Basic Information

The Department of Computer Science maintains two labs on the second floor of the Engineering Building. They are the first two labs on the right as you start down the hall (2.212 and 2.228).  They are open generally from 8:00 in the morning to 8:45 or so in the evening during the regular semester.

The larger lab has 24 computers with both Windows XP and Linux installed in a dual boot configuration. There is also a table up at the front of the room for people to set up laptops. We also have a new toy in the lab. We have a projector mounted in the lab. The video and audio plugs are on the wall. I am still waiting on power but that should be taken care of soon enough.

The smaller lab has 16 workstations running only linux. They are available when the lab is open. The outside doors are usually closed but that is just to keep people from wandering in and out and messing with stuff that they shouldn't.  Just go through my office to get there. There are also project computers set up in that room along with the clusters we maintain for the Physics Department.

Lab Consultants

We have students that work in the lab to provide support for people taking programming classes. They are present when the lab is open and will help you with your programming assignments. Of course they will not do your assignments for you.  Also, we are limited to hiring only human beings who cannot be in more than one place at a time. What this means is, if you come to the lab at the last minute for help, you will have to wait for help after all the other people who waited until the last minute and might not get help as fast as you might like. Come early and come often. We are there to help.

Accounts and Using the Lab Computers

The accounts in the lab are separate from the University computer accounts. Access to this lab is different from the general computers because the needs for programming are different from the general purpose computers found in the other labs. There is no direct access from the outside. All of the computers are behind a firewall and are not directly connected to the rest of the network on campus. This allows us to do things inside the lab which would not really be safe to do on the outside.

At present we do not have disk quotas (limits on disk space) so we have some flexibility for projects and temporary storage. This does not mean that you can put a huge amount of stuff in your storage area.  Also this space is not for things that should not be on the University computers.

If you need to get an account contact me (David Kirtley) or one of the lab consultants to get an account created.

Things to remember for using the computers:

• Keep your files on drive Z: (the network drive) and not on your desktop or the My Documents folder. Every time you log in, This gets downloaded to the workstation. The more you have there, the longer it takes to get logged into the computer. Drive Z: is available immediately and you do not have to wait for it.
  
• If you use secure shell to access your network storage, from the outside the address is red1.cs.panam.edu. This is the firewall computer and it will forward your connecton into the lab. From the inside, you cannot use that address.  Any of the linux computers on the inside are directly accessible and your home directory is the same directory that shows up as drive Z: when you log in under Windows.  If you want to get to the stuff that you might have left on your Windows desktop, look in the hidden folder  named .winprofile and you will find your Windows desktop in there. Of course if you keep your stuff on drive Z: you will not have this problem.
  
• Do not lock the computers except for a short time (like running accross the hall to the restroom or something).  You will be logged out if it they are locked for any extended time. If it happens too often, your account will be disabled.
• Abuse: If things are in your directory that should not be there (movies, music, etc) you will be warned. Usually this warning takes the form of having your account disabled until you come to get things cleared up. Running software that should not be there is also treated the same way. (IRC bots, file sharing software, etc.) Use of this lab is a privilege.  Enough said.