At the beginning of the session an account is made for you on the computers which gives you the right to use them. Your account will have a user name (which is always a z followed by your student number - such as z3900007), and you must create a password, see below, to protect your work from being accessed by other
people.

Note that all student accounts will be preserved from one session to the next, with the same password and this will ordinarily apply throught your time at UNSW. However, if there is a session in which you do not take a Mathematics course your account will be deleted. You will be warned about this via an email to your University email account in time to take any necessary steps to preserve your data.

When you log in to a School PC a "message of the day" will be displayed. The first page is general information on the School's Facilities etc, and at the bottom will be a link to messages specific to the mathmatics courses you are in. This page will give information about assessments and tests (as appropriate), so check it out when logging in.

WARNING : DO NOT FORGET TO LOGOUT OF YOUR ACCOUNT BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE LAB.

If you leave your account logged in and another user then misuses your account you are responsible. There is no automatic "time out" on Mathematics computers.

In the first 3 weeks of Session 1 there will be Demonstration/Tutorials in Room M020. They will help you to get started on the computer. All math1131 and math1141 students should make a booking to attend one of these classes. Bookings are made by entering your name on a booking sheet in the foyer of the Red Centre, outside the M020 lab.

You will have to set your initial password (see below) before attending the Demonstration/Tutorial.

After your initial Demonstration/Tutorial you will be expected to master the material in your course by independent study, using the Computer Notes for your course and other material on the web or in handouts.

For increased security of our systems, you will need a separate password for your School of Mathematics and Statistics account.

Before creating or changing your password, take care about its choice. It should be a string of 6 to 8 characters (i.e. printable symbols from the main section of the keyboard). You should choose a string of characters which is easy to remember but does NOT form a word which is in any dictionary or a proper name such as Felicity.

Note that upper and lower case letters are treated as different letters and it is best if your password contains both upper and lower case letters along with some non-letter characters. Some things which you could include in your password are:

Before you login to one of the School's computers, you will need to log on to the School of Mathematics and Statistics Student Web Portal and set your Mathematics Password: access this through your course's My eLearning Vista page. You will need to use your UNIPASS to do this, but can otherwise can do it from any computer with internet access.

There will be a special "Lab Password" section. Enter your UNIPASS and then your new password in the appropriate place. Then click the "set lab password" button. You will get a message that your password has been set. Return to the My eLearning Vista home page by either using the breadcrumbs or the link at the bottom of the Portal page.

Your new password should be active after about 30 seconds. If it is not, then contact the School's Helpdesk in lab M020.

If you wish to change your password, then either use the Linux passwd command (see the Computing Notes) or use the School's Student Web Portal. Follow the same process as for setting your initial password.

Similarly, if you forget your password, logon to the Student Web Portal and follow the same process as for setting your initial password.