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This page contains answers to some common questions handled
by our support staff, along with some tips and tricks that we have found useful and
presented here as questions. For a more comprehensive knowledge
base, you might explore the OIT
Technology Support Center web site.
You can search that knowledge base using the form below.
Note: In these answers we will follow a few shorthand
conventions for describing user-interface procedures. Key combinations will be presented
like this: Ctrl+Alt+Delete, which means that you should press and hold down the Control
key, the Alt key, and the Delete key at the same time. Menu selections will be presented
like this: File->Open, which means that you should open the File menu, and then make
the Open selection.
- .How do I get an e-mail/internet access
account?
- .Where can I find useful information about
computers and software?
- .Why doesn't my software automatically save
my work when the computer locks up?
- .Who are the "computer people"?
- .How do I contact the "computer
people"?
- .When is my "Homenet" going to be
ready?
- .What software is available to OARDC faculty
and staff?
- .What are the most commonly-used computer
software programs?
- .Are there any training classes for popular
computer software programs?
- How do I make sure I'm protected from computer viruses?
- Where is "reveal codes" or its equivalent in
Microsoft Word?
- Where can I learn more about how
the network works?
-
What projects are the Computing and Statistical Services department
working on?
- How can I be sure my email was received?
- Why are the recent phishing attempts for email
id’s and passwords dangerous?
- How so Spam filters work?
- I got a message from myself that I didn’t send.
- I got a message not addressed to me.
- I’m not seeing pictures sent to me.
- I can’t send a file.
- I got a warning about my quota.
- How do I change my email password?
How do I get e-mail/internet access?
The easiest way to get access to the internet and e-mail at OARDC is to come to
Computing & Statistical Services, Rm 131 Research Services. Any staff member can
supply you with the necessary form and information to obtain your account. Requests
for access are sent electronically to Columbus and are ready in a day or two. We
then send you the necessary account information in campus mail.
Where can I find useful information about computers and software?
Come to Computing & Statistical Services, Rm 131 Research Services and ask any of
our staff. For specific computer hardware (pieces/parts) information you'll get the
most help from Curt Carpenter (carpenter.7@osu.edu).
For specific computer software information you'll get the most help from Jody
Lanham (lanham.1@osu.edu). Coming soon will be links to some
useful web sites. (click here for some just added!)
Why doesn't my software automatically save my work when the
program or computer locks up?
The reason may be out of your control. One thing you CAN control, however, is how
often you SAVE your work! When you should save include, after each new page; right
before you print; any time you leave your computer.
Also recommended is saving your work in more than one location, such as 1 copy on a
floppy disk and 1 copy on your hard drive; 1 copy on your hard drive and one copy on a zip
disk.
Some software packages have an automatic save feature that can be setup to save your
workspace (the stuff on the screen) in the event the computer locks up. This feature
is called Autosave or Autorecover. Sofware packages vary in how these features are
controlled, but here are some things to look into:
- Tools->Options->Save
- Edit->Prefereneces->Location of Files/Backup
- Edit->Settings->Automatic Backup
Remember, while these built-in auto-save features are great when you run into trouble,
there is NO SUBSTITUTE for frequent SAVING!
Who are the "computer people"?
In alphabetical order, the staff of Computing & Statistical Services:
How do I contact the "computer people"?
Please see the
Contact page for information.
When is my "Homenet" going to be ready?
As of March
2003, the HOMENET service at OARDC has been discontinued. A low-cost
alternative for OSU employees and students is
OSUWeb.net.
What software is available to OARDC faculty and staff?
Any faculty or staff member may purchase whatever software desired or required for
normal computer operations and/or specialize work. Various methods of payment are
available. Some benefits (cheap!) and freebies include:
Site-licensed software on-line. This is software licensed to the Ohio State
University for faculty and staff use. It is available on the University Technology
Services web site. You need to have a valid e-mail user id and password to download
the software.
Site-licensed software available on various media. Some is free for installation
on university-owned computers; some is available for a small cost (compared to retail
cost); most must be removed from the computer when the user leaves the university.
Microsoft Select license program for purchase of "right-to-use" Microsoft
software applications. Price depends on the software; media available if needed; no
documentation; must be purchased through OSU Bookstore using a 100w.
OSU Bookstore software available, can be purchased by various methods, including OSU
100w (internal purchase), and can be installed on any computer. Most of the software
is significantly less expensive than that available from general retailers (Wal-Mart,
Staples, CompUSA, etc.). For example, Microsoft Office 97 Professional (includes
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and more) retails for over $300; OSU Bookstore sells it
for about $186. If the software you want isn't in stock, it can usually be ordered.
For most up-to-date availability, call the software department at 8-2-9168.
What are the most commonly-used computer software programs?
Word Processing: Microsoft Word; Corel WordPerfect;
Spreadsheet: Microsoft Excel; Corel Quattro Pro; Lotus 1-2-3
Database: Microsoft Access; Claris FileMaker Pro; dBase; Paradox
Graphing/Charting Data: Minitab; SigmaPlot; SAS; Excel; Quattro Pro
Presentation: Microsoft PowerPoint; Corel Presentations
Image Editing: Adobe PhotoShop; Microsoft Photo Editor; Corel Draw
Electronic Mail: Qualcomm Eudora Pro; Microsoft
Outlook
Web Browsing: Netscape Navigator; Internet Explorer
Also see our
Recommended Software page.
Are there any training classes for popular computer software
programs?
Click the BACK button to the "What's New" page to see current and recent
courses. Other courses coming up will include Excel 97 Worksheets (again); Excel 97
Intermediate/Advanced; Windows 95/98 Introduction; Access 97 Introduction; Access 97
Advanced; Adobe PhotoShop Introduction/Advanced; Using E-mail and the Internet; Microsoft
Word 97 Introduction/Advanced; Corel WordPerfect 8 Introduction/Advanced. Any software
training suggestions are appreciated and may be sent to
lanham.1@osu.edu.
How do I make sure I'm protected from computer viruses?
First of all, you should have anti-virus software installed.
We recommend and support Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition which is
available at a discount from Computing and Statistical Services.
What WE suggest is if you ever receive an e-mail message with an attachment that you
don't recognize, particularly if the name ends with .exe you should NOT attempt to open
it! You should instead first run the VirusScan and if the file is found not to be
infected you can open it. You can always of course request our assistance by calling
263-3772, 3652 or sending e-mail to
lanham.1@osu.edu
or css-oardc@osu.edu.
Where is "reveal codes" or its equivalent
in Microsoft Word?
For those of you die-hard WordPerfect® users (who wouldn't mind switching
to Word except you'd miss the reveal codes feature), Word has a feature you might be able
to get used to. It's sort of a combination of features - Paragraph and formatting
ON/OFF and the Find Formatting Codes. To turn on the show formatting, click on the
paragraph button ¶ on the Standard toolbar. This feature will display where you
have pressed return, where you have pressed space bar and where you have inserted manual
page breaks. The Find feature has an option for choosing the codes you want to
locate. Open the Edit menu, choose Find, click the More button, then click the
Special button. Locate the code or formatting option you want to find and choose it
from the list. You can delete the codes as you find them, if necessary.
Where can I learn
more about how the network works?
Come over to Computing
and Statistical Services and ask us. There aren't
really any secrets about how it works. Just ask.
You can also get some self-serve information with the
links below.
Network Information Links:
Bandwidth Charts
(updated every 5 minutes)
Network health reports (updated every 2 minutes)
-All key network
devices
-Servers
-Router, Firewall, and Switches
What projects
are the Computing and Statistical Services department working on?
You can browse CSS news articles or our list of active service requests.
If you need assistance, you can submit a
service request online right now.
How can I be sure my email was received?
Short answer: you can’t. Your
mail system will tell you whether or not a message was successfully
sent, but not what happened to it at the recipient’s end. Since
Spamming is so prevalent these days, most ISP’s have adopted very
aggressive anti-spam measures which results in a number of ‘false
positives’ and rejected messages. The worst result is the blocking
of entire domains or email source sites due to spamming by a few.
For example, the recent successful phishing of OSU email addresses and
passwords enabled robots to send thousands of spam messages from OSU’s
system which has resulted in ALL email from OSU being blocked by a
number of ISP’s. Some clients, such as Outlook, have a ‘return
receipt request’ setting, but this is not dependable since not all other
client’s recognize it or respond to it. Even so, it only shows
that a message was received, not read.
Why are the recent phishing attempts for email
id’s and passwords dangerous?
There are lots of nefarious things people
could do with that information, but that would require work on their
part. The main problem is that the thieves can use that
information to login to Webmail as you and then use an authenticated OSU
connection to send mail using the University’s system. Not only
does this provide ‘free postage’ for the messages, but since OSU is a
trusted source for most other ISP’s, the messages can pass through
other’s filters. Conversely, this same process shows that OSU is
NOT a trusted source and has caused OSU email to be universally blocked
by some ISP’s.
How so Spam filters work?
ISP based filters use a variety of
heuristic procedures calculating the likelihood of a message being spam
based on source, content, key words and phrases. Other clues are a
blank subject line, all upper-case text, a message body that is an image
only, a very large distribution list, among others. This is why
you will get some messages which are a stream of unconnected text making
no sense – it’s to confuse the filters. Personal filters can be
based on ‘voting’ (specifying a message as ‘junk’ or ‘not junk’),
personally constructed filters, black-listing (indicating everything
from this site or this person is spam), etc. There are also lists
of sites know to be spammers and services to provide this information to
others which ISP’s can subscribe to. Unfortunately, this is how
innocent sites can get blacklisted as well.
I got a message from myself that I didn’t send.
No you didn’t. The ‘from’ address
was forged (easy to do) to hide the name of the real sender.
I got a message not addressed to me.
No you didn’t. Your address is in
the BCC (blind carbon copy) field and doesn’t show up.
Spammers often use BCC to contain a huge
number of addresses since some email systems limit the number of
addresses in the ‘to’ list.
I’m not seeing pictures sent to me.
This can be any number of problems.
By default, Outlook and other clients, do not display pictures unless
you right-click and choose ‘download pictures.’ The picture could
be in a format your email client does not recognize. The picture
could be “too big” and be filtered by your ISP.
I can’t send a file.
The size of an email going through OSU’s
system is 10m which is generous for most University email systems.
It is very easy for powerpoint files or photographs to be larger than
that. From our system, we recommend using the file upload
procedure (http://oardc.osu.edu/uploads/)
and send the person a link so they can download the file. Also,
certain types of files, particularly executables are generally blocked
by ISP’s because of the danger of viruses. These files must be
zipped or otherwise encapsulated in order to be transmitted.
I got a warning about my quota.
Each user is allocated 30m on the central
email server. This does not include spam which is filtered
automatically by the University spam filter. To determine your
quota usage, login to webmail and your quota usage is in the bottom of
the window. You can reduce the space used by deleting selected
messages and logging out of the system. Files can be sorted on
size which can be helpful in finding the ones you need to delete.
How do I change my email password?
All activity regarding your email account
(password, forwarding, activation, etc) can be done at
https://acctmgt.service.ohio-state.edu/.
Contact
Computing and
Statistical Services for more information. |
