internet - Technology Support Services

Documentation

All computers that wish to use the NMU Wireless or Wired connections on campus must be registered. Current NMU Faculty, Staff, Students, and Retirees can register machines on the network. If there is a guest on campus that needs internet access, currently only Faculty and Staff can sponsor them. To sponsor a guest:

1. Open a Web Broswer
2. In the URL bar, go to http://register.nmu.edu and click the Need to sponsor someone, go here link. You can login with your current NMU UserID and password.
   
3. Once you login, you will see a window similar to the one below. Click on "Enter Guest Sponsor Function" to continue.
   
4. Fill in the top portion of the screen to add a new sponsor. Be sure to carefully type in each requested piece of information, as it may be needed later. You can choose a start date up to a month in advance. If you know a guest is arriving, and they need internet access, it is best to complete this prior to their arrival. It can take up to an hour for this part to register in our system.
   
5. Click on "Submit Request" to add the sponsor request. You will notice a green bar at the top of the screen that indicates your sponsor request was successful. 
   
6. It may take up to an hour for the request to be active. Once it is active, the guest should connect to the WiFi access point named "NMU", open a web browser, and navigate to "http://register.nmu.edu" on the machine that needs internet access. The guest can use their email address that was used in the request for the User ID and password fields.
   
7. After clicking "Sign In", the guest will be able to register their machine. The registration will stay active for one day, so if they need to access the internet during the next day, they will need to register using "http://register.nmu.edu" again. The guest will be able to register their computer for as long as was requested when the guest sponsor entry was added. Once that time period expires, a new entry will have to be made by a current NMU Faculty or Staff member.

Documentation

Edge lets you make notes on webpages and save them. To learn how, follow the instructions below.

1. With Edge open, click the Web Note icon. 
    

2.You can now use the tools in the upper left to draw, highlight, erase, crop, or write notes, as shown below. 
    

3. Choose where you'd like to save your changes and click "Save." 
    

4. Click the "Exit" button after you save your changes.

5. If you saved your changes to your "Reading List," you can click the Reading List icon to see pages you've made changes to and visit them again. 
    

Documentation

Please read the information below on how to be safer on the Internet. If you have any questions please contact the Computing HelpDesk, 906-227-2468, HelpDesk@nmu.edu.

General Safety Tips
Phishing Attempts
Password Safety

General Safety Tips

• NMU will never ask for your password.
• If you ever have a question about the status of your NMU account, log into http://myuser.nmu.edu/user to view the account status.
• Typically NMU, your bank, your credit cards, Facebook, PayPal, eBay, the IRS, federal and state governments will not ask for any of your personal information via email. When in doubt log into a known good web address for the service to see if the same request is referenced there. for NMU that would be http://myuser.nmu.edu/user and http://mynmu.nmu.edu.
• If you receive an email message that claims to be distributing a Microsoft security update, it is a hoax that may contain malware or pointers to malicious websites. Microsoft does not distribute security updates via email.
• Lock your computer when you leave.
• Destroy or shred documents with personal information when you're finished with them.
• Don't visit or download from sites you do not trust.
• If you have any questions or problems please contact the Computing HelpDesk, 906-227-2468, HelpDesk@nmu.edu.

Phishing Attempts

Beware of phishy email appearing to be about your NMU account. A phishing attempt is an attempt via email to get personal information from you such as your User ID and password or even bank or credit card details. The email message may also contain a link to a website requesting the same information. Phishy email messages can appear to come from helpdesk@nmu.edu or similar email addresses and referencing upgrading your mailbox or account. These are not actually from helpdesk@nmu.edu or any NMU account but from accounts on the internet and spoofed to appear to come from NMU. Click here to find out more about identifying and deflecting phishing attempts. 
 

Password Safety

Having strong passwords is important for keeping your accounts and personal information secure. Here are some hints for creating a safe password.

• Use a longer password
• Change your password often
• Ensure that you can remember your password
• Don't use easily identifiable personal information like children's names or birthdays
• Some systems won't accept spaces, special characters, or only allow passwords of certian lengths, though the more complex the password, the safer your information will be
• Don't keep you password in a place where it can be found or seen
• Don't share your password with people, businesses, or even the HelpDesk
• Have different passwords for each account
• For more information on choosing passwords, visit http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-002.html

NMU password requirements ensure that your password is safe and difficult to guess. The requirements are as follows:

• Must be 8 to 16 characters in length
• First character must be a letter of the alphabet (a-z)
• Must contain at least one numeric (0-9) character
• Must contain at least one of these special characters: ~!%^*_+-{}|[]\:?./
• Spaces are not allowed
• Passwords are case sensitive
• Passwords may not be reused for two years

Documentation

At the HelpDesk, and throughout campus, there has been an influx of phishing attempts on NMU accounts. In response to this we would like to get the word out to the NMU community about ways to tell if you are looking at a possible phishing attempt. Our friends over at James Madison University (jmu.edu) came up with a great rule of thumb when faced with a possible attempt to gather personal information. They suggest, “counting the periods.” What this means is that you will want to look at the link, count back two from the first slash after “http://” and note those two sections. What you are looking at is what’s called the domain of the site or e-mail address. 

We hope that you are able to take this information and use it beyond your time here at NMU to continue to keep your personal information safe. Remember that Northern Michigan University, your bank, your financial advisors, and any other person or organization that deals with personal information will typically NOT ask for your information via e-mail including but not limited to: your password or your unique identifier (NMUIN, Member Number, Social Security Number, etc.).  If you ever receive a message asking for personal information it is safe practice to contact the support group for that organization. It’s always better to be safe and ask.

Knowing Trusted Domains
Identifying Untrustworthy Domains
 

Knowing Trusted Domains

http://www.nmu.edu/ - Here we count back two periods from that first slash after "http://" and we see "nmu.edu" which is the standard domain for an NMU site. 

https://mynmu.nmu.edu/ - Again, if we count back two periods from the slash we see "nmu.edu."

http://educat.nmu.edu - This one doesn't have a slash, so now what? Count your two periods back from the end of the address as if there was a slash and note the doman, in this case, "nmu.edu."

myuser.nmu.edu - This one doesn't have an 'http' or a slash! Follow the same guideline as the last example and you'll see the "nmu.edu" domain. 

Identifying Untrustworthy Domains

We recently recieved a phishing attempt on campus from http://mailnmuedu.webs/com, which is NOT a trusted NMU site and should NOT be followed or clicked. 

• Counting the periods here shows us that this is not an nmu.edu site. 
• If a link just says "Click Here" or you can't see the URL or domain, just hover over without clicking the link and a link description will appear. You can count the periods here.
• If an email ends in anything other than @nmu.edu or @mes.nmu.edu, chances are it's NOT from a trusted Northern Michigan University account, though we do use a few third party systems in some departments
• If you aren't sure, feel free to ask a coworker or contact the HelpDesk.

We hope that you are able to take this information and use it beyond your time here at NMU to continue to keep your personal information safe. Remember that Northern Michigan University, your bank, your financial advisors, and any other person or organization that deals with personal information will typically NOT ask for your information via e-mail including but not limited to: your password or your unique identifier (NMUIN, Member Number, Social Security Number, etc.).  If you ever receive a message asking for personal information it is safe practice to contact the support group for that organization. It’s always better to be safe and ask.

Documentation

NMU Wireless internet is available on registered computers all over campus for students, staff, retirees, and faculty. Visitors without NMU credentials can connect using the NMU_GUEST access points after agreeing to the acceptable use policy. 

NMU_GUEST access is restricted to common protocols used for web and email access. If you are a guest and can't access what you need using the guest access, contact the department you are visiting to see if they can sponsor you as a guest on the NMU network, which should provide you with the access you need. See "Sponsoring a Guest on the NMU Network" for details.

View instructions for connecting to the NMU_GUEST access point.

View access locations during:

• School Year
• Summer (Typically through August 15th)

School Year NMU_GUEST Locations

• Cohodas
• Harden Hall
• University Center
• Hedgcock
• Forest Roberts Theatre
• Jacobetti Center
• Berry Events Center
• Superior Dome
• Presque Isle Commons (Temaki and Tea, Smoothie King)
• NMU Invent Building (on Presque Isle Ave)
• Ripley Steam Plant
• Services Building
• NMU Golf Course Clubhouse

Summer NMU_GUEST Locations

• Art and Design Building
• Berry Events Center
• Cohodas
• Superior Dome
• Gries Hall
• Hedgcock
• Jacobetti
• Jamrich
• Harden Hall
• PEIF Recreation Facility
• Ripley Heating Plant
• Services Building
• Northern Center
• West Science
• New Science
• Whitman
• Quad I Residence Halls (Gant and Spalding)
• Quad II Residence Halls
• West Hall
• Woodland Park

Documentation

Is NMU LTE available in your area?

NMU LTE is available everywhere NMU EAN is available. Go to the Check Availabilty page and click the "Check Availabilty" button. Enter your complete address with Street Address, City, State, and Zip code to see if NMU LTE is available in your location.

If you were issued an NMU ThinkPads NMU LTE is not installed by default. You can get the NMU LTE network and SIM cards installed at no charge so the computer can access the NMU LTE network. If you have not already done so, please stop at the Helpdesk to get a work order for the LTE hardware to be installed. 

Connecting the ThinkPad to NMU (LTE)
 

1.Left click the “WiFi” or “Ethernet” icon in the system tray in the lower right corner of the Windows desktop.
  

2.Make sure an Ethernet cable is not connected,  “NMU" "WiFi” is "Off" (grayed out) and “Cellular"or "Mobile Broadband" is turned "On" (displayed in blue) and click the “NMU (LTE)” icon in the top section of the “Networks” menu.
  

3.Check the “Connect automatically” checkbox if it isn’t already checked and click the “Connect” button. The icon initially may indicate a “Limited” connection but then display “Connected”. 
 

4.The “LTE” icon will appear in the system tray when NMU (LTE) is in use. The number of white bars indicates the signal strength. You should now be able to access the NMU network using NMU LTE.
  

Connecting the ThinkPad to NMU WiFi (preferred if on campus)

1.Left click the “LTE” or “Ethernet” icon in the system tray in the lower right corner of the Windows desktop. 
  

2.Click the "NMU" "WiFi" to turn on (turn blue) the WiFi network adapter in the “Networks” menu.
  

3.Select the WiFi connection you want to use (Use the “NMU” WiFi connection if on campus). 
 

4.Check the “Connect automatically” checkbox if it isn’t already checked and click the “Connect” button. The icon initially may indicate a “Limited” connection but then display “Connected”.
  

 5.The “WiFi” icon will appear in the system tray when WiFi is in use. The number of white bars indicates the signal strength. You should now be able to access the NMU network using NMU WiFi. NOTE: The system will use the WiFi connection by default even if the NMU (LTE) connection is on.