What's New in the Computer Labs?

If you're a student, or perhaps a faculty or staff member who uses the labs, you've probably noticed many changes since last spring. That includes the obvious:

• Many new computers
• Some with new flat-panel displays, which means more space on each desk, lower power consumption, less heat
• A completely new Science lab
• New carpeting in the Olin lab
• A little added color in Maxey, courtesy of the creative talents and elbow grease of Keiko Pitter, our Chief Technology Officer
• Personal logins, with access to your personal file storage folder on the Acad-server.

Plus other things you might not know about, and even some things that may have left you frustrated if we haven't yet solved all their problems. Here's the inside scoop on what we're doing in the labs and why:

• Accessing your personal network folder
• Saving on lab hard drives
• New protection system for lab computers
• Testing of automatic "log off" software
• How to log off manually -- read this section, even if you read nothing else!

Accessing Your Personal Network Folder

When you log into any lab computer, you are automatically connected to your private file storage folder on the Acad-server. You may store up to 20MB on this server. That's total, by the way -- so files you may store in Pub or in other Acad-server locations will be included in that limit. 20MB isn't a huge amount of space, but we hope it will help provide a location for you to store term papers and other class-related documents.

This is the first time WCTS has ever been able to offer fileserver folders to students, and we tried to do a few things to make it easier and more convenient for you -- some worked, and some didn't. We're still working the kinks out, continuing to collect feedback from students about the good and the bad, and trying to make changes as needed, so please bear with us.

For example:

• On any PC, you can go right to your folder by selecting the "G" drive (you are probably used to selecting the "C" drive to get the computer's hard drive, the "A" drive to select the floppy drive, etc). That works fine.
  
• On any Macintosh, you will see a desktop icon labeled "Files". Open that icon, locate and open the Home folder, and scroll through the alphabetical list to fine the folder marked with your username. Not as convenient as we'd like, but it works.
  
• We tried to set up the My Documents folder on the PCs to automatically go to your server folder, when browsing, or when saving or opening. That has been trickier, and we've had some reports of students losing files that somehow didn't end up in their personal folder when they saved to My Documents. We're working on that, but we don't want to risk having any more students lose files, so we may have to abandon that idea.
  
  For now, we recommend that you specifically select the "G" drive when you are saving files, so you can be sure your documents are safely saved. This is especially true if you are using a wireless laptop in the library. A laptop can lose its wireless connection, without your awareness. If you specifically look for the "G" drive when saving, and if it is there and you can open it, then your network connection is fine and you can save your file to the server.

Saving to Hard Drives on Lab Computers

At the beginning of the year, we had eliminated locations on computer hard drives where you could save files. Our hope was that you would save to your Acad-server folder which is much safer, and that eliminating document storage on hard drives would keep them clearer and more functional. That didn't work -- we admit it. We got lots of feedback from students about the need to save files to lab hard drives in some circumstances, and your points were valid. We have already added a Temp folder to all Macintoshes, and are in the process of returning the "T" drive to all Windows PCs. Those are both hard drive locations where you can save files.

If you do save to the hard drive, it should be the short-term only! That space is accessible to anybody, and your files can be opened, changed, and deleted by anybody. Also, these locations will be automatically purged every week.

New Computer "Protection" Systems for PCs and Macs

This is nothing new in concept, WCTS has always had something in place to limit how much a lab workstation can be changed (and potentially messed up). This is important so that you can sit down at any computer and be confident that it will work, worst case after a restart, no matter what heinous things the previous user did to it. This also helps keep the time WCTS staff must spend constantly fixing lab computers to a somewhat manageable level.

What is new this year is how we're doing it:

• All PCs in major labs now run Windows XP, and a new version of protection software called Deep Freeze. Both work together to keep the computers in working condition. Windows XP is set up to limit many kinds of changes that could potentially mess up the computer, and Deep Freeze tries to put everything back to its original state every time the computer is restarted.
  
• All Macintoshes in major labs now run software called MacAdministrator. This software limits the changes that can be made to the computer, and allows us to do things like sending out software updates and fixes to all lab Macs from a central server.

And now, the annoying part...

The plan is to hone these protection systems to the point that the computers work better and are more reliable than in the past. But the only way to do that is to start with the settings very "tight" and then loosen them bit by bit until we reach that balance of protecting the computers as much as possible, while enabling you to do all the things you need to do. WCTS did lots of testing during the summer, but we can't know everything students need to be able to do until you start using those computers and letting us know when you run into a problem. We are collecting all this feedback and trying to make whatever adjustments we can as quickly as possible, so again-- we appreciate your patience.

We also know that sometimes MacAdministrator can be very slow to get you to the login window on a Macintosh. We're working on that too.

Testing Automatic "log-off" Software

Your Acad-server folder is secure, but only if you remember to log-off from the computer when you are done (did we say that already?)!  Lots of people still forget, however, and we in WCTS worry about that.

We have been testing software that will attempt to log you off automatically after a prescribed period of inactivity.

• On the Macs, MacAdministrator does this already, after 15 minutes of inactivity. If you left a document open, however, it will ask if you want to save the document, and wait for someone to click a button to answer before proceeding with the logoff. We hope that the next person to approach the computer will be nice and click save, but it is possible they might not (another reason backups are so important!).
  
• On the PCs we are testing a software tool called NetOff. With NetOff, if you have left a document open, it should be automatically saved to the "T" drive before you are logged off. We had this software on some of the PCs in the Olin lab, but currently it is only being tested on the WCTS workbench, as we resolve a couple problems with settings.
  
• The amount of idle time before either type of software kicks in is being tested at 15 minutes. We need to hear from you if that is not a realistic amount of time, or if you experience any problems. One area of concern is the library -- you may be working on a computer, leave to get a book, photocopy, etc, and return to find yourself logged off. We're back to that persnickety balance issue -- how to keep your server account safe without interfering with your work. We'll see how this testing goes, make adjustments based on your feedback, and determine whether to install NetOff on the remaining lab PCs.

How to Manually log-off From Your Network Account

We may have mentioned this somewhere before... but it is very important to log-off when you are done working at any lab computer. If you leave a computer logged in to your account, anyone can change or delete your Acad-server files, or put new files in your folder (virus-ridden or otherwise).

To log off from a PC:

• Click the Start button, and select log off.

From a Macintosh:

• Drag the Files icon from the Desktop to the trash. Note: MacAdministrator is supposed to do that automatically during the logout process, but we've had isolated reports of that not happening, so we recommend you do it manually, just to be extra safe.
• Click the Special menu, and select logout: [your username] (your own network username will be shown there, without brackets).

Shannon Callister