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Travel Disruption - IT can (sometimes) help: Updated

In the photo on the right, of the seven vehicles nearest the camera, all are resting against the nearest, whilst one of the four furthest from the camera has dug itself into the handrail and wall for good measure.

When you need to use University IT systems and can't get to campus, remember that for the following, you only need a web connection:

Email

Staff and students can read email using Webmail. Staff webmail has changed, if it's not working for you, follow the link.

Minerva

If you use Minerva you'll probably know that it works fine via the web - from wherever.

VPN

If you're staff, and you need things like your staff network drive, you can set up a VPN connection from your home machine to the University network. Before you do this, make sure your home machine is in good health. Here's how to go about setting up a VPN connection from a Windows machine or an Apple computer. Once your VPN is set up, your computer is effectively on the University's network, and various services are available to you. For instance, you can connect a network drive (your 's' drive, say) as follows: Windows / OS X.

The RAP - Bath Spa University's 'Remote Access Portal'

If you just need access to your 'S' drive, the following is more straightforward than setting up a VPN connection.

'The RAP' offers a connection to your 'S' drive via a web browser. This means that files downloaded will be cached to the browser cache. If you download something that needs to be kept secure, empty the browser cache afterwards. Should you use this from a public computer, understand the issues: here's more information from the computing wiki space.

To use 'The RAP', log into the remote access portal using your staff username and password, and you'll then see a link to your 'S' drive.

Skype

In no way a University system, but if you're stuck and you still need to talk with people *and* see them, and you have video cameras, 'Skype' offers the equivalent of a free-at-point-of-use videophone - that works via the web. To use it, you'll need to download and install the Skype software - and set up a Skype account - after which this usually 'Just works'.

Local Travel ...

Here are links to info for buses and rail travel, the Severn Bridge (current status and webcam) and to a webcam at the M4 Junction 18 (Tormarton). On the weather front, weather satellite animation, to precipitation radar and to Met Office warnings.

Bath Spa's Wiki

You may already know that a wiki is just a web site ... that you can edit yourself, and you can also easily control who can use the resource. If it would be useful to you or your department, the University can now make a wiki 'Space' available to you - you can then use it in a whole variety of ways.

Wikis are easy to use - but to get going it's helpful to know where you're going - that's where a workshop can help. Book one of our workshops and you'll hopefully find things will fall in to place.

If you've been to one of the early workshops, do revisit the Mark's help wiki resource as it's had a makeover. Use the link on the left.

Keeping an eye on the Wiki

If you need to keep an eye on something in the wiki, remember:

• You can set a 'Watch' on a single page
• Arrange for a daily email update from the wiki
• Set up RSS feeds from the wiki, to bring you changes from particular areas

The first two are simple, and RSS is a lot more simple to use than the explanation makes it sound. Do investigate.

Windows 7 and You

At the moment, if you use a Windows machine at Bath Spa it will be running XP. When your machine is replaced, the replacement is likely to be running Windows 7. Luckily, this isn't an enormous leap into the unknown - on the surface, Windows 7 doesn't make great changes to the way you use a pc for everyday tasks. It does offer better ways to get things done though - here's a page with some pointers, and we'll shortly be providing an online course via Minerva - watch this space.

Office 2007 and You

You may already be using Office 2007. Many people find it a bit of a challenge to use at first. We'll shortly provide more help with this in the form of a help resource - like the Windows 7 resource, we'll do that via Minerva. Meanwhile, we also have a help page on Windows 2007 right here. It may be brief, but it contains enough information to get you going.

Changes to email: Exchange 2007

At the end of 2009, the University email server saw an upgrade - it's still an 'Exchange server' but it's now 'Exchange 2007' rather than 2003. This offers security improvements, but the change you'll notice is that 'Webmail' looks different. Webmail works via a web browser, and if you use both Internet Explorer and another web browser, you'll notice that there are two different 'Flavours' of 'Webmail':

A 'Light' version

You'll see this with any web browser other than Internet Explorer. It's very useable but looks different and offers less - such as only a single day at a time in your calendar - compared to ...

... The full version

You'll see the full version when you're using Internet Explorer. It's spookily like a full 'Outlook' client ...

For more information on what the 'Light' version is about, here's a blog from its developers.

Exchange 2007 and OS X Snow Leopard

There's another group of people who'll notice changes with the advent of Exchange 2007. If you use an Apple machine running Snow Leopard, you'll find that the '' and '' applications, once you've fed them the appropriate settings, will be able to synch your calendar and email with the Exchange server - something that didn't work with the previous version.

Entourage: find a good time to meet someone - without even asking them

Use Entourage and you might not have realised that it's easy to sort out a meeting, identifying a good time to meet others - without even asking them. If someone is using their calendar, you can make an appointment - and actually look for free time in their calendar, avoiding the times when they are already tied up. Much better than sending an email to check if they're free at a particular time. The following page has more on this.

Outlook: finding other people's free or busy times

You can do the same trick with Outlook - arrange to meet someone and check their diary for some free time. It's actually easy: here's how.

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