In order to achieve your computing goals most effectively, you may need to make use of a variety of the hardware and software computing resources available to you. We will introduce you to the computing facilities available in the School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSEAS). We'll also mention some of the other resources available outside the HSEAS.
The symbols [RETURN] and [CR] both mean that you are to press the carriage return key on your keyboard. The symbol [ESCAPE] means that you are to press the escape key on your keyboard.
HSEAS computing is organized at the HSEAS level, the Department level, and the research group level. What this means is that some machines are made available to the entire HSEAS, some machines are maintained as resources for just one department, and some machines are dedicated to the needs of specific research groups. All HSEAS faculty, staff and graduate students have access to HSEAS wide resources. In general, faculty, staff and graduate students in a particular department have access to the Unix machines maintained by their department. Finally, members of research groups usually have access to computing facilities maintained by their research groups.
HSEAS tries to maintain a "one account works everywhere" policy. This means that you should be able to use the same account to access HSEAS, department and research facilities to which you have access.
For more information about the computing facilities in HSEAS and each of the departments, see the Resources section of the Introduction to Unix Tutorial.
Each department also maintains one or more printers, with some departments such as EE and Optics having ten or more available. To see which printers are available from the machine you're using, issue the command:
printers
The names of the printers often refer to the room they're in.
The HSEAS previously owned and maintained it's own School-wide broadband network. The HSEAS broadband network was connected to the UR backbone network.
It became apparent that the broadband was becoming increasingly wobbly, with poor reliability and performance. Worse, spare parts were not available. In the winter of 1997-1998, the Computing and Networking Group redesigned the HSEAS network, and in the summer of 1998 began replacing the outdated broadband with ethernet switches. At the time of this update (Spring 2001) we are beginning to upgrade our primary network equipment again, to support 100mbs connections to the UR backbone and Internet-2, and Computer Studies Building and Hopeman currently have 100mbs uplinks and Internet-2 connections.
The UR backbone network is in turn connected to the NYSERNET (Net York State Educational and Research NETwork), which in turn is connected to the worldwide Internet. Applied Theory provides remote managment of those connections and Sprintlink provides the physical connections. THe UR has a fall-back internet connection with Global Crossing.
From any of the HSEAS, departmental or research Unix computers, you can connect to virtually any other computer in HSEAS, or the UR. Also, you have direct access to a wide number of computers and other resources available on the Internet. The inverse is true; any HSEAS computer can be seen by just about any other host on the internet.
All of the AppleTalk networks (used by Apple Macintosh computers) in HSEAS are gatewayed to either the HSEAS network or the UR backbone. This means that using public domain software, you can login or transfer files from any of the same HSEAS, UR or Internet computers that you can reach from the Unix computers. Also, a large number of printers and AppleShare file servers located throughout the UR are available via gatewayed AppleTalk networks. The localtalk portion of our network is being reduced all the time, and will probably disappear within the next two years. Most Macintoshes can and should be on the ethernet directly at this point.
The HSEAS maintains a staff of 4 full time system administrators/consultants. Our job is to manage the HSEAS computers and network, help run the department computers, and provide help and consulting to HSEAS users. Our group's charter requires we fully manage all UNIX and UNIX-like systems, all Windows NT and Windows 2000 systems, and all networking. We also support Apple Macintosh and Windows 95/98 systems.
The HSEAS staff consists of John Simonson (who is the overall manager of computing and networking in the HSEAS), John Strong and Jim Prescott (Senior System Administrators). The staff is located in offices on the 5th floor of the Computer Studies Bldg. and the 2nd floor of Gavett Hall. Our phone numbers and email addresses are:
John Simonson Phone: x53106 Email: gort John Strong Phone: x54873 Email: strong Jim Prescott Phone: x58265 Email: jgp Bob Lindholm Phone: x5o870 Email: bob
Finally, another source of help (and the preferred method of contact for non-emergency problems) is to send email to the special email address problem@ceas.rochester.edu or use the new web interface. Email sent to problem will be routed to at least two members of the HSEAS computing staff, who will respond via email. For more information on using email, see the Email Tutorial.
The HSEAS maintains a number of applications which are available to all HSEAS users. Some of them are proprietary products with some restrictions on the number of simultaneous users, and some are public domain applications with few usage restrictions.
There are now too many packages to list here. If you are not sure if a package is available, just send a note to problem@seas.rochester.edu.
The University of Rochester maintains a number of site licenses and has obtained a discounts on other licensed software packages. Academic Technology Services maintains the licenses for the UR. If you have software needs, contact problem@seas.rochester.edu before going out to buy the software you need. We can direct you to the correct office on campus. We have installation media for a number of packages, and all you need do is buy the license, usually at a much lower cost and easily available with a requisition from UR Computer Sales (for PC and Mac software).
UR policy forbids the installation of "pirated" software. You must have a license for every commericial package on any system you use.
You should be familiar with the Computer Use Policy, document. This document states what rights and responsibilities you have as a user of HSEAS computers. This document is maintained by the HSEAS School Computing Committee and is subject to change from time to time. You can read the current version of the policy document at any time by issuing the command policy. You are responsible for knowing the contents of this document and adhering to the regulations contained within.
There are other computational facilities available to all members of the UR community. A large lab of Macintosh and IBM PCs is available in the CLARC facility, which is located in the back of the Rush Rhees Library - n the lower level, facing the Susan B Anthony dormitory.
ITS also maintains several UNIX and Windows systems providing services (e.g., undergraduate Email, the primary UR Web presence) for some portions of the UR population. ITS also provides consulting services. Do not contact ITS about problems with HSEAS computing and networking problems - they cannot help you. Likewise, we cannot help you with ITS mail or web issues, nor can we assist you with the UR Campus-wide Wireless network.
All UR undergraduates have an email account on one of the Unix machines operated by the Information Technology Services (ITS, formerly the University Computing Center, or UCC). Contact ITS for information.
Every Fall, the HSEAS CNG staff offers a tutorial series on Unix computing. The handouts from this series are available all year either from the CNG staff in Computer Studies Building, or in the Consulting Office in Hopeman 417, or via the WWW (click on the titles to access). The courses include Introduction to UNIX, Electronic Mail, Intermediate UNIX, Editors and Formattres, Programming Tools, Communications Tools, and An Introduction to Computer Security.
Due to lack of staff and time, this tutorial series has not been offered
for the past few years. We do hope to continue to offer these brown-bag
presentations. However, in lieu of a live presentation, you can point
your web browser at
http:www.seas.rochester.edu//CNG/docs/
where we keep tutorial materials (and other information) online.
HSEAS, and each HSEAS department provides a web server for that domain (school or department). Other web servers are not permitted. While web server software is available for most desktop systems (Mac, Wintel) you should not run that software, and you should ensure that it is not running on your system. Falure to attend to this retstriction will get your system(s) taken off the network.
These pages are maintained by an individual assigned by the department. They are in effect the department's "brochure" about the department. These pages often include individual pages for faculty and staff.
These pages are for individual courses, projects, and labs. They are managed by the instructor, lab directory, project leader, or their delegate. To obtain a web page area in this category, you will need to contact the individual responsible for coordinating the departmental pages. If they authorize you to have pages in this area, they will contact the CNG, who will create the area for you (we won't create the web pages, just the place for them).
These are the web pages that are maintained by individuals. Faculty, staff, and graduate students are permitted to have personal web pages. We currently create a small default web page for eligible individuals in HSEAS, BME, ECE, MechE, and ChemE. Your personal web page should adhere to all UR restrictions, and should not consume too much space.
Additional information regarding your personal web page and their maintenence is mailed to you. You may also look at http://www.seas.rochester.edu//CNG/docs/web.html
Last modifed: Thursday, 07-Apr-2011 09:24:03 EDT