Any computer on the Morehouse campus that shows an IP address of 1.2.3.* or 2.3.4.* has been kicked off the network by Morehouse's IT staff for spewing viruses or other nasty traffic. These systems must be cleaned.
Faculty or staff who discover a blocked system should contact the HelpDesk immediately. Students should read the rest of this memo and repair their systems before contacting HelpDesk -- students are responsible for repairing their own systems.
Here's the drill, summarized from an email to the student body about this very issue...
This memo tells you how to find out if that happened to you, how to fix it, and how to keep it from happening again.
Under Windows, to see if you've been blocked:
On a Mac, look in the System Configuration under Network Settings, or get a Terminal window (it's in Applications:Utilities) and type "ifconfig -a" then Enter.
** If your IP Address is 1.2.3.anything or 2.3.4.anything, you have been blocked. **
As soon as you know you're blocked, unplug your computer from the ethernet. This will ease the load on the network... and you can't do anything on the network anyway, so you might as well...
For help finding the IP address obtained by DHCP on other systems, consult their documentation.
Most viruses exploit old holes in Windows that have been patched via Windows Update. Find a clean computer, visit Microsoft's website, download all of the patches you can find, burn them to a CD or stick them on a USB drive, and load them onto the blocked computer, running them as you go. If you can find another Internet connection (someone's DSL, for instance), do your updates there. Check out the Virus document for some free virus scanners.
The HelpDesk, located in the basement of Sale Hall, has a limited number of Patches and Fixes CDs that are available for checkout; these have some Windows patches and some spyware removers on them. Drop by if you'd like to borrow one.
Run Stinger or some other anti-virus program. Apply the relevant Windows patches and any other Windows critical patch that your system lacks. Run the anti-virus program again.
If you can't perform these repairs yourself, see if you can find another student to help out. If that fails, you'll have to seek off-site help from a computer store (like Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, or various smaller operations).
Once your computer is clean, get in touch with the HelpDesk and let them know you've cleaned it. HelpDesk will need your "physical address", which you can find with the "ipconfig /all" DOS command.
Every Windows computer that is on the network is *required* to be patched up at all times. This is the best (and only) way to avoid getting these viruses in the first place. Virus control software is required, also, and will help against some of this mess.
To patch your copy of Windows, find "Windows Update" in your Start menu or tell Internet Explorer to go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ by typing that into the Location box. Get anything marked "urgent" or "critical". If you have the option of using Automatic Updates, do that, but don't rely on it: automatic updates only mostly work. If an update fails, go to the article about it (the "KB" thing) and download and install the patch manually.
You really should purchase a good virus control program like McAfee or Norton Anti-Virus. However, there's a free one that's worth a try: ClamWin, from http://www.clamwin.com/ on the web. Download it, update it, run it. It'll help.
Running bootleg copies of XP is a very good way to stay infected, which is a good way to have zero connectivity at Morehouse. It's also illegal. Don't do it. I repeat: do not do it.
Check out the material available on the IT Support site: http://support.morehouse.edu/
That site has info on avoiding and stopping viruses, spyware, adware, and other nasties, as well as troubleshooting help and information about Morehouse's network and computer systems.