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Infrastructure Support

Infrastructure Support Services provides many of the underlying computing and networking services to the campus community. This group maintains WIU's computer network which connects campus users to each other, WIU’s servers, and the Internet. This includes the main campus networks, student housing, and wireless networking. We also support the computer servers providing services like email, network file storage, and online course software.

ECom Services

ECom is a collection of services offered to WIU students, staff and faculty. These services include:

  • A unique email address on WIU’s Collaboration Suite (which includes email, calendaring, document sharing, etc.) with 1GB storage space
  • 1GB of space on the ECom servers which can be used for web pages and/or personal file storage
  • All other services that require the use of a WIU ECom username/password (i.e. computer labs and Western Online)
  • These accounts provide access to many WIU computing resources including campus email, UNIX systems, Western Online, web page publishing and more.

Upon ending your affiliation with WIU, your ECom account will be deleted. Student accounts are deleted the semester following graduation. Faculty and Staff accounts are deleted the semester after leaving WIU. In all cases, the system sends an email message before the account is deleted.

Learn more about ECom services.

Windows (AD)

The Microsoft Windows server platform is used to authenticate use on all of our networked campus computers and networked printers.

  • Login Requirement
    • Before you can access the university’s computer network, you must login to our Windows domain. All users use their ECom username and password to login to nearly all university computing systems.
  • Network Printing
    • All academic and administrative departments as well as computer labs have access to networked printing. A login script runs whenever a new user logs into a computer for the first time offering a selection of printers that could be added for the user’s convenience. Departments wishing to add a new networked printer to the Windows domain should open a service request through the uTech Support Center (309-298-1177).

Zimbra Collaboration Suite

Because Zimbra is a web-based email system, it is accessible from any web browser connected to the Internet. Our Zimbra web address is http://zimbra.wiu.edu. After the entry page loads, login to the system using your ECom username and password. The Zimbra Suite contains many features including mail, calendaring, a document repository, and an instant messenger client.

  • Email accounts have a maximum quota of 1GB. However, WIU does not provide users archives of their email messages.
  • Our team implements an email list processing system. A list processor allows you to exchange messages with a group of colleagues. The server keeps track of the users on the list and has tools to archive and/or digest the messages.

GUAVA

The Graphical UNIX Administrative Validation Assistant offers users a web-browser interface to manage many of the services provided by Infrastructure Support Services. GUAVA is available at www.wiu.edu/guava where you can:

  • manage your personal website services
  • change your ECom password
  • review personal information stored by the system

Learn more above GUAVA.

Online "Home" Storage space

The university offers each user access to 1GB of network storage space. This space is the preferred file storage because it is secure and backed up to tape on a nightly basis. Saving files on the local hard drive can lead to data loss in the event of a hard drive failure.

Western Online

Our staff supports Western’s learning management system running the WebCT Vista product. Western's official name for this service is Western Online. User login and additional information is available at the courseware website at westernonline.wiu.edu.

VPN

Faculty and staff can remotely access network resources as though they were directly connected to the WIU network. We provide this service using a Virtual Private Network system. This service is available to both Windows and Mac users alike. To read more about our VPN network visit the VPN page at vpn.wiu.edu.

Bulletin Boards

Bulletin boards allow departments to communicate their message to the campus community. Our Internet Usenet news server provides bulletin board functionality to the WIU campus. Messages can be read by using news clients like the one provided within Zimbra. Alternatively, you can access the BBoards at https://www.wiu.edu/wiubb/webnews/ and authenticating with your ECom username and password.

Server Service

Because our staff manages most servers on campus, we provide server hosting to the campus community. We backup data, provide hardware maintenance, and apply needed software updates. We will help you complete a needs analysis and recommend options to meet your needs. If you would like to explore these options further, please call the uTech Support Center at 309-298-1177 to a service request.

Programming

The UXB server runs on the UNIX operating system, and provides several programming languages to the user community. The available languages include: Java, C, C++, PERL and more.