Use of computing facilities

Please refer to the Computing policies and guidelines before using University computing facilities.

Authentication

Authentication is in place in all of these rooms. See authentication in areas with shared access PCs. The authentication in most rooms require a UOB username and password. Further information on registering for access to computer facilities is available.

Some rooms require registration with the department concerned. If you are not registered, you will not have access to any software.

Access to computing facilities for Lifelong Learning students differs according to course credits.

Computer timeouts

Many public computers are set to automatically log users off after a period of inactivity, (where the keyboard or mouse have not been used for that period). There are a couple of main benefits to this:

• Ensuring that accounts are logged out if people forget to do so when leaving a computer. If you forget to logout then your account is open to others to use, someone else could access your email or use your print credits. Automatically logging people out after a period of inactivity ensures that accounts are less likely to be misused by others.
• Freeing up computers for others to use, where a computer has been inactive for a period of time. This ensures that more computers are available for people to actively use them, rather than seeing rows of computers with documents on screen but no-one sat at them and queues of people waiting.

There is currently no university-wide policy on the length of time that public computers can be left inactive before they automatically logout but many are set to 15 minutes, including those in the Computer Centre and ASSL. This gives users time to nip to the toilet but not to wander off for a lecture, leaving a computer logged in and preventing others from using it.