EWS user accounts are usually created automatically for students when they enroll in the College of Engineering. This process is ongoing and driven by PH information. An easy way to see if a student should have an account by default is to check their PH entry. The two primary checks made are for 'ews' in the 'type' field and/or an Engineering Curriculum Code in the 'curriculum_code' field. To go to PH, click on the following, http://www.uiuc.edu/ricker/PH

Non-engineering students taking Engineering classes are NOT given EWS accounts by default. Engineering course instructors are given the priviledge to create accounts either by emailing EWS staff (manager@ews.uiuc.edu) to verify that everyone on their class roster has an account or by using TA Tools (see below). Non-engineering Students are granted temporary accounts that get expired approximately 5 days after the semester ends. EWS usually puts out notices a week in advance via MOTD, http://status.cites.uiuc.edu and email to give users proper notice before expirations occur.

New accounts are usually available on the Windows platform immediately upon creation and on Unix machines 20 minutes past the hour after they were created. Password changes should be immediate on all platforms, assuming the account is already accessible.

• Core Applications EWS workstations include a set of general-purpose core applications. These applications are funded, licensed, and supported by the College of Engineering and EWS Staff. The number and types of core applications will likely change over time, based on usage and demand. To maintain a stable and predictable computing environment, core applications will remain at the same revision level for the duration of the fall and spring semester (except for problem fixes and security updates). The types of applications currently in the core application set include:
  
  
  • Web browser
  • FTP client
  • PDF and Postscript viewer
  • Telnet client
  • SSH/SFTP client
  • Text Editors
  
  
• Course Specific Engineering Applications Depending on the uniqueness of the software and scope of its use, the requesting department may need to pay for some or all of the initial licensing and annual maintenance costs. If a department purchases the software and licenses for installation on the EWS workstations, a copy of the purchase agreement and proof of ownership must be submitted to EWS staff. EWS will maintain ownership of the licenses and any software locking devices while the software is installed on the EWS workstations. Once the software is removed from EWS servers and desktop workstations, EWS staff will return all software and licenses (including software locking devices) to the department.

  A database of software and instructor contact information maintained by EWS staff will be used to attempt to contact instructors/departments to confirm the continued use of the software, however it is the responsibility of the instructor/department to confirm with EWS that their software will be needed again next semester. If the EWS staff is not notified by two weeks before the start of each semester, it will be assumed the software is no longer needed and can be deleted from the servers and workstations. Any class software may be removed from the EWS machines during the summer unless the software is needed for summer session or has been requested for the fall.

• Requesting Software Installs To ensure proper installation and testing of applications, instructors are encouraged to request software installs well in advance of when it is actually needed. More specifically, all software requests should be complete at least two weeks before the start of each semester. At that time, EWS staff will finalize server and desktop configurations and provide an opportunity for instructors or teaching assistants to conduct final testing of their applications. EWS will attempt to accommodate requests made after this deadline, however installs may be severely delayed. It may not be possible to install the requested application once the semester has started. All software requests can be submitted via the Software Request Web page. A netid and netid password is required.

• External Software Locking Devices External software locking devices (sentinels) are very difficult to accommodate in a public lab. Often found on Microsoft NT machines, these devices are physically attached to a parallel or keyboard port. Multiple sentinals often cause incompatibilities and the devices are difficult if not impossible to secure to the desktop computers. EWS no longer supports applications that use sentinals.

For additional information or inquiries, please contact the EWS staff at manager@ews.uiuc.edu.

Many UNIX users choose to change their login files (e.g., .cshrc, .login, .profile, etc.). Occasionally they make mistakes which make their accounts unusable. When this happens, if the users is still able to login, they may type the following command:

/usr/local/ews/getskel

This should restore login files for any EWS account to their original state, while preserving the old files. The old files may then be examined to make corrections.

For more common problems and solutions see the frequently asked questions section. For more information about unix shells and login files, see the Unix manual.

EWS will issue accounts for classes, if not already done so, with the login being the name of the course. Class accounts may be used to store web pages for the course or files that may be shared to students. Class accounts are created upon request by a College of Engineering faculty member. To request a class account, please email manager@ews.uiuc.edu.

Class accounts follow a different printing policy than student or faculty accounts. Please refer to our official printing policy for details on these differences.

While making use of EWS labs, it is expected that instructors will play a role similar to EWS lab operators, informing users of proper lab policies. Please review the EWS lab policies at http://www.ews.uiuc.edu/policies and help direct users there who may be in violation of policies or have questions. EWS policies are meant to help make the Engineering Workstations a more productive instructional computing environment. Therefore, it is important that the policies are enforced. Users who choose not to abide by EWS policies, while making use of the lab facilities, should be reported to EWS Manager via email: manager@ews.uiuc.edu.

EWS needs the help of instructors to help keep the labs neat and clean by informing students that they should be on their best behavior while in the labs, always logout before leaving and by pushing in chairs. This immensely helps keep the labs in order.

Users must be reminded that they are NEVER to power off any workstation for ANY reason. EWS allows remote users to connect to any lab machine. Powering off workstations could cause remote users to lose all their work! In addition, the workstations could suffer some amount of filesystem damage in the event that they are powered down improperly, sometimes making the machine unusable until it is fixed later by an EWS administrator. If a workstation appears to be having issues, try having the console user logoff to use a different machine and inform an operator on duty (see: EWS Lab listing in UIUC Electronic Directory (PH) for current phone numbers), if possible. If you are unable to contact an EWS lab operator, please send an email to manager@ews.uiuc.edu with the following information: workstation hostname (a label with hostname should be on the machine), netid of user who was logged in when problem was noticed and a brief explanation of the problem encountered.

Thank You for helping make EWS a successful instructional computing environment!