Recent changes to the University network mean staff should now be able to access their home drives from computers installed in Category A teaching spaces.
Client Services Division has advised that staff can again access their Home drives from category A spaces around the campus, as we requested. Staff can now log on to computers in A spaces just as they do in their offices (if they use a PC) and their Home directory ("H" drive) will be available. The change also affects PCs in the Building 10 labs.
Those using Macintosh computers on their desks can access the "H" drive on their desktops via an alias that would have been installed when their email was changed over to the new Exchange system. The alias has a name like "sXXXXXX" where XXXXXX is their staff number. Note this is exactly the same as a PC user's "H" or Home drive, so a user with a Macintosh on their desk can put documents in their Home drive in their office, go to a Category A space and log on to the PC there and their documents will appear in the "H" drive on the Category A space PC. People using this facility will have to ensure that they use PC document naming conventions (for example, making sure PowerPoint document names end in ".ppt") so that the documents work properly with their parent applications on the PC.
Some users may find that it takes an inordinate amount of time for the computer to log on. If this happens, the user should let the Division's helpdesk know and they can work with the user to reduce the amount of time it takes the computer to log on in future.Staff should be reminded that they should take special care to log off the computer so that there can be no unauthorised access to their documents once they leave the Category A space.
