ITS has completed a number of important initiatives to improve IT services at MHC. Below find a brief explanation of some of the ones that may affect you in your work. As always, for more information about IT Services at MHC feel free to contact me. To report technology problems or for assistance, please contact the IT Support Centre by phone, 403-529-3899, email callcentre@mhc.ab.ca, or in person at the IT services help desk, room B 222A.
Chuck Payne
Director, Information Technology
Medicine Hat College
403 529-3870
Wireless Services
MHC-WiFi Wireless Network
We have moved to authenticated access to the MHC-WiFi network. This means you need to enter your MHC username and password to log onto the system. This should reduce the number of devices that automatically connect to the network, better providing enough ‘leases’ (IP addresses) and enough bandwidth for students and employees.
For the security of your personal information:
- Read the terms of use on the log-in page, and if you agree to the terms, enter your username and password at the bottom of the page.
- Only connect to the network named MHC-WiFi on campus at MHC. You may at times see other networks that you can connect to. These would most often be ‘rogue’ networks set up by some thoughtful, lovely person to try and get access to your personal information.
- Be wary whenever you use Internet services.
- Wireless access will be available in instructor’s offices in the E, L, S and 3rd floor B-wings soon into this academic year.
- We are exploring the possibility of placing an access point in the H building
- An outside access point will be added to the south side of the T-wing for access around the ‘Tea House’ garden area
- Later during the year, expansion will continue in order to provide more access in heavily used areas (e.g. The Crave, Soft Seat Area)
80% or more of the Medicine Hat Campus main building area will have Wi-Fi access in the coming months.
Content Filtering Removal
Expansion of the MHC wireless services should allow the wireless network to better serve as a research and instructional network. As this network is separated from the ‘wired’ network, isolating it from MHC business systems that house private employee and student information, there is a reduced risk of a hacker or a malware infected computer using the Wi-Fi network to compromise the security of MHC systems.
The Websense Content filtering system will be turned off on the MHC-WiFi network.
Benefits
- Students and faculty will be able to use this network to access websites that are blocked by Websense on the wired network.
- There is a greater risk that users will be exposed to offensive content or infected websites. Hence the "terms of use" disclaimer posted on the MHC-WiFi log-in page.
- There is a risk that individual users on this network could consume large amounts of bandwidth slowing down access across the network. We are putting bandwidth restrictions in place on the wireless network to try and avoid this problem.
Classroom Equipment Expansion
Nearly all classroom spaces have at least an Internet connected computer and a projector, the final few classrooms without any technology will be outfitted in the coming months.
- For the last year or so, we have put an "Extron" panel in newly equipped rooms. This is a convenient, easy to use, wall mounted push-button panel to select the technology (projector, input) to be used in the room.
- In the most recently completed rooms (about 11 so far) we have put in a video cable direct to the projector so that anyone coming into the room with a computer can use the projector to display their computer (i.e. no need to log in to the network to access the projector). We can provide this ‘direct to projector’ VGA cable in other rooms and would appreciate requests to allow us to prioritize where we include this connectivity.
SharePoint
- We are in the midst of a project to replace our old SharePoint server named ‘Winky’ with a new server named ‘Source’.
- Further information will come in the next few weeks explaining the process of moving contents from the old SharePoint system to the new, and setting a date for taking the old system offline.
- Unfortunately it is not possible in Sharepoint to migrate the data directly from the old to new server without the purchase of expensive management tools. We encourage departments to move only what they need to the new site. This is an opportunity to weed unneeded content.
- ITS staff will be available to assist and answer questions.
- Our new Blackboard analyst along with the ETS team is developing a service that will automatically enrol students in Blackboard courses.
- A few instructors have been trialing the process.
- Based on feedback and our ability to make progress, we will be advertising this service broadly in future terms.
- We are working towards an online form where instructors would request new Blackboard course sites, the copying of current sites, and could request automatic enrolments into Blackboard for some or all of their courses.
- At present, all such processes are manual.
Web VPN Service
Accessing College Services and Data From Off Campus
Last year we put in place a web based VPN service (virtual private network). MHC employees can log in to the service and access network storage locations and key applications needed in their work.
- This service also provides access to each employee’s storage location on the network (The ‘P’ drive, explained below).
- Based on your job role, the VPN will provide access to information and various applications from offsite, including accessing your monthly payroll information, the Course Outline Manager, CampusVue SIS information, course folders and shared departmental folders.
- If logged in on campus, go here to SharePoint for instructions on accessing the VPN, or feel free to contact the Support Centre for assistance.
P Drive
Network Storage for Your College Files
It has been about a year since we have provided an individual network storage location for all employees at MHC, labelled the ‘P’ for ‘personal’ drive. For many employees, this area will provide advantages over storing files on their local office computer:
- This folder is backed up regularly to our network storage array, greatly reducing the chance that you will lose files if your computer ‘crashes’.
- This folder is accessible from any computer with an Internet connection by logging in to the college’s web VPN service.
- Instructions on accessing the P drive can be found on this ITS blog:
