Department of Physics and Astronomy - Computer
Facilities
Connecting to the network in the Rutgers Physics Department
There are two options for connecting a computer to the network in the Physics
Department -- wireless and wired. Setting up a wireless connection is
described here. Wireless is most useful for
occasional use by a portable computer. A wired connection is required for
most desktop systems, and can also be used for portable computers that are
frequently used in the Physics Department. Wired connections are more
reliable, and will provide at least 10 times the throughput of a wireless
connection.
Wired connections require prior approval. To obtain this, send email to
help@physics.rutgers.edu with
the following information:
-
The name and email address of the person responsible for the computer for
which access is requested.
-
The MAC address of the network interface card in the computer. This is also
called the "physical ethernet address" and is 12 digit hexadecimal number.
It is usually presented as pairs of digits separated by dashes or colons,
for example 00-0C-6E-73-11-AC or 00:0c:6a:41:66:05.
-
A suggested network name to use, somename.rutgers.edu. The name
must not already be in use for another computer anyplace at Rutgers. If you don't care
what the name is, we will provide one. The name is important only if you
expect to host incoming connections on the computer in question.
-
The room number where the computer will be located.
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If the computer is in the Serin building or the Physics and Astronomy building,
the number of the data jack to which the computer will be connected. This
number is printed on a small tag under the data jack. All data jack numbers
have "D" at the end. Numbers which have "V" at the end are for telephone
connections and cannot be used for network access.
The preferred configuration is for you to setup your computer to acquire its
network settings automatically from our server, via DHCP. (Windows refers to
this mode of operation as "Obtain an IP address automatically".) If you wish
to do a fully manual configuration, note this in your application and we will
send full details.
Even though we prefer you use DHCP, a static IP address will still be assigned
for you -- you will always receive the same IP address when booting your
computer. This has an important side-effect: since we have a finite number
of available IP addresses, if you do not use your address for 6 months, it may
be revoked and assigned to another user.
Acceptable use
The Rutgers policy on acceptable use of the Rutgers network
is available here.
Basicly, all network use should be related to Rutgers teaching or approved
research activity. However, everyone sends and receives personal
email, and there is no problem with that. Likewise, you can setup a web
site with your personal photographs if you wish, but a personal web site
with a 10 giga-byte home movie might be a problem. Commercial use of the
Rutgers network is prohibited.
Downloading copyrighted material without approval from the copyright owner
is obviously not allowed.
Rutgers monitors network traffic
Rutgers Network Operations monitors network traffic and accumulates
usage statistics based on originating and target IP addresses. If you
expect to generate more than one giga-byte of network traffic per day, contact
help@physics.rutgers.edu to
discuss your network use.
Be extremely careful when using peer-to-peer file sharing applications. These
are not prohibited or blocked, but can result in unexpectedly large network
use. This will be detected by Network Operations and may result in a query
to us to justify the usage.
Please send any comments on this page to
help@physics.rutgers.edu
Last modified: Wednesday, May 21, 2008