Computing FAQs

General printing information can be found on ACCCs website.

If you select something to print at the print station, are charged, and your print job is messed up, you can let us know and we will submit a refund request.

It helps if we have the cover sheet (if one was produced). If you don’t have the cover sheet, we need your netid, the number of sheets of paper that would have printed (if you are printing a 4 page document, the default is double-sided, so that would be 2 sheets of paper), the time and date, and what you were printing, with the file name if at all possible. Usually people need refunds because of toner streaking, a paper jam where the job doesn’t come out, those sorts of things.

Refunds can not be issued if it’s just that you did something dopey (forgot to change to single-sided, printed powerpoint in slide

Look carefully, you probably got an ALMOST blank sheet, with a web address in tiny print at the bottom.
When printing from within frames, like the web site for Histo or ECM, or from within Blackboard, sometimes you may only receive a blank page with the link address on the bottom page. This is because the browser (Firefox, Netscape or Internet Explorer) prints what was last clicked, which is NOT the text. This is most likely to happen with PDF files, which open Acrobat inside the frame – if you click on the print button on the browser, not on the print button for Acrobat, it guarantees this. Unpredictably, sometimes clicking on the print button for Acrobat inside the frame doesn’t work either.
The best way to fix this is for you to open the pages in a separate window. Download them to the desktop by right-clicking the mouse (or holding the mouse button down on Macs), it will give you choices, one of which is “save target to/download to disk” or something like that. Save them where you will be able to find them, like the desktop, then double-click on the downloaded file to open it in Acrobat only.  If you double click and it says something about PCTex, let me know. The workaround for this is to Right-click the file, and choose Open With and then pick Acrobat.

This only works if you get the files IN Powerpoint. If it’s a PDF file, these instructions will not work. Also, from within Blackboard, you must download the file, then open it in Powerpoint, THEN do this:

  • Windows – once you choose Print, look on the dialog box that comes up. On the bottom left is an option “print what” – choose Handouts, then the options just to the right become clickable – you can select 2,3,4 or 6 per sheet, etc.
  • Mac – once you choose Print, look on the dialog box that comes up. There is a pull-down menu (mine starts on Copies & Pages) – click there and select Microsoft Powerpoint. One option is “print what” – choose Handouts, and 2,3,4 or 6 per sheet, etc.

For PDF files in Windows, after you say PRINT click on Properties then choose number of pages per sheet. On the Mac, once you choose Print, look on the dialog box that comes up. There is a pull-down menu (mine starts on Copies & Pages) – click there and select Layout, then Pages Per Sheet.

BGRC (Benjamin Goldberg Research Center located at the corner of Damen and Taylor) has a computing lab on the 1st floor. You will want to make sure to apply for after hours access via iCard(for entry after 5pm and on weekends). Fill out a building access form/card in the Client Services Office, located in BGRC room LL55. Allow 1-2 weeks for processing.  Hours, location, etc. for Goldberg and other labs on campus.

Use the form at http://passwords.accc.uic.edu/ to change your password and to set a challege/response or emergency recovery email so that if you forget your password you will be prompted with a question that if answered correctly authorizes you to change the password.

If you forget your password, and haven’t previously recorded a challenge/response or set up an alternate emergency email,(see above), you must go to the consultants (CSO) in person to have your password reset. The closest CSO is in Goldberg (BGRC). Read this for more on forgotten passwords.

ACCC has set up a nice set of Mail Tools that you can use to fix common errors and do some basic account set-up and management.

POP Error: Sometimes when accessing mail a process doesn’t finish or ends improperly. This will generate an error when you try to obtain mail again, usually something like  Error: Mail Lock Busy – or your mailbox may just suddenly be empty. Mailtools will see if this problem exists and repair it.

Away from Campus: You can also use the tools to set up a “vacation reply” so that when someone sends you a note while you’re gone, your mail will be saved and an automatic reply of your choice will be sent back to the sender. The program is also smart enough to send only one message per week to the sender, and it won’t send any mail to LISTSERV or email daemons, etc.

Off-Campus Access to Online Resources

The University Library and the Computer Center have a netid-protected proxy server.  EZProxy, that allows UIC students, faculty, and staff to use electronic resources licensed by the Library when off-campus as long as they start from the Library’s pages.

Complete List of Electronic Resources at UIC Library

Simply click on the link on the University Library’s Web page for a desired electronic resource restricted to UIC students, faculty, and staff. If you are not located on-campus, you will be asked for your netid and password. If successfully entered, you will be passed through to the resource. Once validated, you will stay authorized for about an hour. If you change databases your validation will continue. After your validation has expired, you will be prompted to revalidate.

 

You may need to set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) which identifies you as a valid UIC user to access some resources  – see http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/software/vpn for more information.

Take a look at ACCC’s page about email.

Fill out the form on ACCC’s Email Forwarding Web Page..
Changes will take effect overnight. That will determine where mail sent to netid@uic.edu will go.

 

But what if mail actually gets sent directly to my Icarus (or Tigger) account? How do I forward that mail?

To forward mail that was sent directly to a UNIX (e.g. tigger,icarus) account (e.g., netid@icarus.cc.uic.edu) you need to have a file in your home directory called .forward (yes, it does start with a period). In the file is the address to which you want mail forwarded. This can be accomplished with one simple command. For example, Joe Smith decides he wants his icarus mail forwarded to his AOL account; he uses Telnet to log on directly to Icarus, then he would need to enter:

echo  joe-smith@aol.com >  .forward

You can only subscribe from your UIC mail account (Mailserv, Tigger, Icarus).

Send an e-mail to listserv@uic.edu. Put in the message body
SUBSCRIBE MedclassXXXX
where XXXX=desired class year, for example Medclass2001
NOTE there are no spaces after Medclass!!

Send this message from your regular UIC mail account using Webmail. This will not work through gmail even if you can use your UIC account that way.

You will get a confirmation request: follow the directions (basically, you click the link provided).

After your subscription is confirmed, you can set it so you won’t get messages from that listserv but still can send to it. This is useful for class listservs other than your own. Send another message to listserv@uic.edu. Put in the message body
SET medclassXXXX nomail
(again, XXXX=desired class year)

ACCC has their own Client Services Office Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ) page at http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/cso/csofaq.html. Check it out!

Major parts of this page copied wholesale from the ACCC Resource referenced.

Updated 7/11/16 (Vgalindo)