FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
TECHNOLOGY ISSUES
Q. Are PCs provided in residence hall rooms?
A. PCs are not provided in individual student rooms. However, all networked residence hall rooms provide one port per student, and students may connect their personally-owned computers to these ports. All students have access to 24-hour computer labs in Bingham, Nevin, Yerkes, Olin, and Young. There is also a lab in the library, which is available during library hours, and a few computers on the second floor of the Combs Student Center. For residents of Rodes House and all 5th Street Apartments: network access is available only through wireless. For more information, visit http://its.centre.edu/resnet. Wireless is also available in other residential and academic buildings on campus; for a list consult http://its.centre.edu/wireless.
Q. To whom can students go if they need computer assistance?
A. Students can call the Information Technology Services office to enter a helpdesk call at campus ext. 5575. They can also enter a helpdesk call online by going to the Centre homepage and clicking on the IT Helpdesk link, by visiting http://helpdesk.centre.edu, or by sending an email to helpdesk@centre.edu. Students may also contact the Student Helpdesk at ext. 6666 for help with a networking issue. Each individual student is responsible for the maintenance and repair of his/her individually-owned computer as well as problems not directly associated with the College's technology environment.
Q. Are students given e-mail accounts?
A. Every student is provided a free network account with e-mail, regardless of his/her decision to connect to the network with a personally-owned computer. Information regarding e-mail accounts is given to the students at registration. Student e-mail accounts will remain active throughout the academic calendar and summer until the student graduates.
Q. My child is bringing a personal computer to Centre. What services does the College provide?
A. Students who have personal computers with an Ethernet card may connect to the College network from their residence hall rooms and have free access to network software, e-mail, and the Internet. Students without personal computers have the same access to the network from computer labs located around campus.
Q. What procedures do students need to follow to get their computers hooked up to the network?
A. PC Fairs are held at various times during the first weeks of Fall Term. These fairs are managed by ITS and student technicians and provide a drop-off location for students requiring assistance in getting their computers connected to Centre's network. This service is free. More information about PC fairs (dates, times, locations) will be posted throughout campus. Students may elect NOT to connect to the College's network and simply use their own stand-alone computer hardware and software.
Q. What hardware do you recommend?
A. The software available from the College network works best on Windows XP or Windows Vista computers or a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X. Note: Mac OS 9 (and earlier) and Windows 95, 98, and 2000 are NOT recommended for use on the College's network and are not supported.
A computer using the campus network should have at least 512 MB of memory (RAM), a
40-gigabyte hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive. Memory requirements will increase over time and students purchasing new computers should consider machines with more memory (1.0 GB or more is suggested along with the ability to upgrade) and larger capacity hard drives.
In order to connect to the campus network, a WINDOWS computer must have a network interface card (NIC). WINDOWS laptop computers may require a specialized PCMCIA (PC Card), however almost all new laptops have built-in network cards. Regardless of the type of computer the student owns, its network card must be at least a 10BASE-T or 10/100BASE-T Ethernet card. Most new WINDOWS machines come with a network card already installed. If a newly purchased WINDOWS computer contains no network card, it must have an open slot to accommodate a card, and a card can be purchased from the College at cost. All Macintosh computers manufactured within the last few years come with a network interface card, and accordingly, the College does not sell NICs for Macs.
All networked residence halls on campus use Category-5 network cables. Network cables (of various lengths) can be purchased from ITS at cost.
The College is not responsible for repair of normal (CPU, keyboard, monitor, memory, drives, operating system, etc.) failure of student computers. Therefore, it is important to fully understand any warranties that come with the purchase of a new computer.
Q. Is there a policy on printing?
A. Network printing is available using shared printers located in the academic and residential labs. ITS staff maintain the shared printing equipment. Students may also connect a personal printer directly to their own computers. Student printing on the networked printers is monitored, and students are allocated $33.00 - the equivalent of 550 black and white printed pages - for the entire academic year. Half of the allocation ($16.50) is provided during Fall Term and the remainder is made available in January for the rest of the academic year. Students may supplement their initial allocation by depositing funds for additional printing at the rate of $0.06 per page.
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