Student Resources

Find information below on Andrew Accounts, Blackboard, Library Services, Virtual Private Networking, Connecting to the Campus Network, Printing at the INI and INI Computing Support.

Additional pages are provided about Campus Computing, Health Services, and International Students. Other areas of this site provide Pittsburgh Housing and Transportation information.

Your Andrew Account

All members of the Carnegie Mellon community receive an Andrew account. Your Andrew account includes a user ID and a password that you use to access Carnegie Mellon computing resources. Upon first receiving an Andrew account you need to change your password. The Web page at www.cmu.edu/myandrew is the first stop for changing your password and settings and accessing the services your Andrew account offers.

INI students most commonly use their Andrew accounts to sign on to the Blackboard course management system, access and personalize the university portal, forward email and access Carnegie Mellon resources (computer clusters, network, etc).

For a list of services your Andrew account provides, visit Computer Services.

Blackboard Course Management System

Blackboard is a central Web location for faculty and student course materials. Professors set up an area on Blackboard for each course they teach, and students may log on to the areas in order to view information.

Users access the Blackboard system via their Web browser at http://cmu.edu/blackboard/, using their Andrew account user ID and password to log in. Once logged in, a student can see a list of courses in which he or she is enrolled, and can click the course title to access its materials. Note: the professor must set up a course on Blackboard before it will appear in the student's list of courses.

Blackboard can hold a number of valuable course resources in a password-protected area. Students may view the course syllabus, download readings, upload homework and papers, send group emails to the class, or participate in forums.

In particular, the INI's distance learning courses use Blackboard for sharing and disseminating course materials and information. Classes held in a Distributed Education Center are recorded and the videos are often archived in Blackboard.

Library Services

The Carnegie Mellon libraries offer a catalog and a number of databases online. Additionally, the Carnegie Mellon libraries offer an interlibrary loan service called ILLiad that allows students to request items, track requests, and renew loans from other campus libraries.

To use ILLiad, students must create an ILLiad account. You can do this online at the Carnegie Mellon library website.

For INI students, Carnegie Mellon libraries provide links and references that are helpful for information networking. For further assistance, contact Missy Harvey, Computer Science Librarian.

Virtual Private Networking (VPN)

Some campus services and, most relevant to INI students, some library-related services, limit access to requests originating from within the CMU campus Internet address space only. In other words, attempting to access these services directly from an off-campus ISP will not work. Campus affiliates (students, staff, faculty) with an Andrew ID may use VPN to work around these restrictions. VPN will tunnel an off-campus user's traffic through a campus VPN server, making all their requests appear as if they had originated from the CMU address space.

For instructions on how to access, install and configure this service, please visit VPN webpages provided by Computing Services.

Connecting to the Campus Network

You may access the Internet using either the campus wireless network (available campus-wide, via SSID "CMU"), or from one of the already activated wired network outlets available throughout the INI building.

Important Note: Please never unplug an already connected device (lab machine, printer, etc.) from the wired network. If no wired network outlets are available, please use the wireless network!!!

Either option requires that new machines be registered the first time they attempt to access the network, before access is granted. This happens only once, the first time a new, unregistered machine is used on the CMU network, and is handled by a system named FirstConnect (more info). The system will guide users through every required step.

The campus network uses several protective measures to reduce the IT security threat level, which include suspending access to misbehaving machines. For measures you can take to protect yourself and your machine (as well as to avoid having your networ access suspended), please also read the following information from Computing Services: http://www.cmu.edu/computing/network/wire/access.html

Printing at the INI

The INI building has several printers available to students.

INI uses the campus-wide "Andrew Central B&W" print queue, which allows users to physically release printouts at multiple campus locations. At the INI, there is one release station on each floor of our 4616 Henry Street building.

For instructions on configuring your personal computer to use this system, please visit the Andrew Printing web pages provided by Computing Services. There is additional information for those using Linux.

Computing Support

Please direct any questions related to your Andrew account, VPN, the wireless network, and downloading/configuring any software downloaded from CMU Computing Services (including Andrew printer drivers) to advisor@andrew.cmu.edu, or call the Help Desk at 412-268-4357.

Computer repair services are offered through the University Store in the lower level of the UC.

For other issues please email ini-help@andrew.cmu.edu or see Gabriel Somlo, Director of INI Computing Services, in room 126 at the INI.