[Macpartners] IS Software Update for July 2003

[Deb Bowser]

Date: Friday July 25, 2003
To:  Members of the MIT Community: itpartners at mit.edu, macpartners at mit.edu, 
winpartners at mit.edu, sw-release-announce at mit.edu, ed-tech at mit.edu
From: Software Release Team <swrt at mit.edu>
Subj: IS Software Update for July 2003
Cc:  infosys at mit.edu, itag at mit.edu



Given all the recent communications over Windows vulnerabilities and 
critical updates, we would like to remind colleagues of Information 
Systems' (IS) position on vendor released patches and updates.  IS 
recommends that you apply all critical updates and patches with the 
exception of service packs when they are released by the vendors.  We do 
not have the resources available to test every critical update in the 
various test environments in a timely fashion.  We are committed to testing 
and reporting known issues with your help on the major updates, such as 
service packs and major Mac OS X upgrades.

Microsoft and Apple have update tools in place to automatically check for 
and apply updates.  We recommend that at a minimum, you configure your 
machine to check for updates at least once a week, preferably daily.  For 
more information on setting this up visit the following sites:

Windows 2000 & XP
http://web.mit.edu/net-security/www/one-sheets/winhack.html

Mac OS X
http://www.info.apple.com/support/downloads.html

If you are supported by local IT staff, check with them in regards to plans 
for applying patches and upgrades.  When feasible, critical updates should 
be applied to a test machine for a day or two prior to a department-wide 
update to ensure no significant negative impacts.

Spotlight:
-------------------------------------------------------
Join Information Systems as the Software Release Team will hold their 
second informal Software Town Meeting on Friday, August 8 from 12-1:30 PM 
in the Marlar Lounge (37-252).  The goal of the meeting is to share 
information regarding software that Information Systems is providing or 
supporting and to hear from you regarding your software needs as we begin 
the new fiscal year.  If you plan to attend the August 8th meeting, please 
RSVP to Deb Bowser (bowser at mit.edu), no later than Wednesday, August 7th.


Recent Releases (Macintosh)
--------------------------------------------------------
iPassConnect - July 8, 2003
Netscape 7.02 - July 2, 2003


Recent Releases(Windows)
--------------------------------------------------------
iPassConnect - July 8, 2003
Netscape 7.02 - July 2, 2003


Volume Site License Distribution
--------------------------------------------------------
IS recently purchased licenses for Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional that are 
available to MIT staff and faculty and for MIT owned machines.  For more 
information and to request Acrobat 6.0 Professional visit 
http://web.mit.edu/is/products/vsls/#s3.

Should you need to purchase other Adobe products, you may review the 
Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC) pricing available through 
MHEC's reseller, TRC. Until TRC's pricing is available at their website, 
Adobe pricing information is available at 
http://web.mit.edu/is/products/vsls/ or by contacting Chris Skrzypchak at 
1-800-517-2320 x215 or <chris at gotrc.com>.


Software Release Efforts Underway (Macintosh)
--------------------------------------------------------
Eudora 5.2.x - Release effort underway - August 2003
Fall 2003 CD - Testing underway - August 2003
Preparing to support enterprise applications on Mac OS X 10.2.6
Virex 7.2.1 - Release effort underway - July 2003


Software Release Efforts Underway (Windows)
---------------------------------------------------------
Eudora 5.2.x - Release effort underway - August 2003
Fall 2003 CD - Testing underway - August 2003
FileZilla 2.x - Release effort underway - August 2003
HostExplorer 8.x  - Release effort on hold - TBD
Kerberos for Windows - Release effort beginning - August 2003
Windows 2000 SP4 - Release effort underway - Sept 2003


To view any of the product release notebooks, please visit our page:
http://web.mit.edu/swrt


Contact Us
-----------------
How are we doing?  Please take a moment to let us know and provide valuable 
feedback to the team:
http://web.mit.edu/swrt/feedback.html


If you prefer to send e-mail, we would appreciate any questions and 
comments you may have. Please send them to the Software Release Team at 
<swrt at mit.edu>.


Deb Bowser
IS Software Release Team