Safe Connect replaces Clean Access for students on residence hall network
Submitted: Fri, Aug 07, 2009 08:43 AM
Clean Access is no more.
The application used in residence halls at Eastern to keep students’ personal computers free of viruses and protect the integrity of the campus network has been replaced by a new validation software package called Safe Connect.
Because technical support is no longer available for Clean Access, Information Technology Services began searching for a replacement last spring. A survey of students showed a high level of frustration with some technical aspects of Clean Access, such as an inability to locate antivirus patches and then being forced off the network. Safe Connect will allow students a “grace period” to install patches and correct infections on their machines.
Safe Connect works very similarly to Clean Access but is user-friendlier.
“The big improvement we found was the interface,” said ITS Network Engineer Randy Ethridge. “The screens that students see when they go to quarantine will actually work, so the link that shows up on the screen to remediate a problem will actually send them to the place they need to go. Clean Access pretty much just told you that you were blocked.”
Another improvement: When students call the ITS Help/Service Desk if they encounter a problem with Safe Connect, the technician there will be able to click a link to see the screen of the computer in quarantine and help remediate it.
“It will be easier for us to troubleshoot when users call in,” said Help/Service Desk representative Cheryl Clapp.
Also, Safe Connect will not force students’ computers off the network on a weekly basis, like Clean Access, and require them to constantly reauthenticate.
And video game players will like Safe Connect, too.
In the past, gamers were required to log onto a Web page to register their hardware devices and wait to have their media access control (MAC) identifier approved manually. Now, Safe Connect will recognize hardware automatically, reducing wait times.