Connecting to C.S. Department Computers

What’s my username?

You have a unique “username”, which identifies you to the computer. You don’t get to make one up—somebody creates one for you.

If you’re lucky, and you’re the only person with your last name taking a computer class, then your login name will just be your last name. However, if more than one person has the same last name, then one of you will have some extra letters.

If your last name doesn’t work, try your last name and the first letter of your first name, or your last name with the initials from your first and middle names. Login names are limited to eight letters, so if your last name is long, try making it shorter.

For example, if your name is Barack Hussein Obama, you should try:

obama (just the last name)
obamab (last name and first initial)
obamaba (last name, part of first name)
obamabh (last name, first initial, middle initial)

On the other hand, if your last name is long, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, try:

rooseve (last name truncated to seven letters)
roosevel (last name truncated to eight letters)
roosevef (last name truncated to seven letters, first initial)
roosevfd (last name truncated to six letters, first initial, middle initial)

If none of those work, send email to your instructor asking for your login name, or ask a lab op on duty to finger you:

    finger roosevelt

What’s my password?

Your password is your CSU ID. It’s a nine-digit number starting with 8, with no dashes or other punctuation. You should change it. If you’ve taken a Computer Science class recently, you may still have a login left over from that class. If so, your password will still be whatever it was from that class.

What computer do I use?

You need to do your homework on one of the Computer Science Department computers. From that list, select a machine where its OS is Linux or Linux(64), and its USE is general.

Don’t pick the first computer in the list, because everybody is going to pick that one. Pick one whose name has some meaning to you—I use one whose name reminds me of my favorite comic-book character.

When you refer to a computer from that list, you must use its full name. For example, if the computer’s name is corn, you must refer to it as corn.cs.colostate.edu.

You don’t have to use the same computer every time. Your files are magically on all of the computers at once.

How do I actually get to one of these computers?

Computer Lab

The simplest way is to walk to the Linux Lab in the 1^st floor of the Computer Science building. It’s a room full of computers—sit down and log into one. You need a RamCard keycard to get into this room.

Connecting from a home computer

You may connect to one of the CS Department Linux computers from your home computer, and do your work from home. However, it is your responsibility to get your homework done. If your internet connection fails, or if your home computer breaks, that’s your problem—you have to walk to the Linux Lab in the Computer Science building, as described above.

Changing your password

Once you log in, you should change your password using the passwd command. Get a terminal window by typing Alt-F2, and “Terminal”. When the prompt appears, change your password like this:

    passwd

Reading your mail

You can read your mail with a web interface at http://webmail.cs.colostate.edu, if you remember to do that, or you can forward your mail to your non-CSU email address by creating a .forward file in your home directory:

    echo "joe-the-student@gmail.com" >~/.forward

CS253: Problem Solving with C++

Spring 2012