Personal Computers
There is little to distinguish the personal computers of group members, and those of visitors. This page covers both.
Network Connection and IP Address
The simplest answer is wireless. Cambridge supports Eduroam, the wireless system used by most major academic sites throughout the world. This needs to be set up at your home institution, thereafter it will just work here, and in many other places.
The other wireless solution is UniOfCam, which is a more restricted service supporting little more than web browsing (but hence also web mail). Printing is also possible. Visitors tickets lasting for up to two months can be created trivially for (almost) anyone by (most) staff. Such tickets can even be requested in advance - they are not tied to MAC addresses. Both UniOfCam and Eduroam are run central by the University Computing Service, though faults should generally be reported via local IT staff.
There are further notes on Eduroam and UniOfCam in TCM, including how to gain access to each if you are at Cambridge, rather than being a visitor.
If you insist on a wired connection, we normally provide a Cambridge private (RFC1918) IP address to visiting computers. This can connect directly to any machine in the University, and will be NATed when connecting to machines outside Cambridge. This process is the same as that used by most home broadband routers, and is usually transparent. To obtain an IP address please make sure you are happy with the rules for connecting your own computer to the TCM network and then supply us with the mac address of your computer. Visitors may need to sign a piece of paper too.
If you need to contact an email server outside cam.ac.uk then you may need a public IP address - please tell us you think you need a public IP address together with the justification for it.
Printing
IPP Printing
Most modern OSes (MacOS, Win2K, recent Linux distributions) appear to
like speaking the IPP protocol. We have a server called
plover.tcm.phy.private.cam.ac.uk which supports this
protocol. The printers are specified using URLs such as
https://plover.tcm.phy.private.cam.ac.uk/printers/ps2
or, if you don't want encryption,
http://plover.tcm.phy.private.cam.ac.uk:8008/printers/ps2
More details are on our IPP page.
To send email outside cam.ac.uk you may need to send it via "ppsw.cam.ac.uk" (this will be the smtp server setting in your MUA). Of course web mail should just work.
MUA = Mail User Agent, such as pine, Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.
Anti-Virus Software
Staff and students of Cambridge University are entitled to use McAfee anti-virus software on their computers at work and home. People who can use McAfee products under the Cambridge University site licence agreement.
Futher details about University Anti Virus software and how to obtain it
If you are not entitled to use McAfee or do not want to then please make sure your own anti-virus software is kept up to date.
Security and Good Computer Behaviour
You will probably prefer that your computer not get hacked and other people will also like it if your computer is not hacked as it will, then, not be used to attack their computers.
You should really read:
Connection rules - for
personal machines.
The Dangers of Computers - how
to get hacked
If you do not know how to administer your own computer then we
HIGHLY recommend that you do so. The University runs FREE
courses for staff and students:
FREE courses for staff and
students
Please attend the courses relevant for the Operating System(s) you are
running on your own computer.