Running a Computer at CSE

Check out information about the following topics. Note that much of it applies to computers at UNSW, not only CSE.

This page is a hub of information. If you are running a computer at CSE, please be sure to scan through this page so you have a rough idea of what sort of help you can find here.

This topic is split into several sections based on category.

Important Bits

All people running their own computer that connects to CSE Services should read and be aware of the Policy on Self Administrated Computers. This document describes your rights and responsibilities with regards to CSE services and your own data.

We would like to particularly highlight the following:

You must think about Backups of your data.
You must be aware of security, and keep your computer up to data with updates from your Operating System/Applications. You will want to read the section on your Operating System / Distribution and possibly read about Mirrors and Local Software.
We strongly recommend that you set your username to be your CSE username (regardless of your operating system).

Generally, you will also probably want to look at Accessing CSE Services.

Did we mention? Be sure to BACKUP YOUR DATA !

Getting on the Network

You will either be using the Wired Network (cable into wall port), or the Wireless Network. Or you may even be travelling and using a VPN.

Mirrors and Local Software

For general software, you should be familiar with local software repositories. Here are a few:

CSE Mirror - CSE's mirror has copies of lots of software, including Firefox, Mozilla, RedHat, Linux Kernel, OpenOffice, ...
Home Computing - The CSE Home Computing site contains a copy of everything on the homecomputing CD. A good collection of software thats handy when studying at CSE.
~java - The CSE Java page has local copies of installation files and documentation for Sun's Java software.

Other available software

The Available Software FAQ page has information on other available software.

Operating Systems and Distributions

These pages provide some specific help and configuration details for these software environments. You should also be sure to read the below sections on accessing services.

Linux - Regular Users
- Ubuntu Linux
- Fedora Linux
Linux - Advanced Users
- Debian Linux
- Gentoo Linux
Microsoft Windows
MacOSX related pages

We have separated linux distributions into two categories. The Regular Users category (Ubuntu, Fedora), have much more user-friendly installers, and are generally easier to get started with. However, if you are already comfortable running a linux computer, then we recommend Debian or Gentoo to the advanced users. They tend to be more tricky to install, but often easier to manage once you are comfortable with their package-management tools. If you're even a little bit unsure, try Ubuntu.

Accessing CSE Services from within CSE

There are many services people may want to access from their self administered computer at CSE:

Accessing CSE Login Servers - You can still access many of the programs you used to have on your computer.
Self Admin Backups - be sure to backup your data. It won't happen magically on your own machine!
Accessing Your Home Directory
Accessing the Internet
Accessing email, especially Using IMAP.
Printing from selfadmin computers
Accessing Matlab
Accessing Windows Terminal Servers (accessing Microsoft software (e.g. MS Office) from operating systems other than MS Windows)

Note that most of these operations are simpler if you have set your username to be the same as your CSE username.

Getting within CSE from outside CSE

If you are outside of K17, you should be able to become effectively "inside" by connecting to a VPN.

Please refer to the VPN page for information on using them at CSE.

Software Gotchas

This section collects a few FAQs that address common problems encountered.

SSH Errors - People sometimes have problems accessing GUI applications through SSH.
Setting Proxies - People occasionally have problems with proxy settings.

cse taggi

Running your computer