Policies for Personally-Owned Laptop Computers and Local Network Access

New requests for access to the local network for personally owned laptops, either wireless or wired, are no longer being accepted. If you want network access for such a system in a research laboratory or student office, you need to talk to your faculty advisor about arranging installation of wireless access points for the osuwireless system. This form should be used by the faculty advisor to request installation of the access point(s) needed to cover the area(s) in question.

If you previously had departmental network access from your own laptop, and it's not working due to a system upgrade (e.g. motherboard swap, system replacement, etc.), please use the traditional mechanism to request continued access, and we will try to accommodate you. It should be noted that, ultimately, all access to the departmental network for personally owned systems will be terminated at some point, and the preferred mechanism for acquiring Internet access is by leveraging osuwireless.

NOTE: If you are not familiar with local network policies in general, please review them now. ALL USERS are expected to abide by them. Ignorance of policy is not an excuse to violate it. (In other words, the phrase "...But I didn't know..." is not acceptable reasoning.) Maintaining your system according to acceptable use policies is your responsibility.

In the context of this presentation, "personally-owned" means purchased with personal (not OSU) funds by (or for) the applicant. In the case of computers purchased for the applicant, if (outside) company property, the applicant needs administrative access, and a company support account is also permitted; otherwise, the applicant and/or adult members of his/her immediate family need to be the only administrative users.

It is not possible for management to fully support personal computers (as opposed to those owned by CBE, MSE, and/or OSU) attached to the network, due to the resources and security certification required. While we recognize that faculty and staff might have a need for more than one device type (e.g. a desktop and a laptop), for these classes of users, we must limit access to no more than one device type per person, provided the systems are OSU property.

AS A COURTESY, we can provide for limited support of researcher/student portable (e.g. "laptop" or "notebook") computers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) attached to the local network. Note that no one is required to use their own computer for academic/research purposes, so the ramifications of choosing to do so are the sole responsibility of the user. ECR6 Management is NOT RESPONSIBLE for any negative impact caused by the delay or denial of local network access for personally-owned systems. Support for such systems is limited to providing a (dynamic) Internet address while connected to the local network.

When necessary, initial configuration will be by ECR6 Management. When the laptop computer (or PDA) is returned to the user, it is the user's responsibility to make sure the system is kept secure by applying any vendor-supplied security patches (e.g. Windows "critical updates") and anti-virus software upgrades as soon as they are available.

Personally-owned desktop computers (as opposed to laptop/notebook computers) cannot be supported on the local network, due to lack of resources. For details, contact

The following lists the requirements of any personally-owned laptop to be considered for local network access. Violation of any of these policies (or those referenced from material linked from this page) will lead to termination of network access unless/until the problem is resolved.

Only laptop systems running Windows 2000 or better or Mac OS X v10.3.9 or better are supported. Systems running Windows 2000/XP should be configured for workgroup (as opposed to domain) access. (If your Windows system is currently configured for domain access, don't change it without first consulting with us.)

If your system needs to be reconfigured for local network access or you obtain a new computer, you must submit a request via E-mail as per these instructions. Your request will be scheduled after all new requests have been processed. We will not support a computer turn-over rate any more frequently than once every three years, unless due to total system failure or theft. (You should not plan on upgrading to a new computer any more frequently than once every three years.)

Before submitting a request, if you are eligible for an OSU (osu.edu) E-mail account, it must be fully functional. When you submit your request, be sure to include your osu.edu E-mail address as well as your departmental E-mail address in the request. (Your osu.edu account is used to register your system in our database.)

We will need to know what operating system your laptop is running. It should present an English interface. Systems which use any other language will be handled on a best-effort basis. (Non-English systems could prove to be too cumbersome for local IT management to configure.)

Any operating system updates should be applied to the system before the laptop is presented to management for local network access configuration, whenever possible.

It is absolutely essential that if you have both wired and wireless network adapters in your laptop, that you disconnect from any wireless system (including the departmental wireless system) before you connect to the local wired network. Failure to do so will make your laptop generate an invalid IP address in traffic it sends on the local network, and will probably lead to us blocking your access.

Removable network adapters (those that aren't built into the system, such as units that connect to a USB port or PC Card slot) are not allowed.

If/When asked to report to the management offices for configuration of your laptop computer, please bring the laptop and power adapter. The computer should be configured to automatically logon to an account with administrative privileges, or you will need to provide the password for such an account. (The password can be changed [back] after return of the computer.)
Upon return of your laptop (after configuration for local network access), you MUST ensure that all accounts are password protected.

You need to use an open network jack (or unused network cable) to connect to the local Ethernet network. You must not "borrow" the network cable (or IP address) from another computer to use for your own network access.

You must use the anti-virus software site licensed by OSU (i.e. Virex on a PowerPC Macintosh and VirusScan under Windows or on an Intel Mac). Alternatively, the anti-virus software you have installed must be current and not be allowed to "expire" for at least as long as you plan on using the computer on the local network.

PDAs may be used on the wireless network, assuming configuration is straightforward. (Setup could prove to be too complicated, or the PDA's wireless support may be incompatible with our wireless infrastructure.)

Only one (class of) personally-owned system (laptop and/or PDA) is permitted per student/researcher. For example, you could have both a laptop and a PDA registered for local network access, but two laptops or two PDAs would not be allowed.

Prerequisite Configuration

All systems connected to the local nework must be properly configured. This configuration must be maintained for as long as you intend to use the system on our network. Following are the operating system specific settings you need to configure.

Mac OS X (v10.3.9 or better required)

System Preferences - Date & Time: On the "Date & Time" tab, enable the option to "Set date & time automatically" and enter "164.107.76.2" into the field next to this. Make sure the "Time Zone" tab is configured for "Columbus - U.S.A." Switch back to the "Date & Time" tab, and disable the option to automatically set the date and time, wait five (5) seconds, then re-enable it. This will force the system to use the new setting without a complete system restart.

System Preferences - Network: In the Location menu, choose "New Location..." If you're affiliated with CBE, then name the location "CBE Wired". Otherwise, name the location "MSE Wired". If you intend to connect to the local wireless infrastructure, substitute "Wireless" for "Wired". (If you intend to connect to both wired and wireless networks, you'll need two locations.) Now, from the Show menu, select "Network Port Configurations". For a wired location, disable the AirPort (if you have one); for a wireless location, you need to disable your Ethernet port. (Again, if you will be using both wired and wireless systems, you'll need to adjust both locations.) Before you connect to the local network (with a wired connection or wirelessly) you need to select the appropriate location from the Location submenu of the Apple menu.

System Preferences - Sharing: The "Computer Name" must be of the form "F. Last (Mobile)", where "F" represents your first initial and "Last" is your last name. For example...

J. Smith (Mobile)
Click on the "Edit..." button to set your system's local name to your osu.edu account name, replacing the period with a hyphen. For example, if your osu.edu account name is "smith.423", you would set this field to "smith-423".

If you aren't running Mac OS X v10.5 or better, download the SharePoints package and install it as a System Preferences pane. (The instructions on the Web site detail this process.) Be sure to download the correct version of SharePoints according to the version of Mac OS X you're running. In the "SMB Props" tab of the SharePoints preferences pane, set the following fields:
- Server NetBios Name: ...the same as your local name defined in the Sharing preferences pane (e.g. "smith-423" for someone with an osu.edu account named smith.423)
- WorkGroup: ...most likely either "CBE" or "MSE", depending on your departmental affiliation. See this section of our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for a list of workgroup names. Any workgroup that starts with the prefix "ECR6" must not be specified on personally-owned systems.
- Server Info String: ...the same text you entered into the "Computer Name" field of the Sharing preferences pane (e.g. "J. Smith (Mobile)").
- Services: The "Workgroup Master Browser" option should be disabled.
Click on the "Update Samba (SMB) Server Properties" button to complete the configuration of your system.

Windows XP SP2 (or better)

Make sure "My Computer" and "My Network Places" are visible on your desktop. (Right-click on your desktop, choose Properties, select the Desktop tab, click on the "Customize Desktop..." button, activate the necessary desktop icons [if necessary], and be sure to disable the option to "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days.")

Right-click "My Computer" and choose Properties. Select the "Computer Name" tab. The "Computer description" field should be of the form "F. Last (Mobile)", where ""F" represents your first initial and "Last" is your last name. For example...

J. Smith (Mobile)
Next, click on the "Change..." button and set your "Computer name" to your osu.edu username, replacing the period with a hyphen. For example, if your osu.edu account name is "smith.423", you would set this field to "smith-423". The "Full computer name: should exactly match what you enter in the "Computer name" field. If it doesn't, click on the "More..." button and remove any "DNS suffix" specified there. Finally, the Workgroup field should be set to the workgroup of the systems you will most likely be accessing, depending on your affiliation. In the CBE department, the workgroup will most likely be "CBE" and in MSE, the workgroup will most likely be "MSE". The list of acceptable workgroups are published here. Any workgroup that starts with the prefix "ECR6" must not be specified on personally-owned systems. ATTENTION: If your system is configured as a domain member (rather than a workgroup member), cancel out of these dialogs now. Changing from a domain environment to a workgroup environment can lead to loss of data access. PCs configured for domain access will require configuration by ECR6 Management to obtain access to the local network.
The aforementioned changes will require you to restart your PC.

Right-click on "My Network Places" and choose Properties. This will open the "Network Connections" control panel. For each network connection you will be using on the local network, right-click on it and select Properties. Locate the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" item in the list of protocols and services and click once on it. Now click on the Properties button to access the protocol properties. Click the Advanced... button and then choose the DNS tab. At the bottom of the dialog, make sure the option to "Register this connection's addresses in DNS" is disabled. Click OK on the dialogs that were opened until you get back to the main "Network Connections" window, then just close this window.

To make sure your system time settings are correct, access the "Date and Time" control panel, or right-click on the time display on the right end of your system task bar (if available) and choose "Adjust Date/Time". Select the "Time Zone" tab and choose "(GMT-5:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)" and enable the option to "Automatically adjust clock for daylight saving changes". To set the details of how your system will synchronize its time with the local server, download this file and then double-click on it to merge its contents into your system's registry. This will define the time server as 164.107.76.2 (the IP address of the local time server) and set your system to keep its time synchronized with our server every 60 minutes.

Linux

Linux is not supported. There are some general requirements we can recommend, however, which will help maintain your system in a manner which will be compatible with our network infrastructure.

For Windows-compatible file sharing, Linux uses SAMBA. This subsystem is controlled primarily with the smb.conf file. (Use "man 5 smb.conf" to determine where your variant of Linux stores this file.) The following options need attention:

netbios name...set to your osu.edu username, replacing the period with a hyphen. For example, if your osu.edu account name is "smith.423", you would set this field to "smith-423", e.g...

netbios name = smith-423

server string...should be of the form "F. Last (Mobile)", where "F" represents your first initial and "Last" is your last name. For example...

server string = J. Smith (Mobile)

workgroup...most likely either "CBE" or "MSE", depending on your departmental affiliation. See this section of our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for a list of workgroup names. Any workgroup that starts with the prefix "ECR6" must not be specified on personally-owned systems.

Requesting Access

Requests for this level of access are ONLY to be sent from your local (departmental) E-mail address and MUST be sent to For short-term department guests without an official university affiliation, this request should be sent on your behalf from your faculty "sponsor." The request must include the following information:

Description of your laptop/PDA (make, model, operating system [including version], and native language)

The MAC (Media Access Control) address (a.k.a. physical Ethernet address) of your system's NIC (Network Interface Controller); if you do not know how to obtain this information, and/or you are requesting wireless access, a visit to our offices will be required.
For modern Windows systems, the MAC address can be determined with the "IPCONFIG /ALL" command issued from a "Command Prompt" window. (See Start>All Programs>Accessories menu.) Note that if your system has more than one NIC (e.g. Ethernet and WiFi), you need to be sure you provide the correct MAC address, as each NIC has a different one. The MAC address under Windows is presented as the "Physical Address."
If you're using an Apple Macintosh system and a modern version of Mac OS X, the MAC address will be available by clicking on the Ethernet tab after accessing the Network preferences pane and choosing "Built-in Ethernet" from the Show menu. It will be presented as the "Ethernet ID."
If you're using some other kind of NOS (Network Operating System), we will try to work with you to determine how to configure it. If this process proves to be too time-intensive, though, you may have to go without local network access.

Are you requesting wired or wireless access?

Location (e.g. building and room number) where you will primarily use the system

Short-term guests must indicate the date of the end of their visit. Their network access will be terminated after that date.

Local users need to include both your departmental E-mail address and your osu.edu E-mail address; short-term guests need to provide a single E-mail address which is checked regularly.

Confirmation that you have read, understood and agree to the terms of your access, and that your laptop is configured as described, above

This page speaks mainly to users who desire wired network access. For wireless access, please review the material presented here, which should be considered as an addendum to these policies. (Requests for departmental wireless access still need to use the mechanism presented, above.)

After you submit your E-mail request, you will receive a message indicating your message has been received. You will later receive a subsequent message when your request is ready to be processed (known as "vetting"). Because this access is provided as a courtesy, no priority is given to such requests. As such, the interval of time between your initial request and when it's processed can be considerable, so you should not make any plans which depend on your ability to connect your laptop to the local network. We are unable to estimate when time will be available to honor a request, so please don't ask us to. We will endeavour to meet any outstanding laptop access request within 90 days, but we can make no guarantees. Requests must be complete and accurate to reflect your ability to follow our directions for ensuring compliance with policy; inaccurate or incomplete requests will be denied.