IT Infrastructure Services
Announcement
Do not use Jabber to make 911 emergency calls. For emergency calls you must use a landline or your mobile phone service.
The IT Infrastructure Services department manages the underlying infrastructure that provides computing and communications
services across campus. Reporting to the Information Services CIO and supervised by
the Executive Director of IT Infrastructure Services/Deputy CIO, the IT Infrastructure
Services department is broken down into 3 functional service areas: Networking (LAN,
wireless and Internet); Converged Communications (unified communication services,
voicemail, fax lines, and cell phones), and Systems and Cloud Services (server, storage,
and e-mail).
Please submit a ticket through Service Now for all cell phone purchases, desk phone moves/purchases, and network port installations/repairs.
Networking
Wired Network & Internet
West Chester University buildings are equipped with dual high speed (10 Gbps) wired connections to both on-campus data centers, with 100 Gbps fiber-optic backbone. The campus is connected to the Internet using multiple Service Providers, each at 10 Gpbs speeds, and peering arrangements with providers such as Netflix, Amazon, and Google (as well as many others) over a dedicated 100 Gbps connection, sufficient enough to accommodate any sudden demand.
Faculty/Staff may request:
- Activation for existing network jacks, change or relocation of service, or have new network jacks installed
- Statically assigned IP addresses for network devices
Please submit a ticket through ServiceNow and include a description of the need and location.
Wireless Network & Internet
WCU wireless networks are maintained by the WCU Networking department with user support provided by the IT Help Desk.
SSID: RamNet (For Faculty/Staff/Students)
SSID: RamNet-Guest (For visitors)
In order to secure the wireless network from un-authorized access, we have implemented
user authentication and high levels of encryption. Please follow the instructions
below in order to access the wireless network where available.
Directions for Connecting to Wireless
Where do I go to get help with RamNet wireless networks?
Is the Entire Campus Wireless?
Yes, all buildings on campus have dense wireless coverage. In addition, most outdoor locations on North and South campus provide wireless coverage.
Who can Use the Wireless Network?
RamNet should be used by all WCU students, faculty and staff.
Visitors to the campus should connect to RamNet-Guest.
How do I connect my smart devices to the wireless network?
Devices such as smart TV's, streaming devices (Roku, FireTV, etc.), and gaming consoles should be connected to RamNet-Guest. These types of devices will be detected by our authentication service and automatically connect. However, if you experience any problems, please contact ResNet.
Consumer products such as Google Home, Google Chromecast, Amazon Alexa, etc. are not compatible with our network. These devices utilize a protocol known as Multicast, which is not supported on large-scale wireless networks such as ours.
Additional Wireless Services
EduRoam
Eduroam is a secure, world-wide roaming internet access service developed for the international research and education community. Individuals from eduroam-participating institutions can connect to the “eduroam” wireless network using the credentials from their home institution to utilize free and secure wireless connectivity.
Overview
WCU students, faculty and staff have access to wireless services when visiting participating eduroam institutions.
Visitors to WCU’s campus from participating eduroam institutions can access WCU’s wireless network anywhere on campus.
For a list of participating US institutions, see the eduroam-US institutions page.
For a full list of participating institutions including international locations, see the Where can I eduroam page. On the page, you can browse through a scroll list or review an alphabetical list at the bottom.
Instructions
When you visit a participating EduRoam institution, look for the wireless network “eduroam” and log in using this format:
WCU username@wcupa.edu and password
If you are visiting WCU from a member EduRoam institution, look for the wireless network “eduroam” and log in with your university account, in the format specified by your institution.
Additional Information and Policies
Off Campus Network Access
Some services at West Chester University are restricted to on-campus access, such as file servers, databases, websites, and privileged applications. Anyone who needs to use these campus-only services can either physically travel to the campus, or connect remotely through a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN provides a secure, encrypted connection on WCU's on-campus network services to an off-campus computer or device.
Note: VPN connection at WCU requires multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Converged Communications
Desk Phones
To request desk telephone moves, changes or additional services, please submit your request through ServiceNow.
DO NOT MOVE TELEPHONE SETS! Each telephone set is programmed with an Emergency Response Location. If 911 is dialed, the emergency responders are immediately provided with the building and room number. We must know the correct location of the telephone to keep the database current.
Telephone information such as user resources, recommended headsets, etc. is available here.
Jabber
Cisco Jabber allows you to use your computer or a mobile device to instant message, place voice and video calls, and more all while using your WCU assigned telephone number. Jabber download links, user resources and basic troubleshooting information is available here.
Finesse Contact Center
Used by WCU student services groups, Cisco Finesse is a contact center platform that provides an agent and supervisor desktop through your web browser. Finesse connects you to your contact center's phone queue. You must be connected to a secure VPN connection in order to use Finesse.
Together, Jabber and Finesse allow you to answer phone calls for your call center while working remotely.
More information is available here.
Dialing Procedures
Voicemail
Submit a request through ServiceNow for the following voicemail services:
voicemail account setup
voicemail password/security code reset
reassign a voicemail box to a new user
request voice messages to be delivered to your email (unified communications)
Voicemail Access
Internal voicemail access number: 2232
External voicemail access number: 610-436-2232#
Your subscriber mailbox number: your 4 digit extension
Conference Calls
WCU uses Zoom for audio and video conferencing. More information about Zoom is available here.
Information on adding additional parties to a call using Jabber or your Cisco desk telephone are located here.
Cell Phones
All requests for employee cell phone purchases, support, upgrades and stipends should be submitted through ServiceNow.
Here are some helpful links:
WCU Mobile Wireless Stipend Application
WCU Mobile Wireless Communications Stipend Policy
Systems and Cloud Services
Servers and Storage
Server Hosting (Windows and Linux): Systems and Cloud Computing Services provide physical and virtual server hosting for both infrastructure as well as departmental services hosted in the University's data centers. The data centers are secure, highly redundant and have reliable power sources along with uninterruptible powers supplies and backup generator in the case of electrical outages.
Data Storage/File Storage
The IT Infrastructure Services team hosts several file storage solutions in the WCU datacenters. We maintain and administer network attached storage using Dell EMC Isilon. This platform allows for high-volume storage and backup, protected via Active-Passive replication between WCU datacenters. Additionally, we utilize Distribute Files Systems (DFS) to provide an additional file share option. If your department or team needs a place to store or share files, please contact IT Infrastructure Services to discuss what option will best suit your specific needs.
Backup and Recovery
The IT Infrastructure Services team maintains, hosts, and administers an enterprise class backup and recovery system. All critical virtual and physical servers are backed up with redundant copies stored in each data center. This service is also available to any departmental or application server hosted by the Infrastructure Services department.
Email and Calendaring
IT Infrastructure Services administers and maintains the University’s Exchange Online
and Office 365 environments.
Exchange Online provides all the functionality of traditional on-premise Exchange
environments with greater reliability, security, and capacity. Additionally, Exchange
Online fully integrates with other Office 365 applications and features allowing students,
faculty and staff to use Office 365 collaboration, productivity, and educational tools
to their fullest potential.
To further protect email and enhance productivity, Infrastructure Services utilizes Mimecast, a cloud-based email security and spam filtering service. In addition to helping reduce spam, malware, and virus threats Mimecast’s Targeted Threat Protection suite steps up the security measures, defending against malicious email attachments, impersonation fraud and malicious URLs.
Cloud Computing
West Chester University of PA has an enterprise agreement with Microsoft on it's integrated cloud services that allow IT to build, deploy, manage applications and services through Azure's global network of data centers.