What is my department account used for?

Your department account provides you with a math.umass.edu e-mail address, personal webpage, and a computer account with file storage space and login access to public computer systems

What public computers are available for my use?

Several public lab systems are available in LGRT 1535 & LGRT 1537 (LGRT = Lederle Graduate Research Tower). These systems run Linux (Xubuntu 18.04), 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

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 support.

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

  • Your e-mail address will be your department username (found in your welcome letter) followed by @math.umass.edu

  • There are several ways to read and send mail, but the RCF recommends you use a supported mail program that integrates well with our existing mail server, such as Mac Mail or Thunderbird. You can also access e-mail from an Internet browser at https://mail.math.umass.edu.

  • For detailed information on department e-mail, see here.

How do I forward my e-mail to another address?

Although it is not recommended, you have the option of forwarding your department mail to another e-mail account. Log on to either a public lab system or the public gateway (ssh.math.umass.edu) and create a .forward file (note the dot . is critical!) in your home directory using the text editor of your choice. Enter the email address you would like to forward your mail to, and save the file.

For example, a user “smith” who wants to forward their mail from smith@math.umass.edu to smith@gmail.com, would create the file /home/smith/.forward containing the following 2 lines:

\smith
smith@gmail.com

The first line, preceded by a \ character, tells the mail server to leave an original copy in your mail inbox, in addition to forwarding a copy to the address you specify in the second line. If you do not include this first line, but instead only include the forwarding address, mail is moved off the department mail server completely and forwarded along to gmail. This configuration limits the type of support RCF will be apply to supply, as we will not be able to recover any lost emails from backup. Therefore we recommend following the example above if you do choose to forward your email to another account.

Important

Do NOT include “@math.umass.edu” - this will create an infinite mail loop!

How do I send large attachments via e-mail?

The optimal way to send large files and attachments to collegues is by using your public_html directory.

  1. Log on to your department account over ssh or via a lab computer. You should see a folder called public_html in your home directory.

  2. Copy the file you wish to send into this folder.

  3. You will then need to change permissions on the file so that it can be accessed by others. Open a terminal and type the following command, where LARGEFILE.gz is the name of the file you wish to send:

    chmod 755 ~/public_html/LARGEFILE.gz

  4. You can then send the link to the file over email (where “myusername” should be replaced with your personal department username):

    Dear Colleague,

    Here is the data from the last experiment: https://people.math.umass.edu/~myusername/LARGEFILE.gz

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!