Inside:

IT Service Center

By Chip Denman and Megan Speakes

OIT will soon be offering a new Web resource to give you the ability to request IT help 24 hours a day. The IT Service Center is a self-service Web site that will complement the current OIT Help Desk. When you request help through the IT Service Center, you will also be able to track the progress of your request, add updated information if the situation or problem changes, and see your entire history of IT Service Center help requests and solutions.

An additional element of the online IT Service Center is a self-help Knowledge Base, which will be built and expanded over the coming months. The Knowledge Base will include how-tos and tech support documents relating to OIT services.

The IT Service Center Web tool will also provide the capability to broadcast notices about service interruptions to the Help Desk Web site and the MyUM portal. During the fall semester, we will be asking campus customers to try out the IT Service Center as early adopters and beta testers. If you receive an invitation to test the tool, we hope you'll try it out and give us feedback so that we can make it a valuable resource for everyone.

Telephone and walk-in service will continue to be available from the OIT Help Desk in Computer and Space Sciences, Room 1400 or by calling 301.405.1400 during business hours.

New Features for

By Chris Higgins

You may already know that TerpConnect offers you file storage space and a place to put up a personalized Web site, but fall 2009 also brings several exciting new features to explore!

First, your storage space has increased. You now have 1 GB of space you can use to back up your files, store papers or photos and access them from any computer connected to the Internet, and/or host a Web page.

Next, we’re introducing the TerpConnect Marketplace, a free classified ad listing service you can use to buy and sell things such as school supplies, books, furniture, and more. The Marketplace is only open to university community members, so no outside vendors, stores, or restaurants will be able to post there.

Finally, you’ll have a new option of creating a profile, which will let you share links to your blogs or social networking pages such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you don’t have your own blog and would like one, you can request a WordPress blog through TerpConnect.

Check it all out at the TerpConnect site — http://terpconnect.umd.edu!

Network Infrastructure Refresh Underway      By Tania Faulkner

You have probably seen the “Pardon our dust, network infrastructure refresh underway” building signs around campus and wondered what they mean. The university has received final approval to upgrade and refresh the campus network over the next five years.

Cabling and network gear in campus buildings will be upgraded to make the network infrastructure current, so that it can support new and enhanced services and future communication technology innovations. Examples of possible new, enhanced services include future multimedia collaborations and the latest and greatest wireless technologies. The refreshed network will also improve connectivity speeds, performance, reliability, and security.

Network infrastructure upgrades are already complete in Fraternity/Sorority Row 1, 3, 8, and 10. The upgrade in Worcester Hall is currently underway. OIT is working with Student Affairs to determine when the remaining residence halls and off-campus housing communities will be refreshed. Upgrades are also complete in several classroom buildings.