Nov. 27, 2005

Update on Group Access

Please note that we have received a huge volume of group requests and are endeavoring to get through them as quickly as possible. We appreciate the patience that webmasters have already shown in this matter. We are working to process every request as quickly as possible.

Nov. 19, 2005

Group Access Restored

For more information on how to access the ASG server, please refer to ASG Webhosting Access Information.

Nov. 13, 2005

Update on Group Website Access

We are continuing to work to restore Web Administrator access to all group sites on the ASG server. This has become a long process while we ensure that people can be added to using the server in a safe and secure manner.

It is our hope that we can resolve these access issues and provide all groups access to update their websites again during this coming week. As we know more particulars about how this access will be regained, we will share them with you in this posting.

As always, if you have any questions, please direct them to Michael Jurewitz, ASG Technology Director.

Nov. 1, 2005

The following letter was sent to the Editor of the Daily Northwestern as an update on the status of the ASG Server.

Dear Editor,
The state of the websites operated on the ASG server is an important concern to student groups, ASG, Student Affairs, and countless others who rely upon it as a source of information and as a means for publicity and organization. With recent concerns about its state, I wanted to update you and your readers on the outage and ensure that as many people as possible know how we are proceeding.

As Leslie Gittings alluded to yesterday in her Forum letter, the ASG server has had a history of problems when it comes to security and reliability. From the moment I took office last year as the Technology Director, we have been working with IT on a plan that would get ASG out of the server hosting business and put it in the hands of experienced professionals. I am pleased to report that after months of long negotiations we have been successful in lobbying for this change. It is our goal to transition all of ASG's web services and student group hosting to the IT Datacenter by the end of January, 2006. While this is a later deadline than we would have liked, it incorporates IT's best expectations of being able to fully address the needs and complexities of housing both ASG and student group websites.

Since the ASG server went down a little more than 2 weeks ago, we have been working feverishly with Student Affairs IT staff to help rectify the situation. While we would have preferred to patch the system and labor on, this was not feasible due to the pervasive nature of the security breach. Since then we have endeavored to back up all students group websites, and I emphasize that student groups should find they still have all their website data.

At the moment the server is back up and running with a completely new configuration of software and is vastly more secure than it has ever been. ASG President Patrick Keenan-Devlin had expressed our joint hope that the server would be serving web pages again as of last Friday, however, further technical and security considerations have pushed our timeline back to this week. ASG and student group websites began returning Tuesday evening and I expect that student group webmaster access with follow later this week. Many of the delays to this point have been due to our desire to work closely with IT to ensure that first, the server is as completely secure as possible and second, that the server is ready to adequately handle the activity of 200+ student group websites again. I completely sympathize with the student groups that have had to work around this inconvenience and appreciate the tremendous patience that many have shown. This has been a headache for all those affected by it.

We are working hard alongside Student Affairs IT staff to return the ASG server to full working order as soon as possible.

For more information, please contact ASG Technology Director Michael Jurewitz.