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Signy Computing Facilities - For Staff

Hardware for general use:

  • 1 Viglen Genie Pentium 4
  • 1 Hewlett Packard Laserjet printer 5MP printer connected to the LAN.
  • 1 Hewlett Packard Laserjet 5000N printer connected to the LAN
  • 1 Iomega ZIP drive (parallel port model) in the Base Commander’s (BC) Office.

Local Area Network (LAN):

  • The LAN is CAT5e twisted pair (10baseT) with RJ45 type connection only.
  • Spare LAN ports are available around the base, but there are none in the bedrooms.
  • BAS provides a 24 hour satellite link of 64Kb (IE the same speed as a dial-up telephone link at home). This has to cope with the traffic for everyone on base, including Voip telephone calls, work data, remote access, web browsing and email. Many people bring web "toys" south only to find they do not work as well as they might hope.
  • If providing your own PC/Laptop (both work and personal), network cables are available on Station. However, you must provide the rest of the hardware and software to connect your PC/Laptop to the LAN. This means that you must provide a network card or PCMCIA adaptor plus the relevant software drivers. The Communications Manager will assist you in connecting your PC/laptop to the LAN providing you have the relevant software available, however if you are unsure, it is better to contact the IT helpdesk at BAS Cambridge prior to departure for more information. (Contact the Helpdesk on +44 (0)1223 221447 or send an email to helpdesk@bas.ac.uk). Important Note : Windows XP Home is not compatible with BAS systems and will not be allowed to connect to the BAS network.

Server:

  • The Network Server runs Novell NetWare 6.5
  • The server is fully spared, secure and backed up
  • You will be allocated with an account and 1Gb of NetWare server disk space for your personal/work use. This space can be increased at the discretion of the BC. The account and all files will be deleted upon leaving the base.

Software:

  • The standard operating system for PC's is Windows XP Professional
  • XP Home and Windows Vista are not compatible with BAS systems
  • Software packages available from the NetWare server to networked PCs include:
    • Microsoft Office Suite 2000 Professional (word, excel, powerpoint, access)
    • GroupWise e-mail system
    • Adobe Acrobat
    • WinZip
    • Firefox
  • All PCs run Sophos Anti-Virus.
  • All Laptop users should bring with them all driver and recovery disks related to their equipment.
  • Windows XP Professional is supported, however Windows XP Home is not compatible

Consumables:

  • There are NO spare media on base. This includes ZIP disks, floppy disks or CD-R. You must supply your own media.
  • There is a limited supply of A4 paper for printing purposes.

Backups:

  • The NetWare Server is backed up on a daily basis to LTO tape. All files that you place on your N: drive (NetWare account) will be backed up.
  • No backups are taken of the PCs local hard drives. You are responsible for backing up any files that you place on the PC local drives.

Email:

  • BAS Personnel department will inform you and your contacts of your e-mail address when you are South.
  • Never place yourself on mailing lists using this address or your account may be deleted.
  • You should bring with you the full e-mail addresses of all those people that you wish to e-mail (both personal and work). Once you are South it may be difficult to 'lookup' e-mail addresses.
  • The maximum size for any email both work related and personal is currently 10MB. Please try to keep emails much smaller than this.
  • Email is sent and received regularly during the day. Times vary for each Station/Ship. The BC will inform you of these times when you arrive.
  • All your e-mail will be deleted once you leave Rothera. Note that there is no facility within GroupWise (the BAS email system) to save an email account. Emails can be saved on Station using other software provided. The BC can explain this to you on Station. Note you will need at least one writable CD in order to do this.