Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

1. How do I get my username and password?
2. How do I change my password?
3. What is my E-mail password and address?
4. Where do I properly save my work?
5. How do I print from my account?
6. How does Student Printing work and what is the cost?
7. How do I shut down the computer?
8. Where is wireless access and is there a password?
9. How do I install a Printer?
10. How do I set an away/vacation message?
11. Can I access my Email from home?
12. Can I access my files from home?
13. Can I access my files over wireless?
14. How Do I book equipment?
15. Can I print more than 1 Powerpoint slide on a page?
16. How can I recover a file that I deleted by mistake?
17. Outlook isn’t working!
18. Junk E-mail has messages I want to keep.
19. How can I open Office 2010 files? (*.docx, *.pptx, *.xlsx)
20. How can I open MSWorks or Wordperfect files? (*.wps, *.wpd)?
21. How do I post notes to the students S: drive?
22. What size of attachments can I send?
23. After I sign into Groupwise online, it isn’t displaying my messages.

1. How do I get my username and password?

• Employee’s will be assigned a username and temporary password. Contact your Dept. if you haven’t received it.)
• Students can click here to claim their account.

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2. How do I change my password?

Passwords must include all of these requirements:

• a minimum of 8 characters long.
• be a password you haven’t used here before. (Unique)
• at least 1 uppercase letter
• at least 1 lowercase letter
• at least 1 numeric character
• it cannot contain any part of your full name.

Info on alpha/numeric:
Acceptable letters (alpha characters) are: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz
Acceptable numeric characters are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0

• Open your internet browser to the http://password.brandonu.cawebsite. (note that you may get a page saying certificate error as below.)
  • Choose “Continue to this Website” (Or I understand & add an exception for the a security certificate if required)
    
• Enter your username and password. (The tree should say brandonu).
• Click Login
• (If your password has expired, it will inform you immediately and allow you to change it)
• Click on the left side of the screen Password Self Service.
• The option to change password should now be displayed.
• Click in the Password field. Type in your old password, then press the [Tab] button on the left hand side of your keyboard.
• This will put you into the New Password field. Type in your new password which meets ALL of the requirements listed above.
• When you are done, press [Tab].
• Retype your new password in the Confirm New Password field. When you are done, clic on the OK icon. You should see a page confirming that your password has been changed. (you will get an error if your password doesn’t meet all the of the requirements)
• Remember to click on logout with the exit icon before closing the browser.
• The next time you login, use your new password. If you are prompted by Windows Workstation for a password, enter your old password (or no password) and click the checkbox to make passwords match.

OR an alternative method is:

• Logon to your Novell computer account
• press Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys
• click on the “change password” button
• click on your account name if it is displayed
• The option to change password should now be displayed.
• Click in the Old Password field. Type in your old password, then press the [Tab] button on the left hand side of your keyboard.
• This will put you into the New Password field. Type in your new password, which should be follow the same password requirements as shown in the steps above. When you are done, press [Tab].
• Retype your new password in the Confirm New Password field. When you are done click on OK.

Your password should now be changed. Your email program may ask you to confirm your new password the next time you open it.

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3. What is my E-mail password and e-mail address?

Your e-mail password is the same as the password that is used to login to your computer account. Your e-mail address is your username@brandonu.ca. (For example if your login name is helpdesk, then your e-mail address is helpdesk@brandonu.ca).

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4. Where do I properly save my work?!

The University’s computer system is set up as a network, which means that a server supplies each computer with the files it needs to work. At Brandon university, it also means that the hard drive located in the computer, (the “C: drive”) is not backed up. In other words, any files you save to the “C drive” could be lost if your computer encounters hardware problems. (Students are restricted from being able to save to the C:)
To save your work you can save on external media such as a USB stick or CD, but it is recommended to save to the “N drive” or T: drive. Each staff member and student is given space on the server to save their personal work. The advantage of this system is that the saved work moves with you as you move to different computers, and is backed up regularly. If you saved to the “C drive”, your work would stay on that one computer only. To choose where to save do File and Save As… command, and choose a different location. So if you want to change the location of your saved work, keep it somewhere on the N drive!

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5. How do I print from my account?

• The first step is to press File on the menu bar at the top of the program you want to print from.
• Then click on Print.
• This brings up a window allowing you to choose from which printer you want to print. (students must use the student queue)
• Usually you can just click on the OK button.
• If you want to specify settings:
• You can choose a different printer from the list, and there are also several other options that allow you to specify which pages you want to print, and how many copies you would like.

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6. How does Student Printing work, and what is the cost?

• To use the printers, students simply print from the student computers, then go to any of the student print stations and select their username from the list. Enter their password, and select the item to print and click the print button.
• Student print costs $0.08 / page.
• To add more money to print quota, come to the John E. Robbins Library and use either of the two printer pay stations. Any unused balance will carry over into the next session(s).

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7. How do I shut down the computer?

There are several ways to shut-down your computer. The simplest way is to click on the Windows Start button on the bottom left of your screen and select shutdown. you may also use the following steps:

• Press and hold [ctrl]+[alt]+[del]. This will bring up a window with several buttons.
• Click the button marked “Shutdown”, this will bring up a window to confirm that you do in fact want to log out.
• Click the “Yes” button.
• The computer will now shut itself off.

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8. Where is wireless access and is there a password?

Yes, view more detailed information here.

There are two wireless networks available on campus. BU-Staff, and BU-Public. BU-Staff requires a password key to access, as well as you will need to use your Novell password to sign in. BU-Public just needs a Novell or guest account.
Currently wireless is available throughout most of campus with the exception of a few areas. If you find areas with no access, you can report them to us at the helpdesk.

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9. How do I install a printer?

Students cannot install additional printers, and must just print to the student print queue using the student computers provided.

For employees, the steps will vary depending if the printer is directly connected to your machine, or if you need to connect to the printer through the campus network. Most of the departments have at least 1 printer on the campus network. If you are uncertain, ask a colleague or contact the helpdesk.

If the printer is directly connected to your machine:

• It should detect the printer when Windows is starting. It may ask you for a software disk such as a CD in order to complete the installation. Follow the steps on the screen. If you no longer have the disk, you may possibly download the proper printer software & driver from the manufacturer website. www.hp.com is the website for hewlett-packard. Make sure you enter the proper model of printer and the correct version of Windows that you are using.

If you are installing through the network:

• Make certain you have logged into Novell with your username and password. A quick method to verify you are connected is to open the “My Computer” icon and see if you have access to your personal N: drive.
• You must also have been given permission to connect to the printer or the process will not work. By default you should have permission to access the main printer in your department.
• Open your browser and browse to http://arnold.brandonu.ca/ipp
• Select the printer you wish to install. You must make sure you have the iPrint client installed first (located at the top of the page.)
• The remainder of the process should take place automatically. You may be asked to confirm whether you want to continue, click on Yes if that message appears. If you have any problems with the process or questions that have not been answered, contact the Helpdesk by email or phone.

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10. How do I set an away/vacation message?

Using Groupwise:

• Click Tools, then Vacation Rule
• Click “Activate my vacation rule” and “reply to External Users”
• Type in a Subject and message which people will receive when you are away.
• You may also set a start and end date so that this rule turns on and/or off by itself
• You should verify that the rule is working.

Using Webmail:

• Open your internet browser to the http://www.brandonu.ca website.
• On the university website, click on webmail.
• Enter your username and password.
• Click on the word Options, which is located in the upper right area of the screen.
• Click on “Mailbox Management”
• Under the Auto-reply/Vacation message type your message. Choose “Enabled”
• Click Apply

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11. Can I access my E-mail from home?

Yes.

Groupwise users can access all their email & calendar through http://groupwise.brandonu.ca
Webmail/Outlook users can access any new e-mail through webmail at http://webmail.brandonu.ca

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12. Can I access my files from home?

Yes.
Anyone can use the the simplest process as detailed in our Netstorage Guide,
There is also our VPN guide (for Employees only).

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13. Can I access my personal (N:) files over wireless?

Yes.
You can simply use the Netstorage guide to access your files through the internet using wireless as well.

It is also possible for us to setup your Novell Client to access your files directly over wireless but there isn’t any encryption used in the wireless signal over BU-Public. So you should definitely make sure you are only connecting to the BU-Staff network when using Novell (particularly if you were accessing sensitive information.) The recommended method is still using the network cable plugged into the laptop if you are accessing your files.

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14. How Do I book equipment?

To book any equipment you should first check with your department office to see what is available there.
Booking equipment from the Helpdesk requires 48 hours notice. contact us at helpdesk@brandonu.ca or call 571-8(500)

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15. Can I print more than 1 Powerpoint Slide on a page?

• Click on the File Menu
• Click Print
• Click on the drop-down box (under settings) that says “Print Full Page slides”
• Select the Handouts option and number of slides per page
• Click the print button at the top.

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16. How can I recover a file I’ve deleted by mistake?

Here are the steps to recover a file on the N:
For this example we will pretend the file is named yourfile.doc and is on N:\my documents
(the process is similar if on T: etc.)

• open up “my computer”
• Open up N:
• Right-click on the my documents folder
• Choose salvage files
• Once the list of files is fully loaded, click on “date deleted” to sort by date.
• Click on the file listed as yourfile.doc (verify the date/time deleted)
• Click the “salvage file” button

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17. Outlook isn’t working!

If outlook works but isn’t sending messages from your outbox then try to close Outlook entirely and then reopen it.
Another common error is when you try to open Outlook and get a message that says something similar to “Cannot Display the Folder N:\outlook.pst”
This means you likely ran out of space on your N: where Outlook is stored.
Close Outlook.
Open “My Computer” and then your N: and delete some of the files you no longer require. Once that is completed, open Outlook.

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18. Junk E-mail has messages I want to keep.

When you receive messages into your Junk E-mail folder and want to keep them, you can simply click on them and drag into your inbox. Also you can R-Click on them and choose “add to safe senders list” (or “trust sender”). This will prevent any mail from that address from going into junk e-mail in the future.
If you are having this problem you should read our Guide on “Whitelists.”

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19. How can I open Office 2010 files?

The best way to to just get Office 2010 installed! However, here is the alternative:

• If you have only have office 2003 then these are the steps you need to follow. These are specifically to open a Word 2007 docx file from a USB disk D: (the procedure is the same for Powerpoint 2007 pptx files but you would open the Powerpoint program at the beginning instead.)
• Open Microsoft Word. (Double-click on the Microsoft Word icon on your desktop.)
• click on File near the top left of the screen.
• then click on Open
• choose Removable drive (D:)
• in the drop box to the right of “File of type”: choose All files (*.*)
• then click on the name of your file and click the Open button.
• If you received the file in an e-mail, then you will need to save the file and then choose the appropriate folder instead of (D:)

If you are still having problems, it is possible that your computer doesn’t have the appropriate File converter tool installed.

• Download the converter tool here

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20. How can I open MSWorks or Wordperfect files? (*.wps, *.wpd)

These are the steps you need to follow if you used Microsoft Works or Wordperfect to save a file onto a USB disk D:

• Open Microsoft Word. (Double-click on the Microsoft Word icon on your desktop.)
• click on File near the top left of the screen.
• then click on Open
• choose Removable drive (D:)
• in the drop box to the right of “File of type”: choose All files (*.*)
• then click on the name of your file and click the Open button.
• If you received the file in an e-mail, then you will need to choose the appropriate folder instead of (D:)

If you are still having problems, it is possible that your computer doesn’t have the appropriate File converter tool installed.

• MSworks converter download

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21. How do I post Notes to the Student (S:) drive?

Before you can post files to the S: drive, you need to obtain the proper rights/permissions.

e-mail us at helpdesk@brandonu.ca with your request, and we will pass it along through the proper channels..

Students can then access the S: from any student computer by going to “Computer” and then opening the S network drive.

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22. What size of attachments can I send?

The safe answer is 10 MB.

You are able to send attachments within campus upto 15 MB. However if you try to send an attachment over 10 MB to someone off campus where their limit is 10MB then your message will be undeliverable. eg MTS limit is 10 MB. To distribute files within campus larger than 15 MB read our guide on “Personal Webspace“.

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23. Groupwise online won’t display my messages after I sign in.

If you are using Internet Explorer to view Groupwise online, then you need to click the “Compatibility View” option.

(It appears as a torn sheet icon to the right of the website address)

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