The computers in our lab are networked - this means they all have a data connection to a centralized computer called a server. The local computers are called clients. The clients and server cooperate across the network via a network operating system (NOS). To access network software and services from a client, it is necessary to login to the network. People entitled to use the network are issued a network userID and password. This userID (and password) is provided through your computer science instructor and is valid only for the local area networks administered by the Computer Science Department. This userID is separate from your UANET ID (which is issued by the Computer Center).
The Computer Science Department manages its own network. The clients are (mostly) dual boot to Linux or Windows XP. Your computer science class userID will initially be the same for either system. In this course, you may use either platform. However, this lab requires that you will be working from a Windows platform. The LAN (Local Area Network) to which the clients are connected, has a server running Linux. You are required to login to the network in order to use the printers, some software, or to access the Internet. Logging into the network will also give you access to a limited amount of private disk storage that is shared with your Linux account.
When you start the computer (under Windows XP), a window for logging into the network should be visible on the screen. Follow these instructions carefully to login. Your userID and password will be required to complete this step.
It is your responsibility to guard your password to prevent others from using your account. Some rules for good passwords:
You may change your password for the local Windows network. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and you will see a Change Password button. Follow the instructions provided after clicking the button. Note that this changes your password for the Windows client login only. Your Linux account will still have the original password. To change that password, you need to log into the Linux network. The process for doing this is not covered in this class. You might also wish to browse the online information at http://www.cs.uakron.edu/labs
ALWAYS LOGOUT BEFORE LEAVING YOUR WORKSTATION!!! Do the following steps for correctly logging out your computer:
When using the lab machines, you can store files in your My Documents folder. No matter which lab machine you access, these files should automatically follow you to the new machine (this utilizes Windows roaming profiles). Files on your desktop will do this as well. Each time you login and logout from a lab machine, the My Documents folder and Desktop on that machine is compared to the copies on the network. The two copies are synchronized.
We have noticed that the file synchronization is not always foolproof. For this reason, we recommend you take an additional step and store your files directly using the following procedure. While you are logged into a lab machine, you can access the network files (your linux home directory) via a mapped drive, Z:. Start the file explorer application (open the My Computer icon) and navigate to drive Z. You should create a folder to store your files. You might name it ICS_Files. You should move your project folders from your My Documents or Desktop to this folder before logging off. You should copy them back when you log in again.
If you want to access these files from home, you will need to use your departmental Linix account. The best way to access this from home (if you want to transfer the project files to/from your home computer) is to use WinSCP (a secure FTP client). WinSCP will allow you to transfer files or folders between your home computer and the departmental network. Please note that our server does not support standard ftp, only secure ftp.
WinSCP is a freeware client that can be downloaded (http://winscp.vse.cz/eng) for SSH access. This is the recommended way to access files in your account when you are not in the departmental labs.
To access the network file system, you open a new connection. Enter knuth.cs.uakron.edu in the first field. This identifies the machine to which you want to connect. There are several possible machines. See the list here: http://vonneumann.cs.uakron.edu/unix/home.html
Leave the number value as is, but enter you unixID and password (be sure to use your original password even if you changed the windows password). The last field should be left blank. Click the login button. You may need to confirm a choice indicating that you believe the machine you want to connect to is actually the one that is processing your request. Once connected, you should see a screen that displays your local disk system and the remote (Linux) disk system. Click on the remote pane, and look for the folder you created earlier (ICS_Files).
You can also access the files associated with your roaming profile. They are located inside a folder called profile. If you forgot to move files to the ICS_Files folder before logging off a lab machine, you might be able to locate them here (inside the profile/Desktop or profile/My Documents folder .
WinSCP allows you to drag folders or files from the local disk system to and from the remote system. The copy dialog allows you to choose settings for the file transfer. You can most likely just click the Copy button, accepting the default settings. If the file you are copying exists, you will also be given the choice to confirm the replacement.