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| To: |
Temple
University Students |
From:
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Timothy C. O'Rourke,
Vice President for Computer and Information Services |
Date:
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January 12,
2004 |
Subject:
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Computer
Services Upgrades Internet Firewall |
The Internet continues to present ever-growing challenges to
our network administrators, who are responsible for keeping
our network traffic flowing smoothly and for safeguarding
the data and communications of thousands of students,
faculty, and administrators. In order to keep up with the
increased number of viruses that are threatening our network
and to provide additional defense against hackers, identity
thieves, and other assorted intruders, Temple has purchased
a new state-of-the-art firewall.
This new firewall is significantly more sophisticated than
the five-year-old firewalls we are presently using. It will
screen many more transactions and enable us to filter all
network traffic, specifically granting permission to
legitimate transactions while denying access to all others.
Our firewall will be upgraded on Monday, January 12, and
Tuesday, January 13.
This is a major network upgrade. For the last several
months, Computer Services has been working with server
administrators from across the University to identify
legitimate network traffic. It is our hope that there will
be no disruption of legitimate network activity. However,
given the additional rules that this firewall will enable us
to install and the size and complexity of our network
traffic, there is a possibility that some legitimate traffic
allowed under the old firewall will be blocked under the new
one. Please understand, it is not our intention to
restrict or prohibit any legitimate University network
traffic. If you have any problems using the network or
connecting to a formerly accessible site, please inform us
immediately. We can open access to that site within a few
minutes.
On Monday, January 12, between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m., our
connection to the Internet may be interrupted so that the
upgrade can be completed. Once normal operations resume,
hopefully, you should not see any changes. Our network,
however, will be faster, there will be fewer virus
intrusions, and hackers will have a much harder time getting
access to University computers. Overall, our resources will
be more secure.
If you do experience any difficulty connecting to familiar
resources, please contact the Help Desk at 215-204-8000 for
assistance.
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