Category: Support Information
BUworks issue with multiple network connections
Today, we encountered an odd situation where the client was able to access all Weblogin pages other than the BUworks portal. Every time the client would log into the BUworks portal via http://www.bu.edu/buworkscentral the browser would refresh back to the Weblogin page. Typically, we see this behavior when clients are on a network that have implemented a rotating IP scheme. This is very common when the client is connected to a hotel or corporate network. However, in this case the client was on the BU network.
We determined that this behavior was caused by the client’s machine being connected to the wired and wireless network at the same time. The machine was assigned two separate IP addresses and Weblogin was interpreting this occurence as if it was a rotating IP scheme.
The solution was to have the client disconnect from the wired network.
SafeAssign down for maintenance: June 23rd, 12:00 am to 6:00 am
SafeAssign, the plagiarism tool used by Blackboard will be down from 12:00 am to 6:00 am, EDT on June 23rd. If we receive any calls or tickets on this issue, inform the client that the service will be back online at 6:00 am, EDT.
Erroneous Med School Email
Several hundred people who applied to BU Medical School four years ago were erroneously sent an email this morning notifying them that their payment had been processed. We have not processed their payment, and if they have any additional questions or comments, they should contact BU Medical School Admissions at 617-638-4630.
FAQs regarding Microsoft Enterprise Licensing Agreement
The following covers what IT Help Center staff need to know to assist with questions that clients may have regarding this new agreement.
ServiceNow assignment group tips
Recently I’ve noticed some confusion when it comes to assigning tickets to the correct group, so I wanted to remind everyone of a nifty feature in ServiceNow that can help. If you know that a particular staff member is the right person to contact for a request but you aren’t sure what group s/he is in, you can look it up by doing the following:
School of Social Work website support information
Effective today, any major changes or edit requests to the School of Social Work website should be directed towards SSW IT Manager Darryl Rambo at sswit@bu.edu.
For small-scale changes, many department staff have been trained in WordPress, and have the access and ability to make smaller content changes.
ServiceNow ticket types – proper use of Service Request vs Incident
When selecting Impact and Urgency for tickets in ServiceNow, there should never be a Type: Incident ticket with "Request" selected for the Urgency field. If a ticket is a request, then be sure to select Type: Service Request.
SSL certificate updates for xmail.bu.edu
The SSL certificates on xmail.bu.edu were updated early this morning (June 1, 2011) as a prerequisite for the eventual Exchange 2010 upgrade. This change should be transparent to 99.99% of the users out there. There are however a few circumstances where a user could receive an SSL certificate mismatch error. These errors are cosmetic and do not affect the use of services. The known circumstances that cause an error are:
1. An activesync device like an iPhone is configured using one of the old Exchange front end server names that have been retired such as xmsweb, engwebmail or oit-ex. Everyone should be using xmail.bu.edu for these devices and configuring with the correct URL will remove the error message.
2. If you use one of the legacy names above to access OWA from a browser and explicitly use the https URL such as https://engwebmail.bu.edu/exchange you will receive the certificate warning. If the user types in the hostname or http address (i.e. engwebmail.bu.edu or http://engwebmail.bu.edu) the user will be redirected to the correct URL and no error will appear.
Password advice
Under no circumstances should we ever provide password suggestions to clients. For example, if a parent is setting up their ShareLink password, we should never suggest that they use their child's BU ID number.
The choice for a password must be made solely by the client, but please be patient with them on the phone and offer to wait while they choose something on their own. For example, "Please take your time, I will wait until you're ready."
Blackboard Vista ticket handling
Going forward, please do not assign Blackboard Vista tickets to Ron Giltrap directly. If you don’t know the answer, assign them to the Service Desk with Service Component: Blackboard Vista.
We can’t have one “go-to” person who answers a particular type of ticket just in case that person is out sick, on vacation, etc. If you have taken a Blackboard Vista ticket and have a question, feel free to call Ron (3-4570) or email him at rgiltrap@bu.edu for assistance.