October 21, 2005

Re-registration of all Office Computers in Sewell Social Science Building on Wednesday, October 26

Last year SSCC staff implemented software for improving network security in the Sewell Social Sciences Building. This software, called Netreg:

• helps us avoid situations where building occupants unknowingly
  bring in infected computers from home and spread viruses to the
  "safe" computers behind SSCC's fire wall,
• prevents unauthorized people who may have malicious intent from
  gaining access to the building network,
• helps us quickly locate infected computers in the building.

It's time to re-register computers so that we have up-to-date contact information. To prepare for the re-registration, we request that everyone power off their PC or Mac before leaving Tuesday. SSCC members whose PCs log into the PRIMO domain will automatically be shut down early Wednesday morning. The first time you boot your PC or Mac on or after October 26th you will not have Internet access (including e-mail access) until you open your browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.) and are automatically directed to a web page where you will need to register. If for whatever reason you do not get this form, restart your computer and you will.

In order to register your computer, you will need to confirm that you are an authorized user of the campus network. To do this, enter either your SSCC email address (user@ssc.wisc.edu) or your Wiscmail email address (user@wisc.edu, facstaff or students is optional) and the password you use to get the mail for that address. Your password will not be stored. You will also need to provide contact information. This will help us reach you if your computer currently has a virus or becomes infected in the future. After registering, your computer will be scanned for several known vulnerabilities. You only need to go through this registration process once for each of your computers, and the entire process takes only about five minutes including a required system reboot.

Once the form has been submitted and accepted, restart your computer.
You will then have full access to the network. If your computer is vulnerable, SSCC staff will be in touch with you to correct the situation.

The following areas will not be required to register either because they are on a segregated part of the building network or because their computers have been pre-registered: SSML, Copy Center, Social Science Reference Library, General Assignment classrooms, and SSCC members with Winterms.

Please contact the SSCC Help Desk (consult@ssc.wisc.edu, 262-9917) if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Nancy McDermott, Director
Social Science Computing Cooperative
University of Wisconsin - Madison
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 262-3206
mcdermot@ssc.wisc.edu
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu