Tech Alerts

FDU OIRT is excited to announce FDU-Guest, a new wireless network (SSID) for guests visiting our New Jersey campuses. FDU-Guest simplifies the guest access process while improving network security. Guests can connect without needing sponsorship from a member of the FDU community, while access to internal FDU resources remains restricted to active Faculty/Staff and Students.

With this addition, the FDU wireless network now has four distinct segments: FDU-Secure, FDU-Wireless, Eduroam, and FDU-Guest.

When to use each network segment:

• FDU-Secure: The primary SSID for most of our community. Requires authentication, grants access to all internal services, and has priority for academic and business traffic.
• FDU-Wireless: For non-computer devices such as gaming consoles or SmartTVs that cannot use WPA2 Enterprise authentication. These devices can be registered on the FDU MyDevices Portal.
• Eduroam: A secure, worldwide roaming service for international research and education. Students, researchers, and staff from participating institutions can connect at FDU using their home institution’s credentials.
• FDU-Guest: A public, non-authenticated network for University guests. Users must agree to the Acceptable Use Policy, and sessions remain active for one day. This network provides internet access only—services requiring SSO access are blocked.

Traditional Guest Wireless and Guest Group Creation forms remain available on SAMI Support for visitors who require advanced services such as on-campus printing, access to Zoom carts, or library resources.

Watch our SAMI Short video about FDU-Guest:

FDU-Guest Wireless

Full directory of SAMI Short videos:

SAMI Shorts Catalog

FDU-Guest is now available on both New Jersey campuses via the Wi-Fi SSID dropdown menu. If you are unsure which solution is best for your situation or have questions, open a SAMI Support ticket to request more information or search the IT knowledge base. You can also contact UTAC at (973)-443-8822 or email fdutac@fdu.edu.

Computing Services invites you to a Technology Orientation covering the many applications and classroom technologies available at the University. This engaging two-hour session provides an overview of the AV technology in classrooms, the SAMI support portal, and University applications that enhance the teaching and learning experience.

The orientation will include:

• An introduction to classroom equipment
• Best practices for utilizing technology
• A demonstration of the SAMI Support Portal
• How to create a support ticket
• How to create a lab reservation
• How to request technology and IT support for events
• An overview of key applications, including:
  • WebCampus/Blackboard
  • Qualtrics
  • Zoom
  • Echo360
  • Kaltura/Mediaspace
  • MyFDU Connect
  • Self-Service

Morning and afternoon sessions will be held both in-person and via Zoom:

• Thursday, September 11 – Metropolitan Campus, Alumni Hall
• Friday, September 12 – Florham Campus, Mansion, Hartman Lounge

With so many great tools on offer, this is a chance to discover your next favorite application.

Technology Orientation Registration Form

After completing the registration form, you will receive an email and Outlook Calendar invitation confirming your registration. We look forward to seeing you at orientation.

We have completed our migration from DocuSign forms to Softdocs forms. Softdocs provides a platform to create customized forms and workflows for digital documents. It offers a secure way to capture data and electronic signatures from faculty, staff, and students.

All links on the FDU website have been updated to point to the new corresponding form. While the presentation of the forms will look different from DocuSign, the process remains straightforward.

If you have any issues or questions, contact misrequests@fdu.edu for assistance.

The Office of Information Resources and Technology (OIRT) has made a focused effort to enhance the level of support provided to the FDU community. We have developed a new approach for delivering important information about the technology available to our users.

SAMI Shorts are brief informational videos designed to provide key insights on a variety of IT-related topics. Most videos range from 45–90 seconds, include closed captioning, and are also available in text format.

To introduce this new format, watch our Welcome Back video here:

Welcome Back – SAMI Short

The University Technical Assistance Center (UTAC) has been integral to FDU’s IT support strategy since 2002. Of the over 20,000 support tickets generated for the FDU community each year, thousands originate with calls or emails to UTAC. As we become increasingly reliant on technology to teach, learn, and manage the business of higher education, OIRT is continually seeking ways to provide better, faster, and more accurate service to our community.

At the start of the Fall Semester, FDU OIRT will trial a new support solution using a dedicated team of FDU technicians to provide enhanced support for tickets submitted through the SAMI Support Portal:

SAMI Support

The portal, which can be accessed via laptop, desktop, and mobile devices, as well as through MyFDUConnect.

My FDU Connect

Which provides an easy way to register an issue or question and communicate directly with the technician assigned to your request. The site also suggests possible solutions without needing to interact with a technician.

If a user cannot authenticate into the SAMI Support Portal, there is a public form available:

Issues submitted through the SAMI Public Form will also be supported by the new team.

While existing UTAC phone and email support will remain available throughout the trial period, we encourage the community to begin using SAMI Support in the coming weeks to interact with the new team.

On Friday, August 15, between 7:00 AM and 11:00 AM Eastern, the FDU-Secure wireless network will be updated with a new wireless SSL certificate. Wireless certificates are a security mechanism that are designed to expire periodically.

Upon your first connection to FDU-Secure after the update, you will be prompted to accept the new certificate. The tutorial linked below can assist with completing the security acceptance process for common platforms including macOS, Windows, Android, and Apple mobile (iOS) devices.

OIRT constantly monitors our network for new phishing attempts and implements rules to prohibit these messages from being delivered to our email system. We catch and delete over 90% of phishing emails before they reach our community. However, we can never catch 100% without blocking a percentage of legitimate emails, so it is vital that our community ensures every email is legitimate before responding.

Recently, the FDU email domain experienced two phishing attacks. The first, shown below, was sent from a compromised FDU email account and requested that you verify information via an external link to avoid account deactivation.

Another phishing attempt claimed to be a job opportunity and requested that you reply via email with your cell number and alternate email address. As a reminder, all faculty, staff, and student communications must be conducted exclusively through the official FDU email system. To ensure security, confidentiality, and proper record-keeping of university-related correspondence, employees should not use Gmail or any other personal email addresses when communicating with faculty, staff, or students. Using your official FDU email account helps maintain compliance with university policies and protects sensitive information from potential security risks. All professional communications must be sent and received via your @fdu.edu email address.

Our team has contained the issue by removing the messages from FDU inboxes and assisting the compromised FDU user. If you believe you may have provided personal information to this phisher, such as your NetID password, stop communication with the scammer, change your password, and create a support ticket at SAMI Support. In your Support Ticket, specify what information was provided to the scammer. While SAMI Support is the quickest way to get IT assistance, you can also contact UTAC by phone at (973)-443-8822 or by email at fdutac@fdu.edu.

Review our phishing tutorial to learn additional tips for detecting phishing emails:

If you have encountered a phishing email you would like to report, visit:

On August 14, between 6:30 AM and 8:30 AM Eastern, USAN will be testing the redundancy of our Unified Communications system. This is not expected to impact users; however, desktop phones may experience minor anomalies such as a brief moment of dead air during the maintenance window.

On Wednesday, 7/30, between 7:00 PM and approximately 9:00 PM, OIRT will be performing a test of the Duo Proxy Server for the VPN.

Users already connected when testing begins will not be affected. However, during this period, connecting to the “4-OIRT-MFA” VPN group may be impacted. If you experience issues, switch to the “1-Employees-MFA” VPN group to access the majority of FDU resources.

On July 22nd between 6:30 AM and 8:30 AM Eastern, USAN will be testing redundancy of our Unified Communications system. This is not expected to impact users; however, desktop phones may experience minor anomalies such as a brief second of dead air during this window.