computer science
OPENS DOORS
cshelp : the department's technical support team
The department employs a dedicated group of people with various skills to support the computer systems you use. If you have a problem with your computer, the way you communicate with this team is by emailing cshelp.
What should you ask them about?
Things covered range from :- the printer is out of paper; the screen has gone blank; when I log in it tells me I have no home directory; my program needs a "library" file and I don't know where to find it; - to: there is a loud whining noise coming from my computer ....
When you e-mail cshelp, please don't say something like "my computer isn't working", or "I can't print my file". Tell them your username, the name of the computer you are using, what you were doing (or trying to do) when it happened, and details of the results (if you can, cut and paste error messages into your message).
Of course, if the department's computers are down, you cannot send
e-mail to cshelp. In this case, you could report the problem to the department
office, or go to one of the public labs, or e-stops, and send a message from there.
However, if all the servers are down, it is very likely that the
department's mail host will be down as well, and cshelp will not be
able to read e-mail. In all likelihood, if this is the case, cshelp will
be aware there is a problem, and will be working on it.
Please note that unless it is night or the weekend, it is likely that you
are not the only person who knows there is a problem, and having multiple
people phoning individual members of the cshelp team is likely to be
counter-productive. However, it might be useful to make sure at least one
person has phoned the office (5450 or 8578) to report the problem. You are
more likely to get relevant information that way, than if you try phoning
someone who is off somewhere else trying to fix things.
Of course - if our servers are down, you will not be reading this
web page either !
The sysadmins aren't contracted to work during the weekend. But nonetheless...
if you do have a problem in the weekend, send
an e-mail to cshelp, and you may find someone hears your cry for
help. Please remember that sysadmins are mortal, and may become ill, or
even go away on holiday (with a laptop, of course ?), so do not try to
contact the individual team members directly. The idea of the cshelp
e-mail address is that - even if the only person you think is able to
help you is away - the whole team gets your message, and someone else
may actually be able to help you.
And - if all the machines in the lab are down and all else fails - you
may still be able to work in the library!
