The following policies, rules, and procedures have been set by the Systems Committee. If you have any questions or comments, send mail to "systems@cs.kent.edu".
These rules and policies apply to all users of the computer system. Users are expected to adhere to the rules and policies set forth here. A user found in violation of systems policy will be warned by e-mail. If the violation continues or re-occurs, a second warning will be send. A third violation or re-occurrence will result in a temporary deactivation of the user's account.
If any user, through action or inaction, is endangering the system or system security, their account may be deactivated without warning. The departmental Systems Committee will review all such temporary suspensions. As the situation warrants, the Systems Committee may permanently suspend the account, suspend the account for a limited duration, or reduce the account's privileges and resources.
1. Terms of Use
The computer system in the Department of Computer Science is intended for use as a research and teaching network.
All systems connected to departmental network should comply with its security guidelines. Any system found in violation of the mentioned guidelines will be disconnected until it is compliant.
The following actions are FORBIDDEN unless prior written approval is obtained from the Systems Director:
attempts (either failed or successful) to gain unauthorized access to a system or its data
unwanted disruption or denial of service
the unauthorized use of a system for the processing or storage of data
changes to system hardware, firmware, or software characteristics without the owner's knowledge, instruction, or consent
sharing, contribution or in any other way dissemination of copyrighted material
any other form of abuse, originating from or targeting departmental network
The users found to perform such actions will have their account terminated and will face any further action that the Department may choose to pursue against them.
2. Account Allocation Policies
All users must have a signed User Application Form on file.
Departmental Students: Lower Division Students Students in Intermediate Programming (23021) and below will receive accounts restricted to the machine designated for use by the relevant class. Any exceptions must be approved by the Director of Computer Systems. These accounts will be class-specific and will be deleted after each semester. A backup will be made before deletion takes place.
Upper Division Students: Students in Data Structures (33001) and above will automatically receive accounts on the main machines on the departmental network. Students with other majors working within the Computer Science Department will be given accounts on request.
Other KSU students and faculty: In general, students and faculty outside the department will have access to computer accounts through Computer Services. An account for these people may be provided on the departmental system in the following cases:
The person has a research or teaching affiliation with the department.
The person has a need for a service that is only available on the departmental system. In this case, the person requesting the account must present written documentation signed by the Chair of their department describing the need than cannot be met by any other University resource.
Non-KSU People: In general, accounts will not be provided for people who are not affiliated with KSU. Exceptions to this policy will be considered in the following cases:
The applicant is working in conjunction with departmental personnel on a research project.
The applicant (or their organization) is willing to provide resources to compensate for those used in accessing and using the departmental computer systems.
In any case, users who are not part of the department must be aware that they are required to follow all departmental systems policies, and that service will be suspended if it places undue stress on departmental resources.
Either a student ID number or a social security number is required to obtain and maintain an account on the department's computer systems.
3. E-mail
As important notifications will be sent to users email address in our department, users are expected to read all e-mail sent to their account.
Users should use an IMAP compliant mail client to access their mail (link to setup an email client ). Mail clients which are able to handle the POP-3 protocol should work as well, however IMAP is the recommended method for retrieving mail.
The user's mailbox file counts against their disk quota. If a user exceeds their disk quota, they will not receive any further mail.
4. Networking Personal Computers
Personal computers may be put on the departmental computer network under the following conditions:
the machines must conform to all policies in place.
Personal computers not controlled by the departmental systems staff will be placed on a secure subnetwork. These machines will not be given any privileged access to departmental resources, and departmental personnel will not manage these machines. In any case, there will only be one network connection (General, secure, PC) per office.
All equipment must comply with OARnet security requirements.
5. Software Installation
Software will be added to departmental systems under the following conditions:
Faculty requests for software installation will be accommodated provided sufficient resources exist for the installation and operation of the software package.
Software requested by other users will be installed at the discretion of the system staff. If an installation request is denied, an appeal can be made to the Systems Committee.
In either case, installation will occur only if system resources are sufficient for the use of the requested package.
NOTE Software is NOT supported unless it is placed on the list of officially supported software by the Systems Committee.
The system staff may run software related to system operation on all equipment within the department. This includes, but is not limited to, security software.
6.Personal Web Pages
Users are permitted to use departmental computers to host personal web pages. Such pages, however, may not be used to host a commerical enterprise without the written consent of the Systems Director. Moreover, any such web page should clearly indicate that it is a personal page or a student activities page and must not misrepresent itself as a official web page of Kent State University or any of its departments or offices.
7. CS Grad Student Machines
The machines are not assigned to individual graduate students but are provided for their use. Students may be required to share machines.
Systems will be built with a standard configuration, and will be maintained by the system staff. The local data on these systems will not be backed up using department's backup facilities; students are advised copy important documents to their regular home directories for backup purposes.
Students are encouraged to install software in their directory tree on these machines. In general, software that requires files in non-user directories, will not be installed unless it is necessary for a students research and a request for that installation is submitted by the student's adviser. Requests for software installations submitted by a student's adviser will be handled on the basis of need (as determined by the Faculty Systems Director) and may take 1-2 months or more to be completed.
Students may be given access to student machines in other offices if their research requires it. Requests for additional access should be submitted to the Faculty Systems Director.
These machines are part of the departmental network and are therefore subject to all security and privacy policies of the department.
8. Windows Machine Policies (in addition to general security guidelines)
Must have up-to-date AntiVirus software/definitions. (See Software available )
Must have latest Service Pack(s) and latest updates
University owned permanent machines (system supported and non-system supported) must have a static IP address.
Software that needs special approval :
MSSQL
IIS
Software NOT allowed (exceptions can be made after discussion with Systems Manager):
SMTP ( including MS Exchange )
FTP server
Telnet server
DHCP server
DNS server
IIRC server
Personal and non-permanent machines (such as laptops) use a dhcp address.
9. Additional Lab Policies
Users are not allowed to unplug network cables from the lab machines. Other machines, such as laptops, can connect to the network by using the building wireless 802.11B network as lab machines are wiped clean over night, users should save the files to their home
directory. Everyone should throw their papers and garbage away when done.
