Most of the network problems plaguing Palo Alto High School since the June security breach (see related story) have been resolved in the past few weeks with cooperation from the district.
Among them are the restoration of digital locker access, development of a new fiber optic network to expand bandwidth, and repair of worm/viral damage to the networks, according to Marie Scigliano, director of educational technology for the district.

Digital Lockers

The most notable of the changes is the new Shadow web interface (http://shadow.paly.net), which combines e-mail, digital lockers, and a virtual calendar/homework planner as a replacement for the now defunct Viking system created by former Paly student and volunteer Aaron Stone three years ago. Students can log in with the same usernames and passwords they used to access Viking.

Compared to Viking, Shadow includes new features such as a notepad, importation of Internet bookmarks, and a calendar spanning almost seven decades. The e-mail system also boasts expanded features such as filters for sorting out unwanted e-mail. Almost all of Viking’s most basic capabilities have been retained, but one notable exception is the current inability to change passwords, a function which is in development, according to Shadow creator Paly senior Marcus Marinelli.

According to Paly network administrator Douglas Bertain, Shadow was named accordingly because "it will always live in the shadow of Viking. Viking was a full featured product that will never be replaced on campus." The interface was integrated with SASI, containing features such as access to student schedules, grades, drop boxes, and lab reservations all integrated into one product, Bertain said. However, some features including schedules and grades were never publicly accessible due to objections from the district, according to Bertain. "It took Aaron years to create this; now that he’s gone none of us could fully replace it."

One of the main changes between Viking and Shadow is that Shadow does not directly connect to the Paly server via FTP for digital locker access, Bertain said. As a security precaution imposed by the district after the security breach, the connection is instead routed to another computer, which in turn routes the visitor to the server containing the files. For much of early September, students and teachers were unable to reach digital lockers because of a problematic configuration in one of the systems, which has since been corrected.

Shadow is at last growing accessible to the public. "Students are reporting being able to access the lockers from home," Bertain said. "Once we ensure that it’s working, we will let everyone know about it [and] start making new changes." Among those planned are lab reservation and drop-box systems for faculty members. Based on the Shadow server’s web statistics log, more than 600 people have used the new interface since its Oct. 1 launch.

Shadow started in early August after Stone and other volunteers were booted by the district in accordance with its new ‘no volunteers’ policy. The district wanted to offer Aaron a contract, but the price negotiations between he and the district led to disagreements. According to Stone, the district offered him up to $100 to purchase the rights to Viking. However, Stone wanted "compensation at a fair market rate," and declined the offer. "[Stone’s] fee was not even 0.1% of market value," Bertain said.

Scigliano said, "After five discussions, we could not come into an agreement. We didn’t want to make it a fight."

Internet and Cables

A fiber optic network called the I-Net is currently being rearchitectured at Paly for faster Internet access, according to Paly assistant principal Charles Merritt. Paly has a network of over 40 T1 lines, and fiber would allow Internet speeds to go beyond those of the T1s, Scigliano said. The advantages of fiber optics include cheaper costs, higher carrying capacities, and stronger digital signals. Although the physical work has been done, the I-Net is not working because the city has not yet tested it, Merritt said. Once the city initiates testing of the network, Paly will have much faster access. Although no exact date is known, the I-Net is "close to being completed," Merritt said.

District information technology staff members also replaced a dysfunctional T1 line, according to Scigliano. Paly has both an external and internal T1 line; to resolve the problem, tech officials "closed off the external gate and made the [internal] bigger," Scigliano said. This fix has caused a reduction in network downtimes while a fiber optic alternative is being awaited, she said.

The In Focus cables were functioning during a successful first broadcast on Thursday, Oct. 9.

Worms

The Internet worms that forced the district-wide network to shut down on Sept. 16 (see related story) have been resolved with the help of Bertain and district IT technician Ignacio Padilla, according to Merritt. "They went around the campus disinfecting computers, [which] took a while," Merritt said. The worms, after leaking through vulnerabilities in the district’s firewalls, caused infected computers to start sending packets of information to bombard the network. "Seeing network traffic at elevated levels [was] a sign that there were a lot of infected computers," Merritt said.

Responding to the question of whether the mass shutdown was necessary, Scigliano said, "Districts all over the country have had this situation. In Florida, a school [network] was shut down for two days." The downtime at Paly, which angered some instructors who were unable to find alternate work for their students, ranged from a few hours to the entire school day in the district’s schools. "Each school was called and told to shut down its PCs. Some schools were called earlier [than others], but it depended on the traffic and number of PCs," Scigliano said. Paly and Gunn, both California Digital High Schools, were the two campuses that contained the most technological equipment, and consequently suffered some of the longest downtimes. Paly’s network resumed functioning at 2 p.m. that day.

New antivirus software which will reduce the chances of a reoccurrence has been purchased, according to Scigliano. However, Bertain noted that it has not yet arrived.

District Tech Meetings

The district is now holding meetings with IT department members every Tuesday and Wednesday to monitor the network restoration process and resolve new issues, according to Merritt. Tuesday meetings deal with the network and server, and the Wednesday ones focus on tech management, which includes concerns such as classroom computers, lab reservations, and SASI [student information system]. The most recent meeting, held Oct. 1, covered each of the aforementioned major issues: the digital lockers, cables, and worms.

"Paly and the district are working well together as a team," Scigliano said. "When new challenges arise we work collaboratively to find new solutions, [and] we have very good communication."

Merritt agreed by saying, "A lot of progress has been made since we started meeting in August."