1. Please consult the FAQs below to see if you can find the
answer to your question.
2. If not, please send email to support.
Use this mailing list, rather than contact Vincent or Julie directly.
That way, you get more prompt attention in case one or the
other is away. As well, the support
mailing
list includes Jose and Breton, so the person most able to help you can
respond more quickly. Finally, using the support mailing
list helps us build an archive of support questions and issues that
facilitate composing this FAQ webpage.
When emailing support,
try to give as much detail as you can in
order to zero in on the answer more quickly. By detail, we
mean things like:
a. Which machine, what operating system version, etc.
b. Did it ever work? When did it stop working?
What happened between when it last worked and when it stopped
working?
c. Copy and paste error messages, if any. Write
down any numeric error codes.
Computing Account
I
am new to the department. What account[s] do I need?
A typical UBC Geography graduate student or staff member uses three
accounts:
a. Campus
Wide Login (CWL)
Campus-Wide Login (CWL) is UBC’s single sign-on authentication system.
It is designed to give you access to UBC’s online applications with the
same username and password.
A CWL account currently provides you with access to the Student
Information System, the Library, myUBC, WebCT or BlackBoard Vista, and
more….
You can learn more about signing up for a CWL account here.
b. Geography
Computing Account (GCA)
This provides you with an email address,
as well as login access to the GEOGLAB
computers in Rooms 114, 115, 216A, 237, 239, and 240.
It also provides secure file
transfer (SFTP) access to our servers so you can maintain web
pages and a web presence at www.geog.ubc.ca.
This account is usually set up by the time you arrive. All
you need to do is pick up the password in person from Room 240 (Vincent
or Julie). We do not email passwords. Nor do we
request passwords by email.
c. Photocopier Account
This account is used to login to the photocopier terminals in
Room 248. The photocopiers are multifunction networked units that
provide photocopying, network printing, and monochrome scanning.
The photocopier account also keeps track of dollar credits toward
pages printed.
The Geography Main Office (Room 217) staff will help you set this
account up.
Your GCA is used in two places, so you will need to change it in two
places as well.
For
the email password:
Login to webmail.geog.ubc.ca
Select the Preferences
tab
Under the General
tab, click on the Change Password
button
Enter a password that satisfies the complexity requirements:
at least 8 characters long, at least one capital letter, at
least one numeral, and at least one special character (punctuation
mark, etc.)
For
the GEOGLAB password:
Login to one of the GEOGLAB computers
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del
once to bring up the Windows Security box
Select Change
Password
c.
Photocopier Account
Select or enter your login name on the photocopier terminal but don't
type in the password
Press F1
Enter your current password
Enter your new password twice
I forgot my password...
Please refer to the CWL FAQ page
for all questions and issues regarding your CWL account.
Please contact Vincent
or Julie to reset your Geography Computing Account
password.
Please contact the Main Office staff to reset your photocopier terminal
password.
Why do I need such a complicated
password?
As computer hardware becomes more powerful, it also takes a lot less
time to guess passwords by brute force, that is, trying all possible
combinations of characters. Choosing a longer password and
using a broader set of possible characters stalls this kind of attack.
Email
What
is my Geography email address?
By convention, we use the
address firstname.lastname.
This is merely an alias to the real address based on your
login name, which, prepended to our domain ,
will also work
as an email address.
If you prefer a different alias, please contact support.
Your browser will give you a warning about our site
being untrusted
(because we use a self-signed certificate rather than dole
out an annual fee to an external "trusted" authority).
Just
tell your browser "I
understand the Risks" or "Continue
to this
website".
Most browsers will allow you to make a
permanent
exception so you don't have to deal with this warning the next time you
login.
This brings you to the Zimbra login screen where you can login with
your Geography
Computing Account username and password.
Upon successful login, you should now be able to access your email:
When
I am away and using another computer, why can't I find webmail.geog.ubc.ca?
Many browsers, e.g., Internet Explorer, will have a default home page
that puts your cursor in the Search box (see the box with the red X
below). If you simply type webmail.geog.ubc.ca
into this box, chances are the search engine won't find the correct
website. Instead, you should move the cursor to the address bar
(red arrow below),
clear whatever is in the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) field, and type
webmail.geog.ubc.ca
there:
This should then bring up the screen below warning about our security
certificate. Select "Continue to this website" in order to
proceed to the Zimbra login screen.
The Zimbra interface is so cluttered
compared to my old email client. Do I really have to use webmail?
Two reasons for the clutter:
1) The webmail interface includes both the Zimbra menus as well
as your browser's menus, so they do add up. You can hide some of
your browser menus if you want to de-clutter.
2) Zimbra is not just email, but a collaborative suite that
includes many features like messaging, calendar and calendar sharing,
resource booking, and so on. These collaborative features
definitely add to the clutter, but require the webmail interface if we
are to take advantage of them.
How
do I set up an auto-reply message?
On Zimbra, click the Preferencestab.
This brings up another subset of tabs: General,
Mail, ,,,
Click on theMailtab and scroll down to Receiving
Messages.
Tick the Sendauto-reply box and fill in the text of the auto-reply
message as well as the end and start dates.
How do I print messages in
Zimbra?
Select the message you wish to print.
Click on the printer icon on the Zimbra tool bar.
Why can't I see all my
messages when I scroll down?
Zimbra displays only a certain number of messages per screen, depending
on the Displaying Messages settings.
You will have to navigate to subsequent pages in order to see the other
messages, using the paging arrows:
Some of my messages seem to have
disappeared?
You are probably using the default View By Conversation, which nests
all messages with the same subject into one conversation.
By clicking on the arrow to the left of a conversation, you will see
the individual messages that comprise that conversation.
Why can't I sort my messages by sender
(clicking on the From
field)?
You can sort messages by the From field only after switching your View to By Message:
How can I quickly find certain messages?
By default, messages are sorted by the Received timestamp in descending
order, most recently first. You can sort messages by the From,
Subject, Size, and Received fields simply by clicking on the field
heading. Clicking on the same field heading again reverses the
order of the sort.
But an even quicker way to zoom in on messages you are looking for is
to enter the relevant text in the Search field
and clicking on the Search
button:
How do I change my forwarding address?
Note:
Faculty and staff accounts have this capability disabled by default in
respect of the requirements of the Freedom of Information and Privacy
Protection Act (FIPPA). Others, please note this as well, as it
may apply to you if you take on additional responsibility
relating to teaching and other university business. Check out the
Office of the University Counsel response to some FAQs relating to
email and FIPPA here.
While logged in to Zimbra, click on the Preferencestab.
Click on the Mailtab and scroll down to the section
Receiving
Messages.
Edit the Forward
a copy to: field
as
desired, and tick/untick the box as appropriate. (Please
choose wisely as we don't want your email accumulating on our server
unread.)
Click on Saveto save the changes.
How long before my messages are
purged from the Trash folder?
Zimbra is set to automatically purge the Trash folder
of messages that are over 30 days old. You can also immediately
empty the Trash
by right-clicking on the Trash folder
and selectingEmpty Trash:
If you wish to store messages for longer than this period, then
consider creating a new folder (call it Archive,
for example) and moving (drag/drop) those messages there instead.
You will have complete control over the folders you create.
How much storage space am I allowed?
Mouse over the quota field as shown below to find out your mailbox
quota and how much of it you are using:
What are some of the legal guidelines with respect to use of email for UBC?
Please take note of the following response of the Office of University
Counsel to common queries regarding the use of email and the Freedom of
Information and Privacy Protection Act (FIPPA):
In addition, please read some of the recommendations below from the UBC
Records Manager regarding retention and destruction of email.
----------
This is a particularly difficult area of record keeping due to the fact that email may
be a crucial university record and it can also be spam. It has always
been my advice that university employees should routinely destroy
non-records (spam, notifications, personal email, general informational
email) as soon as possible - in most cases once it has been read.
Records of a routine nature can be retained in the email system but if
the record is considered vital it should be removed to a record keeping
system. This means either printed out to paper and filed, or saved in an
electronic document and records management system (edrms). There is no
blanket retention period, but any record that involves advice to a
student should be retained a minimum of 1 year in respect of Freedom of
Information Protection of Privacy legislation. If you have questions of
particular record types I can certainly try to help determine
appropriate retention periods for your unit. Staff and faculty are not
required to destroy records but they should know that privacy is vital
and retaining records too long is a drain on resources. If you have
questions please let me know and I'll do my best to help.
Alan Doyle
University Records Manager
University Archives
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
1961 East Mall V6T-1Z1
(604)827-3952
-----------
Our techie advice: use your UBC email address for UBC business, use a
gmail/hotmail/yahoo/etc account to stay in touch with family and
friends, and don't forward your UBC email address to a non-UBC address
while you are still an active part of the UBC community. Keeping your
mail folders at a manageable number and size by regular purging makes
email access zippier for yourself and everyone else. Vital emails
should be printed out and securely filed.
I received an email message warning me about <expiring account/over quota/account abuse/etc> with a request/link asking for my password. What should I do?
Never email your password. Neither will we ask you to email your password.
Don't click on a link in an unsolicited email message. Copy and
paste the URL into your browser instead, so you know that what you see
is what you get.
If you are not sure whether the email is legitimate, forward the message to support.
If you are reasonably confident that this is a phishing attempt, please forward the message complete with headers to security at ubc dot ca so they can block the source of those messages.
How do I view the headers of an email message?
In Zimbra, right-click on the message and select Show Original.
This pops up a separate window with the message, complete with all the
routing headers. You can save this to a text file and attach the
file to an email message if you want to forward it complete with the
headers.
How do I learn more about using
Zimbra?
Zimbra has an extensive, searchable and indexed documentation that you
can access from the Help button:
This pops up the window/tab below: Use the Contents tab,
Index, or Search buttons to zero in on the information of interest.
Is there a difference
between the Delete (trash can icon) and the Junk buttons?
Yes, and it is an important difference.
Use the Junk
button to tag messages as spam.
Use the Delete
button to get rid of messages that you don't want to
save but are NOT spam.
The system periodically processes users' Junk folders in order to train
the spam filter, so that its spam detection capabilities can improve
over time.
That is why it is important to distinguish between Junk and Delete.
I seem to be getting more spam
lately. What should I do?
Has your email address gotten into a spammer's database by being posted
on some website or by signing up for some "free" something or another?
Be careful about where and how you post your email address.
When signing up for anything, read closely to untick all possible
options that may lead to your email address being entered into some
vendor's database, unless that is what you wish.
First of all, distinguish between advertising email from
legitimate commercial entities like Staples, Travelocity, etc. that you
no longer want to receive versus real spam from spammers who
deliberately obscure their identity.
Most legitimate commercial entities will provide an unsubscribe hotspot
somewhere on the message and honour your request to be de-listed from
their mailing list. Use that unsubscribe hotspot in this case.
Spammers, on the other hand, are not likely to honour any such request,
if they even provide a means of opting out. In this case, we
will have to train our spam filter to detect these kinds of messages as
spam so it will start putting them into your Junk folder instead of
your Inbox. You can help train the spam filter by selecting
the message and clicking on the Junk icon. There is a
background process that monitors users' Junk folders and uses the
information therein to feed the spam filter training mechanism.
Mailing
Lists
How do I
subscribe/unsubscribe to a department mailing list?
To subscribe to mailing list listname,
simply send an email message to
listname-subscribe
You will receive an automated confirmation request in your Inbox, and
will need to follow the instructions therein to complete your
subscription request.
A moderator will attend to your subscription request within two
business days.
To unsubscribe, send an email message to
listname-unsubscribe
I
sent a message to a department mailing list but
it was rejected/held. Why?
Most of the department mailing lists have privacy filters that limit
the allowed posters to internal users and a few other registered
entities. Otherwise, spammers will have a heydey getting
their malware out.
The mailing list manager is an automaton that will recognize allowed
posters only by matching their email address to its registration
database. If you happen to be using a different alias, or a
different email address entirely, then this matching process will fail
and your posting will be rejected.
As well, the mailing list manager is configured to hold email sent to
the mailing list as well as 10 or more other recipients or where the
mailing list address is not specified in the To: field (just the Cc: or
Bcc: fields)--these are typical spammer ploys. So the list
moderator will have to manually examine the message and approve/reject
it as appropriate. This may delay your posting by two
business days. So avoid these pitfalls if you want a speedy
posting.
I
can't send email to support.
How can I get help?
Like most of the department mailing lists, support
is a
closed mailing list available only to registered addresses.
If you do not have access to a registered email address and
need computing help, you may contact Jose,
Breton, Julie and Vincent to make sure that someone is
available to handle your query.
File Transfer and Backup
I
need to send/receive a very large file. Can I use email for
this?
It is prudent to limit the size of your email messages, attachments
included, to under 10MB. That way, you can be confident that
it will hop nicely along from sender to receiver.
If your file size is close to this limit, you are better off using
other means.
To send a file to someone, you can put it in a folder on your Geography website
and send them the link. They can then download the file using
their browser. If you need to restrict access to the file, we
can put a password on the folder--please contact support
to
set this up for you. Details for uploading files to the
Geography webserver are here.
To receive a file, please direct the sender to upload the file to our anonymous ftp site.
How do I upload a file to
the Geography fileserver?
We only allow secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) to gain
access to our file server. (If you are updating your web
pages using Dreamweaver or similar, SFTP is already built in as an
upload option; be sure to select it instead of the default.)
GEOGLAB and most department computers have the FileZilla SFTP client
already installed for this purpose. You can also download and
install it from here.
You will need to configure your SFTP client as follows:
host: remote.geog.ubc.ca port
number:
2244 server
type: SFTP logon
type:ask
for password user:your Geography Computing
Account username
Upon successful login, you should see your home directory and be able
to navigate through the folders and drag/drop files from your personal
computers into the appropriate home directory folders.
Do we have an anonymous
ftp site?
Yes. ftp://ftp.geog.ubc.ca
Senders can drag/drop the file into the incoming
folder. They should
notify you once it's there. Please contact support to provide the filename so they can
make
the file
available to you.
Are my files backed up?
Files that you have saved/uploaded to our
department server are backed up nightly to protect against hardware
failure, but not for archival purposes. We typically cannot
recover individual files or versions thereof, only the files that were
stored in the last nightly backup.
How can I back up files on my desktop /
laptop computer?
You may do a quick backup of critical files on your computer by uploading
it to our department server, up to 2 GB's worth. Remember that
this is mainly for disaster recovery purposes, not archiving, and our
disk space is limited and shared by all faculty, staff, and grads in
the department.
If you want to back up more than this, we suggest you do what most
other people do: purchase an external drive.
Network
Access
How
can I access the Internet from my personal computer?
If it has wireless capability, you can sign in to the UBC wireless
network using your CWL.
We highly recommend setting it up for the ubcsecurenetwork
following the instructions here.
If you do not have a CWL, you may be able to access the UBC
wireless visitor
network. If you are visiting from a university that offers
EduRoam, you may also gain access to UBC wireless eduroam
using your university wireless login credentials.
If you need access to the wired network, please contact
support. They will insist that you
have your
operating system, applications and anti-virus programs up-to-date
before your personal computer can be attached to our department
network.
I
am trying to access a remote site / service but can't. Is this a
firewall issue?
If the remote site or service you are accessing requires ports other
than the standard email, web, ftp and ssh ports, then the department
firewall may be blocking the traffic.
Please contact support
and let us know the name or IP of the site you are accessing, which
machine you were coming from, and the date and time of your most recent
attempt, so we can check our firewall logs.
Printing
Where
can I print 8.5"x11"
and 8.5"x14"?
Black
and white as well as colour printing is available by logging on to any
of the GEOGLAB
computers. Look at the posted signs to find the available
printer names.
Black and white printing is also available by using the network
printing capabilities of the photocopiers in Room 248. The
GEOGLAB computers in the Grad Labs (Rooms 237, 240, 216a) have this set
up as printers P1 and P2.
Where can I print 11"x17"?
Tabloid printing in colour is also available
from any GEOGLAB
computer.
Where can I print a poster?
A large-format colour inkjet printer is
available in Room 240 for printing posters of width 36" or 42", any
length. Please check here
for details.
I sent a file to the network printer,
but I could not find it in the console mailbox. What's wrong?
First of all, make sure that you have correctly noted whether it was
network printer P1 or P2, and that
your printer settings are configured to send it to the mailbox that you
have designated.
Second, make sure you are on the department wired network: log
out of any VPN connections and turn off the wireless, and verify that
you still have access to the Internet.
If it still does not appear in the mailbox, and if it is a PDF file,
you may have run into a known but unresolved issue we encounter with
some PDF documents. On a Windows machine, the typical workaround
is to use the PCL driver instead of the PS driver.
Scanning
Where
can I scan colour images?
There is an 8"x14"-capable colour scanner in the following locations:
Room 240 and Room 206.
Where can I scan a larger image?
The photocopiers in Room 248 can scan up to 11"x17" monochrome.
If you need colour or even larger format scanning, you will
have to use a commercial service.
How can I scan a lot of pages?
The photocopiers in Room 248 allow you to use the document
feeder to scan several pages easily. But it is only
capable of monochrome scanning.
How can I scan to email on the
photocopiers?
Set your original up on the photocopier in the same manner as for
copying.
After logging into the photocopier terminal to enable the console
control, select the Sendtab and enter the email address,
verify all
the other settings, and then press the Startbutton.
I scanned my document to email,
but I did not receive it. Where did it go?
Generally, this is due to a typographical error when entering your
email address. So it probably bounced off to postmaster. Contact support if you want to save
the trouble of re-scanning the image.
How can I add my email address
to the photocopiers?
1) Login on the photocopier terminal
2) Press the Additional
Functions button on the console
3) Select Address
Book Settings on the LCD panel
4) Select Register
New Address
You'll have to do this again on the other photocopier if you want to
enter your email address there as well.
Web
Pages
How can I set up personal web
pages?
You can set up your personal pages under the
URL www.geog.ubc.ca/~username,
where username
is your Geography
Computing Account login name. Just upload your
files to the www
folder of your home directory using the instructions here.
Make sure the files you upload have the proper
permissions--check here
for details.
How can I set up course web
pages?
You
have two choices for setting up course webpages:
a) WebCT
WebCT is more user-friendly and has a lot of instructional features and
social networking capabilities already built in -- class mailing list,
discussion board, and so on. Please contact Jose Aparicio
if you wish to set up a WebCT site for your course.
b) the do-it-yourself web presence under the Geography website www.geog.ubc.ca/courses. You will need to have write
access to the
specific course folder. Please contact support
to
make sure that the course folder is available for you to write to.
Once you have write access to the folder, you can upload files using
either an SFTP-capable web editor, or use a separate SFTP client
following the instructions here.
The course folder should be visible by following the link
sequence dept_web
» courses
» geo[bg]###.
I've uploaded some files
to my website. Why can I not see them through my browser?
Generally, this is a permissions issue. For your webpages to
be visible to the public, the following permissions should be displayed:
-rw-r--r-- for files drwxr-xr-xfor folders (a.k.a. directories)
If that is not the case, right-click on the file/folder name and set
the permissions as follows:
Numeric value:
644for files 755for folders
I've
uploaded some changes to my webpages. Why can I not see the
updates in my browser?
Generally, this is a problem of your browser caching web pages on your
local computer and not bothering to re-retrieve them unless you
explicitly direct it to.
Simply click on the Refresh (or Reload) icon
on your browser to force
it to retrieve the updated pages.
I would like to restrict my
webpages to selected viewers. What are my options?
We could do the following:
1) restrict your webpages to be viewable from certain computers only,
say, from a specific Internet address or domain like
geog.ubc.ca
2) put a password on the folder so that only those people who know the
password can access the pages in that folder.
Please contact support
to set this up.
Software
I
need software X, is it available?
OpenSource
OpenSource software offers an inexpensive and often superior
alternative to commercial software, so we encourage you to explore this
option first.
You might find some of the ones we
frequently install/recommend already downloaded to our software website (this link is only accessible from within the Geography network).
Anti-Virus
Software
In the interest of keeping our campus computing environment virus-free,
UBC ITServices provides Sophos
Anti-virus free for all UBC students, faculty and staff.
Microsoft
Office
As part of UBC, we are party to the Microsoft
Campus Agreement, which affords us to install Microsoft
Office Suite and other Microsoft products on UBC-purchased computers.
Please review their FAQs here
before contacting us.
Windows
Again, as party to the Microsoft Campus Agreement, we are allowed to
upgrade the Windows system on any UBC-purchased computer to any version
except Ultimate. This means that you can purchase a computer
with the least expensive Windows operating system (Home Premium) and we
may upgrade it to the preferable Professional version. This also
means
that we may install Windows on the Boot Camp partition of
your UBC-purchased Intel-based Mac.
GEOGLAB
computers
Here is a list of the software installed in GEOGLAB computers.
Please note that these computers are for instructional use,
and hence, some of the software licenses like MATLAB have restrictions
for classroom instruction only.
ArcGIS
For a nominal fee ($25 annual license as of last check), students may
purchase a copy of ArcGIS for installation on their personal computers
from Jerry
Maedel at UBC Forestry.
UBC
Site Licenses
Here
is a list of the software available through UBC Site Licenses.
This includes a wide array of Statistical packages and the
Adobe Creative Suite.
UBC
Bookstore
The UBC
Bookstore sells many popular software at academic discounts
or in student/academic editions.
What software is available on the GEOGLAB
computers?
The GEOGLAB computers run the following software on a Windows XP
Professional platform:
ArcGIS
MATLAB
Stata
Microsoft Office 2010
IDRISI
FME
.
. 
