General Questions

What is the best way to get help?

The easiest way is to email a request to RT.

Can I have root privileges so that I can install a program?

No. If you want root privileges on your machine, we can only grant them if we remove your ability to access your Oden Institute home directory or use our network services on that machine. Such a personal machine will be given a dynamic IP address on a sequestered network. Giving administrative privileges on departmentally-integrated machines is too large of a security risk. Anyone with administrative access would be able to trivially read your email and files).

So I can’t install anything at all?

Of course you can. You are free to install anything you want to the filesystem locations you have write access to. Since network filesystems are quota-enforced, we provide a /workspace partition; this is a fast, reasonably large storage resource on your workstation’s internal hard drive.

I can’t connect to anything, the network is down

If your machine is a desktop and has more than one Ethernet interface, make sure the ethernet cable is plugged into eth0. If you are using a notebook, make sure you are using the correct wall jack labeled “notebook”. If you are trying to use wireless, please make sure that you have an ITS PNA account. Contact Sysnet if you are unsure.

How do I access licensed software from off-campus?

Download and install the VPN software (requires login to wikis) available through ITS and log into the UT network.

How do I access the VPN using Linux?