Web & Software
Resources

            As technology becomes a greater part of our life, it is necessary for college students to become familiar with the web and software resources that are available to them.  Universities and colleges are getting away from paperwork and relying more on databases.  As a result, many of the University functions that used to require students to fill out and submit forms are now performed on the internet.  Therefore, all faculty, staff, and students are assigned a Penn State Access Account which allows them to utilize the full range of internet services that are availiable, no matter if they are on or off campus.  Information Technology Services (ITS) is the office that is in charge of maintaining  Penn State's internet services.  

         There are several internet services that you should familiarize yourself with from the start.  The first is the www.work.psu.edu page.  This is the website that allows you to change the password to your access account which should be done atleast once every six months.  It also allows you to edit your online directory information as well as forward your email to a different email address.  Part of your access account is a Penn State email account.  Your Penn State email address is simply your access account userid written as userid@psu.edu.  You can access your email by going to WebMail.  Your access account also provides you with personal webspace for the construction of webpages of your own.  This webspace has to be activated so you must go to www.personal.psu.edu to apply.

          Penn State Portal is another useful tool that is provided along with your access account.  It is similar to the My Netscage or My Yahoo pages that you maybe familiar with.  It provides you a location to centralize and customize your view of the Univeristy and its internet resources. It also allows you to have access to your Penn State Access Account Storage Space or PASS.  This is your personal storage space on the Penn State servers where all of your personal material is stored such as your webpage and email.  This PASS account is avery useful tool that all students should take advantage of.  It not only stores your webpage and email, but provides you space for the storage of other files.  For example, if you are sitting in the computer lab or at a friends computer working on a project and you forgot to bring a disk or CD to copy it to, you can simply upload the material you are working on to your PASS account and download it later when you get home.  It also provides the perfect location for backups.  It is possible for disks and CDs in backpacks to become damaged with all of the books you carry or the banging around of the backpacks.  This happens more frequently then you may expect.  So keeping a backup in your PASS account can save you days worth of work.  Another way that your PASS account is useful is when you are giving a presentation in class.  Do not assume that computers in the classrooms are compatiable with the disk or CD that contains your presentation.  Many students have come to class to realize that the computer does not have the correct disk or CD drive or that it will not recognize their disk or CD.  This is definitely a distraction that will affect your grade.  Having a backup in your PASS account can save your presentation and your grade.

            During the summer when you were on campus for FTCAP, you were assigned your access account and password.  Your first use of your access account was to log into eLion.  This is the site that you logged into to register for your first semester's classes.  eLion is used by the Registrar's Office for most of the general functions of their office.  We hope that you have taken the oppurtunity to explore all of the functions of eLion as well as the information supplied to you on the Registrar's Office and Penn State Altoona webpages.

            There is also alot of software sources made available to students by ITS.  There are four software downloads in particular that will be pointed out here and are available at downloads@ Penn State.  The first is the email client Eudora.  Eudora is fully supported by Penn State and allows you to download and store all of your penn state email.  The webbased email client, WebMail, is a very good tool but has limitations.  It only allows for limited time storage.  Old emails will be automatically deleted on a set time table so you would not be able to permenately store email messages.  Also, with the potential of over 70,000 students, faculty, and staff utilizing WebMail, the system may tend to slow down and you may have difficulty logging in.  Eudora avoids these issues allowing you to store email message for as long as you want and also download and send email directly without utilizing with WebMail.

            The other three sofrware that will be pointed out are Virus Detection and Spyware Tools.  With the large number of distructive viruses and worms that are appearing, a good antivirus program is a must.  Penn State supplies Symantec AntiVirus for download by students for free.  It is strongely encouraged that you download this and install it on your computers.  It is also a good idea to set it up to do automatic live updates of its virus definition files and scan your computer on a regular basis.    

            Spyware is becoming as much of a problem as viruses.  Spyware are programs that are installed on your computer without your knowledge.  The purpose of these programs is to gather information about computer use and send it back to the company or person that created it.  These programs have become so abundant that they can consume the resourses of a computer, slowing it down even to the point of becoming unusable.  To elliminate spyware, it is recommended that you install a spyware tool such as Ad-Aware and/or Spybot - Search and Destroy (S&D).  Both programs are available at downloads@ Penn State.

            It is always a good idea to scan your computer on a regular basis for viruses and spyware.  If your computer becomes infected and has been identified as the source of infection to the Penn State network, your access to the network could be denied till the situation is corrected.

            ITS also runs a Computer Store which allows students to purchase computers and software at discounted prices.  Software in particular is far cheaper at the Computer Store then at full Retail prices.  When it comes time to update your computer and/or software, do the comparison shopping and find the best prices.