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Welcome to Brandeis! This guide will aid you in getting started. PC users should follow the procedures below step by step, reading ahead as needed. MAC users will find this guide helpful as well, however they should skip any section labeled (PC). All users should pay special attention to the items in a section they read marked Important! These contain warnings that if unheeded may cause problems with your computer or network. If you have any questions or encounter a problem, undergraduates should call the Help Desk at 9-UNET and graduate students should call the Tech Desk.
Your UNet account is central to your use of the abundant technology resources available at Brandeis. Services accessed through your UNet account include:
Students new to the university can create their own UNet account. The account username can be up to 8 lowercase letters and numbers. Your password must be secure, including at least one symbol character (e.g . or ,). Undergraduate and Graduate students receive instructions to create their account from admissions by mail. Rabb Summer school students are allowed UNet accounts as well.
For security purposes, UNet account passwords expire every nine months. An email reminder will be sent automatically before the expiration date. You must change your password before the expiration date, or you will be unable to access your account. It is the responsibility of each user to change their password regularly if they wish to maintain uninterrupted access to their account.
To change or reset expired passwords, go to https://unet.brandeis.edu and choose Change Password.
If you ever forget your password, you will need to come to the Help Desk (for undergraduates) or the Tech Desk (for grad students) in-person and with your Brandeis ID card in order to change it. For such an event, you need to know the answer to the challenge question you made when you created the account. You can view or change your challenge question via this link.
Eligible Brandeis University community members are entitled to one account per person. Duplicate accounts will be closed.
Users of Brandeis UNet accounts must comply with all related Brandeis policies, including acceptable computer and network use policies.
File Sharing and Network Usage
You should set up your phone before attempting to set up your computer. Please refer to the information packet in your orientiation guide for more information on setting up the VOIP phones. That information is also found on the LTS website here.
This section will help you to connect your computer to the wired campus network. It should be used once your computer is plugged in, booted and your network cable is attached to the computer correctly. For help with this in a campus dorm, see your campus registration packet. In order to access the wired network, you will need to follow all the instructions below. If you need help, click here
IMPORTANT! Having a network bridge enabled in your network settings will disable your computer jack and cause problems with our network.
To Disable the Network Bridge:
Computers running Microsoft Windows must be up-to-date with all security patches from Microsoft. Windows Update will scan your computer for the latest security patches from Microsoft. After it installs patches, restart your computer and run Windows Update again. Continue doing this until it tells you that there are no more critical updates to install. Drivers and non-critical updates can be skipped. If you are running Windows XP and have not installed Service Pack 2, please do that before visiting Windows Update.
NOTE: You will need a genuine version of Windows to gain access to Windows Update . If Microsoft determines you have a counterfeit operating system, you will not be able to access the Brandeis network.
More details on this policy can be found at: http://lts.brandeis.edu/techresources/protect/microsoftgenuineadvantage.html
Stinger is a free utility made by Network Associates. It scans your computer for the current top 40 viruses. The scan should take between 15 and 45 minutes, depending on the speed of your machine. Please note the final message that Stinger prints out at the end of the scan; you may be asked to enter it later to confirm that it completed successfully. If Stinger finds viruses but fails to remove them, call the UNet Help Desk at x9UNet.
All Brandeis students, faculty, and staff are licensed to use Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition. This tool will provide a layer of protection against virus infection. If you already have antivirus software installed, remove it and install Symantec instead. To remove other antivirus software and install Symantec Antivirus, follow the link below:
IMPORTANT! You Must remove other antivirus software before installing Symantec Antivirus (including old versions of Norton Antivirus)!
Microsoft AntiSpyware is now the recommended Spyware removal tool at Brandeis University. Installing Microsoft AntiSpyware will protect your computer automatically from most spyware. Spyware causes annoying popups on PC's and may compromise your system or personal information stored on the computer. Further information on spyware is located at (link to spyware and viruses).
Download Microsoft AntiSpyware
Currently, Mac OS users do not need Spyware protection.
Before you surf, know the rules! Read Brandeis' Computing Policies.
Congratulations! Your computer is now ready to be a part of the campus network. click here to register your computer on the network. After following the link, enter your UNet ID and password, then follow the screen prompts to register.
Return to this document for help setting up email, important notes on security and web browsing and links to more help with computing.
Your UNet account allows you to access the Brandeis email system. Your personal email address is your UNet ID@brandeis.edu. Brandeis users are able to access their email from a preferred email client or via the web. The webmail system is handy for checking your email on the go, however it creates a heavier load on our servers. Therefore we recommend that you primarily use a supported email client to access your mail routinely.
Learn More about Webmail before using it
You will use email to keep in touch with classmates and professors at the very least. Since email allows messages to be sent and forwarded with ease, email has the potential to reach a wide audience. An email message may be forwarded, printed, or permanently stored by any recipient and this can lead to privacy problems.
Email can be misdirected, even when you are careful. Do not put something in an email message that you would not want everyone to read. If you receive a message intended for someone else, let the sender know. Email does not show the subleties of voice or body language either. Avoid irony or sarcasm and be clear, short and relevant instead. Do not respond to email that is upsetting and avoid flaming, that is sending an angry or rude message.
When configuring your email client, the program is going to ask whether you want to use POP or IMAP to deliver your email. POP is an older standard that you may still use, but LTS strongly recommends using IMAP. With IMAP, your mail is stored on the server. When you use your email client, you connect to the server and read and delete messages as if they were stored locally on your computer. The advantage of this system is that you have access to all of your mail from any location. IMAP is generally faster at retrieving your mail as well.
LTS supports the email clients listed below. You can discover more about each email client by clicking the link of the particular program and following the link on the next page to the program's website. Once you've chosen an email client, follow the appropriate link to the install and configuration procedures.
If you would rather use another email program, you may do so at your own peril.
Disk quotas are not enforced as disk space is cheap. However, you are strongly advised to keep individual mailboxes under 500 messages occupying less than 50MB disk space. Many mail clients (such as Outlook Express, IMP, Eudora, and Netscape) can not handle large mailboxes without a significant slowdown in performance.
You will receive a warning by email about individual mailboxes over this advisory limit. They should be reorganized into multiple moderately sized folders.
Learn more about the BeWise Initiative .
Computer Clusters are intended for use by any Brandeis community member needing a public computer. All of the Clusters have a common software image to provide ample access across the campus to the basic productivity packages. To help maintain our goal of keeping machines readily available, Computer Clusters cannot be reserved.
For more information about locations and cluster resources click here.
Take note: Cluster computers will automatically reboot after 30 minutes of keyboard/mouse inactivity and restore all files to their original configuration and any personal files saved locally will be deleted. You should always save regulary to your UNet space, floppy/CD/USB drives, etc.
There are various computer clusters on campus that permit public printing. For details about prices, locations of the computer clusters, and instructions go to the following webpage: click here
General Help with Clusters is attainable by dialing 6-LABS (65227)
UNet provides a highly trained student staff and a wide variety of services to undergraduate students, including assistance connecting your computer to the campus network. UNet help is available 70 hrs per week during the fall and spring semesters. We will have ongoing on-site software support as well. UNet also hosts short workshops on various topics planned throughout the year. Unet Help Desk hours and contact information
