LEPP's Infrequent Computing Newsletter for October, 2006

Welcome to the first edition of LEPP's Infrequent Computing Newsletter!

We hope this will be the first of many. We'll be using it to try to keep you up to date with the changes in LEPP's computing services and to remind you about existing services and policies that you may have forgotten about or didn't know existed.

New this month!

PMAS Quarantine now has a Web interface

PreciseMail Anti-Spam, the software that tries to keep unsolicited commercial messages from filling up your electronic mailbox, now has a Web interface. You can use it to set your spam quarantine filters and read or fetch the messages it has decided are spam. You can access it by directing your browser to http://lns61.lepp.cornell.edu/

When it asks for your e'mail address, provide it with your LEPP userid, the address @LEPP.CORNELL.EDU (not @MAIL.LEPP.CORNELL.EDU) and your VMS interactive password. If you've forgotten your VMS password, send e'mail to SERVICE.

The PMAS e'mail interface will continue to work, too.

CNJ Printer has been upgraded

CNJ? What's that?

The printer in Room 320 of Wilson Lab has been upgraded from a Xerox 4525 to a Xerox 5500. With over 1,000,000 pages printed, the old printer was showing its age. The new printer has many of the same features but prints faster and looks rather different. The new printer's queue name is w320_xrx_5500, but the old queues will continue to work, at least for a while.

See the Printer Web page for more information.

Policy Review

• All questions or concerns regarding this newsletter should be addressed to service@mail.lepp.cornell.edu, with NEWSLETTER in the subject.

Read the Wiki

• Reading the Wiki will often let you solve common issues or find out how to accomplish common tasks yourself, instantly - with step by step instructions.
• You can access our wiki here: https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/WebHome

Getting Technical Support

• CHECK THE WIKI before submitting a service reqest.
• All requests for service need to be submitted to service@mail.lepp.cornell.edu. You can do this in two ways.
  1. Simply send e-mail to service@mail.lepp.cornell.edu.
  2. If you don't have e-mail set up on the machine you are using at the time, or if you prefer, you can use our Wiki page : https://wiki.lepp.cornell.edu/lepp/bin/view/Computing/ServiceRequest.
  • In either case, there are several important guidelines you should follow.
    1. Use a descriptive subject line. Try and express your issue in 6 words or less, or if it is complex, indicate what it is related to. ExamplesOfSubjectLines
    2. Follow up your good subject line with a useful and descriptive body. At the MINIMUM all service requests should contain the following information somewhere:
       1. Machine Node Name: e.g. PC75, lnx570, lns61...
       2. Type of machine: Windows, Linux, Mac etc... if not obvious from the node name, e.g. ees32; or if it applies across a class of machines rather than on one specific one.
       3. ClearDescriptionOfTheProblem
       4. What steps, if any, you have taken to try and resolve the problem. Please list the steps in the order you completed them.
       5. If you have had this problem before, especially if you have solved it yourself and did not notify the computer group. Indicate how you solved the problem before, step by step and in order.
    3. Submit your own service requests.

SoftwareInstallPolicy

• Software is installed,within the available resources, as is needed for increasing the productivity of Lab Members.
• Check with your direct supervisor. Do they agree that this software is necessary or useful?
• Supervisors should submit a request