on to you. Please visit www.itsu.clahs.vt.edu for more information.
If you are in need of assistance please email CLAHS ITSU at ITSU or if your email is not working phone us at 231-9203. Please do not email any of the staff directly.
The following are ITSU policies for the 2008-2009 academic year.
Due to the audit, there will be some new and improved changes within our ITSU Organization. We will be restructuring within the guidelines and recommendations as suggested by the auditors and IT Security on campus. There will be short-term goals as well as long-term goals in the upcoming months as the changes will be significant.
First, you will see changes in the staff. We will have 3 full time staff and 1 graduate student. LaRhonda Kellison, Jesse Sherman, and we wish to welcome our recent hire, Carolyn Kletnieks. William Lian is the graduate student assigned to ITSU this year.
Second, there will be noticeable changes to all college Virginia Tech owned computers, to include FDI, department and ETF purchases. One process that has already taken effect with respect to service and efficiency is our remote desktop connection software. This is software that will allow ITSU staff to log into your computer from a remote location and fix your machine. ITSU has purchased the software and has been reviewing it the last month with good results for the customers and ITSU. This software is 128-bit encryption and is secure. There is no special configuration that needs to be done on your machine; it is permission based at all times and works on any operating system Mac or PC. It allows for much quicker service with short wait times; you sit back and learn while watching ITSU address your computer issue. Also, you may continue to use the form on the ITSU website for assistance, or email or call, and ITSU will follow-up with you.
Other forthcoming changes relate to all FDI, ETF and departmental purchases of machines, printers, scanners and any device that ITSU would support. Any purchases of this type of equipment will need to be approved by the ITSU staff. If you need help to spec out equipment, ITSU will be happy to assist you. Please remember, ITSU only supports VT inventory so please do not request work on personal equipment, to include handheld devices (Blackberry, IPhone, etc.).
ITSU has the right to remove any software that is not supported software by VT or it may harm your machine or cause issues with other software that is supported. Remember, this is a VT-owned piece of equipment, not your personal machine. Loading of software on Mac/PCs can also create issues with software necessary to do business that could render the Mac/PC inoperable. If you have questions about a particular software program, please do not hesitate to ask. ITSU will discuss with you the removal of any software before removing it.
Which software will ITSU be supporting?
Software |
PC |
MAC |
Office Suite |
2003, 2007 |
2004, 2008 |
Mail |
Outlook (Pop or exchange) |
Entourage (pop or exchange) |
Web Software |
Dreamweaver |
Dreamweaver |
Spyware/Antivirus Protection |
Norton 9.x, 10.X, Endpoint |
Norton 10.2, 9.0.2 |
Browsers |
IE, Firefox |
Safari, Firefox |
Adobe Products |
Acrobat Professional 9 |
Acrobat Professional 9 |
*Other software Limited support |
|
|
The main reason for limiting the software supported provides a benefit to the majority of our users. The less we have to support, the more efficient we can be on your issues. For example, if we can limit the users to 1 mail program per platform instead of 3 per platform, we can provide a higher quality, more effective and efficient service for you.
Other short-term goals involve security. Who is responsible for maintaining a secure environment? We all are…each and every one of us. ITSU will begin this initiative with policies on computers. You may see a few changes such as each machine will need to be password protected. The password cannot be your PID, or your name or no password at all. You must have your own identity and password, you are held accountable for the activity to that ID. Some guidelines in creating a password are as follows: it needs to be at least 8 characters long, to include a capital letter(s), number(s) and a special character. Another revision will be a message each time you log on; stating this is a VT owned machine and violators will be prosecuted.
Which OS are supported?
Operating System |
Status |
Explanation |
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MAC 9.1 , 9.2 (or anything that was used before then) |
No Longer Supported |
Vendor no longer supplies security patches |
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MAC 10.1 |
Supported |
|||
MAC 10.2 |
Supported |
|||
MAC 10.3 |
Supported |
|||
MAC 10.4 |
Supported |
|||
MAC 10.5 |
Supported |
|
||
Win98 (All Versions) |
Not Supported |
Support expired 6/30/2002 |
||
WinME |
Not Supported |
Support expired 12/31/2003 |
||
Win NT |
Not Supported |
Support expired 6/30/2004 |
||
Windows 2000 |
Phasing Out |
Support expired 2006 |
||
Windows XP Pro |
Supported |
|||
Windows Vista |
Supported but not suggested at this point |
|
||
One of our long-term goals is to have all computers within the college that ITSU supports to be placed in a domain. ITSU is hoping to implement this plan into reality within two years. You may ask, what is the domain and how does it help me? Well, the domain doesn’t necessarily help the user; it’s mainly for the IT Support. By having all users in a domain, security is better, windows updates can be pushed to your machine from a server, along with policies and settings. The one major benefit is that your computer is more secure and less likely to be compromised. All updates are done at night (as long as your machine is on the VT Network), so it doesn’t affect the speed of the machine during the day.
Once we start these changes, hopefully this will allow the IT department to evaluate available services and determine which services and vendors can provide the best equipment and service support for the college. Your IT department plays a valuable role in making all departments productive and successful in their work environment. Technology is always changing, and we may need to implement changes as needed. We will try to keep everyone informed when changes are made.
If you have any other questions, please visit our website at http://http://www.itsu.clahs.vt.edu. We update periodically and we are open to suggestions and comments in making our support more productive to our users. Please send comments to itsusupport@vt.edu
Thank you,
Your ITSU Staff
