MCDONALD OBSERVATORY / DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY COMPUTING Index      previous   |   next   Important DOs and DON'Ts DO backup your data. We don't back up the desktop machines, nor do we backup the scratch disks on the public systems. If a disk crash occurs and you don't have a backup, you are out of luck. Please ask us to show you how to backup your data to a remote disk or tape drive. DO keep your passwords safe, hard to guess, and change them periodically. DO watch out for unusual activity on your computers and notify us about anything strange. DO obey the University's computer security and usage regulations. Everyone who uses University owned equipment OR connects equipment to the University network is responsible for following these regulations!! You can review them at http://www.utexas.edu/computer/policies/. Ignorance is no excuse. DON'T hack. DON'T spam. DON'T forge email. DON'T run a gaming server (quake, counterstrike, etc.). DON'T setup servers for porn or MP3 files. This includes the use of peer-to-peer clients. DON'T attempt to run your web server on the public machines. DON'T remove your department-owned machine from the building, disconnect it from the network, or make radical software changes, except as instructed by us. Due to security concerns, such occurrences may result in having access to the network barred. DO think carefully about whether you want to direct email to your desktop machine. If you have a dual boot system, mail will not be received if your machine is down or booted into Windows, although it ought to be held at the source. However, after three days, the mail will begin to bounce. For email reception, it is safer to use astro or one of the other Sun workstations that is always up, with a permanent address. Another advantage with receiving mail on astro is that the mail directories are retained in our tape backup rotations; this is not the case with ANY other machine. DO think carefully about using your desktop machine to serve web or FTP servers to distribute course materials or other information to the general public. Your servers would only be available when the machine is up and running Linux. It is recommended that you either use the machine of a faculty member or a department server for more permanent materials. If you choose to operate a server on your desktop despite these warnings, email helpdesk@astro. Index      previous   |   next

4 September 2008 McDonald Observatory · The University of Texas at Austin · Austin, Texas 78712 site comments: www@www.as.utexas.edu