DMDN206 DESIGN AND THE INTERNET

GENERAL

Rules and Guidelines

• ONLY ENROLLED STUDENTS MAY USE THE COMPUTER LABS to gain access, see your paper co-coordinator
• ALL STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EQUIPMENT & GENERAL STATE OF THE LAB
• ANYONE found abusing their privilege of using the studio will immediately lose access
• NO EATING, NO DRINKING and NO SMOKING in the LABS
• NEVER let any unknown/unauthorised persons into the LABS
• ALWAYS maintain security
• REPORT any problems that need immediate attention, tech support: Brent Hardy in the technician’s office brent.hardy@vuw.ac.nz or Dan de Waal . dan.dewaal@vuw.ac.nz

Before you leave the Labs

• LOG OUT of your local computer
• CLEAN UP after yourself
• TAKE your materials and belongings with you
• ENSURE that the door is securely locked behind you

 

SCHOOL OF DESIGN SOAD COMPUTERS (PC and Mac)

The School of Design provides a set of computer suites 2.26, 3.22, DMDN and 3.20, and also various studio based computers for use by all students that are enrolled at the School. The professional degree programmes of Industrial Design, Landscape Architecture and Interior Architecture, and Digital Media all require an increasing use of computers. This use ranges from word-processing, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations to much more complex two, three and four dimensional drafting, modelling and animation software. All other computers (i.e. in library) are controlled by Student Computing Services, or SCS. All students are urged to read these pages as you are required to comply with a set of guidelines and policies that govern your use of the computing suites.

Note: The three computing systems available are:
• WIGAN Mac computing lab,
• SOAD Domain computing labs, and (all school provided PCs at Te Aro – except the library)
• SCS student computing cyber-commons (library)

The two computing systems are separate systems that use separate user accounts, passwords, and internet/printing charge accounts.

 

SUPPORT

The SOAD Domain labs contain a highly sophisticated and complex resource. At times you may find problems. Many of the programs you use will have a HELP facility. This is specifically designed to assist you. Usually this help facility can be accessed by pressing F1.

Alternatively try logging off and restarting the PC and logging back on.

All operational help issues (to do with the machine, CD, DVD, Zip, USB memory, floppy & hard drives, or printing, email and internet access) should initially go through your tutor if during a formal class tutorial, or to the IT helpdesk for all other problems during working hours.

You can obtain help with SCS student computing cyber-commons machines, SCS email and printing from SCS machines, by ringing 5050 from any of the internal phones around the school.

Computer Support in either the SCS student computing cyber-commons, or the SOAD Domain computing labs, is not available after working hours, weekends or statutory holidays. If there are major outages – monitoring equipment will/should notify ITS – and for equipment where there are resources assigned for on-call support – this will be actioned automatically. Prior arrangements need to be made if SOAD support staff are required outside normal working hours for any urgent or critical work. During less busy periods the staff will have more time and may be able to provide some assistance with more complex problems. However, in general, assistance does not extend to highly specialised support with software packages.

 

BOOKING

The SOAD Domain Computer labs for the Design school (2.26 & 3.22) will operate during all hours including evenings and weekends. There is a booking sheet allocated for each workstation. The time slots are in 30 mins. Suites will need to be vacated during any timetable class tutorials or other training sessions.

A booking sheet is attached to each workstation. The computer booking system is a RATIONING system for a scarce resource. It is NOT a reservation system. For this purpose, and to overcome the worst abuses of the system, the following rules should be applied in your use of the computers during the day (8am to 9pm):

1) Computers are reserved as much as possible for the exclusive use of students doing course assignments and using the licensed 3D modelling programs.
2) No more than 2 hours should be booked consecutively on any one computer.
3) No more than 4 hours should be booked on any one machine per day.
4) No more than 6 hours on all machines may be booked per day.
5) All academic purposes take precedence over any other use of the computers (e.g. do not book a computer to check email, or to play games).

Studio machines and room 3.20 are not booked

 

SERVICES

EMAIL and access to the VUW sites is provided free of charge through the web browsers in both the SOAD Domain computing labs, and the SCS student computing cyber-commons via the student web portal. You may send and receive email, both within and outside the University. Your ID for email is the same as the one you log-on with. The e-mail id is the user id + @scs.vuw.ac.nz & the password is the same as the one entered for the Login ID. Keep Your Mailbox Tidy. It is your responsibility to delete unwanted messages and to maintain your space. There is limit imposed on the size of the mailboxes. Students will not receive any incoming messages once they exceed their quota.

INTERNET access is provided, but at a small charge (2 cents per megabyte). Access will be denied if the account has insufficient funds. Users may have a small initial credit. Once your balance has dropped to nil or below, your access will be blocked. This will be indicated by a prompt for a User ID and Password from within Internet Explorer. When the User ID and Password prompt appears, additional funds will need to be added to your Internet Account.

As you browse the Internet your Internet account will be debited at a rate of $0.02 per megabyte downloaded. You are not charged for accessing internal pages i.e. pages that are within the *.vuw.ac.nz namespace., or other domain names as requested by your tutor – that are directly required for the course work. – i.e online help sites for AutoCad etc

Mis-use of the computer system such as downloading objectionable materials or inappropriate use of the internet will be dealt with under the Statute of Student Conduct (see the University web site for details). Student access to the SOAD Domain will be temporarily withdrawn in the first instance, and the matter investigated by School Management.

PRINTING. Automated billing procedures have been set up to ensure that there are sufficient funds on a student’s account before any printing can be carried out. All charges are debited to an individual account established for each registered user. As long as your account is “in credit” (ie. you have deposited funds) you will be able to obtain access to the Internet and print documents.

Note: The SCS student computing cyber-commons, and the SOAD Domain computing labs, are managed by different user accounts, logins and passwords. Tthe SOAD Domain account only can be topped up through the resource centre (room 120).

The following are the charges for printing to different printers.

1) VS-320-01-P (black and white) A4 – $0.05 A3 – $0.10
2) VS-120-01-P (colour) A4 – $1.00 A3 – $2.00
3) Plotter – in Technicians Shop up to 1000mm wide and several metres long possible output size. Charge varies depending on the type of material used for printing and paper size. Check with Shop staff for printing charges.

To avoid printer wastage, we recommend that you preview your work on the screen before printing (accessible through the File menu).

Payment for Printing and Internet access may be made at the students shop on level one. Shop Hours are Mon – Fri 9:00 -3:00 pm. You can check your balance by clicking on ‘cashier’ at the student VUW homepage for the SCS cybercommon rooms, and via a Printing Account Status icon on your desktop of machines in the SOAD Domain labs.

SCANNING facilities are currently installed in Rooms 3.20, 3.22 and the Library. The photocopiers in the shop and 1 st floor Wigan – can also scan to email for free.

CD/DVD burners in all machines in room 3.22 and Wigan Lab. The CD/DVD-burners are installed to help students back up their files and are not to be used to make copies of programs, software or music. If any student is caught in violation of this then the student’s access to the computer labs will be revoked for a period to be determined by the student’s Head of School and referred to the disciplinary committee of the University under the terms of the Statute on Student conduct.

 

BACKUP

Students are responsible for back of their own data on their student I Drive. No backup is carried out on the student file server. Any file not accessed for over seven days on the temp drive is subject to being deleted. This is done in order to keep workspace available for immediate usage. The Temp drive should not be used for long-term storage.

Please note that although the school’s data storage is very reliable, files can be made corrupt and there is always the possibility of a total driver failure. School of Architecture and School of Design is not responsible for backing up student home directories and has no ability to restore files. It is your responsibility to backup all your important files regularly. Save regularly as you work, preferably to, USB stick, CD, DVD or floppy disk as well as to your network I:\ drive.

 

LOGGING ON AND OFF

Logging in for the first time.

You will have been given your user name when you registered. As your username will remain with you for the duration of the academic year (at least), please record it carefully. Your username is computer generated from up to the first six letters of your family name followed by up to the first four letters of your given name. However if there is a duplicate of users with the same code, then a number is added at then end of the user id eg. For a user called Smith Jones the user id is jonessmit. But if there is more than one jonessmit then it the use id will change to jonessmit1.

On the SOAD computers for your first log in you will use up to the first four letters of your given name followed by your student ID number as a temporary password, eg. For a user called David Johnson with a student ID of 300012345 the username would be johnsodavi and the password would be davi300012345. Enter the information in each field. The password characters are displayed as a line of asterisks (*). Press the Enter key when you have finished entering the information.

On the SCS computers for your first log in you will use just your student ID number as a temporary password. On both systems you will be required to change your password on first login.

We have attempted to ensure the SOAD Domain user logins and the SCS student computing cyber-commons logins usernames match. However please remember they are 2 separate user account databases.

Logging Off

It is important to log off the network whenever you leave a computer, even if it is for a short period of time. If you do not, you enable another user to access your files and run software under your name, including printing, using the internet or to send e-mail messages in your name. Under such circumstances you will be held responsible for any offences and charges caused by the misuse of your computer account by someone other than yourself. The facility to software lock the pc has been removed. The computers are a shared resource with a booking system for rationing – not guaranteeing unlimited access. Log off by clicking on the Start, then on Shutdown then on Log off and press OK. Logging off can also be done through the windows security screen by pressing the combination key of Ctrl-Alt-Del.

 

PASSWORDS

The password you are supplied when you first receive your computer account is insecure — this is why it recommended that you change it on your first logon. If you think that someone else has discovered your password, please change it immediately. Your password is your protection against other people misusing your computer account. Remember that you are responsible for any actions or costs on the network that occur under your username.

SOAD Domain computing labs
Should you forget your password please contact in helpdesk person in the SOAD IT room VS 2.23 and you will be given a new password. You will need to present your current student ID card.

SCS student computing cyber-commons
You can change your network password any time through the student VUW homepage.

Your password must: have at least 6 characters, have at least 2 digits, not be your username, not be your username backwards and not be an old password! And it should not be a dictionary word. Try to avoid making it too obvious: your first name, course code, and “password” are examples of unsuitable passwords. The password is case sensitive (i.e. capital letters are different from lower case letters).

WIGAN DMDN Lab (Mac)
Use the username and password student to access the DMDN lab machines. SOAD Networks can be seen through “Finder” accessed through “Network>tearo>temp/courses etc”

 

SOFTWARE

The software applications available to you are accessible from the Programs menu or on the Desktop. Select START to display the menu if the program you require is not on the Desktop.

Room 322, 226
Design Students All 2D and 3D Graphics applications. Free Email. Web browsing using Internet Explorer.

Room 320 and Studio computers
Most graphics programs (but not all network licensed programs)

Wigan
DMDN Students All 2D, interaction and limited 3D Graphics applications. Free Email. Web browsing using Firefox. AVID video software with associated Mojo Units to assist in real-time video editing.

Library
SCS student computing cyber-commons Office suite, Macromedia suite only. Free Email. Web browsing using Internet Explorer.

Please take note that only authorised software may be run in the Architecture and Design Student Computing Suites.

You may NOT run standalone software – including your own – on any computing equipment – this includes games, word processors, compilers, graphics programs, chat programs, etc.

With the advent of many different computer viruses, it has become especially important that all unauthorised software be kept well away from the University computing facilities. If the virus detecting software on a workstation finds a virus on your floppy disk, report this to Support staff immediately.

 

FILE STORAGE

H:\ Home Drive
Each student has a Home directory for their university email and university wide login and internet browsing services. This is supported by SCS and is available directly thought machines in the SCS student computing cyber-commons. Student H drives are only available from machines in the SOAD Domain computing labs via the browser and the student web portal.

I:\ Student Drive
Each student user on the SOAD Domain has an I:\ drive, which is the home directory for the Schools generated work, and for file storage. No other student will be able to access this work area other than the student this area is allocated to. Please use this drive as a work area only. The size of this drive will be capped – depending on the year and course the student is in. This space is allocated on one of the servers, and is not on the machine you are working on. Management of the space on the I:\ drive is the responsibility of the user. Delete unwanted files regularly. It is School policy that students are responsible for maintaining their own computer files and backing up their own data. Any important files should be backed up.

D:\ Local Drive
Provided for short term local storage. Files are saved to the machine you are working on, so you will only be able to access those files while logged onto that particular machine. This drive is accessible by everyone who logs onto that machine, therefore files can be deleted by anyone. Files and folders are subject to being DELETED at any time by the systems administrators.

R:\ Courses Drive
A Courses Information drive labelled R is provided for shared Resources provided by a staff member for a particular paper. This is where photographs, files and other resources related to a particular project will normally be found under the code number for the course. This will also be where you will be provided with a directory (Hand-ins folder) for submitting electronic work if it is required.

P:\ Resources Drive
A Resource drive specifically for application support (i.e tutorials), and it is “Read-Only”.

T:\ Temp Drive
A temporary drive “T” is also provided for transferring files. This drive is accessible by everyone. Files and folders not accessed for seven days on this disk WILL BE DELETED automatically without notice. This drive should not be used for long-term storage of data. Files for group work associated with a class should be placed in a folder set up and managed by the tutor for the relevant course.

The I:, P:, R:, and T: drives are not accessible via the student web portal. They are only accessible when logged on to the SOAD network.

LAN Share
DMDN Wigan Lab only. Common space for storage of multimedia files and video editing.

 

WIRELESS NETWORK

The campus has wireless network capability available for use by students who wish to use their own computers to connect to network resources. There are two networks which are available to students – SOAD-Wireless and VUW-Student.

The SOAD-Wireless network allows access to the I:, P:, R:, and T: network drives, the SOAD printers, and the internet. If you wish to use this connection please see the IT Technicians in Room 2.23

When you connect to VUW-Student you have access to the Victoria University website (including Blackboard, studentVUW, the library catalogue and the library databases), your SCS H: drive, SCS printers and the internet. Information regarding connecting to and using VUW-Student can be found at http://www.vuw.ac.nz/wireless/for-students/.

Normal charges apply to printing and internet usage on both networks.

 

LAB HYGIENE

Food or drinks are not to be consumed in the Lab. Please maintain the cleanliness of the suite. This is essential to ensure that there is minimum downtime on the computers

 

SECURITY

Security is monitored in all the suites. Anyone who could not provide proper ID will be requested to leave. Anyone bringing in outsiders into the suites without the approval is a breach of security. Failure to comply with any, or all of the Conditions of Use of Computing Facilities may result in termination of your user account, and/or further action will be taken against you where appropriate. Inappropriate laboratory attendance is regarded as trespassing on VUW property and will be dealt with accordingly. You may not enter the computer laboratories if your account has been disabled.

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