Information Technology
IT News 2015 & 2016
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37 225 ALARMS IN JUNE - “ WE KEEP THE WATCH”02-12-2016Meet the team - who ensure consistent and reliable backups... Klaas Van Dijken, Paul Buys, Gerhard Goossens, Wayne Cusens, Adriaan Van Graan, Wilna Oosthuizen and Charles Mokwena, |
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Raspberry Pi Hackathon Stimulates Open Innovation at NWU01-12-2016IT@NWU hosted the first Raspberry Pi Hackathon on 27 and 28 October as part of International Open Access Week 2016. |
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Access eFundi for free via your cellular data connection11-11-2016CellC, MTN, Vodacom SA and Telkom Mobile have agreed to provide free access to eFundi and the NWU website until 23 December 2016. Access to these sites will not be counted against their users’ data access accounts. This is good news for students who want to access their learning content via these cellular networks when not on campus. |
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IT Boosts Library Services25-10-2016IT supports the library through the provision, maintenance and set-up of infrastructure... |
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eFUNDI FORUMS TOOL PREPS CLASS14-10-2016eFUNDI FORUMS TOOL PREPS CLASS Interested in using this tool? read more... |
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SAKAI 11 INCORPORATES NWU DEVELOPMENT11-10-2016OpenStack Object storage or “SWIFT” is designed to store : files, videos, analytics data, web content and backups... (Meet the team - from left to right: Adelle Lotter, Ciellie Jansen Van Vuuren) |
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Firewall maintenance / onderhoud16-08-2016Dear Colleagues Please take note that there will be maintenance done on the firewall infrastructure of the NWU on Tuesday, 16 August from 20:00 to 21:30. We don't expect any downtime, but internet related services might be affected during this time. Thank you for your understanding. Regards Information Technology |
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Cloud Storage for students16-08-2016The first stage of a project to re-look services for students, was changing the email service. The next stage is to provide cloud storage. A Google domain for the NWU has been setup and with this in place, new services became available. Click here for more information on the cloud service ... Important: P:-drives to be phased out As a result of this, network drives for students, known as the P:-drives, become obsolete and will be phased out. |
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Research Data Management: A Collaborative Drive at NWU01-08-2016On 23 and 24 June 2016 colleagues from the NWU attended a Research Data Management (RDM) workshop held at the Potchefstroom Campus. The 35 participants hailed from Information Technology, the NWU Libraries, the Research Support Office, and from a variety of research areas. All three campuses were well-represented. |
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IT@NWU PROCESS26-07-2016The University of the Future will differentiate itself from the others by the crafty(?) use of Information and Communication Technology for all of its activities. At IT@NWU we proud ourselves to follow a well-informed, structured, but agile process to formulate strategy and to plan the project, product and service portfolio. see diagram |
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Neem kennis nuwe Locky variant04-07-2016Neem asseblief kennis dat al hoe meer rekenaars deur die Locky en Zepto virus aangetas word. IT stel alle moontlike maatreëls in plek om die verspreiding van die virus te verhoed. Sien grafiese voorstelling. |
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Take note: New Locky Variant04-07-2016Please take note that an increasing number of computers are being infected by the Locky and Zepto virus. IT is taking all possible measures to prevent the distribution of the virus. |
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Novell Maintenance22-06-2016The quarterly maintenance of the Novell environment will take place this coming Saturday, 25 June 2016, from 09:00. If all goes according to plan, the process should be completed by 14:00. The following services will be affected intermittently: Access to all network drives (P-drives and shared drives); Printing (staff only); Email and electronic calendar (GroupWise), Webmail, as well as email to cell phones and tablets for staff and the limited students still using GroupWise; Password management (staff and students).Thank you in advance for your patience in this regard. IT Operations |
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Don't let Phishing emails hook your employees21-06-2016
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NWU Learns about Research Data Management13-06-2016Colleagues from the NWU libraries participated in a Short Course on Research Data Management (RDM) offered by the UCT Library and Student Information Centre in March this year. |
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Registration Still Open: Enhancing Digital Skills for Historians, Humanities, and Beyond13-06-2016The Historical Association of South Africa in collaboration with NWU eResearch would like to invite researchers, postgraduate students, and postdoctoral research fellows to participate in the first Digital Humanities workshop offered in conjunction with their annual conference. |
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53 Hours to Propel Open Research Forward16-05-2016Have you ever wished you could work uninterrupted for a few days on a project or that you just had a few hours of dedicated time to kick that brilliant research idea of you into action? On 2 - 3 June 2016 the North-West eResearch Initiative is going to provide you with that opportunity… |
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GroupWise Maintenance / Onderhoud11-05-2016Beste kollegas, Beste kollegas, |
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Are You a Research Software Engineer?10-05-2016A summary of opportunities, communities, and events that could change your life Are you working at a research organisation developing scripts or software to analyse your research group’s data? Or are you developing research software as part of your postgraduate degree? |
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Big Data and Internet of Things at NWU Under the Microscope10-05-2016As technology and connectivity improve, researchers are able to access or generate bigger and bigger datasets… |
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SMS Impi service expires 30 April 201618-04-2016The SMS Impi service expires on 30 April 2016. AmiCell is the new product that can be used for sending bulk sms's. Click here to read more... |
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Do not open unknown email files14-04-2016Do not open unknown emails, click here to read more about Locky Virus with sorts of attachments. |
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Software / Data Carpentry - Test08-04-2016*/ /*-->*/ Workshop dates: |
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What do undergraduates think of IT at the NWU?08-04-2016In order to answer this question the NWU, for the first time in history, will participate in the EDUCAUSE Centre for Analysis and Research (ECAR) Students and Information Technology Study of 2016. This study is based on an annual survey that helps higher education institutions assess student’s expectations and experiences of technology. Any higher education institution may participate, and there is no fee. The 2015 ECAR Student Study collaborated with 161 institutions to collect responses from 50,274 undergraduate students across 11 countries about their technology experiences. |
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NWU supports researchers through Africa Research Cloud08-04-2016*/ The increase in demand for meeting and managing big data requirements poses big challenges with regard to ICT resources. This is especially true for big data projects such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the MeerKAT radio telescope. |
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Building Genomics Capacity through a Study Group08-04-2016Most researchers venturing into the daunting world of genomics research these days find themselves overwhelmed by new terminology, computational skills required for data analysis, and complex study design considerations. |
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Research boost at NWU08-04-2016Research support at the NWU experienced a boost in the form of a new staff member, Anelda van der Walt. A researcher in own right, with the IT knowledge and enthusiasm needed, Anelda's services has been contracted until July 2016. The initiative - termed eResearch - will involve stakeholders from IT, library services, the research office, researchers, as well as South African and international partners. The initiative kicked off with an awareness campaign on all three campuses and aim to facilitate better access to research infrastructure, new training opportunities, improved access to information, and better support for a variety of research tools. |
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Connect@NWU used for IT Departmental meetings08-04-2016On Tuesday, 2 February 2016, IT@NWU held its first departmental meeting of the year. The IT Department consists of various teams and sections located on the various campuses. Connect@NWU (powered by Adobe Connect) was used to connect the campuses by means of video link. This enabled all IT staff to participate in the meeting. Although this was not the first time that Connect@NWU was used for the IT departmental meeting across campuses, the following is important to note about the most recent meeting: |
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Payment for Biokinetic services made easy for students07-04-2016As from 11 January 2016 qualifying students can pay for various services offered at the Institute for Biokinetics by using their NWU-Vending “wallets”. If the student has sufficient vending funds at his / her disposal they can use their NWU student cards when making a payment for one of the service offerings provided. The associated functionality has brought numerous benefits to the Institute for Biokinetics including but not limited to: |
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Green Payslips07-04-2016Gone are the days when you had to wait for your payslip to arrive via snail mail. As from October 2015 the NWU are sending payslips electronically. In the “snail days” payslips were printed by Nashua, folded by Finance Payroll and then sent to the postal division for distribution. Today payslips are sent by the click of a few buttons. This initiative was made possible by IT Business System Development and Support who received the request from Finance Payroll. The main motivation behind the initiative was environmental conservation but as a bonus it frees up valuable time of Payroll employees and saves NWU a substantial amount of money annually. The role players were: |
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Buy tool for mobile airtime improved07-04-2016Buying airtime through the NWU mobile app Buy Tool is not new. The service was established in 2014. Students can buy airtime from Vodacom, MTN and Cell-C through the app by loading money beforehand onto their NWU-Vending “wallet”. On entering the app a student is informed of the amount of money that is available on his/her vending wallet. The student can then continue with the purchase process. A new service provider, SMS Cellular, was recently procured. This enabled broadening the product offering with data and SMS bundles as well as airtime amounts as specified by the purchaser. The project took 10 months during 2015 to complete and required participation from the following parties: |
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NWU Researchers learn about Tools for Reproducible Research07-04-2016Python, R, command-line interface, shell, terminal, function, package. These are a few examples of the vocabulary researchers and students were recently exposed to during a two-day Software Carpentry workshop at the NWU. |
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Make yourself @ home with eduroam07-04-2016Will you be traveling soon, possibly to a participating eduroam institution? “eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. eduroam allows the user from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity when visiting other participating institutions by signing on with their institutions credentials.” source: www.eduroam.org Watch the video that explains how eduroam works. To see if an institution is an eduroam participant, visit www.eduroam.org and click on the “Where can I eduroam”. |
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A bigger GroupWise mailbox07-04-2016Wishes come true… Staff will be happy to know that their GroupWise mailboxes will increase to 1GB as from 1 February 2016. The change will be seen when signing into GroupWise on that day. |
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Lynda.com license not renewed07-04-2016Due to the Rand/Dollar exchange rate it is not possible to renew the NWU Lynda.com license for 2016. |
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Gartner Subscription Cancelled07-04-2016Due to the Rand/Dollar exchange rate it is not possible to renew the NWU's Gartner subscription for 2016. |
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Internet down due to Seacom cable07-04-2016A break in the Seacom cable at 16:00, Thursday, 21 January 2016 made it impossible for many South Africans to browse the Internet. The Internet service was however restored at 18:46 on the same day. |
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Easy Internet access14-01-2016Finally... one less username and password to enter! |
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Gmail for all students08-01-2016From 2016 all other registered students of the NWU are assigned a NWU Gmail email address. |
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IT changes gears to support researchers at NWU01-12-2015IT @ NWU has a new vision for the relationship between IT and the University’s researchers. IT wants to help accelerate research discovery through provisioning of relevant technology, infrastructure, and support. Boeta Pretorius, Chief IT Director says: “Research has been mentioned in the IT strategy for many years, but in 2015 we’re actually going to do something about the way we support our researcher”. So moving from words to action, in the past three months IT has done the following: |
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The Power of Partnerships01-12-2015In July 2015 the NWU officially commenced with an eResearch drive that will ultimately help to align research support units and researchers across all disciplines to embrace the power of the digital world in the 21st century. |
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Aligned Access Control Process across Campuses11-11-2015Institutional Management requested an alignment of access control across NWU campuses to permit electronic access to all open access areas |
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Office 365 ProPlus28-10-2015Starting October 2015, students of the NWU are eligible to download Office 365 ProPlus for free. Read more... |
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Software Carpentry: Open Tools for Reproducible Research Workshop19-10-2015North-West University's eResearch Initiative is proud to present our first local Software Carpentry workshop in collaboration with IT@NWU and NWU Faculty of Engineering. |
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Voting for the Top Lecturers12-10-2015Since 2012 students have the opportunity to vote for their top lecturers via a link provided in eFundi. |
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NWUWIFI Setup02-10-2015To take advantage of the automated NWUWIFI setup compatible for Windows 7, 8/8.1 and 10, click here. The .exe file will help you setup your NWUWIFI profile. |
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IT Projects @ NWU23-09-2015Welcome to IT’s project site* (it-project.nwu.ac.za) where anyone can access the current IT project portfolio. |
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International Bandwidth Upgrade18-09-2015
For the past few weeks we have seen congestion on the NWU’s International bandwidth. |
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NWU ventures deeper into space18-09-2015Watch this space and see how the North-West University (NWU) is boldly taking data science in South Africa to the next level. Through a new partnership with two other universities, the NWU will help bolster the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project and strengthen inter-university cooperation. |
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What happened to ITB04-09-2015In the “old days” when you wanted to talk to IT, you would phone or visit ITB (Inligtingstegnologie en Bestuur). A lot has changed since then… for ITB no longer exists in name. |
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GroupWise Archives28-08-2015(This article only applies to the GroupWise client and not to Webmail or GroupWise Mobile.) Are you frustrated with the size of your GroupWise mailbox? Create a GroupWise archive… A GroupWise archive is an extension of your mailbox where you can transfer emails to in order to manage the size of your mailbox. |
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Research boost at NWU20-08-2015Research support at the NWU experienced a boost in the form of a new staff member, Anelda van der Walt. A researcher in own right, with the IT knowledge and enthusiasm needed, Anelda's services has been contracted until July 2016. The initiative - termed eResearch - will involve stakeholders from IT, library services, the research office, researchers, as well as South African and international partners. The initiative kicked off with an awareness campaign on all three campuses and aim to facilitate better access to research infrastructure, new training opportunities, improved access to information, and better support for a variety of research tools. |
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Differentiators and Innovations13-08-2015Today, higher education is in a unique and unprecedented position. The challenges we face, will not be met by efficiency alone. It also demands innovation. |
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Software Downloads for Staff13-08-2015IT has launched a webpage from which to download legal software available to all staff. The software webpage is available on the University’s intranet through a browser. |
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Fake Windows 10 Upgrade Ransomware Email07-08-2015Hackers Sending Fake Windows 10 Upgrade Ransomware Email, Encrypts Every File It has not been a week, yet hackers have begun to exploit existing Windows users’ computer by sending them a ransomware, via spoofed email, which instantly encrypts each and every file that exists on the computer. |
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eCommunication07-08-2015The old Tandberg video conference system has successfully been replaced with the Connect@NWU service. In 2014, as part of the eCommunication project, a total of five meeting venues were equipped with modern video conference facilities across campuses. Since the start of 2015 another five meeting venues have been equipped. |
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Windows 1031-07-2015Microsoft released its latest version of the Windows operating system on July 29th, 2015. This edition runs on desktops, notebooks and Intel-based tablets, with the mobile version following later. IT has been testing several development releases as part of Microsoft's preview programme. We share the following things with our NWU community. Windows 10 will be released as a free (for the first year) update for consumer versions of Windows. However, our license agreement for University devices covers enterprise versions of Windows, which will not receive the no- cost update. But rest assured, we will be able to update in future. |
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eFundi Move31-07-2015eFundi MOVE is an app being developed for eFundi. The MOVE part of the name is an acronym for Mobile Offline VErsion. The first version of eFundi MOVE is currently in pilot phase. |
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Central High Performance Computing24-07-2015The central High Performance Computer (HPC) Cluster, which provides researchers with an extremely powerful processing platform, has undergone several upgrades. The 2014 upgrade brought much needed features, improved parallel processing capabilities, and enhanced support for the latest and fastest hardware. |
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ICAS System Implementation24-07-2015The more than 100 qualifications offered at the NWU comprises of 5,890 modules that require constant change to keep them relevant and up to date with new developments. The modules, as well as the changes must conform to several stringent quality and legal standards, set by a number of internal and external certification bodies. To manage the average of more than 20 change proposals per month with the traditional paper-based process, became a major challenge. |
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Kuali Financial System Implementation17-07-2015In close collaboration with our colleagues from the Finance department, the NWU became the first South-African University to successfully implement the Kuali Financial System (KFS), to replace our previous vended system from Oracle. KFS is an open source financial system, collaboratively developed by several international universities, and used by institutions like Cornell, Indiana University, the University of California, and more than 20 other universities. Because it is developed by universities, and for universities, it has a much better functional fit on the higher education business model than commercial solutions, and will bring about considerable savings compared to a vended solution. |
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What is Kuali?17-07-2015The word “kuali” is of Malaysian origin, and signifies a humble kitchen wok that plays an important role in any successful kitchen. The popular slogan is “Keep your money in your Mission”. |
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Meet our Chief IT Director10-07-2015Mr. Boeta Pretorius, newly appointed Director of IT remembers his career journey as one where he had started off as a junior lecturer at Computer Science. He confesses, that it led him to this very challenging position where he, his team of managers and everyone in IT will strive towards excellence. |
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Let the learning begin with lynda.com10-07-2015All staff now have access to lynda.com, an online subscription library that teaches the latest software tools and skills through high-quality instructional videos taught by recognized industry experts. |
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Adware Do's and Don'ts03-07-2015Adware infections can compromise both the usability of your computer and network usage. Many people might ask if adware is a virus? Does it delete my files? What do I do now that I have it?... Let’s break it down. |
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Lecture Capturing02-07-2015In any modern university, it has become a core capability for lecturers to record their lectures, and use the recordings in a number of ways to enhance the teaching and learning processes. To this end, we have launched a lecture capture pilot project in 2013, specifically aimed at sustainability and affordability. |
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The NWU Internet25-05-2015The NWU Internet
Over the last few months the NWU has experienced more than its fair share of Internet outages, or more correctly, Internet slow-downs. This has led to many questions as to why? |
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IT goes green with PaperCut print management system25-05-2015IT goes green with PaperCut print management system PaperCut is a print management system which saves paper and therefore reduces costs by enabling users to release their own print jobs. At the NWU this is done by swiping the user’s NWU card. |
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Moving forward with Efundi24-04-2015*/ /*-->*/ /*-->*/ Moving forward! The NWU implemented eFundi (powered by Sakai) as a learning management system at the end of 2006. Since then the number of simultaneous users grew from a maximum of 3000 in 2013 to a maximum of 8000 in 2015. This makes eFundi the most used mission critical system at the university. eFundi is mostly used as a content sharing and collaborative tool. |
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Email freedom of choice for students24-04-2015Email freedom of choice for students
Providing an email service to students have been part of the IT department's operations for more than 15 years. The time has come to wave the old student Groupwise goodbye, with the service ending at the end of April 2015. |
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Don't react on Scam E-mails23-04-2015Don't react on Scam E-mails We would like to draw your attention again to the spam email messages that have been surfacing. These messages replicate a fax message and are sent from different email addresses. They usually have a .ZIP, .EXE, .SCR or .CAB file as an attachment. |