Introduction
We would like to welcome you to our computer labs, and hope you find them useful and pleasant to use. The labs are available to students taking any course offered by Computer Science, Theoretical and Applied Mathematics, and other related cross-department and research uses (see faculty). There have been many changes and improvements over the summer, so please read this carefully.
Physical locationThe labs are physically located in the Arts and Sciences Building in the following rooms:
Room 241 – Teaching Lab. Available to students for general use when classes are not being taught, but students not in the class must leave before a class begins. Machines are dual core Intel which can also dual boot between Windows XP and KUbuntu Linux. Schedules will be posted in advance, if at all possible.
Room 254 – This room is used as a lab on one half, and a general purpose area on the other. The configuration of these machines is identical to 241 except that some machines are single processor. Some classes are taught here, and meetings are also held here, so be aware of this. Schedules will be posted in advance, if at all possible.
The account you have been granted logs you into both the Windows side of the lab machines, and the linux side with the same password. It also gives you access to our eight remote access windows machines (available by campus or VPN network RDP connection; look on the windows communications menu). These remote access windows machines are named winremote1.cs.uakron.edu and numerically increasing to winremote8.cs.uakron.edu. A status web page is available here. Please check it before attempting to connect to one. Please also be sure to log off these systems before disconnecting or the session will lock on your account. If this happens (network disconnect, power failure, etc.), you can re-connect and resume your session where you left off.
You may also use our remote access linux machines with the same password, which are available from anywhere in the world. Their names are: wirth, berry and knuth (append .cs.uakron.edu for the full network name). The remote access linux machines will accept ssh and scp connections, and use the same file space as your windows Z: drive, so moving files securely is easy.
More information on changing passwords can be found here.
Initial Account Setup: From a campus network location, e.g. a UANET kiosk, or VPN connection, please set your password using the method your instructor has told you about (reminder: click here), before you attempt to log in on any CS computers.Please pay close attention to the instructions on those web pages because sometimes it takes a few days to get the accounts set up, and we do have rules that you must accept in order to use our facilities. IF YOU ADD THE CLASS LATE, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR INSTRUCTOR SENDS EMAIL TO SYSTEMS STAFF, OTHERWISE THIS WILL NEVER WORK FOR YOU. Systems staff do not have direct access to enrollment information, so we don't see changes.
NOTE: Firefox 3 complains about self-signed certificates. This is normal and will also happen when you try to access our submission server (submit.cs.uakron.edu). You should go through the steps to allow our certificates. Pay close attention to what the browser is telling you. IE does something similair. Other web browsers will probably issue similair warnings. You just have to get through to the web site.
File SpaceWhen you log into Windows, you get a Z: drive, which is your home directory, and a T: drive. Your Z: drive should be where you keep all your files, and it is backed up. The profile directory of your Z: drive stores the contents of what looks 'local' to each computer as your 'C:\Documents and Settings\username' area which also includes your 'My Documents'. If you need access from linux to files that you created under windows, they are somewhere in your profile directory or below. The T: drive is where your instructors distribute class materials, and is read-only to students.
The lab machines are re-imaged often, so drive Z: is the only place your files will not vanish. You have been warned.
(You can also use a flash drive that you are free to supply; you can plug them into one of the USB ports on the side of the monitors and windows will automatically make them available to you. Linux should also allow this kind of thing, but it hasn't been tested, and the details will be new and different. If it works automatically, a window will start showing the contents of your flash drive. Don't forget to right click on the device icon and 'unmount' it before you remove it.)
Sunday Access
The Arts and Sciences (CAS) building is closed on Sundays. To get Sunday access to the labs, please bring a $10 deposit to the Computer Science Department office during normal business hours. You will be given a key card for the semester to get into the building on Sundays.
This card must be turned in before the last day of finals week in order to get your deposit back!!!
More InformationMore detailed and up-to-date lab information will be posted here.
RulesYou are responsible for abiding by the lab rules (to which you had to agree in order to set your password), and any changes and additions posted both in the labs, and at http://cs.uakron.edu/labs/rules.
IN CASE OF TROUBLEIn the event of any problems with the machines, please let us know by advising your instructor, and/or by contacting the lab manager. If we don't know about a problem, we can't fix it
Your lab manager is: Chuck Van Tilburg; CAS233, x7130, cvantil@uakron.eduThank you for reading this, and we hope you enjoy using the labs!