General Information

The computer lab is located in Loso Hall 235. It is used for class labs and as a resource for students to do class assignments. 

Lab computers boot Linux. Students will need a login id and password to access the Linux machines.

Any registered EOU student can get a account for classes and other projects that require use of these machines. Login ids are good for one academic year, at which point all your files will be backed up to disk and your home directory deleted. When reapplying for a login  you will be asked to give your previous user name so that your files can be restored.

If a class is scheduled in the room, the class has priority on the computers. Students not enrolled in the class will be asked to leave. A three-term schedule of lab classes is available here. At other times, First Come First Serve is the rule.

Students registered in classes using the lab will receive a passcode to access the lab when the door is closed. The passcode is changed at the end of each term.

Infractions of any of the guidelines given on this web page may lead to loss of access to the machines or other disciplinary action.

General Etiquette 

General etiquette guidelines that would apply to any study or work area apply here. Some specific rules that apply more specifically to computing facilities follow. 

Lab users are expected to be quiet so that others can work.

Non-educational use of the lab is strongly discouraged. Please do not use the lab machines for gaming or other personal use, even if there are free machines available. Repeated infractions will cause a loss of login privileges.

Anyone leaving a machine logged in and unattended overly long may be forcibly logged out. "Overly long" may be five minutes or so during heavy usage periods, a half hour or more when the lab is more or less empty. Leaving a machine logged in and unattended for more than an hour at any time is unreasonable unless required by special circumstances. 

Use of more than one machine at a time is allowed as long as there is at least one machine that is not being used. You may run programs on other machines but you should be aware that someone else may be using the other machine so be courteous. Running programs in such a way as to impede the usage of a machine by another user may be considered a "Denial of Service" attack and may result in loss of lab privileges and disciplinary action. 

Use of lab machines to send email or other messages that are illegal, generally offensive or unwelcome to the recipients is prohibited. This includes (but is not limited to) sexual images, those that might be considered as ethnic or racial slurs and so on. If in doubt, don't. Leaving offensive images or messages on the screens is also prohibited. 

No food or drink in the lab. 

Systems Usage Guidelines 

Each user is responsible for keeping his/her file usage to a reasonable level. Should disk usage become a system problem we retain the right to identify heavy disk users, to backup their files and delete the files on disk. 

Each user is responsible for protecting the files associated with that login. It is the user's responsibility to find out how to do this and to manage file protections appropriately. Unprotected files and directories are fair game for other users to browse through. 

Since the /usr directory in the lab is on the file server, installing software in Linux as a typical (unprivileged) user is not possible. If the package is required for a course or project, please submit a request to the Lab Assistant or one of the CS Professors so that it can be made available to all users. 

Login's should not be shared. Each person wishing to use these systems must obtain their own login. Passwords should be kept secret. The person to whom the login is assigned is responsible for all use of that login. Thus if someone uses another person's login and they cause some kind of problem, the person to whom the login was issued will be responsible. 

Any detected security compromise or problem that can be traced to a specific login may result in temporary disabling or removal of that login. Should such a problem be repeated the login may be removed for a longer term or permanently depending on the circumstances. 

Attempts to break system security for any computer systems (not just the lab systems, but any systems on or off campus), virus propagation (even if inadvertent) and hardware tampering are all prohibited and will lead to immediate and permanent loss of the right to use these machines, possible academic disciplinary action or even legal action.

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