Daily Archives: September 2, 2020

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Service Desk Digest 9/2/2020

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Upcoming Events

  • September 4-5 – Oracle maintenance will cause an outage for Banner and several related systems. OSU employees were notified via Inform.
  • September 8 – A new version of the ADFS login will be implemented and will include Duo two-step login. This means login to Office 365 and Outlook for the Web will now require Duo. This should have no impact on Outlook clients.
  • September 8-11 – HMSC computer moves to new Marine Studies Building (MSB). Customers will not be on-site for move-in until the following week. We may get follow-up questions about remote desktop and printing as their IP addresses are changing.
  • September 10 at 7pm – All Zoom meetings will require a passcode. Customers with scheduled meetings are being notified now. For more information, see: https://is.oregonstate.edu/zoom/passcode-requirement
  • September 18 – The old VPN server sds.oregonstate.edu will be shut down. All users will need to switch to vpn.oregonstate.edu. For more information, see: Guide: VPN Setup
  • September 23 – Fall term starts
  • October – A couple of weeks after school starts, the myOSU portal will be fully decommissioned in favor of MyOregonState. For more information, see: MyOregonState Service InfoSheet and https://is.oregonstate.edu/dx/my/launch
  • October 19 – Most people.oregonstate.edu sites will be shut down. See People.oregonstate.edu survey email 8/25/2020 for details.

Important Reminders

  • Personal Device Support – we do provide scheduled appointments for personal device repair. It is by appointment only (no drop-ins). Please exhaust all remote support options first, and do not schedule appointments for computers that are likely un-fixable. Schedule appointments with Jeff (or Ken if Jeff is unavailable). Remind customers to arrive on-time and follow social distancing and face covering guidelines. Questions? Ask Jeff or Max.
  • CN In-Office Appointments – we are also still providing in-office appointments for CN customers. Please exhaust all remote support options first. Schedule with Robin (or Ken if Robin is unavailable). Remind customers to follow social distancing and face covering guidelines. Questions? Ask Robin or Max.
  • Loaner Laptops – We still have covid loaner laptops available. Employees may request a loaner laptop using the request form. Students may contact HSRC.

Common Issues

  • Compromised Accounts and Exchange Online – We are seeing some follow-up issues on compromised accounts since the migration to Exchange Online. In particular, some users are also blocked by Microsoft, which requires action by the Office 365 Tier 2 team to fix (IAM cannot fix this). We have also seen some users have a mail rule set that deletes all incoming mail, and one user hit the max sending limit for a 24 hour period and could not send mail. Our processes and documentation need to be updated to reflect these issues. For now, please be aware of it and check customer mail settings if they have been recently compromised and are now having email issues.
  • Valid email messages going to junk – Please explain to customers that this is because we are now using Microsoft’s spam filtering tools, which are helping a lot, but sometimes have false positives. There is no “fix”, so no reason to escalate the ticket. Please help customers mark as not junk and/or update safe senders. If they are concerned about legitimate mass mailings being marked as junk, the Office 365 admins may be able to permit it and there is a request form for that here: Valid e-mail address going to the junk mail folder
  • VPN Disconnects Frequently – A few people have reported that the new VPN disconnects more often than the old one did. So far everyone reporting this issue who has resolved it did so by either adjusting their computer’s sleep settings, or troubleshooting underlying network connectivity issues. Please see the troubleshooting guide here: VPN – Resolve Frequent Disconnects
  • Outlook Email Issues – Please don’t reinstall Office to resolve Outlook issues unless you know why you are doing that. It’s disruptive to the customer, and wastes time if it does nothing to solve their issue. I have seen several tickets where we reinstalled Office 3 or more times without troubleshooting the customer’s issue. In one recent example, we reinstalled Office twice for a customer whose account had been hacked and had a mail rule deleting all mail. 🙁 I’m working on some new guides (for example: Exchange Online – Can’t Receive Email). Ask clarifying questions, collect errors, search the KB, and use your google powers. And let me know what else you’d like to see in the KB!