Wireless at Smith

Smith College provides wireless access points in multiple locations across campus, including the Libraries, the Science Center, Stoddard Hall, and the Campus Center. This wireless is managed by BlueSocket, which has you login each time you connect to an access point.

Wireless service is also available in the common areas of Smith residence houses, which is managed by Cisco Clean Access, and also requires to login each time you connect to the access point.

For more information, see: Using an iPhone or iPod Touch at Smith

Email

GroupWise email can be accessed via the desktop client, WebAcess (web mail), or a POP/IMAP client. You can setup most wireless mobile devices to access email via POP or IMAP. ITS recommends that you use IMAP if it is available on your device.

To setup email on your iPhone or iPod Touch, read the instructions on TARA.

To setup email on another mobile device, check out the instructions for setting up email clients on TARA to find the correct host names and settings.

If you have Firefox 3, you may want to print these instructions before you arrive on campus:

1. At the bottom of the error page, click on:  Or you can add an exception.
2. Click on the Add exception button.
   
3. In the next window, click on the Get Certificate button, then on the Confirm Security Exception button.
   
4. If necessary, repeat steps 1-3 above.
5. Now you can login to the Smith Residential Network using your Novell username & password.

That will solve the problem, and you can continue logging on as usual.

Right now the Smith campus is in a state of transition. Many students, faculty, and staff are already using Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac. In addition, all computers in the campus computer centers and classrooms will be upgraded to Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac by the start of the fall semester. However, some students, faculty, and staff are still using other versions of Office.

So, whether or not you use Office 2007 or 2008 yourself, you may need to take a few steps to ensure that:

• You can open and read any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file sent to you by other Smith students, faculty, or staff.
• Other Smith students, faculty, and staff can open and read any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file you send to them.

You’ll find essential information about solving Microsoft Office compatibility issues here:
Solving Microsoft Office Compatibility Problems [TARA]

You probably can’t count the number of times you’ve been told to “Backup your data!” This phrase also probably doesn’t mean much to you unless you’ve ever lost some important data (and whether it was a term paper, your iTunes music library, or all your photos from spring break, it’s all data).

It’s important to have backups:

• Incase of theft (when laptops are stolen, usually the most valuable thing on them is the data – you can always use a lab computer or borrow a friend’s in a pinch, but it’s not easy to re-write your grad. school applications!)
• Incase of an accident (whether it was a smoothie that spilled on your keyboard or your cat knocked it off the coffee table, you’ll be glad you’ve got a backup)
• For version control (after an all-nighter, it’s easy to delete to trash the wrong copy of a paper – but if you have a backup, you may have only lost a few hours of work instead of the whole thing)
• For peace of mind!

So, where to put all that data?

Your H: Drive
Data on your H: drive is password-protected and available from anywhere you have an internet connection. Students currently get 1GB of space on the server.
How to use your Network Drive on your personal computer [TARA]
How to use your Network Drive on a networked (lab or classroom) computer [TARA] Mac or PC

USB Key (aka “ThumbDrive”)
USB keys are the most convenient backups, because you can take them with you even when you leave your laptop at home. USB keys range in size from a 24KB up to a few GB, so before you run out a buy one, consider what type of data you’ll want to carry around.
Using a Jump Drive [TARA]

An External HD
An external HD has the highest storage capacity, and with a large enough one, you can create an exact copy of your computer.
iBackup: Backup for Mac Users [TARA]

CDs/DVDs
CDs and DVDs are a great place to backup data that doesn’t change (photos, music, finished papers). And for really important files, you might consider putting a CD or DVD version at a remote location (like your parent’s house).
Burning Files to Disc on a Mac [TARA]
Using Roxio Easy CD Creator for Windows [TARA]

Online Storage
Many companies now offer free online storage (Gmail & Google Docs, Windows Live SkyDrive, and AOL XDrive). These services aren’t supported by ITS, but one of them may be good for you.

Prevent Accidental Damage
This is common sense, but I’ll say it anyway: laptops are fragile – they can’t withstand a lot of physical abuse or moisture. So, don’t shove your laptop into a full backpack, and be careful with water bottles and drinks near your computer.

Protect the Hard Drive
Fact: Hard drives fail. All hard drives, no matter what make or model, eventually fail. Some estimates say that hard drives have an average lifespan of 3 or 4 years. But that estimate assumes that your hard drive doesn’t suffer any trauma.

Your computer’s hard drive is one of the few moving parts inside of the computer, so it is especially sensitive to being jostled or dropped. To be on the safe side, and hopefully get those 4 years of life from your hard drive, you can take some precautions:

Power down or put your laptop into sleep/standby mode before shutting the lid and walking to class with it. Be careful! If you shut the lid and put your computer into your bag before the computer is actually asleep, you could easily damage the drive.

“Exercise” your Battery
Fact: Batteries wear out. Did you ever wonder why batteries have a shorter warranty than the rest of the computer? It’s because they wear out faster than the rest of the computer!

Like hard drives, batteries only live through a certain number of charge cycles (while you could argue that every hard drive only performs a certain number of “spins” in it’s lifetime).

“All rechargeable batteries wear out with time and usage. As time and cumulative use increase, the performance will degrade. For the typical user, noticeable reduction in run time generally will be observed after 18 to 24 months. For a power user, reduction in run time generally may be experienced prior to 18 months. We recommend buying a new Dell laptop battery when the run time does not meet your needs.” [Dell Laptop Battery FAQ]

At the same time, batteries need “exercise” to continue to hold a charge and charge fully. So, if your laptop lives on a desk or only gets used occasionally, make a habit of charging then discharging the battery at least once a month. (Apple calls this “conditioning” the battery.) If you don’t use the battery at all, you can take it out. Store laptop batteries at 40-50% charge in a cool place.

Batteries also have temperature “comfort zones” (50°-95°F) so don’t leave your laptop in a cold or hot car.

For more information:

• About Apple Lithium-Ion Batteries
• About Apple Notebook Batteries
• About iPod Batteries
• How to Prolong Litium-based batteries [BatteryUniversity.com] (scroll down to the “Simple Guidelines” section for a quick overview)
• Dell Laptop Battery FAQ

What’s RSS, you ask? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication; it’s a “web feed” format used to publish frequently updated content (like blog entries, news headlines, or podcasts). The feed is syndicated (published), and readers can subscribe (or bookmark). You can tell that a website has an RSS feed if there is a feed indicator in the address bar of your web browser or if the site advertises a feed (like the links at the bottom of the TechNotes homepage).

Find your favorite browser below:

Firefox 2 (OS X and Windows)

Firefox Support: Live Bookmarks

Safari 2 (OS X) and 3 Public Beta (OS X and Windows)

CreativeTechs Tips: Subscribe to RSS news feeds in Safari

IE 7 (Windows only)

Internet Explorer 7 Quick Tour: RSS Feeds

You can also read RSS feeds in a feed reader or online on sites like Google Reader and My Yahoo! For a comprehensive list of RSS readers, visit the The Ultimate RSS Toolbox – 120+ RSS Resources.

Also, please note: TechNotes is upgrading it’s email subscription service. If you subscribe to TechNotes via email, please re-subscribe using this link: Subscribe to Smith College TechNotes by Email. (You can use the same link to subscribe to TechNotes emails for the first time.) The old email email subscription service will be discontinued later this week.

Setting up an account password for your personal computer protects you from two kinds of “snoops”: hackers who try to login to your computer remotely; and curious roommates, friends, neighbors, or strangers who have physical access to your computer. For further protection, don’t set your computer to auto-login and have it prompt you for a password when the computer goes to sleep.

If you share your computer with roommates, friends, or siblings, consider setting up multiple user accounts, each with their own passwords. This will protect your information and allow you to control how much access other people have to your computer and what they’re allowed to do.

Windows XP

• How the right user accounts can help your computer security
• Change Account Password
• Turn Off Guest Account
• Turn On Screen Saver Password

Windows Vista

• What is User Account Control?
• Change Account Password
• Create a Password Reset Disk
• Turn On Screen Saver Password

Mac OS X

• Adding a New User Account to your computer
• Change Account Password (Click the key button to the right of the Password field to see how secure your new password is.)
• Turn Off Auto Login
• Locking your computer screen

On the same note, it is important to protect the passwords stored on your computer (for websites and online accounts accessed through an internet browser).

• Secure Your Saved Passwords in Firefox [Lifehacker]
• Safari saves your passwords in the Keychain, which uses your login password by default. So. keep your login password secret and don’t share your user account, or change your Keychain password.
• There is no way to secure passwords in Internet Explorer, and they can be vulnerable to theft, so be wary of saving passwords in IE.

Previous “Digital Security” Posts: Online Identity & Passwords

Got questions about security (or anything “tech”)? Leave them in the comments or email technotes@smith.edu

Internet Radio & Free Downloads
Last.fm (free streaming of specific songs, radio based on artist of your choice, account recommended for better customization, based on Music Genome Project)

Pandora (radio based on artist of your choice, also based on Music Genome Project)

Public Radio! Many public radio stations offer their shows as free downloads. Try

• National Public Radio Podcast Directory
• alt.NPR (podcast-only content from NPR)
• Public Radio International Podcasts
• Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life

Mp3.com Free Music Directory (free streaming, some tracks available for download)

Ruckus (free streaming, downloads with restrictions, requires an account), see Cornell University’s FAQ on Ruckus

Streaming Video
Nothing to Watch on TV? Streaming Video Appeals to Niche Audiences [NYTimes.com]
Lists some of the most popular streaming video sites available, both free and subscription-based.

Borrow Music & Videos
Take advantage of the library! Both the Five College and C/W MARS networks* have extensive media collections. To find DVDs or CDs, do an advanced search. You can specify the media type (aka format) you are looking for.

*When you search the C/W MARS catalog, remember that you can modify the search to look at all Western Mass libraries or just what’s available at Forbes in Northampton.

When you post anything online, remember that everything is, in effect, public. Think of your family, friends, teachers, school administrators, future employers, and admissions officers; as well as potential identity thieves and predators. To put it directly, don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see – and also don’t put anything online that someone could use to impersonate or stalk you.

So, what should you keep private? Your:

• phone number
• home address
• birthdate
• im screen name
• class schedule
• traditional security question answers (mother’s maiden name, birthplace, etc)

It’s true that Facebook can be useful as a directory – for getting in touch with friends and finding their contact information, but, as Sophos (an international IT security company that recently published a Facebook Best Practices guide) points out:

Users who are completing their profile on Facebook should ask themselves whether it is appropriate or necessary to tell other Facebook users their contact details. Facebook allows users to opt-out of entering this personal information, and as Facebook allows friends to contact each other via Facebook it is not necessary to know someone’s real address or phone number. If they really are a friend they should know where you live and what your phone number is! And if a friend really can’t remember they can always contact you via Facebook and ask you. It’s then up to the user to decide whether they feel comfortable sharing that information, and if their friend has a valid reason for asking.

At first glance, these recommendations might seem like overkill, but just this summer a student at University of Tennessee at Martin who had too much personal information in her Facebook profile was the subject of $1146 worth of credit card fraud. An acquaintance used the student’s email address and birthday (which he found on Facebook) to change her iTunes password and buy three iPods using her saved credit card information! Student Arrested on Identity Theft Charges [The Pacer]

Further Reading:

• Study: Facebook users easy targets for identity theft [MacWorld News]
• For Some, Online Persona Undermines a Résumé [NYTimes.com]
• New Scrutiny for Facebook Over Predators [NYTimes.com]