Welcome!  Whether you are a new student, staff member, visitor or faculty, being a new user can feel a bit bewildering.  There is a lot of common knowledge that everyone assumes you know. But of course, being new, you do not.  Well, here it is.   

 

 

Logins and Servers

 

UNIX

The Division supports several Unix variants on desktops and specialized research machines, including Sun's Solaris, SGI's Irix, IBM's AIX and the Linux (Redhat) distribution, with Solaris and Linux being the most common. Windows versions include NT, 2000 and XP.

 

All machines on the network can share users’ home directories and research data storage areas via network file and disk sharing; however, access to many of the computing servers is restricted to specific research groups.

 

When a user logs into one of the Division’s Windows machines the user has access to their Unix home directory through a translation file service running on the Unix server.

 

There are two servers that are available for general use. Other servers and desktop machines (workstations) are not listed here. If you are interested in using a machine not listed you should make arrangements with the user assigned to that machine, or contact support@dam.brown.edu if you are unsure about a machine's status. Please avoid running CPU or memory intensive jobs, such as Matlab, on the primary login machine, fritz. ares is more suited for such tasks.

 

ares – Sun Enterprise 5000; six 248Mhz UltraSparcII processors, 1.5GB RAM, Solaris. Use this machine for general computing, including interactive computing with Matlab.

 

fritz (fritz.dam.brown.edu) – 2 866MHz  Pentium III processors, 1GB RAM, primary external  login machine (from outside the Division’s firewall use SSH or OPIE one-time passwords to log into this machine and gain access to the network).

 

 

Windows

You will need a separate account to log into the division PCs running Windows NT/2000/XP.   Please contact Madeline Brewster (x31414, or mb@dam.brown.edu) if you need an APPMATH account.  Your home directory on the Unix domain will be mapped to drive H: in Windows OS for easy access.

 

 

E-Mail

 

The Division maintains an e-mail server. It receives mail sent to “user@dam.brown.edu”, where “user” is a user name on the UNIX systems, (and for backward compatibility, it also receives mail to “user@cfm.brown.edu”). The mail server also provides IMAP and POP services for access to new mail (IMAP also allows you to keep you mail archived on the server).

 

Please find detailed instructions on how to configure your email client to receive emails addressed to user@dam.brown.edu online: http://www.dam.brown.edu/computing/setupemail.html.

 

If you would like to check email from home, the incoming mail server properties will be the same.  However, you need to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) for the outgoing mail server properties.  The Division mail server (smtp.dam.brown.edu) is configured to refuse relay for outside hosts.

 

There is also a University e-mail post-office, and if you have official University status (i.e., you’re a member of the Faculty, a student or a staff member) you have access to this service. It is linked with the EAB (Electronic Address Book), which probably already contains an entry for you. You can access and change your EAB and University e-mail information (e.g., set up forwarding to your dam.brown.edu account) at: https://webapps.brown.edu/activate

 

 

Computing Labs

 

There are two computing labs in the Division of Applied Mathematics.  Both of them are available to all users.

 

The larger lab is maintained in Room 102, 180 George St. The lab consists of a number of Windows NT/XP desktops, several SGI workstations, a few PCs running Redhat Linux and two printers, one with color capability. One of the SGI workstations has video capabilities and is connected to a VCR and monitor.  One of the Windows PCs is connected to a scanner.

 

The lab is kept locked for security reason. See the administrative staff in the Department office in 182 George if you need a key.

 

A smaller lab locates in Room 122, 182 George Street.  There are three Windows XP PCs and an SGI workstation.  Two of the PCs have scanner attached.   This lab is also used by the computing TA to hold office hours during the semesters.  The lab is open during the working hours (8:30 AM - 5:00 PM).

 

 

Printers

 

Public printers:

 

Printer Name

Location

Bigc (aka marge)

Room 102 180 George.

hp4050

Room 102 180 George.

bubbles

37 Manning 2nd floor hallway.

damhp4

182 George 2nd floor, in the closet to the left at the top of the stairs.

damhp5

182 George 3rd floor hallway

hp4

182 George Student Lounge (basement).

hp4100-182

182 George 1st Floor Lobby.

damclj

Room 122 182 George. 

 

Note:

·        Please only send color printing jobs to color printers (bigc and damclj), toner is very expensive.

·        hp4050, bubbles and damhp4 are capable of duplex and multiple page printing.  Please select appropriate options to save paper.

 

To find out detailed description of each printer:

§         on Windows: go to Start à Settings à Printers;

§         on Unix: lpstat -p <printername> -l

 

 

Research group printers:

These printers belong to specific workgroups. Ask a knowledgeable person in your research group if you can use these printers and ask the system administrator (support dam.brown.edu) to install it for you.

 

 

Personal Home Page

 

As a member of the Division of Applied Mathematics, you can set up your personal home page on the division web site.  If you would like to create your own page, please send your request to

webmaster dam.brown.edu .

 

 

Personal Laptop

 

User can use their personal laptops in the division.  There are vacant Ethernet connections in the lab and some offices.  Please configure your laptop to use DHCP to obtain IP addresses from the server.


 

 

Remote Access and Security

 

The Division’s networks have a moderate level of protection from hacking provided by a firewall system. The firewall prevents the use of login methods that transmit unencrypted passwords (e.g., rlogin and telnet), and only allows access from external networks via the SSH (Secure-Shell) protocol and a one-time password mechanism called OPIE (or S/key). fritz.dam.brown.edu is the only machine to which logins from outside networks are permitted. SSH is the recommended method for access.  For Windows users, you can download the secure shell client installation file (SSHSecureShellClient-3.2.0.exe) from ftp://ftp.ssh.com/pub/ssh.  The latest SSH version is 3.2.0.  Users with personal Linux machines can install either OpenSSH or SSH from RPM (http://www.rpmfind.net).

 

OPIE is useful if you are traveling and want to use telnet from an unknown or untrusted machine. You will need to have a printed list of passwords, each with a corresponding sequence number. When you receive the telnet login prompt from fritz.dam.brown.edu you will be shown a sequence number that you need to use to look up the appropriate password from the list. See support dam.brown.edu for more assistance with OPIE passwords.  You can also find step-by-step instructions on how to create and use OPIE passwords here: http://www.cfm.brown.edu/tutorials/remote-access.html#skey .

 

- Using a Division desktop and running an X application at a remote site

 

The firewall prevents access to most services on DAM machines from machines on the outside. This includes direct access to your machine’s X window system.

 

In order to run an X application at a remote site (e.g., NCSA), you will need to log into that site via ssh, and use ssh’s X protocol tunneling to provide the communication path between the application and your desktop. This is the default in from Unix –  if your DISPLAY environment variable is set when you type “ssh remote-host.wherever.edu” on the Division machine, there should be an appropriate DISPLAY set when you get a prompt at the other end, and something like “xterm” should pop a window up on your desktop).

 

With ssh on Windows, you will need to navigate through the “Edit”, “Settings”, and “Tunneling” menus to select “Tunnel X connections” for the selected profile.

 

 

Unix Tutorial

 

If you are new to Unix, there is a simple tutorial on the division web site: http://www.dam.brown.edu/computing/compute-guide/compute-guide00.html.

 

 

 

Final Words

 

Please visit http://www.dam.brown.edu/computing/ to get all the information you need about computing in the Division of Applied Mathematics.  Our systems are always evolving, so please pay attention to the system updates from support dam.brown.edu.   If you have questions and comments, please address your email to support dam.brown.edu.

 

 

 

 

 

Last Modified: Nov. 2002