HowTo|
HowTo |
Use a Network U Drive | Prof. Bartenstein |
Binghamton University provides some special disk space called a "Network" or "U" drive that can be accessed from almost any computer that has access to the internet. All students enrolled in any Watson college class have been automatically signed up to get a U drive. (If you registered late for the class, you may not have a U drive yet, but you will get one soon.)
At the end of the school year, after the summer semester (around the middle of August), the IT department will zip up the contents of your U-Drive and put the zip file in your Google Drive, and then will reclaim your U-Drive.
The help desk has a web page that describes the network drive at U-Drive page
When you log on to a BU PODS machine, your U drive is automatically connected to that machine. If you open "File Explorer" (in Windows, the folder icon: ), and select "This PC", you should see an entry like "tbartens$(\\BUShare.bu.binghamton.edu)(U:) which has a type of "Network Drive". (In this example, I used my BU userid - "tbartens". Your U drive entry will have your BU userid instead. Your BU userid is the same as your BMAIL userid.)
⚠ Warning: If you save a file in a location such as "My Documents" on a BU PODS machine, it will get saved only on that machine, and in order to manage the disk drives on BU PODS machines, everything in places like "My Documents" gets erased periodically (at least once a day.) That means that you should not store files on the local drive. Use the network drive instead.
When you are using an application program, such as a word processor, you can "File/Save" or "File/Save As" to your network U drive, and then later open that file from your network drive, either by double clicking on it from File Explorer, or by starting the application program, and using the "File/Open" command.
arrow_backYou can access your U drive on your own computer, but in order to do so, some set-up is required. This set up is described in full detail on the help desk U-Drive page.
⚠ Warning: Binghamton University has a "fire wall" that does not allow you to access your U drive from off campus unless you also install and run some special software called "Pulse Secure" that allows you to "log on" to the Binghamton University network and tunnel through the fire wall. There are instructions for doing this at the BU IT SSL web page
⚠ Warning: If you are running on a Mac, there are two different versions of Pulse Secure, one for MacOS older than 10.10, and one for MacOS 10.10 or newer. If you install the wrong one, it won't work.
Once you have installed Pulse Secure, open the user interface and add (+) a connection using whatever name you choose, and the server ssl.binghamton.edu. The first time you connect, you will be prompted for your BU userid and password, but if you let Pulse Secure save your asnwers, it will automatically log you when you start your laptop.
Once you have completed this setup, then you can access your U drive in the same way as on a BU PODs machine. If you open "File Explorer" (in Windows, the folder icon: ), and select "This PC", you should see an entry like "tbartens$(\\BUShare.bu.binghamton.edu)(U:) which has a type of "Network Drive". (In this example, I used my BU userid - "tbartens". Your U drive entry will have your BU userid instead. Your BU userid is the same as your BMAIL userid.)
When you are using an application program, such as a word processor, you can "File/Save" or "File/Save As" to your network U drive, and then later open that file from your network drive, either by double clicking on it from File Explorer, or by starting the application program, and using the "File/Open" command.
arrow_backMake a public_html directory on your U drive with full read access. Create an "index.html" file in that subdirectory... that's your top web page. There is an Apache server connected to your U drive that provides access to this using the web address http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~userid (where you replace userid with your BU userid.)
arrow_back