Computer Services for Faculty

Most computing services to School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) Faculty are provided directly by the local support organization, Computing & Information Technology Services (CETS). CETS also manages local support for computer services provided by other organizations at the University of Pennsylvania, such as the Registrar, Human Resources, etc.

Accounts

Pennkey name/password is used to access most university online services. People new to Penn normally get their Pennkey setup code when they get their PennID cards. For guests without PennID cards, contact cets@seas.upenn.edu for assistance. There is a single “namespace” at Penn for usernames, which means that a name taken anywhere at Penn is not available to someone else.

SEAS accounts are available to all faculty, staff and students of Penn Engineering. The SEAS machines provide email, file service and computer service. It is a group of tightly connected Unix computers, including Sun Solaris and SUSE Linux and a Network Appliance filter. Supported email clients include Thunderbird, Webmail, and Mutt. Instructions for configuring email is available from http://www.seas.upenn.edu/cets/answers/maildoc.html.

Meeting Maker (calendar) accounts are available to SEAS faculty and staff from CETS. Accounts on research computers are authorized by the Principal Investigators whose grants acquired the computers.

Advising Support

Faculty members can get information about student records from Advisor InTouch. However, individual access must first be established through the Academic Programs Office, apo@seas.upenn.edu. In addition, faculty members can get lists and pictures of their advisees from IRQDB.

Anti-Spam

To enable or adjust anti-spam settings on SEAS, go to http://www.seas.upenn.edu/accounts and select “Configure your account.” The SEAS anti-spam system uses SpamAssassin. In addition, your email client program (such as Thunderbird) may provide anti-spam filtering.

Anti-Virus

Incoming email to the SEAS mail server is scanned for viruses. Email attachments of the following filename extensions are deleted because they are almost always viruses:

ade adp app asd asf asx bas bat chm cmd com cpl crt dll exe fxp hlp hta hto inf ini ins isp jse lib lnk mdb mde msc msi
msp mst ocx pcd pif prg reg scr sct sh shb shs sys url vb vbe vbs vcs vxd wmd wms wmz wsc wsf wsh

The remaining email messages are scanned for strings matching anti-virus signatures. As of June, 2004, about 30% of SEAS ’s incoming mail messages were viruses. Penn has a site license for Symantec AntiVirus (PC) and Norton AntiVirus (Mac), which are available free from http://www.upenn.edu/computing/product/.

CETS operates a Symantec Antivirus “push” service, which can send signatures of new viruses to your PC/Windows desktop automatically. This protects you from new viruses with no action on your part. For your home system or laptop, download the software and install it, then get new anti-virus signatures from Symantec on a regular basis. Even though your incoming email is usually protected from all but the newest viruses, viruses can spread through methods other than email.

Audio-visual support in the classroom

Most classrooms in the Engineering School buildings have projectors, laptop jacks and installed computers, which are set up exactly like the Student Computer Labs. For details on classroom features, click here. For information on large auditorium a/v facilities within SEAS, contact cets@seas.upenn.edu. It is important to test the software and features in advance, to ensure that they work as you expect.

Backups

The SEAS file system is backed up nightly and snapshots are made five times a day. It is also mirrored, for instant recovery from disk failure. CETS provides free backups for one computer each for faculty and staff whose salary is funded by the SEAS academic budget. Additional backup services for research computers are available for a fee or as part of the CIS Service Center.

Computer Labs

Computer Labs for general course support are provided by CETS. Both linux and Windows labs are available. Labs may be reserved for classes; advance arrangements are required. To request a lab, send email to cets@seas.upenn.edu. Engineering users have access to their SEAS disk space from all CETS Computer Labs. Printing in the labs is limited to SEAS students, faculty and staff only.

Course Support

Any Engineering course can use Blackboard CourseInfo. Students are automatically loaded into course sites. Scanning of course material is provided by the Penn Engineering Library, contact townelib@seas.upenn.edu. Blackboard sites must be renewed every semester, to enable loading of the semester’s enrolled students. Alternatively, faculty members may create their own course web sites using a course account on SEAS. Many software packages are installed in the student computer labs. Additional software packages may be purchased for the student labs at faculty request; however, the budget for that is based the enrollment of the course. To request course-related software, a Blackboard course site or a course email/web account contact cets@seas.upenn.edu.

Faculty members can get lists and pictures of their students in their classes. Access is enabled automatically using Pennkey account, based on the instructor of record in the Registrar’s database.

Disk Space

Standard disk space allocations on SEAS are 1GB. The disk is available on the network, backed up and may be mounted on a variety of operating systems. Also, additional space is available for a fee or through the CIS Service Center.

Firewall

Most incoming and outgoing network traffic is not firewalled. At the SEAS border router, some ports are blocked when they are used for active exploits. Typical ports blocked include 53, 69, 135, 139, 161, 162, 445, and some higher numbered ports. Port 80, which is the normal web port, is blocked for all computers except web servers registered with CETS. This prevents people from unintentionally activating web services. In addition, you may choose to put your computer behind a network firewall. At the desktop level, CETS supports Symantec’s desktop firewall.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to frequently asked questions about computer facilities in SEAS are located at http://www.seas.upenn.edu/cets/answers.

Graduate Student Admissions

Information about graduate applicants is available at http://www.seas.upenn.edu/ay. Access is set up by the departments, using Pennkey for authentication.

Human Resources

Information related to employment at Penn is located at http://www.upenn.edu/u@penn and http://www.hr.upenn.edu/, including pay, benefits and personal profile information. Access uses Pennkey account.

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists are available using Mailman software. Each list needs a list administrator, who chooses the set-up options and who may accept/reject postings if the list is moderated. A mailing list is automatically set up for each course section, with the address DEPTNUM-SEC-TERM@lists.upenn.edu, such as cse110-001-04c@lists.upenn.edu for CSE 110, section 001 taught during fall 2004. By default, only the faculty member teaching the course may send email to the list. Information about class mailing lists is available at http://www.upenn.edu/computing/classlist/faq.html.

Network Connectivity

Penn Engineering is connected to Internet and Internet II through a 100 Mbit connection to Pennnet. All offices and labs have Ethernet jacks installed. IP addresses are provided by DHCP after authentication. Within Penn Engineering, network connections are typically 10 Mbit, except in Levine Hall, where wall jacks are 10/100 Mbit. Higher speed networking (up to 1 Gbit) is available for research projects; this usually involves installation fees. Wireless networking is available throughout the Engineering buildings, using 802.11(b) with web intercept authentication. Faculty members may create proxy accounts to enable wireless access for their guests, see http://troll.seas.upenn.edu.

Be sure to check with CETS before setting up any wireless access point or wireless router in a SEAS building, as it will probably disrupt our wireless network. If you use a wireless telephone, choose a 900 MHz telephone.

Operating System Updates and Patches

All Windows PCs should be configured to install updates automatically from the Windows Update Service. On Redhat or SUSE Linux computers which are part of the CETS reference system, updates are installed automatically. Patches are installed regularly on all Unix computers managed by CETS, including the Eniac group and all CIS Service Center computers. To arrange patching of other Unix systems for research, contact CETS about fees. For Macintosh, use the automated update system from the Apple. If you run any other operating system or if you run multiple operating systems on your computer, it is your responsibility to keep it patched. A university policy requires that all computers connected to Pennnet have their critical vulnerabilities patched within 2 business days.

Research Computing Support

In general, faculty members provide funds through research grants for computing resources used for research by themselves and their students.

In the CIS Service Center, through a capitation rate on all CIS PhD students, standard desktop computers and enhanced systems administration support are provided. In addition, the CIS Service Center pays for maintenance and service of research servers. For information about the CIS Service Center, contact manager@cis.upenn.edu.

CETS provides assistance on specifications for research computers. Also, system administration service is available, charged by the hour. Network-attached, backed-up disk space is available, charged by the gigabyte. CETS also provides a wide range of systems administration and design services for High Performance Computing on Linux needs. Contact cets@seas.upenn.edu.

Web Services

From any SEAS account, personal web pages may be served to the Internet using a Linux/Apache Web Server. Several other web services are available, including the ability to create cgi scripts for coursework and course support. Contact cets@seas.upenn.edu for details.

Research labs may run their own web servers, but they need to be registered with CETS and security needs to be maintained on the servers. Security may be managed by the researchers themselves, by contract with CETS or as part of the CIS Service Center.