What is my department account used for?

Your department computer account provides you with file storage space, a personal webpage, login access to the RCF computer lab and computing cluster, and printing access to printers located on the upper floors of LGRT.

What public computers are available for my use?

Several public lab systems are available in the Graduate Lounge - LGRT 1581 & Computer Lab - LGRT 1585 (LGRT = Lederle Graduate Research Tower). These systems run Linux (Xubuntu 20.04), and can be used to run mathematics software and print to department printers.

For a full listing of computers available to department members, as well as a list of available software packages, please check here.

Can I access my files remotely?

To log on to the math department systems remotely (from outside of our network or off-campus) you must use one of the remote gateway systems: ssh.math.umass.edu or ssh1.math.umass.edu (both run CentOS Linux). You can access these systems by using the ssh client installed on all UNIX-based Linux and Mac systems. There are also clients available for Windows systems (i.e. putty, SSH Secure Shell, etc), which will allow a remote login to our systems.

For specific information about remote access, see here

Alternatively, you can connect to math department systems from our VPN. For more information about requesting a VPN key, please see here.

Can I access UMass online resources remotely?

If you require a secure connection to UMass online resources (such as access to academic journals, gradebooks, etc) while off-campus or on an insecure network, you can set up your computer to act as a SOCKS proxy in order to access the internet as if you were coming from our department’s ssh server. Instructions for how to configure this setup on Mac or Windows can be found here.

We also have a department VPN. Keys are issued per-user and can be requested by e-mailing rcfsupport.

What is my e-mail address? How do I access my e-mail?

As of 6/29/2022, department mail has moved over to UMIT mail. Accounts created after this date do not have department e-mail addresses.

Your e-mail address will be your department username (found in your welcome letter) followed by @math.umass.edu
For more information on department e-mail, see here.

Where can I print/scan/make copies?

See our printing resources page.

How do I edit my directory page and/or department webpage?

See Editing Directory Pages for documentation on customizing your directory page and for adding office hours, course descriptions, etc.
In addition to your directory page, every member of the department has a department webpage, located at http://people.math.umass.edu/~username where username is your department username. You can build this webpage by adding html files to your public_html folder, located in your home directory. The department provides a website template that you may choose to use. Instructions for downloading and using this template are available here.
To make your webpage visible to others on the web, you will have to make sure read permissions are set on the files in your public_html directory. To do this, enter the following command into terminal, either from a lab computer or on ssh:
```
chmod -R 755 ~/public_html
```
There are many resources available for working with html. In particular, you can use a WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor to design your page and export it as an html file. One such freely available editor is https://html-online.com .
Remember that all changes you make to either page are live! In other words, any edits you make will be visible online immediately, so edit with care!

How to spot phishing and spam emails?

Phishing attempts are becoming increasingly common. Please be wary of any suspicious emails that are short and request immediate help. You should also be sure to check that the From address matches what you would expect - department email should come only from the @math.umass.edu domain, as anyone can create a free gmail/yahoo/etc account and change their visible name to match that of a department member.

If you suspect the email is a phishing / scam mail check the following first before responding or open any links and attachments within the email:

Know the sender’s actual email address, not just their aliases (which can be changed).
Look for signs within the source file of the email. A row where we see “To: [blank]” or “To: undisclosed-recipients” is suspicious.
Know the full website address in the email BEFORE attempting to click it. If the full address is suspicious, DO NOT click on the link.
After Steps 1 to 3, if the email is still suspicious, DO NOT download any attachments within the email.

How to spot suspicious links?

Top Level Domains (TLD):

.com, .org, .edu, etc

Any websites coming from UMass would end in .edu, (e.g. www.math.umass.edu).

Second-Level Domains (SLD):

these comes before the Top Level Domains

For UMass websites, SLD is umass.

So “mysite.umass.edu” lives on a umass.edu domain, and is likely legit. While something like “umass.mysite.com” DOES NOT necessarily have ANYTHING to do with umass - it just means someone on mysite.com threw up a webserver called umass.

additional resource: UMass IT support

To check the website address of the hyperlink above (UMass IT support), right click and copy the link address and paste it in a text file (with Microsoft Word, Google Doc, and other text-based applications). If you have clicked on the link directly without seeing its full address, you failed the test. But do not be discouraged. If you have checked the website address before clicking on the link, congratuations, you are one step closer master how to spot phishing and spam emails.

Read on the learn more about how to perform Steps 1 to 3 for different email clients / applications.

Google Mail Client (including @umass.edu)

To the right of “to me” (or “to bbc: me”, etc), click "▽" for the email address of the sender.

To the right of “[date time] ☆ [reply arrow]”, click "⋮" > “Show original” for the source of the email.

Within the source file of the email, in the main content of the file, any website shown is in their full form. So if the link looks suspicious, DO NOT click on it in the email. As a note, you can check the contents of a link by hovering - NOT click - your mouse over the link and the address will be displayed on the bottom of the frame.

Mac default Mail Client

Click on the down arrow at the aliases of the sender (you need to hover over the name of the sender first) for the email address of the sender.

Go to “View” > “Message” > “All Headers” / “Raw Source” for a complete list of information regarding the email.

Hover - NOT click - your mouse over the link in question to view the full website address. If it looks suspicious, DO NOT click on it.

Outlook Application

You will be able to see the full email address of the sender directly next to the the name of the sender within the email.

To the right of ” ↩ [reply all arrow] →”, click "⋯" > "View" > "View message source" for a complete list of information regarding the email.

Hover - NOT click - your mouse over the link in question to view the full website address. If it looks suspicious, DO NOT click on it.