January Student Orientation Academic and Research Computing January

January Student Orientation Academic and Research Computing January 2008

Campus Computing Information and Resources l l These slides will tell you about – campus computing services – using your laptop This presentation is available on line at http: //helpdesk. rpi. edu/laptops/resources/ 2

The Voorhees Computing Center The VCC is THE place to go for help. Here you will find: • The Help Desk It looks like a church. • Rensselaer Computer Repair 3 • Rensselaer Campus Computer Store

VCC Help Desk l Located in the VCC Lobby (open ‘til 10 PM, Sunday-Thursday) l 276 -7777 l consult@rpi. edu http: //helpdesk. rpi. edu/ Have you helpdesk’ed today? 4

Rensselaer Computer Repair (RCR) 5 l Lower level of the VCC Monday-Friday, 8: 30 am – 4: 30 pm l Laptop repairs - warranty and accidental damage (Think. Pad Protection) l Laptop loaners available for Mobile Computing Program participants l Certified technicians on site

l l l Laptop accessories – mice, batteries, USB hubs, screen cleaning supplies Peripherals - USB flash drives, CD/DVDs, cables, etc. Printers and accessories Software at an educational discount i. Pods and accessories Available to RPI community only VCC Main Floor http: //computerstore. rpi. edu 6

RCS - Rensselaer Computing System RCS offers many services including: 7 l public computers l e-mail l campus network l Internet access l file space for web pages and storage l RPI LMS – some of your courses may use this course learning management software

Your RCS Account l l 8 Your RCS user. ID and password is your access to many of Rensselaer’s computing resources. – You must change your password from the original! – Different from your SIS account where the ID is your RIN and the password is six digits. You are required to follow good computing practices. The computing “Conditions of Use” policy is available on the Help Desk web page.

Appropriate Uses of RCS 9 l Coursework/Research l Presentations l Electronic Mail/“Chatting” l To access your RPI LMS courses l Accessing campus public workstations l Searching the World Wide Web l Recreation/Games

Inappropriate Uses of RCS 10 l For commercial purposes l Displaying offensive materials l Copying licensed software illegally l Putting copyrighted materials on your homepage l Sending or forwarding chain mail, anonymous, harassing, or forged email

E-mail l Append “@rpi. edu” to your user. ID for your email address: jonesa@rpi. edu l Webmail allows for web-based access from any Internet-connected location: webmail. rpi. edu l 11 To configure other e-mail programs, go to the Help Desk web page and select Email.

RESPITE – Campus Spam Filter http: //respite. rpi. edu/ l l 12 By default all email is filtered. Anything that is statistically likely to be Spam is rejected. We recommend that you customize the Respite filter to suit your needs.

Campus Networking l l l Wired and wireless connectivity is available VPN client is available for access from off-campus Campus firewall – 13 Restrictions are listed in the Networking section of the Help Desk web page

Campus Printing 14 l Public printers are available throughout campus – mostly black & white, but some color; large-scale plotters are available in the VCC l To print, you must set up printers on your system – How-to instructions are in the Printing section of the Help Desk web page as well as printer locations and charges. – Each semester, you are given an allocation for black and white printing. After you have used up your allocation, charges are placed on your student account. You are always charged directly for color printing and plotting.

File Sharing 15 l File sharing is turned off by default on your laptop. Information on file sharing can be found in the Networking section of the Help Desk web page. l Do not illegally use or share copyrighted materials.

Music and Video File Sharing … Legally 16 l Ruckus is a legal downloading service for students at Rensselaer. Sign up if you are interested. l RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) actively work to find computers that are violating copyright laws. RPI students have been sued by RIAA for illegal activities. l RPI does not monitor student activities, but does log network activities when served with legal notice. Be responsible!

Caring for your laptop 17 l Do not leave laptop unattended l Use the security cable (even in your room) l Laptops don’t drink – avoid liquids l Treat it gently – don’t stuff too many books in your backpack l Do not leave it in a car – too hot, too cold, tempting to steal l Periodically fully discharge and recharge the battery

Protecting Your Data l l l 18 Don’t share passwords Beware of phishing attempts Don’t open attachments when you aren’t expecting them and/or don’t know the sender

Protecting your laptop 19 l The laptop comes with a three-year manufacturer’s warranty and accidental damage coverage – take it to Rensselaer Computer Repair l Keep Windows up-to-date – set your laptop to update automatically Remember - for information about the Mobile Computing Program and support for your laptop, go to www. rpi. edu/laptops

No viruses and spyware here l l Symantec Antivirus software is pre-installed on your laptop – Keep it up-to-date using automatic (recommended) or manual updates – It’s available free to all RPI students, so you can also install it on a desktop. Combat spyware: suggested software to install: – 20 – Windows Defender Ad-Aware and Spybot

Backup Your Data Only you can protect your data! l Rescue and Recovery – part of the Think. Vantage Productivity Center l DVD writer, USB flash drive, or external hard drive can be used to backup data l EZ-Snapshot - Campus network backup – – 21 10 gigabytes of free backup storage Need to register and configure this application. See “Other Services” on the Help Desk web page.

Back to the future In the future, you might want to (or need to) put your system back to the out-of-the-box state. This is called “re-imaging”. We can assist with this process at the Help Desk. But – this process destroys your data files and any applications you may have installed. You must back them up before re-imaging. 22

Can’t remember all this? Just remember rpinfo. rpi. edu (the default home page on your laptop) RPInfo: Rensselaer's Information System has direct links to l l l 23 l Help Desk Respite Webmail Campus Computer Store SIS RPI LMS and much more!

Rensselaer Acronyms VCC – Voorhees Computing Center l ARC – Academic and Research Computing l Dot. CIO – Division of the Chief Information Officer l RCS – Rensselaer Computing System l RCR – Rensselaer Computer Repair l RCCS – Rensselaer Campus Computer Store l 24

A New Beginning Welcome to Rensselaer And Happy Computing! 25