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Instructional Computer Facility

Welcome

Welcome to the instructional computer facility for undergraduate engineering majors. On this site you can get help with technical issues, report problems, download software, and reserve equipment & rooms.

News

October 2, 2009
A new pair of file servers has been brought online for the labs. The new servers should prove faster and more reliable than the old, single server setup. Please let us know of any issues.
September 8, 2009
The IT Department is pleased to introduce Faronics Deep Freeze into the Facility. Deep Freeze prevents permanent changes from being made to each computer it is installed on, which will eliminate accidental and malicious changes, including viruses, from affecting the next user who goes to use a computer.

All users should be aware that any data stored on or changes made to the C: and D: drives will be erased once they log out. Also note that after log out the computer will reboot to clear changes that were made by the previous user.

We hope the addition of Deep Freeze will result in a more consistent, faster and ultimately more productive computing environment for students and faculty.

Getting Started

  • Help and Support
  • Logon for the first time
    • Only students registered for engineering courses have access to the computing facilities.
    • The logon name is generated from the first six characters of the student's last name appended by the first and second initial, removing spaces and quotes. For example, for student Christopher T. McDowell, the username would be mcdowect. The initial password is your Banner ID prefixed with the first letter of your last name and with a lower case 'b'. For example, for our student Christopher T. McDowell with Banner ID B123456, the initial password would be Mb123456.
    • You'll be prompted to change your password after you've successfully logged on for the first time. We require the use of complex passwords which meet the following criteria:
      • At least 8 characaters long
      • Not one of your previous 3 passwords
      • Do not contain all or part of the user's account name.
      • Contain characters from three of the following four categories:
        • English uppercase characters (A through Z).
        • English lowercase characters (a through z).
        • Base-10 digits (0 through 9).
        • Non-alphanumeric (for example, !, $, #, %). extended ASCII, symbolic, or linguistic characters.
  • Policies
    • 30 Minutes Auto Logoff Policy
      • Due to security concerns of users not logging off properly in the facility we have implemented a 30 minutes auto logoff policy in the facility. Windows will logoff automatically when the computer stays idle for 30 minutes. Any running applications or opened files will be closed without saving. Therefore, you must save and logoff Windows if you do need to leave your desk for more than 30 minutes, otherwise you will lose whatever you were working on that was not saved.
  • User's Quota for Printing
    • There are two black and white printers (HP1 and HP2) and two color printers (HP3 and HP4) in the Instructional Facility. HP1 and HP3 are placed on the left hand side next to the door; HP3 and HP4 are placed on the right hand side.
    • Users are allowed to print 75 pages in black and white and 10 pages in color per day. Balances will be reset at midnight each day. If you need to print more than the quota limits or somehow your balance has not been reset, contact the Lab Monitors or your professor, they can reset your balance manually.
    • HP1 is the Default Printer for users who sit at the left hand side of the facility; for users who sit at the right hand side, it is HP2. You can always choose to print to a different printer.
  • User's Home Directory
    • The U: drive will be mapped to a user's home directory automatically when upon login. The space quota is 1GB. Approval from a Professor/Advisor will be needed in order to increase quota.
    • User's My Documents and Desktop will be redirected to user's Home Directory.
  • Quota Usage Inquiry
  • Temporary Work Spaces and Scratch Folders
    • D:\TEMP, D:\TMP, D:\Scratch and D:\Working Folder are the temporary work spaces and scratch folders for programs or projects that require larger space.
    • Keep in mind that all sub-folders and files will be removed at logoff.

Contact Us

help@engin.brown.edu