Facilities: The main chemistry computer facilities are located in two rooms, which are open 0830-22.30 Monday-Friday. One is normally scheduled for taught courses, the other is part of the student study area. 24-Hour opening is available in the central library area.
User accounts: All new BSc, MSci and Socrates Exchange students who have registered at Imperial College will have been allocated an e-mail account for use in the chemistry department. This account can be activated from any Web-access point via the URL: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/ict/activateaccount/. You will need to provide your personal details such as date of birth and the College ID (CID) number that you will have received through the post. You will then be asked to set an account password. This will have to conform to certain rules which will be explained here. Important: If you are activating your account on a College computer, you will need to log into it first using the temporary account activate. The password for this is Activate!
ICT FAQ - you can answer the majority of common IT issues yourself, save time and learn something new.
The web based service desk is here or you can email service.desk@imperial.ac.uk.
Support in the form of humans is available from the Service Desk in the ICT division, located on level 4 of the Sherfield building (one floor down from the Pippard lecture theatre), telephone 020 759 49000. The Faculty ICT support team have an office in the chemistry department, located off room 135, where urgent and chemistry specific queries can be directed.
A mobile app for IOS/Android is available with useful information, maps, events etc.
The operating systems directly supported are Windows 7 Enterprise, Linux Redhat (Enterprise version 6) and MacOS X (Version 10.7).
Logging in
Login: The Windows 7, MacOS X and Unix (Redhat Linux) computers ALL require that the login and password be typed. Remember, the password is CASE sensitive. Concentrate also on whether what you need to type is e.g. a zero (0) or an o/O, an i/I or a one (1), an S or a five (5), etc. If you are asked for a domain, ensure you specify IC.
Password change
You can change your password. On Windows, press Control-alt-delete (i.e. all three keys at once) to bring up options, one of which allows you to change your password. If you forget your password, you will have to get someone from the faculty IT support team (see above) to reset your password. It is also possible to change a password using this web pageto set up security questions and this page to reset.
Good Practice and Plagiarism
Game playing is strongly discouraged, largely because it is a distraction for others, Be considerate!
Illegal downloads are particularly frowned upon; remember these cannot be done anonymously, and can be traced back to their originator. Depending on the circumstances, disciplinary action can be invoked.
Don't!
=== Individual User Profiles ===
Any items placed on the "'desktop"' are stored in something called your Profile, along any customisations you might make of the Web browser etc. This profile for new user accounts (2012) is currently are set to roaming off which means settings do NOT persist between different computers you may use. It is particularly important that you do NOT store your documents on the desktop, since they will not re-appear there if you change machine (and any documents which are placed on a desktop are cleared out overnight, so can only go back to a specific computer and retrieve them on the same day you create them). You should always store your work on drive H: or L: (see below).
Logging out
When you have finished a session on any computer, you must:
NOT SWITCH or POWER OFF the computer
Instead, log off the computer, but do not RESTART or POWER it down
MyTimetable
A personalised timetable for your lectures and labs can be accessed here. From October 2012, it should be possible to use mytimetable to populate Outlook Calendar (instructions can be found on the mytimetable site) and thence a mobile device. Before you try to use a mobile device to receive email, contacts and calendar entries, you have to request ActiveSync be turned on (its off by default).
Sync with Phones + warning
A phone can be used to sync with Microsoft Exchange (Configuring your iPhone to use Exchange ActiveSync) which will allow an Outlook Calendar to sync with a phone calendar. Warning: ActiveSync will push notifications to your phone/iPad etc. If you have a data plan, and go abroad, this may incur significant expense. Do not switch the service on if you do not wish to incur such expense!
A note about Timetables...
The timetable which is available to you through MyTimetable may not be complete; we try our best to make sure it is, however the 'Gold Standard' timetable is always available in the form of an Excel spreadsheet from the departmental web page (available here, IC Logon required). You will be informed of any changes to the timetable with at least 24 hours notice - this is why it is important to check your email once a day!
EMail
Your login ID can be used to receive and send electronic mail, and indeed we assume that your will read this email regularly. Course organisers, lecturers, tutors etc will try to contact you using your College email address, and some of these emails might be urgent, so you should check on a daily basis.
If you wish to change details about yourself in the College email directory, go here.
When letting others know how to send mail to you, tell them to use the E-mail name: firstname.lastnameXX@imperial.ac.uk, where XX is your year of entry (for example, joe.bloggs09@imperial.ac.uk, or jenny.smith11@imperial.ac.uk) Don't confuse your email name with your login name.
When sending mail, you can use Microsoft Outlook (Windows) or Apple Mail (MacOS X). Do NOT use Outlook Express (which bears no relation to Outlook itself!). Documentation on how to use Outlook is to be found here, where you can also learn how to configure Outlook for home use, and even set up your mobile phone.
You can also use the web page: https://exchange.imperial.ac.uk/ if you are away from College, and it is also possible to read Exchange mail on an appropriate mobile device (see below).
You are reminded that inappropriate use of email ( as detailed in the guidelines) could result in disciplinary action against you by the College.
Email size quota
You have a quota of 1 Gbyte for storing email. You can extend this by asking for archiving to be switched on.
Multiple Mail accounts
You probably already have one or more personal email accounts. You can continue to use these, and read email sent to them whilst you are at College, but you may not always be able to send email using this account from a College Computer. To set up more than one account in Outlook 2007 (your College account is already pre-configured), go to Tools/Account settings and follow the prompts.
Email redirection
If you do not want to read your College mail directly, but prefer to receive all messages via your own account (Hotmail, Gmail etc), then you can redirect your college mail here. Note however that this action is not easily reversible, ie to stop the redirection, you will have to contact the ICT service desk.
Document Storage areas
There are two types of documents; those written for you by lecturers/book authors, and those you write yourselves (and some for which both are true!).
Files-to-read
The definitive pointers to all on-line course notes and materials are to be found at:
The above should normally point you to a Virtual learning environment called Blackboard, where most lecturers post their teaching handouts or pointers to them. Your lab grades will also be posted here and it is also where you will access LabSkills, a set of animations showing operating of various laboratory apparatus.
A number of course notes are also held on this Wiki, including several laboratory courses.
There is a lecture podcasts collection and an iTunesU area which is coming soon.
Students in general do not have permission to mount personal web pages on departmental servers, but some areas of our Wiki are writable for students (i.e projects and reports).
Files-to-stay
Once you have logged in, this process will have set up a number of storage areas for your own documents.
You have a hard drive C: (located on a computer called chws11). This contains system files, applications, temporary areas and other files. You should not try to save anything on C: This drive is 'deep frozen' - which means it will revert to its original state each time the computer is restarted. The Desktop also uses drive C:, so its always a bad idea to place documents there.
There are FIVE network locations, which do move with the machine, i.e. anything you put in these is available on any machine.
The first is drive H: (think of it as Home) on a device called the SAN. In Windows the location is \\ic.ac.uk\homes\username and is where your documents are normally stored. If you need to find out where your home directory is in MacOS or Linux, see Home Directory Location. Clicking on a "home" icon on a (Windows or MacOS X) desktop should take you straight to this area. It has a space quota of 1 Gbyte. The drive H: area will also be available to MacOS X users (again use the designation "Home" to reach H:).
Drive L: is an area used as "home" when you log into the Linux operating system. It is where documents created using Linux are stored. The quota here is 400 Mbyte.
drive M: is used to store bibliographic libraries, containing reprints of journal articles, etc. The quota is 720 Mbyte. You should point programs such as Mendeley, EndNote or iTunes at this space.
Drive R: is a read-only area which contains spectroscopy files from NMR samples, to which you need access in some courses.
Drive Z: is what we call a data silo. It has larger capacity than H: or L:, but the files are not backed up, and may be deleted if the space is needed by others. Use this for storing temporary, but perhaps larger files.
Where has my quota gone?
If you exceed your quota allocation, new files cannot be written, and you will need to delete some old ones. Find out how much space you have on any drive by selecting it, pressing the right-mouse-button, and opting for JDiskView from the menu that appears. This will tell you the distribution of files within the entire drive, and enables you to decide what to focus on if files need deleting to create space.
Backing up
You are advised to copy your critical personal documents and files to your allocation of network disk space (drive H: or also drive L: or M:) which are all backed up on a nightly basis. Also, keep at least one other backup copy of critical files on a removable medium such as USB flash drive. IMPORTANT: Programs like Microsoft Word can generate quite large documents, and lots of temporary files, backup versions etc. If you save/access large documents directly from drive H:, you may find that your quota might be exceeded (even if temporarily) because of these temporary files. You are strongly advised if you are creating/editing very large documents in particular to store them directly to the hard disk (C:) in the temp area, and then copy a final version of the file to both drive H: just before you log out of your session and also to a removable device such as a USB Drive.
NEVER keep the only copy of a document on a local hard drive or especially a USB key. A single copy of a document may as well not exist. ALWAYS keep a backup.
File-to-come
During your courses, you will have to write and submit laboratory reports, set problems, literature reports and research exercises. The coordinator of each exercise will let you know how to submit your document. This may range from depositing a printed version in a tray, emailing a Word document, uploading to the Turnitin area of the Blackboard VLE and populating a Wiki.
Files-to-go
To move documents from College computers to your own personal systems, you are advised to purchase a "USB Pen drive" or "Memory stick" device.
These plug into the USB port, located on the keyboard or front panel of the computer. Typically, a stand-alone 2 Gbyte device will cost about £5 and the largest (256Gbyte) ~£700. Some phones/music players with similar capacities (iPod /iPhone) can also be used for data. Email is limited to 25 Mbytes as an attachment (if you want to exchange larger, use this), 4.6 Gbyte via writable DVDs and up to 160 Gbyte using an iPod Classic can all also be used.
Files-to-listen-and-watch
Some lecture courses have an associated Podcast. These are of the enhanced audio type, and include lecture slides and link to appropriate web sites. One procedure to acquire a podcast proceeds through iTunes. Using this program requires a little care.
Audio (and video) files can be very large, and by default, they are (unfortunately) stored by iTunes in your own networked document area (i.e. drive H:) where just 10 such files could cause you to exceed your space allocation of 1 Gbyte. To ensure this does not happen, start up iTunes (you will be asked to accept a license agreement) and from Edit/Preferences/Advanced, set the iTunes Music folder location to either drive M: or drive Z: (the data silo) or e.g. an iPod or USB stick that you have previously plugged into a USB port. Some mobile devices such as iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad can download directly using WiFi.
If you have been given the URL of podcast material, click on the following e.g. itpc://teaching.ch.ic.ac.uk/podcasts/index.rss (this will open iTunes, subscribe the podcast, and download the latest entry automatically for you). or if that does not work, enter the above using Advanced/Subscribe to Podcast, or enter http://teaching.ch.ic.ac.uk/podcasts/index.rss into an RSS-aware Web browser. Once the podcast is subscribed, click on the little triangle (red circle) to view all the individual entries.
iTunesU
Imperial College is currently considering whether to offer materials in the form of an iTunesU store, in the manner that other leading universities do. Imperial College already has a presence on iTunesU, but teaching materials at this moment are limited in their scope. Access to the Chemistry pages is available here.
Files-in-the-cloud
This means roaming files which are available to you from any location in the world. A number of services of this type are available. You might wish to try out Microsoft's Windows Live, Google's Drive or Apple's iCloud which offer a variety of sync options to phones and other devices. You should note the privacy statements. These types of storage are 500 Mbyte upwards.
Software available: Departmental computers
Software provided on College-owned computers includes Web browsing programs, Microsoft Office 2010 (which includes Outlook 2010, Word, Excel and presentation programs such as Powerpoint), EndNote X5 (for keeping track of references) and a variety of progams for chemical drawing, modelling, visualisation, spectroscopic processing and data acquisition. These will be introduced during the laboratory courses where they are relevant. Programs such as Microsoft Office are NOT available for installation on your own computer, and you will have to license this via your own arrangements. OpenOffice 3.1 provides much of the same functionality at no cost to the end user.
ChemBio3D/ChemDraw
The department also has a Site Licence for a program system called ChemBio3D/ChemDraw, the terms of which allow individual undergraduates to acquire a copy of the program and to install it on their personal computer. The licence is an tri-annual one, and if licensed now, will stop functioning in August, 2013.
Printing
Printing is a centralised service, with collection points located throughout the College. There are two in chemistry, one in each of the two computer rooms. Access is by swipe card, credit for which can be arranged.
To configure a Mac OS X computer for printing to the central service, download and run this application. To configure a Windows/Vista computer, go here. From this last page, you can also view your online account or manage print jobs.
Green note!
Always ask youself if you really need to print something! You may only need to view it once, and that could always be done on a computer screen, tablet, etc. A fat bundle of paper may be reassuringly heavy, but think of the planet! There is also a forthcoming generation of new software which can organize a collection of e.g. Acrobat files, allowing full text searches, and other useful things you cannot do with mere paper. One such (Mendeley) is currently installed on chemistry computers which allows you to upload your lecture and lab notes online, and hence to access to them (Sync) from any computer with a web browser (that has to be better than leaving your entire collection of paper on the train on the way home to revise!) or to share them with friends (the model is very iTunes-like).
ICT Service Status
You may rely on some central services. Their continually updated status is available here.
Using your Own Computer
Both Windows7 and Mac OS X 10.6 are supported. The latter has its own page for integration into the Campus network.
Campus Computer and Software Purchase
Students are eligible for HP computers and HP iPAQ handhelds at the Imperial corporate price points. Contact the ICT Software shop for more details (level 4, Sherfield building). Other Mail order (e.g): for commodities such as memory, hard drives, Apple computers, iPods, etc.
Software: As undergraduate students, you are not in general currently allowed to install College-licensed software onto your private computer (such as the Microsoft operating systems, the Microsoft office suite, and some chemistry specific software). You ARE allowed to install the following at no cost to yourself:
Apple have a special site http://apple.procureweb.ac.uk/ for favourable education deals. These for the most part are only available from the campus network, but can save as much as 15% on the cost of a computer.
Other Computer services available on Campus
Hall of Residence These are treated as part of the College campus, and high speed internet is available in rooms.
Connection in College: When you have connected your computer using an ethernet cable, open up a Web browser. The network will detect if your computer is unregistered, and if so, will redirect the browser to a registration page, which you should complete. There is no need to register a computer if you only intend connecting to the network using WiFi (see below).
WiFi Hotspots WiFi is available across all of the department, the Library and most social areas around College. You will also need to configure your system to connect as described here.
VPN Connection: Much valuable information is available by licensing schemes which are valid only within the College local area network (LAN), which is defined by a range of IP addresses. It is possible however to access this LAN from outside College (e.g. from an Internet Service provider using a modem or ADSL connection) as described here.
Access to your "Home directory" from outside College:. Once you have established a connection as per above, you can then access your College files. Detailed instructions on how to do this are available here.
Consumables: Blank CDs/DVDs, printer paper, ethernet patch leads etc are available from the ICU shop on the walkway.
Mobile Devices
Smart mobile phones are rapidly becoming more chemistry aware (see scientific collection). The plethora of phone types means that few are actively supported on campus in the same way that computers are, largely because most require bespoke software to manage their complexity. iTunes however is installed on the departmental computers (but not elsewhere such as e.g. the library) for managing the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad range. In addition, pages exist to help you get your iPhone online (WiFi) and email capable:
And do not forget that if you want information sent to your mobile device, you have to switch ActiveSync on.
Connecting to the Network
Connecting to the Wifi
A new iPad or iPhone can be configured for the secure Imperial network by starting Safari and selecting the Imperial Network. The procedure is then as shown on the right. This establishes all the correct settings, including those for Email and the calendar.
Mobile Phones/iPods//iPads and laboratories
The current policy in the department is that mobile phones should not be used whilst you are working in a laboratory. Like in cars, they can distract when held to your ear and distraction is not good news when there are chemicals, glassware and other apparatus which needs to be handled safely.
eBooks
The current course Book Bundle from OUP does not yet come as an (eBook). However, course texts produced by Inkling featuring e.g. rotatable molecules, and sharable annotations and notes may be a peek into the future.
iPad
Three sets of lecture course notes are now available as e-Books for the iPad, and around 15 good chemistry apps are also available. The selection is expected to increase in the future.
Identity security
A rapidly escalating issue is of identity security, especially on mobile devices. For example, Apple allow a user to opt out of identity collection. Some chemical information sources (Reaxys, SciFinder, Mendeley, etc) require individual students to sign up to fully access their services. If you are concerned about preserving your identity/anonymity, you should divulge as little personal information as possible to such sources.
Note also this interesting service which allows you to track a mobile device wherever it might be.
You are reading a Wiki. If you are a student at Imperial, you also can write as well as read these notes (in the manner of Wikipedia). If you spot a mistake, or become aware of a useful resource that could be shared with other students, do please annotate these notes (although be aware you cannot do so anonymously!).
