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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.physics.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.
  • 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