In September, Residential Computing updated its registration system for in-room network connections to use IT Services' new Health Check Tool (HCT).
Students wanting network connections in the residences (i.e., virtually all of them) must register their connections with Residential Computing. Our automatic registration system will capture most students as soon as they plug their computers into the wall. Last year, students with Windows PCs had to run a home-grown patch level screening tool before they could register. This tool ensured that computers were up to date with their operating system software and thus would likely not become infected once placed on the network. Students who failed were given a chance to run Windows Update and try again.
This year, as part of IT Services' nascent self-registration system, a Health Check Tool was developed that does even more than our patch level screening did. Specifically it:
- Checks for extant viruses and other especially malicious infections,
- Checks if the computer has anti-virus software installed,
- Checks for blank passwords and other security concerns,
- Installs patches from an on-campus WSUS server instead of Microsoft's,
- Runs on Macs as well,
- Reports back to us about which hardware address go with which interfaces, and
- Has a slick interface.
At the end of August, Residential Computing switched from the old patch level screening to the HCT, and all students who registered since then have had to run it. Even students who had previously been cleared needed to run the HCT if they had occasion to update their registrations.
Our thanks go out to the good people at IT Services who helped us adapt the tool for our use in the residences, and to the students - especially those from the Law School and undergraduate house staffs - who patiently endured the troubles we encountered. Over 10,000 computers have run the HCT in the residences, and less than 4 percent have had to be manually exempted from the process.
Other computer registration statistics, since the end of August:
- Computers approved for registration: 10737 (can include duplicate runs of HCT)
- Computers manually approved: 380 (HCT not run)
- New registrations: 4,487
- Registration updates: 9,917 (some have been updated multiple times)
- Laptops: 84%
- Desktops/Towers: 11%
- Macs: 29%
- PCs: 66%
- Most popular model: Dell Inspiron 15%
- Second most popular: Apple MacBook 13%
