HELPLINE BLOG

Symantec have recently made a statement regarding vulnerabilities in their pcAnywhere products. The statement is available here: http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/important-information-pcanywhere.

Access to the ports required to run pcAnywhere is restricted to the INPS range of IP addresses on the standard firewall configuration which BT have provided. If you are in any doubt as to whether you are using the standard firewall configuration (for example, if you have allowed access to your network to other parties), you should contact your Primary Care Organisation for clarification.

Notwithstanding the above, INPS recommend the following good practice measures to ensure the security of your system:

• pcAnywhere should only be open for the duration of any support activity being carried out by INPS. To ensure that pcAnywhere is not running once INPS have disconnected from your site, right click on the pcAnywhere host icon in the taskbar (near the time at the bottom right) and choose “Cancel Host”.  
  

  

This will need to be done after each time the helpline ask you to open pcAnywhere to dial into your site (after they have completed their work and disconnected).

• Sites with version 12.5 of pcAnywhere (The version is available within Symantec PcAnywhere from Help – About) should run LiveUpdate from within pcAnywhere (Help > LiveUpdate) to download the latest patches Symantec have released for this issue.
   
  Please note you should run the LiveUpdate repeatedly until there are no further updates to apply to ensure you have received all the required updates. You may be required to reboot your machine after each update. If you encounter an LU1844 error stating your live Update files are corrupt when attempting to update, you will need to download and install the lusetup.exe patch before reattempting to update.

  The lusetup.exe file can be found here: https://www-secure.symantec.com/norton-support/jsp/help-solutions.jsp?lg=english&ct=united+states&docid=20080407120325EN&product=home&version=1&pvid=f-home (select the Vista/XP/2000 option). 

Read More - 27/01/2012 | Comments

A problem in DLM 380 has resulted in the CHADS2 calculator not working. This is resolved in DLM 390 but if your practice uses the CHADS2 calculator and needs this resolved before DLM 390 please email us on helpline@inps.co.uk with your user number and contact details and we will arrange to install a fix to the problem. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes.

Read More - 26/01/2012 | Comments

INCIDENT REFERENCE: Atos - 12065212

CFH / LOCAL SD REF - N/A

LOCATION: National

DESCRIPTION: A number of users were experiencing poor performance when using Choose and Book.

SERVICE: Choose and Book

USER IMPACT: This was causing delays to routine business processes as a significant number of users were experiencing poor performance when carrying out transactions in Choose and Book.

ACTION BEING TAKEN: Service remains stable this morning, Atos and CfH will continue to monitor performance throughout today.

Read More - 25/01/2012 | Comments

The Multilex Bulletin is a list of changes made to the Multilex Drug Data File over the month. It provides a quick reference to developments, including Manufacturers’ name changes, formulations added and discontinued as well as helpful advanced warnings of impending changes.

Download the October 2011 edition of the bulletin here.

Download the November 2011 edition of the bulletin here.

Read More - 20/12/2011 | Comments

This has now successfully competed.

The test of the DTS DR solution originally planned for 14/12/2012 has been re-scheduled for Wednesday 21st December 2011 at 12:00 noon. This will mean that a managed closure of the primary DTS service will take place at this time. The DR Service will then be active for approximately 1 hour, after which a controlled switch back to the primary DTS Service will be undertaken. A contingency of 2 hours is included in the plans should we experience any issues during this test.

The impacts on end users will be that only version 5 DTS Clients will continue to operate as usual i.e. post and collect messages. Any other DTS Clients will not be able to access a DTS Service during this period. As this is a controlled process NO messages will be lost but users may experience a break in service and a delay in message delivery processes. Apologies in advance if this causes any operational issues but hopefully you understand the importance of this test in ensuring that we deliver a viable solution. The test does avoid the busiest day for the Service (Thursday) and although the test is being undertaken during the day we have tried to avoid the peak traffic periods. Hopefully this advance notice will allow you to mitigate risks locally should they be identified

Read More - 20/12/2011 | Comments