A Word About Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7:Remote Access and Scary Warnings!
by Andy Lewis and Jim Segers
Many are facing the browser upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. It has several desirable features including enhancements in Web security, tabbed browser windows and a cleaner look. When using IE7 Web access to GroupWise mail, network storage or your iFolder you will be warned of a "Certificate Error" and your navigation to the portal will be initially blocked. The wording of this warning page is more dramatic and less informative than in previous versions of Internet Explorer and potential visitors are advised not to continue on to the portal's login page. It looks like this:
This message results from self-signed security certificates that are issued by our servers during your visit. These certificates are not signed by a commercial Certificate Authority, but still provide the basic functionality for which they are designed. To continue into the web site you will need to click on this scary looking link:
It is not as scary as it seems - IE 7 is trying to tell you it has no way of verifying this certificate is really coming from the server you accessed. BTW, the certificate is not used to grant access, you still have to use your username and password. The certificate is used to encrypt (spy code) your transmissions making it difficult for anyone to view what you send.
In a future article we will show you a way to obtain and import these certificates to your computer.
The bottom line is - this is not as bad as IE 7 indicates, and using the self-signed certificates is a lot safer than transmitting your email and files over the networks as plain text.
Centra Central
Dec. 15 - Recruiting Tools (Jennifer Humphries)
Jan. 05 - Workers' Compensation (Jennifer Humphries)
Jan. 19 – Active Learning Online (Jennifer Jahedkar)
Enroll or browse upcoming events or learn more about Centra by clicking the Centra Symposium link from the EIT webpage or going directly to http://eit.tamu.edu/centra.html. Playback any of the 250+ recorded sessions from the Public Recordings link at http://centra.tamu.edu/main/tce. For more information, go to http://eit.tamu.edu/Centra/frionline0607.pdf.
Web Tips – Surveys, Web Data, and Exams
by Fred Rodriguez
Starting from a belief that Extension faculty and staff needed a free technology that would allow them to develop, deploy, and collect information from their clientele, whoever that might be, I developed a system for collecting information via the Web. This system can be used to create web-based surveys, webdata forms and exams.
This system was recently put to test through a particularly challenging opportunity. A request for Texas Cooperative Extension to conduct an electronic survey of all of the Volunteer Fire Departments in the state of Texas came from the Governor's Division of Emergency Management and the Texas Forest Service. In about 2 hours an electronic survey was created and put online using the original paper survey as a guide. In approximately 48 hours, with the electronic web data system and our network of county extension agents, we were able to gather statistics from 95 percent of the Volunteer Fire Departments across the state of Texas. This effort would not have been successful without our state-wide network of county agents and county offices.
The system has been used to conduct conference surveys, to collect attendance data for district trainings, to plan publications, video projects and displays. It can be used for any data collection project or survey.
To view and test examples, visit these sites:
To use the system, all that is needed is an internet connection and web browser. Those who are not already in the system can easily be added. Contact Fred Rodriguez at 979-845-9799 or f-rodriguez@tamu.edu . Be watching for upcoming training on this system.
Have a web tip you’d like share? Send it to ajhughson@ag.tamu.edu ! Please be aware that if a tip doesn’t make it in right away, we’ll save it for future use.
Tip of the Month: Multiple Home Page Tabs with Internet Explorer 7
by Jeffrey SoRelle
In November ‘06 issue of TTNT (http://eit.tamu.edu/tnt/TNTNov06.pdf ), I encouraged you to upgrade to IE7 if you were using Windows XP for a whole host of reasons. This month, I thought I would help you explore a cool feature that is new for IE7 - using multiple browse tabs when you start IE7.
For example, when I start IE7 each morning, I have three websites that automatically load. They are the EIT website (http://eit.tamu.edu), the West Texas OPS blog (http://tceblogs.tamu.edu/wtexas), and Foxnews (Figure1). Why these three websites? Well, mainly convenience - I find myself going to these sites several times a day looking for info or catching up on the news.
To set this up in your IE7 browser follow these steps: