It:it facillities

Introduction to Email and IT Facilities

To get to this page, enter http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/wiki/

Startup for New Students

• A Student Portal and hub are available for all things Imperial.
• 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.ic.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 displayed in most computer rooms.

Help

• Support 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) or by emailing service.desk@imperial.ac.uk. The Faculty ICT support team have an office in the chemistry department, located off room 134, where urgent and chemistry specific queries can be directed.
• The Operating systems directly supported are Windows XP Professional (not Vista), Linux Redhat (Enterprise version 5) and MacOS X (Version 10.4/10.5).

Logging in

• Login: The Windows XP, 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 Command-alt-delete (i.e. all three keys at once) to bring up the Task Manager, and select Password from there. Note that the password may not be updated until 20 minutes past the hour, so you might not get an instant response. If you forget your password, you will have to get someone from the faculty IT support team (see below) to reset your password. It is also possible to change a password using this web page.

Good Practice in Computer Use

• Game playing is strongly discouraged, largely because it is a distraction for others, Be considerate! "llegal 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.

Individual User Profiles

1. 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 (2008) is currently are set to roaming off which means it does not persist between different computers you may use. It is particularly important therefore 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: (see below).
2. You are are issued (auto-enrolled) with a digital certificate with which you can sign your email and some document types such as Microsoft Word. Later in 2008, credential roaming will be enabled, which allows you to access your digital certificate from any computer.

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

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.

1. If you wish to change details about yourself in the College email directory, go here.
2. When letting others know how to send mail to you, tell them to use the E-mail name:
   firstname.lastname08@ic.ac.uk.
   Don't confuse your email name with your login name.
3. 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 this is to be found here, where you can also learn how to configure Outlook for home use, and even set up your mobile phone.
4. You can also use the web page: https://icex.imperial.ac.uk/Exchange/ if you are away from College, and it is also possible to read Exchange mail on an appropriate mobile (see below).
5. You are reminded that inappropriate use of email ( as detailed in the guidelines) could result in disciplinary action against you by the College.

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 pre-configured), got to Tools/Account settings and follow the prompts.

Document Storage areas

There are two types of documents; those written for you by lecturers, and those you write yourselves.

Files-to-read

The definitive pointers to all on-line course notes and materials are to be found at:

1. https://www.ic.ac.uk/chemistry/students/teaching/ (the little yellow padlock means you will need to provide your College login ID and password)
2. The above should normally point you to a system called Blackboard, where many lecturers post their teaching handouts.
3. A number of course notes are also held on this Wiki, including several laboratory courses.
4. There is a lecture podcasts collection.
5. The central library has many reference collections

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.

• 1. You have a hard drive C:. This contains system files, applications, temporary areas and other files. You should not normally try to save anything on C:, since the files will stay with the machine, and not move if you log onto a different machine. The Desktop also uses drive C:, so its always a bad idea to place documents there.
  2. 
     There are four network drives, 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 the example here as icfs8.cc.ic.ac.uk, and is where your documents are normally stored (if you really need to find out what your home address is, try 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 500 Mbytes (0.5 Gbytes). The drive H: area will also be available to MacOS X users (again use the designation "Home" to reach H:).
  3. 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 also 500 Mbytes.
  4. Drive R: contains spectroscopy files from NMR samples, to which you need access in some courses. You cannot write to this area.
  5. 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.

Please note that if you exceed your allocation of 500 Mbytes in drive H: or drive L:, 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 TreeSize 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 (to delete, right mouse click in treeview). In the example on the left, the two directories flagged red are clearly the problem (one of them, My Music, was the result of trying to store the iTunes library on H:. See below).

Backing up

• You are advised to copy your critical personal documents and files to your 500 Mbyte allocation of network disk space (drive H: or also drive L:) which are both 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 500 Mbyte quota might be exceeded (even if temporarily) because of these temporary files. You are strongly advised if you are creating/editing 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.

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 16 Gbyte £25 and some phones/music players with similar capacities (i.e. iPod /iPhone) can also be used for data. Floppy disk is extinct (but they can still be read). Email is limited to 25 Mbytes as an attachment. CD-RW (650MB via writable CDs), 4.6 Gbyte via writable DVDs and up to 160 Gbyte using an iPod Classic can all also be used.

Files-to-listen

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 3-4 such files could cause you to exceed your space allocation of 500 Mbytes. 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 Z: (the data silo) or e.g. an iPod or USB stick that you have previously plugged into a USB port (this works best if you use a USB 2.0 device, rather than the older, much slower, but now rare USB 1.1 type). Some mobile phones (i.e.the Nokia N91) can also download a podcast directly, as can an iPhone/iPod Nano Touch 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.

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 Skydrive or Apple's MobileMe which offer a variety of sync options to phones and other devices. You should note the privacy statements. These types of storage are 400 Mbyte upwards.

Software available to you

Software provided on College-owned computers includes Web browsing programs, Microsoft Office 2007 (which includes Outlook 2007 and presentation programs such as Powerpoint), EndNote (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.

The department also has a Site License for a program system called ChemBio3D, the terms of which allow individual undergraduates to acquire a copy of the program and to install it on their personal computer. The license is an annual one. 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.

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, iPod, etc. A fat bundle of paper may be reassuringly heavy, but think of the planet!

Using your Own Computer

• Campus Computer Purchase: This year, 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): http://www.dabs.com/uk for commodities such as memory, hard drives, etc. Apple: http://apple.procureweb.ac.uk/ for favourable deals on 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 chemistry specific software). You ARE allowed to install the Norton anti-virus software. You can often get very good price deals as students for much other software. In 2008, Microsoft is running a promotion for Office 2007 Ultimate which costs £38.95+VAT for a perpetual license. Note also the site license for ChemBio3D, which you can install on your own computer. You can also install SciFinder.
• Computer Health check: You can take your e.g. laptop to the help desk area on level 4, Sherfield building, for a drop-off and pick-up service, whereby you leave the computer to be given a health check. In chemistry, a Faculty-based ICT support team is located in the Chemistry department, in room 134.
• Hall of Residence: A Scheme called Student Connect allows students in halls of residence to access departmental facilities. Support for this is run entirely by Student Connect, whom you should approach in case of difficulties (their office is in Sherfield Building on level 4).
• Connection in College: Only "Health Checked" computers should be connected to the Imperial network. Wi-Fi zones are available in the main computer room and laboratories to facilitate this (see below). In order for the connection to work correctly, you must register your computer for our network. Do the following:
  1. Connect to http://netreg.ic.ac.uk/ using some other machine
  2. Enter into this database the so-called MAC (Media Access Control) ethernet address of your laptop using the instructions given at the above site.
  3. The laptop should be configured to get its network settings using "DHCP".If you do get a virus (and it can sometimes take only a few seconds for your system to become infected if its online) this will be quickly detected and your machine disabled from using the network. It will then be a moderately bureaucratic process to get your machine allowed back onto the network (and no-one likes bureaucracy!).
• WiFi Hotspots: The chemistry study area,
  
  Pippard and Lecture theatres C and D, Perkin, Briscoe and Frankland laboratories all have a Wireless Network system (along with other Wi-Fi "hot spots" around College, which are being constantly added to; look out for notices bearing the logo shown on the right). If you install a wireless card into your laptop, you can connect to the network, which will appear as Imperial-WPA. 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 phones

Smart mobile phones are rapidly becoming the new computer platform, being capable not only of voice and text messaging, but also GPS location, photography, music playing, Email and many new applications (including one called Molecules). The plethora of phone types means that few are actively supported on Campus in the same way that computers are, largely because most smart phones require bespoke software to manage their complexity. One such program, iTunes, is installed on the departmental computers for managing the iPhone/iPod Touch range. In addition, help pages exist to help you get your iPhone online (WiFi) and email capable:

1. Connecting the iPhone/iPod Touch to the Campus WiFi
2. Configuring your iPhone to use Exchange ActiveSync
3. Support pages

As of 2008, smart phones or similar devices had not been embedded into the chemistry course, but no doubt their time will come! If you have any bright ideas, let us know! --Rzepa 08:41, 21 August 2008 (BST)