7,000 phone NUIT in Sept. for assistance

October 12, 2004

Northwestern University Information Technology fielded an all-time high of more than 7,000 calls for technological assistance in September, according to director Wendy Woodward.

“New Student Week is typically our highest volume time of the year,” Woodward said. “This year, particularly, was higher than normal. We attribute that to people being more attuned to the virus environment and trying to take appropriate steps to ensure that their machines are (guarded) against network threats.”

Most students did not arrive on campus until Sept. 14, when dorms opened. The data showing the number of calls NUIT received last year was not available, Woodward said.

Many of the requests involved connecting the computers to the network rather than actual virus problems, Woodward said.

NUIT enforced new anti-virus measures like the computer inspection program NetPass after a wave of harmful viruses shut down students’ computers and ethernet ports last spring.

But some people who have not installed the software yet still are vulnerable, said Music senior David Pirotte, student manager at NUIT’s support center. New freshman may not have all the patches necessary to block the new viruses, but the NetPass system helps them more accurately detect their computers’ security holes, Pirotte said.

“Before they would plug in and immediately get slammed with all these viruses,” he said. “With NetPass it tells them, ‘You’re vulnerable here, here and here. Run these updates and you’ll be all set.'”

The volume of calls also could be a result of NUIT security tips being displayed more noticeably this year, he said, so students know who to call when they need help.

“Last year we posted several steps on the Get Connected Web site,” Pirotte said. “This year, with the NetPass system, the users see those five steps (as soon as) they get connected in their dorms, so it’s a little more prominent.”

The new security measures didn’t help everybody. Weinberg junior Meghan Althoff had no problems with last spring’s viruses but had her ethernet port shut off her second day on campus, despite having Microsoft’s updated service pack installed on her hard drive.

“I called (NUIT) and they tried to help me do this virus scan thing,” she said. “It took a long time to figure it out because apparently a lot of people had problems.”

For the most part, the number of calls to NUIT has returned to normal, Woodward said.

“Viruses hit every day, but I can say that it hasn’t been crippling us, knock on wood,” Woodward said. “So far, it’s been a typical year.”

Reach Tina Peng at [email protected].