Mathematics IT Services

FAQ

Nowadays every attachment is a possible security threat (virus, trojan horse, etc.). If you you want to minimize the risk of infection we advise to scan attachments before opening especially files from unknown senders or unexpected e-mails.

You can do that with the free online virus/malware/URL scanner from VirusTotal where the file is checked by the most common and reliable up-to-date virus-scanners.

To scan a attachment:

  • Save the attachment to a local folder but do not open it
  • Visit VirusTotal and upload the attachment

Interpreting the scan result:

If only some (or less) out of the nearly 50 scanners say that the file might be harmful it is normally safe to open the file. The more scanners detect a threat the more dangerous it is to open the file. In case you are not sure don't hesitate to contact the helpdesk.

Email

Be aware if the email

  • comes from an unrecognized sender
  • asks you to confirm personal or financial information over the internet and/or makes urgent requests for this information
  • isn’t personalized
  • tries to upset you into acting quickly by threatening you with frightening information
  • asks for personal information and appears to come from an enterprise you do business with. Phishing web sites often copy the entire look of a legitimate web site, making it appear authentic. To be safe, call the legitimate enterprise first to see if they really sent that email to you. Companies you want to do business with do not request personal information to be sent via email.

Personal/financial information

Communicate personal information only via phone or secure web sites: look for a sign that the site is secure such as a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a “https:” URL whereby the “s” stands for “secure” rather than a “http:”.

Also, beware of phone phishing schemes. Do not divulge personal information over the phone unless you initiated the call. Be cautious of emails that ask you to call a phone number to update your account information as well.

Never email personal or financial information, even if you are close with the recipient. You never know who may gain access to your email account, or to the person’s account to whom you are emailing.

Links, attachments, file download

Do not click on links, download files or open attachments in emails from unknown senders. It is best to open attachments only when you are expecting them and know what they contain, even if you know the sender.

Pop ups

Be aware of pop ups and

  • do not enter personal information in a pop-up screen. Reputable enterprises do not ask you to submit personal information in pop up screens
  • do not click on links in a pop-up screen
  • do not copy web addresses into your browser from pop-ups

General advise

  • check your online accounts and bank statements regularly to ensure that no unauthorized transactions have been made
  • you should always be careful about giving out personal information over the Internet. Luckily, companies have begun to employ tactics to fight against phishers, but they cannot fully protect you on their own.
  • remember that you may be targeted almost anywhere online, so always keep an eye out for those 'phishy' schemes and never feel pressured to give up personal information online

Windows

Open the Windows-Explorer and right click on the drive letter and select properties. The window shows how much space is left among other drive information.

Linux

You need to use the quota -s command in a command-line terminal. When you issue the disk free command (df -h $HOME), the output shows the whole disk space available on the NFS share.

Please call our hotline (+43-1-4277-50685) immediately to prevent further contamination and possible loss of data. Do not ignore such warnings and don’t try to solve the problem on your own.

Please bring your Laptop at least every 2 months or use VPN to get software updates which are important for the security of your laptop.

To get the latest updates you have to right-click the "Matrix 42" icon (square with smaller red squares in it, located in the tray icon bar) and select "Check for new approved Software". The Software will download in the background and can take a long time depending on the size. So if you connect from the outside please make sure to have a sufficient internet connection.

If the software was downloaded correctly and you restart your computer you will see a window showing Matrix 42. Please do not log in and let the installation finish. The installation can take up to an hour depending on the software downloaded before.

  • If the software is included in Ubuntu Linux (see http://packages.ubuntu.com/ or "apt-cache search MYSOFTWARE"), please contact the helpdesk and we will permanently install the software on your PC.
  • If the software is not included in Ubuntu Linux, but there exists a third-party Ubuntu package repository including the software, we may be able to install it. Please send a detailed request to the helpdesk, at least including the software's name and where we can find it.

  • If the software is not included in Ubuntu Linux and there is no Ubuntu package for it, we don't support a global installation to your PC. You may try to install it to your home directory yourself, so the software will survive reinstallation of your computer.

    Note: One special case is Maple. It is not included on your computer by default (because of a limited number of licenses), but we will install it if you need it. Please send a request including your computer's name (enter "hostname" in a command-line terminal) to the helpdesk.

It looks like Firefox/Thunderbird did not exit correctly last time you used it or an instance is still running in the background.

Please run remove-mozilla-locks.sh from a terminal window. This should fix the problem.

Unfortunately, sometimes Firefox loses user bookmarks when it crashes, or when it gets upgraded to a newer release in the background while still running.

Usually you can restore an earlier (working) version of the bookmarks yourself: Please open Firefox (if it is not running already). From the menu bar, choose "Bookmarks" -> "Show All Bookmarks". Choose "Import and backup", then under "Restore" you will find a list of dates when the bookmarks were backed up by Firefox. Click on a recent date (the most recent backup will usually be the best option). A dialog will appear, asking if you want to replace the bookmarks. Click "OK" there. Now please restart Firefox and your bookmarks should be available again.

Under rare circumstances, this procedure does not suffice to restore the bookmarks. In this case, the computer group can restore an older Firefox profile for you from the storage backup. Please contact the helpdesk (don't forget to include your username, and, if possible, your computer's name, in the request)!

Since the only available paper size at the department is A4 and A3, please do not send print jobs requesting another paper size (if you do not intend to bring this exact paper with you)!

Thus, choose A4 (or A3) in the printer menu and do not use the option “Choose paper source by PDF page size” in Adobe Reader, since many documents (e.g. research papers) have other dimensions.

If you print a document within a web browser, you might not achieve optimal print quality. It can happen that the printout is blurry, that a font is replaced by another one (of a different size) and that forms look different. Because of this we recommend that you download the file first and then print it with other software.

Note that by default our copiers are configured to wait for additional sheets of paper when scanning using the original glass as if the option “Separate Scan” is on!

If you put all your sheets into the automatic document feeder, everything will automatically be put into one output file. If you have more than 100 sheets, you have to enable the “Separate Scan” option, see the instructions at Scanning a number of originals ([Separate Scan]) (german).

Please enter

lpadmin -E -p PRINTER

(replace PRINTER with your printer’s name, normally “followme”). You may view the current printer status by executing

lpq -P PRINTER

(or in your application’s graphical printer dialog). If the lpadmin command does not work, please also try

lpenable PRINTER

and

lpaccept PRINTER

If your printer still refuses to work, please contact the helpdesk (including your printer’s name and location).