Basic Set of Services provided to AUBG students

Office of Communications and Computing Student Computing Basic Set of Services provided to AUBG students I. Computing environment 1. Network infrastructure OCC builds, supports and develops a university network infrastructure that meets the institution needs in accordance with available technology and allocated budget to support the educational mission of AUBG. Currently the network backbone is built on a 1 Gbps Ethernet technology and covers the main building and Scaptopara residence halls. The access layer (user computers and end-network devices) is a fully switched 100 Mbps Ethernet. The university network is logically divided, with active and passive security measures implemented. 2. Domain infrastructure as of 2000, an Active Directory solution is implemented at AUBG. AD serves the major available network resources such as user accounts, network storage, and the entire set of security and access rights, security and access policies, printers, etc. 3. AUBG mail system The design and deployment is based on a MS Exchange Server. The OCC makes every endeavor to maintain and further develop the mail service using the latest software versions and more powerful and reliable hardware. 4. Computer Labs all AUBG computers for students are situated in computer labs. It is an OCC responsibility to configure all hardware and software installed. The OCC also implements different access schemes, depending on the lab purpose (see Computer Labs) and courses during the semester. II. User account this is the first, basic service students receive. All other IT services in AUBG are delivered and controlled through the user account. 1. Eligibility Every AUBG student is issued a personal user account and a unique, automatically-generated password. Students are also asked to sign an Application Form which serves as a Student Account Usage Agreement. 2. User account naming conventions The OCC generates student account names using the first letters of the student full name and the year of his/her admission. NO exceptions like <firstname>@aubg.bg are possible. 3. User account continuity Graduating students accounts close in the end of July in the year of graduation. For withdrawals and dismissed students this happens a month after receiving such status. 1

III. User home space AUBG students are granted access and special rights over portions of the network servers disk space. Depending on the purpose, there are three types of space each user receives. 1. Personal home space or Q: drive. Users have explicit access over their home space. The Q: drive connects automatically at user login in any AUBG computer lab. Students may connect to the Q: drive also from Scaptopara rooms if they use the Home Computing service. See Topic XI 2. Personal web space or W: drive. Here students may post their personal web page. Student web pages are visible to external users at the following address http://home.aubg.bg/students/<user name>. Neither the OCC nor AUBG administration bear responsibility for copyright, update, or other content issues regarding personal web folders. 3. Shared space or H: drive. See next topic 4. Disk quota limitations each user s Q: and W: drives together can not exceed 300 MB. IV. Shared space 1. Based on a professor s request, the OCC assigns dedicated, internal, public read areas, where professors may post copies of educational materials. Special group permissions may be implemented over specified subfolders if necessary. 2. The shared folders content should be cleared by its owner after the end of the semester. If not cleared, the OCC will administratively remove posted materials two weeks after the end of the semester. 3. Providing the technology only, the OCC bears NO responsibility for copyright, updates or other content issues. 4. Shared space is also known as the H: drive and students connect to it automatically as they login. V. User mail - Together with the user account, the OCC creates (for each student) fully functional mail account. The mail address of each student is: <username>@aubg.bg 1. Mail Box continuity Graduating students mail accounts are closed at the end of July in the year of graduation. For withdrawals and dismissed student this happens a month after receiving such status. 2. Mail box access and privacy see Electronic Mail Policy and Procedures 3. Mail Client - Microsoft Outlook is the officially supported mail client. It is installed on all student lab computers. The OCC will not support or troubleshoot users when a different mail client is used. 2

4. Web Mail The user mailbox is accessible via the web if browser and connection speed requirements are met. See details here. 5. Mail Box Storage Size currently the size of each student mailbox is limited to 100 MB. It is forced by the physical limitation of the mail server storage space and may be increased if such possibility exists. 6. Mail Limitations There is a limit applied to the size of a single message it is set to 8 MB. The number of recipients of a single message is limited to 40. 7. Mail Backups The OCC performs mail system backups on a regular basis. The purpose of these backups is to ensure disaster recovery with minimal data loss. The OCC does not provide recovery of accidentally deleted user messages 8. Personal Folders This convenient optional service in MS Outlook is automatically configured at client login and may be used to store/move parts of your mailbox in Q:\outlook\outlook.pst file. You may find more information using MS Outlook help. 9. Global Address List using MS Outlook inside AUBG, all users have access to the Global Address List of the organization. VI. VII. Public Folders this is a feature of MS Exchange Server that provides an effective way to collect, organize, and share information with others in an organization. When you are connected to the Exchange server, Public Folders appear in MS Outlook. Public folders can contain any type of Outlook folder items such as messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, forms, files, and postings. Printing facilities The OCC provides consumables, support and maintenance for all student printers. There is no limit to the number of pages a student can print, but they are counted on each account and paid for at the end of each semester. The price can vary in compliance with the AUBG budget policy. You can check your current print counter by clicking the Account balance icon on the Task bar (if logged in at computer lab). 1. In the main building there are two fast (36 ppm) black/white printers and one color printer situated in front of the OCC office. 2. In Scaptopara there is one fast (36 ppm) black/white printer in each computer lab in Scapto I and Scapto II residence halls. 3. New Academic building - There is one fast network printer. The printer is situated in the Computer Lab - Room 101 NAB VIII. Computer Labs Depending on the installed software packages and the type of access, there are tree types of computer labs in the AUBG main building and Scaptopara residence halls. 3

1. General purpose computer labs are those labs where general usage software is installed. All AUBG students may use them on a first come - first served basis. See list of labs here. 2. Dedicated computer labs. Software packages for the various majors are installed there. There is a Business Lab, Journalism and Media Communications Lab and Computer Science Lab. Access to them is not limited in any way, but good will and mutual understanding between students from the various majors is expected. 3. Special computer labs. These labs are intended to meet special needs of specific courses taught at AUBG. Only students taking such courses are granted access there. Special labs are the Multimedia Lab and Unix Lab in the Main Building and Digital Lab in Scaptopara I. IX. Available Software 1. Operating Systems All computers in the student labs have Windows XP SP2 OS installed. There is a dual boot (Linux Windows 2000) installation in the Unix Lab (room #113). 2. General Software as a base line, all available AUBG computers have internet browser, mail client, Antivirus Pack, MS Office pack, Acrobat reader and a set of printer drivers. 3. Special Software Based on professor request before the start of the semester, and after necessary administration and budgetary approval, the OCC purchases and installs special software packs in the respective computer labs. You may see the list of all available software and the places it is installed here. 4. Language Support the officially supported language set is English 5. Educational Agreements As a legitimate educational institution, AUBG has educational agreements with leading software vendors such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and IBM. Various software packages are provided for free or for small annual fee. Some are installed in the Computer Labs, others are available from the OCC upon request. 6. ELMS Educational Licensing Management System This system is build to provide controlled, FREE access to a variety of licensed Microsoft software products. It is a part of the Educational Agreement with Microsoft. All AUBG students are eligible to use it. To get access to the ELMS please contact the OCC. X. Internet Connection 1. Internet in the Main Building and Skaptopara Computer Labs. Access to Internet is managed by the OCC. The resource is limited and the main principle is to give equal access to it to all users. The computers in the labs (including terminal servers) have equal rights. The access is not anonymous and is subject to control with regard to the sites contacted and the types of files. Access to certain sites is not allowed because their content is illegal. Certain types of files are 4

forbidden for download because these types are with predominantly illegal content. When usage of a limited resource by one user at the expense of all the rest of the users is established (abuse of limited resource) the OCC restricts that user to the advantage of the majority of the users so that the resource is available to more than one user. Priority access is provided to the Web, FTP and POP3 servers outside of the university. The quality of access to all other outside services or servers is not guaranteed. The access to them is not forbidden, unless their content is found to be illegal, or misuse has been established. These kind of servers have lowest priority and the access to them is normal when the internet connection is not used for other purposes. The usage of other e-mail servers is not allowed for security reasons, and also because anonymous electronic mail is not allowed. 2. Internet and network access for Student owned computers in Scaptopara Everything mentioned in the upper item plus: The access from the university network to privately-owned computers and vice versa is restricted to a limited number of services. This restriction is necessary for the smooth operation of this infrastructure to be ensured, because these computers are not controlled by the OCC and it cannot be guaranteed that they are clean from viruses and other malicious software (malware). See more on services in the next topic XI. Student Home Computing, 4 Services. XI. Student Home Computing 1. Eligibility Every AUBG student may apply to connect his personal computer in his/her room to the university network. 2. Connection procedure and list of requirements. Prior to being connected, the student needs to fill in and submit a signed application form and Declaration statement (see here) The configuration of the applicant s computer must be in compliance with a list of preliminary requirements. 3. Deadline of connection the requested connection is made within 5 workdays after all preliminary requirements are met. 4. Services - The services provided include access to the Q: and W: drives, web access to the main web server and to the web interface of the e-mail server, web access to the library server, access to the student printer queues, access to the dotlrn server, and access to the student Linux server and to the ELMS. Publishing of any resources from this network on Internet space outside the university is not allowed. Personal and club web pages may be used for this purpose. 5. Problem resolution If a user experiences problems with connection he/she must contact Residence Halls Computing Manager (RHCM) and its workstudy team. Note: OCC provides only network connection up to the wall jack and may troubleshoot only it. 5

XII. Corporate Antivirus and AntiSpyware solution is implemented to protect all AUBG computer users from viruses and malicious software (known also as Malware or Spyware). Centralized automatic administration and regular update schema (occurring every 4 hours) makes user files and mail safely protected. XIII. Student Organizations, Clubs and Activities Support 1. Eligibility Officially recognized student clubs and unions may apply for specific service establishment. 2. Websites of AUBG Student Organizations services the OCC provides are listed in the Policy for the Operation of Student Organizations Websites within the AUBG Network 3. Other Activities - based on existing policies, common practices and current technical and system possibilities, the request is either granted, or a well-grounded refusal is made within five days. 4. Activities consuming more IT resources may be rejected and not supported by the OCC, if they are planned during the semester. 5. Please, plan your activities accordingly. Note: Sometimes the OCC may not react, if the request is not made well in advance. XIV. Other available Equipment 1. Scanner students may use the scanning device installed on the computer in the printing room. 2. Digital Cameras these are available from the OCC for students taking relevant courses. A list of these students must be sent to the OCC in advance. 3. Video Camcorders the same access schema works for available video recording equipment. 4. Capture Stations these are installed on two computers in the Multimedia Lab. XV. User Help 1. Levels of priority when more than one problem arises simultaneously, we consider the ones with higher importance to be the one that affects larger number of users. 2. The OCC provides equal assistance to all students on every issue related to the Basic Set of Services (all listed in this document). 3. Training OCC provides NO training on the Basic Set of Services to individual users. Instead, when it is appropriate, we may schedule a workshop and give training to a group of interested users. 6