IT Services

Christmas Systems work - completed

Christmas systems work -completed

Update 4.30pm, 30th December. All remaining services and links are now restored. If you encounter any problems, please report them to its@bbk.ac.uk.

Update 11.30am, 30th December. Links to Gower Street, Russell Square Buildings, Torrington Square buildings, Egmont House, have been restored.

Status Thursday evening 29th. The Main Building core network router (at the heart of the Birkbeck network) was moved today (29th December) as planned. A hardware fault developed following the move, and while now fixed, this has delayed the restoration of internal services, and services where there is no networking resilience (including to many of the departmental networks).

Websites using old web services and servers are now restored.
Remote access to services is now restored.
Access to BluQube is now restored.
Access to filestore and PC services is now restored.

Services remain at risk, and many remaining services will not now be available until Friday.

Services over Christmas

The ITS Servicedesk will close on Thursday 22nd December at 5pm, and remain closed during the holidays, re-opening at 9am on 3rd January.

All services will be affected by systems work taking place on core networking equipment on 29th and 30th December. During this period all services will be at risk, and access to many services will not be available from departmental networks.

The 24 hour PC workstation room, MB536, will remain open, except during 29th and 30th December.

At other times during the closure period, systems will run unattended and staff will monitor systems and respond in the event of a major failure.

UPDATE - My Birkbeck Profile and related services now available

UPDATE My Birkbeck Profile and related services are now back.

22 December at 6:50pm

Maintenance work on the student records system (SITS) has been completed successfully and the web-based systems associated with it are now available as normal, including My Birkbeck Profile, Password resets, online applications, online enrolment and online enquiry forms.

My Birkbeck Profile and some other services unavailable

22 December, 8am to 8pm

The student records system (SITS) has had to be taken down for maintenance designed to improve performance. This is follow-up work from the previous downtime in November. Due to unsuitable memory components delivered for the server and a bug in the software not all of the work planned for the November downtime could be completed. Approximately 60% of the planned work was completed on the scheduled date and we are aiming to complete the remaining work today, 22 December.

All web-based systems associated with SITS will be affected, including My Birkbeck Profile, Password resets, online applications, online enrolment and online enquiry forms.

Thank you for your understanding, and we apologise for the inconvenience caused at this time.

Support over Christmas

Vacation Opening hours are usually Monday - Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm

However the Helpdesk will be closed from noon until 3:30pm on Tuesday 21st December and then will close at 12:30pm on Thursday 23rd December, reopening at 9am on Tuesday 4th January 2011

During this period services will run unattended, although staff will monitor the systems periodically, and respond in the event of major failure

ITS Workstation room 536 in the Main building will be open throughout the Christmas period

My Birkbeck Profile and some other services unavailable

26 November, 1pm

The student records system (SITS) has had to be taken down for maintenance designed to improve performance. We have recently experienced several instances where we have approached peak capacity due to the heavy demand on this system and we need to undertake essential work to reduce the risk of this happening again. The maintenance work should be complete by 10 pm on Saturday 27 November when normal service will resume.

All web-based systems associated with SITS will be affected, including My Birkbeck Profile, Password resets, online applications, online enrolment and online enquiry forms.

Thank you for your understanding, and we apologise for the inconvenience caused at this time.

Poor performance in Internet connectivity

Poor Internet connectivity

A problem on the London Metropolitan Area Network routers (providing our connection to the Internet) caused a severe degradation in performance of our links to the Internet this morning (25th November). The problem was identified and fixed by 11.45am.

Apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused.

Delayed login times affecting PC services

Performance problems affecting PC login times

At busy periods, PC login times are sometimes unacceptably long. The problem is being investigated and relates to the central storage system. A major outage affecting many services will be required before the cause of the problem is identified, and this is being scheduled. In the mean time, we are doing what we can to mitigate the problems by relocating individual services from the primary storage system. Apologies for the inconvenience this is causing.

Student email services using Google

The Google based email service for Birkbeck students is now available, and students starting in 2010 have accounts automatically created once they are enrolled.

More details are available at http://www.bbk.ac.uk/its/services/email/hostedemailproject

Services over Christmas

The ITS Helpdesk closes at 4.30pm on 23rd December, and reopens after the holiday on the 4th January at 9am.

Systems will run unattended over the closure period, though will be monitored, and staff will endeavour to respond in the event of problems.

Workstation room MB536 will be available over the closure period.

Systems work is taking place in Gordon Square, and there may be network disruption in that building on 29th and 30th December.

We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Fraudulent email

This morning (Friday 10 July), many reports have been received from staff and students who have received an email with the subject line

Mandatory Security Update: July 2009

The email contains a link to a web site that has been designed to look similar to our web mail login screen, but this is a fraudulent email and a bogus web site designed to fool people into revealing their login details. Please do NOT follow the link and do NOT supply your username and password.

If you have already submitted your details then it is important to contact the ITS Help Desk as soon as possible on 020 7631 6543 or on its-helpdesk@bbk.ac.uk

This is an example of what is called a phishing attack. Phishing is the term given to attempts made to gain sensitive information using email or other electronic communication. This news article will be expanded shortly to offer some pointers and things to look for in identifying such messages, using today's message as an example.

Christmas Opening

The ITS Helpdesk will be closed on Monday 14th December from noon until 3.30pm

Vacation Opening hours will be Monday - Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm

The Helpdesk will be closed from 4:30pm on Wednesday 23rd December 2009, re-opening at 9am on Monday, 4th January 2010.

All systems will run unattended during the closure, and staff will monitor systems and respond in the event of a major failure.

ITS Workstation room 536 in the Main building will be open throughout the Christmas period

Help desk move

Help desk now on ground floor

The ITS Help desk has now relocated and can now be found in its new home, on the ground floor of the Malet Street main building, next to the library entrance (look for the orange wall). All other contact information remains as before.

Hoax email message from tobiwander

Hoax email message

Although many hoaxes are blocked, some will always get through and today sees another example, as below, delivered perhaps from tobiwander@hetnet.nl (though spammers will often pretend to send from several different addresses). Please delete and ignore any such messages - if in doubt, forward to us. Clues to this being a hoax lie in the poor grammar, reference to a generic 'Central email system' and link to a non-Birkbeck address.

"To ensure quick, responsive e-mail services, it is necessary to establish limits on the amount of e-mail each user may store on the system. The volume of e-mail you are storing on the Central e-mail system is now exceeding your normal space allocation. To request for more storage space on your webmail account, simply click or copy and paste the following link in your browser: http://www.formmail-maker.com/ini/......"

Access to services by central administration staff

Problem affecting central administration PCs

A problem is apparent on the connection from central administration desktop systems to the rest of the College network, affecting access to some services. The problem is currently under investigation.

Remote access problems - Update

VPN and Remote access problems

A fault affected the VPN service late on Christmas Eve, and remote access to the VPN service and associated services was unavailable until 9.30am on Boxing day. The cause was a hardware problem on one of the VPN servers.

Apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused.