• How do I secure my Windows computer?
• How do I use a thumb drive?
• How do I use Mac-PC Exchange to transfer files over the network?
• How do I create CDs with CD-RW drives?
• What are the instructions for using scanners and slide scanners?
• How do I fix postscript errors when printing from Windows?
• How do I transfer files to my @uoregon.edu account?

Q: How do I secure my Windows computer?

A:If you have a Windows computer connected to the campus computer network, you absolutely must install McAfee Antivirus and use Windows Update to keep your computer secure.

The best way to secure your Windows computer is to obtain a Security CD from A&AA Computing Services (280 Lawrence Hall) or from Information Services (150 McKenzie Hall). Insert the Security CD into your Windows computer before you connect it to the campus network.

The Security CD will do the following things (and more) to secure your computer:

• Install any required security patches
• Enable Automatic Windows Updates
• Install McAfee Anti-Virus
• Install Spybot (to remove adware and spyware)
• Install a web browser other than Internet Explorer
• Enable the built-in firewall in Windows XP

If you are unable to obtain a Security CD for some reason, follow the instructions below.

If you do not secure your computer, your computer's network connection, and possibly those of people in the same room as your computer, will be disabled by the Computing Center.

You can help keep your Windows computers secure by making sure that your computer downloads Windows updates automatically. Please take a minute to check the following settings on your computer:

Windows XP Pro computers:

1. Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System (if you do not see System, click Classic View on the left side).
2. Click Automatic Updates. Put a check in the top box, and select the "Automatically..." option. Set the pop-up menus to "Every day" and a time of your choice. (If there is no "Automatically" option, choose the option to download updates.)
3. If an icon shaped like a globe and a flag ever appears in the lower right corner of the screen telling you that there are Critical Updates available to install, click the Install button.

Windows 2000 computers:

1. Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates. If you do not have Automatic Updates in Control Panel, follow the instructions for Windows NT below.
2. Put a check in the top box, and select the "Automatically..." option. Set the pop-up menus to "Every day" and a time of your choice. 3. If an icon shaped like a globe and a flag ever appears in the lower right corner of the screen telling you that there are Critical Updates available to install, click the Install button.

Windows 95, 98, ME, NT and XP Home computers:

1. We strongly recommend that you upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP Professional. A&AA Computing Services does not support these operating systems.

As always, it is important to have McAfee Anti-Virus installed and up to date. If you need to install McAfee Anti-Virus or renew your subscription, visit this web page: http://micro.uoregon.edu/av.

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Q: How do I use a thumb drive?

A: Thumb drives are USB Flash Drives that can be very useful for transferring files from computer to computer.  Compared to saving files to discs, thumb drives offer greater storage size and are generally more reliable.  Here are some tips for making your life easier when using thumb drives.

Storage Capacity is the amount of data you can store.  Thumb drives may be purchased at the Hardware Helpdesk in 151 McKenzie Hall.

To Use a Thumb Drive on a PC:

Troubleshooting: Make sure that the file you have saved to the thumb drive is not still open when you try to eject the drive. This may result in an error message.

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Q: How do I use Mac-PC Exchange to transfer files over the network?

Important Note: The Mac-PC Exchange folder is for temporary storage of files while you are moving them from computer to computer. It is not monitored or backed up. Anyone who connects to the folder can delete your files, so do not depend on the files to be there the next time you look. All files on Mac-PC Exchange are deleted at 4 AM daily.

A: Using Mac-PC Exchange

There is not an easy way for Windows computers to transfer files directly to Macs, or vice versa. A&AA Computing Services has set up folder on a file server just for that purpose. Here are instructions for accessing this folder, called Mac-PC Exchange, from a lab or studio computer.

Important Note: The Mac-PC Exchange folder is for temporary storage of files while you are moving them from computer to computer. It is not monitored or backed up. Anyone who connects to the folder can delete your files, so do not depend on the files to be there the next time you look. All files on Mac-PC Exchange are deleted at 4 AM daily.

Mac-PC Exchange and the Lab Network Drive, both of which live on a server called aaafileserver, are accessible only from the UO network. If you want to access them from off-campus, you will need to install and use the UO's VPN software.

Windows NT, 2000, and XP Pro

1. There are two easy ways to access the server over the network. Use whichever is easier for you:
   
   
   • On A&AA lab computers, Mac-PC Exchange is the X drive inside My Computer. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer, then open the X drive.
   • Go to the Start menu, choose Run, and type two backslashes, followed by the server name, which is aaafileserver, like this: \\aaafileserver.uoregon.edu
     
     (make sure to use the backslash, which is the key above the Enter key on the keyboard). Click OK.
2. You may be asked for a user name and a password. If so, type student for the user name (the "Connect As" box), and leave the password blank. Click OK.
3. Double-click on the folder called Mac-PC Exchange.
4. You can copy files from your computer to the Mac-PC Exchange folder, or from that folder to your computer. You may want to create a folder with your name on it, so that your files are not accidentally confused with someone else's.

1. From the Go menu in the Finder, choose Connect to Server.
2. In the address box, type aaafileserver.uoregon.edu. Click Connect.
3. You will be asked for a Name and Password. Type student for the user name and leave the password blank. Click Connect.
4. You will see a window that says "Select the volumes you wish to mount:". Scroll down until you see Mac-PC Exchange, and click on it once, then click OK.
5. Mac-PC Exchange will appear on the Desktop. You can now open it and copy files from it to your computer, or from that folder to your computer. You may want to create a folder with your name on it, so that your files are not accidentally confused with someone else's.

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Q: How do I Create CDs with CD-RW drives?

A: Important note: If the CD burner is having trouble, the first thing you should try is setting the write speed to 4x.

Windows

1. Place a blank CD-R or CD-RW disc in the CD-RW drive.
2. Go to Start, click Programs, choose Easy CD Creator 5, and select Create CD.
3. Click Data CD.
4. Select Data CD.
5. In the Explorer section, select the files and folders you wish to burn to the CD and then click Add, or drag data into the CD Layout window. Repeat until the layout contains all the files and folders you want on the CD.
6. Click Create CD.
7. Click OK.

Mac OS: The Easy Way

1. Place a blank CD-R or CD-RW disc in the CD-RW drive.
2. The CD will appear on the desktop. Give it a name if you want.
3. Drag files to the CD. When you have all of the files arranged in the way you want, drag the CD to the trash can, which will turn into a radura (radiation symbol), signifying that you are about to write data to the CD.
4. Accept the default options, then wait for the CD to finish burning and verifying.
5. Eject the CD by throwing it in the Trash.

Mac OS: The Fancy Way

If you need to burn something other than a plain data CD, use Toast:

1. Place a blank CD-R or CD-RW disc in the CD-RW drive.
2. Open Toast from the Dock or the Apple menu.
3. Click on the Mac Volume menu in the Toast window.
4. Click Files and Folders for a data CD, or click ISO 9660 to create a CD that can be read on Windows and Mac OS computers.
5. Click Data
6. Add the files you want by dragging them into the Files and Folders window, or by clicking Add.
7. Click Done.
8. Click Check Speed... to find the speed at which you can safely write your CD (4x is almost always safe), select that speed in in the Speed menu and then click Done.
9. Click Write CD...

Troubleshooting

The most common problem when the CD-RW drive does not work is that you are trying to burn the CD at too high a speed. We recommend that you choose a maximum of 24x speed when burning CDs. Higher speeds than this may result in CDs that cannot be read by computers.

If you are having CD-burning problems on a Mac, you can open the Utilities folder on the hard drive and run the program called Restore this Mac. That program will clean up the hard drive and restart the computer, at which point the CD-RW drive should work properly. Make sure that all of your personal files are in the Student Work Folder before you run Restore this Mac.

If you are trying to create a CD that can be read on Windows and Mac OS computers, you should take care to remove characters from your file names that Windows computers do not like. The only forbidden character on the Mac OS is the colon, :. Forbidden characters on Windows computers are: \ / : * " ? < > |. Also, limit your file names to a maximum of 31 characters. To be safe, choose short file names that contain only numbers, letters, and spaces, and make sure that files have the correct three-letter extension (e.g. ".doc" for a Word document or ".psd" for a Photoshop document) so that Windows computers can recognize them easily.

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Q: What are the instructions for using Scanners and Slide Scanners?

A: Windows

1.  Turn on Computer and Scanner if not already on. Open Adobe Photoshop CS3 by clicking Start, then All Programs, and finally Adobe Photoshop CS3.


2.  Lift scanner lid and place material to be scanned face down on glass plate of  scanner, with document edges flush with the upper left corner. Close the scanner lid.


3. In Adobe Photoshop, click on File and scroll down to Import.


4. Click on the appropriate scanner model. (The model name can generally be found on the scanner itself.)


5. A window will appear for the scanner asking, “What do you want to scan?” Choose the appropriate category for automatic settings, or Custom Settings.


6. To preview the scan, click Preview. This allows you to see if the document is aligned properly before scanning.


7. Check that the scanning settings meet your needs.
• DPI stands for Dots Per Inch, and refers to the number of dots of ink a printer produces within a square inch.
  60 to 90 dpi results in a fuzzier image, whereas 600 dpi results in a higher quality image. Keep in mind that
  scanning an image at a high dpi will take longer and require more disk space.
  
• Picture Type: Color, Grayscale, or Black & White
• Bounding Box: the dashed line rectangle that appears around the preview scan. When you scan the
  document, whatever is within the box is what will be scanned. It will automatically wrap around the edge of
  your document. If you wish to scan only a portion of the document, click on a corner square and drag in to
  adjust the Bounding Box size. You can also move the Bounding Box by clicking in its center and dragging.
8. Click Scan to begin scanning. A new “Transferring data…” window will appear to show the progress of the scan.


9. When the scan is complete, the image will appear in a new window in Adobe Photoshop. Save the image by going to the File menu and clicking Save.


10. You can now edit the image in Adobe Photoshop, or quit and import the image into another program.

Mac OS


1. Lift scanner lid and place material to be scanned face down on glass plate of scanner, with document edges flush with the upper left corner. Close the scanner lid.

2. Turn on Computer and Scanner if not already on. Open the Image Capture program in the Applications folder.





3. Image Capture will show you a preview of your item. This may take a few minutes. Click and drag in the preview window to select the area that you want to scan.




4. Adjust scanning settings to meet your needs.


• In the scanning options window:
  • Document: Color Photo, Text, or Black & White Photo
    
  • Resolution is measured in units called dpi (dots per inch). It refers to the number of dots of ink a
    printer produces within a square inch. 60 to 90 dpi results in a fuzzier image, whereas 600 dpi
    results in a higher quality image. Keep in mind that scanning an image at a high dpi will take
    longer and require more disk space.
  • Scan to Folder: The default setting is the Pictures folder. Choose "Other" and select the Desktop as your destination.
  • File Format: We recommend TIFF files for the highest image quality.




5. Click Scan.





6. When the scan is complete, the scanned image will be saved to the Desktop (or to the folder you chose).




7. You can now edit the image in Adobe Photoshop or copy it to another computer for editing.

Troubleshooting

The most common problem when the scanner "doesn't work" is that the scanner has been turned off. All of the scanners have a solid (not blinking) green light on the front that indicates whether the scanner is turned on or not, but the light on the front of the scanners is very poorly designed. If in doubt, press the power button on the top of the scanner, and watch the light to see if it gets brighter or darker. If it gets brighter, the scanner was off. Now that it's on, it should work just fine.

You can view a PDF version (1.6 MB) of the Nikon slide scanner manual.

To scan slides or other transparent media with the scanners that have transparency adapters, choose "UTA (Transmissive)" instead of "Flatbed(Reflective)" and set the dpi to a relatively high value such as 600. If your scanned slides end up backwards, it is faster to choose the Flip Horizontal menu option in Photoshop than to rescan them.

The scanners are sometimes not recognized by the Windows computers. To fix this problem, unplug the scanner from its power source (pull the small, round, black plug out of the back of the scanner), plug it back in, wait for the green light to come on, then try Photoshop again. You may have to restart the computer as well.

If the Nikon slide scanner shows a purple image, it has overheated. The solution is to power off the scanner, let it sit for 5 minutes to cool off, and then plug it back in and restart the computer.

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Q: How do I fix Postscript errors when printing from Windows?

A: You may have noticed that whenever your print from your Windows studio computer, you see an extra page printed out after your document. The page might say something like:

ERROR: undefined
OFFENDING COMMAND: STACK:

The most common cause of these Postscript errors is a small setting on your studio computer that is easy to fix. Here's how to do it:

1. Go to the Start menu, choose Settings, and choose Printers.
2. Right-click on "DCL1 on AAA-OUTPUT" and choose Properties (note: the printer may have a slightly different name on your computer).
3. Click once on the Device Settings tab.
4. Scroll down until you see "Send Ctrl-D after each job".
5. Change this setting to No. There should be a large red X to the left of the words "Send Ctrl-D after each job" when you are done.
6. Click OK.
7. Repeat this process for DCL2 or any other printer on which you are experiencing this problem.

If you need help with these instructions, A&AA Computing Services staff will be happy to come to your studio and help you. Please come visit the A&AA Computing Services headquarters in room 280 Lawrence Hall for assistance.

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Q: How do I transfer files to my @uoregon.edu account?

A:  Your University of Oregon computing account gives you the ability to use e-mail, transfer files, and host a website. Secure File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows you to save work to your account on the server. This means that you can work on a document on one computer, transfer the file to your computing account, and then access it at another computer.

PC: Secure FTP

1. Open the Secure FTP program by clicking Start --> All Programs --> Secure FTP. From the File menu, click Quick Connect.
   • In the “Host Name” blank, type in shell.uoregon.edu
   • In the “User Name” blank, type your University of Oregon computing user name. This is the same username that you use for your email account, i.e. username@uoregon.edu
   • In the Port blank, type 22
   • In the “Authentication Method” blank, click Password from the dropdown menu.
   • Click the Connect in the upper right corner.
2. If you are connecting to the host “shell.uoregon.edu” for the first time, a Host Identification window may appear. It will ask if you want to save the new host key to the local database. Click No.
3. An Enter Password window will then appear. This is the same as the password you use to check your uoregon.edu email account. Type in your password and click OK.
4. Once you are connected, you will see two columns:
   a. Left: a list of Local files (what is on the computer you are currently at)
   b. Right: is a list of what is saved to your account
   
5. Find the file you want to transfer in the left column. Open folders by double clicking on the folder names. You can go back a level by clicking the icon of a folder with an arrow pointing up (directly above the column, third icon in from the left).
6. Once you have found the file you wish to transfer, click on the file name and drag it to the right column.
7. You may want to create folders to organize the files you are transferring. To do this, click on the New Folder icon in the toolbar above. A new folder will appear. You may type its name in the blank to the right of the icon, and then hit the Enter key.
8. Even if this is your first time connecting to file transfer, you will see a couple of Mail folders already in your account list. This is because your computing account encompasses both e-mail and file transfer.
9. It is important to keep in mind that due to this interconnection, your transferred files and e-mails are stored in the same place. The amount of disk space you are allowed to use is called a quota. When your quota is filled to capacity, you will not be able to receive e-mail or transfer additional files until you clear a space (either by deleting e-mail or removing files from your file transfer).
10. To monitor how much of your quota you have filled, go to https://password.uoregon.edu/quota∞
11. Type in your computing account username and password. Click View Quota.
12. In viewing your Quota Information:
    • User displays your computing account username
    • Usage is how much disk space you have taken up so far
    • Space Available is how much disk space is left in your quota
13. Be sure to keep your account secure by disconnecting when you are done. To do this, go to the File menu and click Disconnect. A Confirm Disconnect window will appear asking, “Do you want to disconnect?” Click OK.

Mac: Fugu

1. Open the Fugu program by clicking its icon in the Dock.
   • In the “Connect to” blank, type in shell.uoregon.edu
   • In the Username blank, type your University of Oregon computing user name. This is the same username that you use for your email account, i.e. username@uoregon.edu
   • In the Port blank, type 22
   • Leave the Directory blank empty.
   • Click the Connect in the lower right corner.
2. There will be a quick progress bar that appears, and then it will ask for your password. This is the same as the password you use to check your uoregon.edu email account. Type in your password and click Authenticate.
3. Once you are connected, you will see two columns:
   • Left: a list of Local files (what is on the computer you are currently at)
   • Right: is a list of what is saved to your account
4. Find the file you want to transfer in the left column. Open folders by double clicking on the folder names. You can go back a level by either clicking the blue arrow or scrolling through the drop down menu located next to the arrow.
5. Once you have found the file you wish to transfer, click on the file name and drag it to the right column.
6. You may want to create folders to organize the files you are transferring. To do this, click inside the right column and then click the New Folder icon in the toolbar above. A window will appear asking for the New Directory Name and if it will be created Locally or Remotely. Type in a name for the new folder and click Remotely. Then click Create.
7. Even if this is your first time connecting to file transfer, you will see a couple of Mail folders already in your account list. This is because your computing account encompasses both e-mail and file transfer.
8. It is important to keep in mind that due to this interconnection, your transferred files and e-mails are stored in the same place. The amount of disk space you are allowed to use is called a quota. When your quota is filled to capacity, you will not be able to receive e-mail or transfer additional files until you clear a space (either by deleting e-mail or removing files from your file transfer).
9. To monitor how much of your quota you have filled, go to https://password.uoregon.edu/quota∞
10. Type in your computing account username and password. Click View Quota.
11. In viewing your Quota Information:
    • User displays your computing account username
    • Usage is how much disk space you have taken up so far
    • Space Available is how much disk space is left in your quota
12. Be sure to keep your account secure by clicking the Disconnect icon in the upper toolbar when you are finished using file transfer.

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