ITS Helpdesk personnel will respond to each service request as soon as possible. They may have to schedule a personal appointment with you, at your convenience, in order to complete necessary technical work.

ITS Helpdesk personnel are not allowed to service any computer system without permission and physical presence, at the time of service, of the owner of the specified system.

• In contravention of SUNY Poly’s Acceptable Use Policy. (Students should read and understand this document).
• To attach personally owned communication hubs or switches directly to the college network.
• Students may not run their own: 
     Public IP sub-networks
     Private IP sub-networks
     Network Translation (NAT) Services

Support
The ITS Helpdesk provides support for Res Hall network connections. Requests for service should be directed to the ITS Helpdesk. Requests for service are only to be submitted by the student who owns the computer system, and legitimately occupies the room in which the system is located.

SUNY Poly makes every effort to provide appropriate and timely assistance consistent with its available resources. However, it reserves the right to deny network services to any student without notice. Service may be terminated for the following reasons:

• Users who violate institutional policies outlined in the “Acceptable Use Policy” or policies contained herein.
• Users who repeatedly alter their computer configuration in such a manner as to disrupt or destroy hardware or software configurations necessary for enabling network access.
• Users who repeatedly degrade network performance due to unclean machine conditions such as virus, worm, trojan horse or malicious code infections, or attaching an improperly secured system requiring system software patches.
• Users who fail to respond to notifications of Copyright violation under the guidelines of the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act”.
• Users who treat support personnel in a rude, abusive or otherwise inappropriate manner.

The ITS Helpdesk will provide support for residence hall services. The Residential Life staff (professional personnel, RAs, etc.) are not trained to deal with computing or telecommunications problems and it is not appropriate to seek support from these individuals. Likewise, in order to maintain services in labs and offices, other ITS personnel will not be directly involved in support of the residence hall program. Callers requesting assistance directly from ITS will be instructed to redirect their inquiry to the ITS Helpdesk.

SUNY Poly makes every effort to keep the data network up and available. It assumes no liability for times when the network or parts thereof are unavailable. Resident students should be aware that SUNY Poly does not employ second, third, or weekend shift staff, and a network disruption that occurs after normal business hours may not receive complete attention until the start of the next business day. 

Security
SUNY Poly’s data network is used for many important activities including interoffice communication, electronic mail, Internet access and support for numerous classroom laboratory environments. It is essential that the network be maintained in a secure and reliable state. To this end, ITS has installed and configured data communications equipment that prevents some forms of malicious behavior from compromising the integrity of the data network.

Users should be aware that despite the presence of these safeguards, attaching a personal computer to the campus network involves some level of risk. Most problems are due to the student’s lack of sophistication regarding the protection and management of their own system leading to a data compromise or undesired system access by other individuals.

Additionally, students should be reluctant to have their systems configured by unqualified third parties such as friends or fellow classmates. Unintended results may occur when third parties are not fully knowledgeable about the Institution’s networked environment.

SUNY Poly assumes no liability for personal data loss or unwanted data proliferation due to unsecured system configurations, misconfigured or virus infected systems.

Data communications equipment installed by ITS has been programmed with the following restrictions:

• All student dormitory connections implement data eavesdrop prevention. No student has the capability to read network traffic produced by any other computer system on the network. However institutional personnel may employ sniffing techniques while conducting investigations involving network performance, security, or where there is reason to believe that a violation of policy has occurred.
• SITNet addresses (IP addresses) are issued electronically during the bootup of the student’s computer system. The address assignment is controlled through the use of special computers called DHCP servers that are located on the campus network. Attempts to alter PC configurations in a way that changes or conceals the IP address is prohibited. Such attempts are also automatically recorded and easily traced.
• In addition to IP addresses, registered computers are assigned a unique name. Names are automatically managed through a Domain Name System (DNS) server.
  
  Altering or bypassing this service is prohibited. In the event that a computer does not get a host name programmed into the campus DNS server, many Internet Web sites will not service requests from that computer.
  
  Additionally, unregistered hosts are automatically denied access to all of the college’s central time-share systems.
• Consistent with SUNY Poly’s Acceptable Use Policy, ITS reserves the right to monitor network activity in compliance with its “...responsibility to take action against abusers of computing resources.”
  ITS personnel may use other tools and programmed devices to investigate unusual network traffic patterns that indicate probable violation of institutional policies.
  
  Students found using excessive bandwidth will have their connections automatically restricted to a reduced traffic throughput level without prior warning or notification. More severe policy infractions may result in the immediate disconnection of service without prior warning or notification.
  
  It is important that a student understand all the possible implications of installing any new operating systems, software packages, network utility programs, or peer-to-peer file sharing programs onto their system. The outcome of such installations may result in an unsafe system condition and subsequent network termination.

Cooperation with Law Enforcement Authorities
It is the policy of SUNY Poly to cooperate fully with federal, state, and local authorities in the conduct of criminal investigations. Furthermore, students are reminded that SUNY Poly will file criminal complaints against those who access or use the Institution’s data network in excess of authority, or in the conduct of any other criminal act.

Matters involving illegal use of SUNY Poly’s data network should be directed to the Office of University Police, which will fully investigate all complaints, and where evidence of criminal activity exists, will alert the New York State Police or other appropriate law enforcement agency.

It is the policy of SUNY Poly to cooperate with all copyright entities registering complaints, within the guidelines issued in the “Online Copyright Infringe Liability Limitation Act”, to notify users of our data network that they are in violation of the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act”. 

 

Policy last reviewed August 2024