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How do I connect my laptop to the wired network in the Forum?

Here's a brief 'quickstart' guide intended for new staff members and students in the Forum who have been allocated a desk, and who would like to connect their laptop to the wired network:

  1. Please read the School's self-managed and personal machines policy first. If you connect to the network your use will be governed by this policy.

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How do I find the MAC address of my computer?

Detailed information about how to find the MAC address of your computing device, for a variety of platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows, Android, etc.)

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How to open a terminal window

Linux has a very powerful command line environment. To use the command line, you need to open a terminal window - sometimes called a shell window. This page shows how to open a terminal window.

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ALSA Mixer

AlsaMixer is one of the least deceptive of the volume control apps available on DICE. However operating it is still not entirely straightforward.

Launch AlsaMixer in a terminal using $ alsamixer. This starts the mixer with your default ALSA sound card. You'll see something like the following:

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Screensaver and display preferences

This page explains how to alter screensaver and display preferences in order to save energy or increase security.

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Using ssh on iOS or iPadOS

iOS is the operating system for Apple iPhones, and iPadOS is the version for iPads.

With an ssh app, you can log in to an Informatics computer from these devices.
The App Store offers a choice of ssh apps. You should choose a highly rated ssh app such as Shelly, Termius or WebSSH.

VPN

Before you can use ssh, your device will need to be using a VPN - either the University VPN or the School's OpenVPN. The VPN page can help with that.

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Self-managed machines in Appleton Tower

A 'self-managed machine' on our network is any machine other than either a desktop running the DICE managed version of Linux, or a 'Windows Managed Desktop'. For example, a laptop (running any OS), a desktop running Ubuntu, or a bespoke piece of equipment which has a wired network interface - all of these are 'self-managed machines' in our terminology.

Note: Any user of a self-managed managed machine must read and understand the self-managed machines policy.

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Using the wired network in Appleton Tower

General usage guidance

In addition to our overall computing Policies and guidelines:

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Informatics Forum network ports

Within the Informatics Forum, connections to the wired network are made via network ports which are arranged in sets of six in the various floorboxes situated in both offices and public space. Each user's desk is generally fed from a single floorbox.

To avoid confusion, we configure all floorboxes which feed desks to the following standard pattern with 'port 1' being the lowest-numbered in the box, and 'port 6' the highest:

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Appleton Tower network ports

Within Appleton Tower, connections to the wired network are made via network ports which are arranged in offices, computing labs, and public spaces either at floor-level on walls, or in floorboxes. No particular configuration pattern has been applied to any group of network ports: each network port in any group is individually configured to be on an appropriate VLAN.

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