19
Checklist and Table of Contents
/ GETTING STARTED / PAGEGood laptop practices and laptop etiquette / 2
Laptop battery / 3
File sharing / 3
Custom installs / 3
Windows will not boot / 3
Support options / 4
Set your computer name / 5
Explore your drives/software / 6
Wireless or Ethernet? / 7
Connect to Novell / 8
Printing on campus printers / 9
USB memory keys / 9
Set a restore point / 10
/ LAPTOP MAINTENANCE / PAGE
DAILY:
Stand by, hibernate, or turn off? / 11
WEEKLY:
Backing up your files / 12
Update MS Windows / 12
Update McAfee / 13-14
Spyware / 15
MS Defender
McAfee
Spybot
Adaware
AIM Fix
Spyware Blaster, or other
MONTHLY:
Disk Cleanup / 16
Defrag / 16
Safe Mode scan for viruses and spyware / 17
Start up folder / 17
Add/Remove programs / 17
Browser cache and cookies / 18
YEARLY:
Change laptop’s password / 19
Change Novell password / 19
Clean up software / 19
List of pre-installed software / 20-21
GETTING STARTED
Good Laptop Practices
· Always transport your Laptop in a protective case.
· Be careful not to put heavy items on top of your laptop or right next to it in your backpack. Heavy items stored on top of your laptop can cause damage to the internal components.
· Never carry your laptop by the screen or by a corner (slight flexing can bend and compromise your motherboard).
· Avoid extreme temperatures. Never use your laptop in temperatures below 40°F (4°C) or above 95°F (35°C). Even if it is turned off, never expose your laptop to temperatures below 20°F (-7°C). If it does get very cold, let it warm up to room temperature before you attempt to turn it on.
· Treat your laptop as a fragile item to conserve its overall life.
· When eating or drinking near your laptop, always keep food and drink at a lower level so if it spills, it does not end up in your laptop.
· Keep a plastic bag in your backpack. If it rains, put your laptop inside a plastic bag inside your backpack. We’ve seen laptops damaged by heavy rain – even when inside a substantial backpack.
Treat your laptop like it’s your wallet! If you go in a restroom, carry it in the stall – don’t leave it lying outside. If you are in the dining room and want to refresh your drink – take it with you – don’t leave it at the table. Lock your room. Hide it in a drawer – don’t leave it in plain sight.
Laptop Etiquette
Keep the sound turned off any time you are near other people who might be bothered by it. Use headphones if you need to hear it. Never turn the sound on during class!
Do not use instant messengers, email, play games, or surf the web during class. Use your laptop only for real academic reasons. Some professors will make everyone in the class close their laptop if one person breaks these rules. Remember that having an instant messenger or browser window open during a test is considered cheating.
Laptop Battery
Your Laptop comes with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
To charge your battery, simply plug the AC adapter into the power port. Then plug it into an outlet.
Remember, your battery will continue to charge even if your laptop is in use.
You can control the power consumption of your Laptop while running on the battery. Click on Start, Control Panel, Power Options. Lowering your screen’s brightness and other options will increase battery life. Also turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (if not using) will help increase battery life.
In the past, most laptop batteries have had on average about 1-3 years of life – with it degrading a little every month. Batteries only have a one year warranty and you may want to buy a new one in about two-three years.
There is a recall on some Thinkpad batteries for R52, T43, and T60 models. Please click here for more information on battery recalls.
After a question about re-charging laptop batteries, I found the following information. It is the case that Li-Ion batteries (most laptop batteries today are Li-Ion) do not have that memory that NiCad batteries had. However, several sites say that it is best to let the battery fully discharge before recharging, some sites saying to do this once a month. Many sites also said that heat is one of the biggest things that leads to degradation of the battery – if you use your laptop on your lap, for example, without a lap desk or hard surface, that makes it get hot. One last important comment, it is not good to use the AC adapter with a fully charged battery still in the laptop – this is something I do all the time, which I won’t be doing any more.
File Sharing
Remember that uploading or downloading copyrighted material is illegal. Students are caught and prosecuted for it on the Clemson campus every year. Beware! Also, many file sharing programs actually introduce spyware and viruses to your computer and slow down the performance of your computer.
For students interested in free, legal music downloads, Clemson has an agreement with Ruckus. This is a part of the Clemson laptop image. To read more about Ruckus, visit http://www.ruckus.com.
Custom Installs
If you decide to install any software on your computer, we strongly recommend selecting ‘custom’ install to make sure nothing extra is installed. Some programs add extras (like toolbars or spyware) if you do not do this. Also, watch for things that want to start up automatically – generally answer no to this question. For example, some students end up with instant messengers, post-it notes, and other software that starts every time they start their computer – even when they are not online. It makes the computer boot slowly and operate slowly. We recommend starting these kinds of things only when you need them and not leaving them running all of the time.
Windows Will Not Boot
Quite frequently, students bring laptops to the CCIT Support Center because Windows will no longer boot. We usually run a hard drive diagnostic (available on FAQ on laptop.clemson.edu). If the hard drive is not failing, there is a method that some times gets it going again. Some times we can boot to a Windows CD, go to the Recovery Console, and type in CHKDSK /R – and that frequently fixes the problem.
If the hard drive is failing, it needs to be replaced. If it is under warranty, a new hard drive should be ordered. If it is out of warranty, a new hard drive can be purchased in the Support Center – or from other locations.
Support Options
If you are on campus and need support, visit the CCIT Support Center in the Student Union next to the Post Office and Parking Services – under Harcombe Dining Hall. Or you may email . Or you may call 864-656-3494.
Set your Computer Name
Click on Start, Control Panel, System. Click on the Change settings under the Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings.
This will bring up the System Properties window, Computer Name tab. Click on Change.
Under Computer Name enter Laptop followed by your Clemson user name with no spaces or special characters.
Answer OK, OK, close, Restart later (delaying restarting).
This prevents an error message you’ll see when you are on campus that says “Duplicate Name Exists on Network”. It is not a serious error, just annoying... This way everyone’s laptop will have a unique name.
Explore your drives / software
Double Click on the desktop icon “Computer”. Notice the two drives: C: (Windows/Programs) and D: (Data). There are two partitions on your hard drive. This was done so your programs and Windows could be separate from your data (My Documents). That way if you ever need to have your hard drive re-imaged, it can be done without touching your data. Reimages are necessary if your Windows ‘breaks’ or your computer gets a bad virus or spyware, or your computer becomes slow from too many things installed, or if your computer develops other software conflicts. Reimaging only takes 10-15 minutes in the CCIT Support Center and installs the newest updates on your laptop.
Double click on D:. Double click on the folder named profile.cu. Notice that this is where your My Documents is stored. Some subfolders include My Music and My Pictures. d:\profile.cu\My Documents is your default location for storing data. Another folder in profile.cu is Desktop – that’s where things go if you put them on your desktop. Another one is Favorites – this is the location of your Internet Explorer Favorites.
Another folder you will see in d:\profile.cu is Application Data. If you use Outlook 2007 for email, your email data will be stored in D:\Profile.cu\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. If you would like to back up your email, you can copy the files from that folder to a CD, DVD, or external USB device. If you have your C: drive reimaged in the CCIT Support Center, your email should not be affected since it is on the D: drive.
When you are logged on to Novell, there are some extra ‘drives’. One is the S: (share) drive. You can find university licensed software and files available to you here. You may drag anything you find here to your local computer – or install any software you find here by double clicking on the setup.exe or install file. This is a good place to go in future years when new versions of software are available (your laptop should be very up to date if it is new).
Another important one is your U: drive. This is your personal network space. Part of its name will include your user name. Click on your U: drive and take a look. One important folder is the U:\public.www. If you put a file in there named index.html it becomes your published university web page accessible at http://www.clemson/edu/~ followed by your user name.
NEVER delete u:\public.www folder!!!
Your Eportfolio is also located in your u:\public.www folder. You will learn more about that soon.
You can back up important files on U:. Do remember that you have only 100 MB of space here, so only put important academic data – there will not be enough room for everything in your My Documents. A nice thing about storing backup files here is they also get stored on back up tape. So if you ever accidentally delete something that has been there for a while, it’s possible to restore some of the files from backup.
Click on Start, All Programs and see what’s installed. A partial list is included at the end of this document.
We would recommend that you not remove any of this software until you have been in class at least one month. Many students change their majors – so it is hard to tell which software you will need before you arrive. There are also many other programs available for Clemson students. There are several ways to add Clemson licensed software to your computer. Here are a few:
· Software Installer – linked from http://www.clemson.edu/ccit/laptop - can be done from any fast ethernet connection
· Download – linked from http://download.clemson.edu – has a few different items from the Software Installer – but you’ll need to answer more questions as you install
· S: drive – you need to be on campus and logged in to the Novell network to get to these
Wireless or Ethernet?
If you want to force your computer to use a faster Ethernet connection (instead of a slower wireless connection), you can temporarily turn your wireless off. Most Clemson laptops have an external wireless switch that you can turn off or on.
Remember that wireless is not available everywhere and it is a ‘shared’ connection – so the more people using it, the slower the connection. There is also a limit on the number of people who can use it in one location – so even though someone else is using it, it’s possible to ‘run out of connections’.
Wireless is not intended to be used in residence halls! It is more often used in public areas or classrooms that do not have ports. To see a complete list of wireless locations, visit http://wireless.clemson.edu
The Clemson wireless network SSID is tigernet. The Clemson laptop images are set up so that if your computer is on campus and in the range of the Clemson wireless network, it should find it and automatically connect. If you see it on your computer, it is strongly recommended that you not remove that wireless network. Some students are tempted to do that so they can use wireless at home. It should be possible to have both – and just select one or the other. If you have trouble configuring your home wireless, contact your Internet provider.
Please note that tigernet is new this year. In previous years, a WEP key was required. With tigernet, you will be asked to give your Clemson user name and password the first time you connect. With Windows Vista, there will be no special set up required.
(http://www.clemson.edu/ccit/support_services/it_support/laptop/support/tigernet.html)
Here are the instructions to set up Tigernet wireless on Windows XP. Other OS’s/devices should be similar.
Tigernet is set up to use the wpa/wpa2 encryption standards and to allow you to connect securely using only your Clemsonuser nameand password (no more static wep keys).
Go into the network settings for the wireless networks and click add to put in a new network. The ssid should be “tigernet”. The network authentication type should be wpa (or wpa enterprise). That means it will get the user id/password from Clemson’s radius authentication servers. The encryption type should be AES. WPA-1 uses TKIP and is not as secure. WPA-2 uses AES and is much more secure. We currently have support for both turned on to try and be compatible with older devices.