Psych Nexus Notes

Storage Space

1. My Documents - on the N: drive is for personal information that only you can access (others in your lab area can't access this space). These files follow you around wherever you login including classrooms across campus. Files stored here are backed up several times per day. You can also access files located here from home or anywhere in the world using myFiles in myWaterloo. See below for more details. Backups are only stored for 17 weeks - be sure to make your own additional backups on a regular basis to avoid disasters.

2. D:\users - the D: drive is the local hard disk. Files stored here are available to anyone with a Nexus account who logs into the machine. Files stored here get backed up nightly. On the D: drive you'll also notice D:\users-nobackup which does not get backed up. Backups are only stored for 2 months - be sure to make your own additional backups on a regular basis to avoid disasters.

3. \\artsfile\psych (Psych share folders) - quickest way to get here if you are working on a Nexus station in Psych is to double-click the 'Psych Shortcuts' icon on the desktop and then double-click 'Explore Psych'. Here you will see different folders for various groups in our deprtment. There's probably no surprises here - people associated with psych-lab-dbesner will be able to read/save files in that folder, others won't. Stuff stored here gets backed up several times per day. Contact Carlos or myself to change who should have access to these groups. Backups are only stored for 17 weeks - be sure to make your own additional backups on a regular basis to avoid disasters.

NB - Do not store files and folders on your desktop. See below for more details. A few other tidbits relating to your storage space...

• To see how much of your N: drive disk quota is currently used:
  1. Double-click 'Psych Shortbuts' on the desktop.
  2. Double-click 'Nexus Quota' and click the "N:" graphic that appears in the lower right corner of your screen, beside the clock.
  or
  1. Choose Start / Run and type C:/Nexus/quota, then click Ok.
  2. Click the "N:" graphic that has appeared in the lower right corner of your screen, beside the clock.

  We don't have the 'Quota' tool turned on by default in order to have one less thing running for people doing data collection.

  Faculty, staff and grad students in psych should have a quota of 500Mb for your N: drive - if you don't, contact Carlos or myself asap.

• ***NB***. Only faculty, staff, grads, RAs or others associated with a group in Psychology will be able to browse to this \\artsfile\psych. If you suspect you aren't part of an existing Psychology group, contact Carlos or myself immediately. A whole bunch of things won't work for you if you aren't associated with a group in Psychology.

• Do not save any information on the C: drive - files on the C: drive is deleted each time your machine is rebooted. No backup is done on the C: drive.

• Do not store files or folders on your desktop. This is asking for trouble. Here's the scoop. When you login, your profile, which includes any files or folders that may be stored on your desktop, is copied from a network drive to the C: drive (keep in mind things stored on the C: are not backed up and are deleted nightly). When you logout, these files get copied back to your network drive. This "roaming profile" feature allows you to login to any Nexus station on campus and get the settings you are used to.

  While you are logged into the machine, you have access to whatever amount free disk space is on the machine. Hopefully this allows you to get your work done since many applications create a large number of temporary files which require additional disk space.

  Here's the gotcha... If you go over your disk quota while files are copying after you logout, you will see a message appear that tells you your profile could not be copied - this means that not all files were copied, so you could lose files and folders which were stored on your desktop (among other things). Unfortunately, people may walk away from the station after clicking logout and may not notice this message. If you have a large amount of files/folders on your desktop, it may take several minutes to copy to the server. Yeah, files on the desktop will also slow down your login and logout times.

  If you see this message about your profile not being saved, you can still recover your files and folders if you immediately login to the same machine - don't wait until the next day otherwise stuff is gone for good. After logging in, simply move your files and folders from your desktop to one of the above locations. Of course, stop by to see Carlos or myself if you have problems.

  If you really want to have an icon on your desktop for easy access, a better idea is to keep files on D:\users, 'My Documents' or \\artsfile\psych and create a shortcut on your desktop (right-click and drag an icon to your desktop, then choose 'Create Shortcut'). Also, if you avoid storing files on your desktop, this will help speedup your logon times as the files don't need to be transferred each time you login. If you had several hundred MB's of files on your desktop, it will probably take 3-5 minutes for the login to happen.

Printing

• By default, when your Nexus account is created, you will have access to a printer called q_arts which is down in the ACO area (PAS 1099) - there's a real money charge to print to that q_arts. Feel free to delete this printer if you aren't using it.

• To add a printer, do NOT use the "Add Printer" wizard, while logged into a Nexus station in Psych, simply double-click on the 'Psych Shortcuts' icon on your desktop, then double-click 'Printer Setups' and double-click on the printer you would like to install (or click here if you are working at a Nexus station and using IE) and you should be good to go (ignore the warning about UNC paths in the DOS window - it's expected). You only need to do this once from your account in order to set up the printer, not each time you print to a particular printer. The printer name is usually on a yellow sticky on the top of the printer.

• You can specify you default printer by default by going into 'Start/Printers and Faxes', right-clicking on the printer name and selecting 'Set as Default Printer'.

• People on non-Nexus stations (including wireless) can also print to printers in Psychology (assuming they are associated with the correct group in Psychology, see below). Select 'Start/Run' and enter '\\artsfile\psych\utl\printers' (or just press Win+E to pop up Windows Explorer and enter that location), then double-click the printer you want to install. If it asks you for a password at any point, when specifying your userid, enter 'nexus\YOURUSERID' (all lowercase) along with your Nexus password. Please ensure you don't try to set up a printer using the 'Add Printer' wizard in WinXP as this may result in the printer being accessed with different drivers and leaving it in a bad state due to "driver wars".

• If you have problems printing, first ensure it's not a problem with the printer itself - turn the printer off, wait about 40 seconds and turn it on again.

  If printing still doesn't work, try removing and re-adding the printer:

  • To delete a printer, from the Start Menu, select "Start / Printers and Faxes" and then right-click on the printer you want to remove and select "Delete".
  • To add a printer, double-click on the 'Psych Shortcuts' (on your desktop), then double-click 'Printer Setups' and finally double-click on the printer you would like to install. DO NOT use the "Add Printer" wizard as you would for a home printer otherwise things will break.
  • If you want to change your default printer, go into 'Start/Printers and Faxes', right-click on the printer name and selecting 'Set as Default Printer'.

NBB. If you are working from wireless, be sure you are logged and when prompted for your username, be sure to enter 'nexus\youruserid'.

Backups and Recovering Files/Folders

• Recovering files from your Nexus account is really easy. Simply open Windows Explorer and type one of the following in the address field. Or, if you are using Internet Explorer just click the desired link below:

  N:\My Documents\~snapshot	- to recover backups from your My Documents folder
  N:\public_html\~snapshot	- to recover backups from your artsweb public_html folder
  N:\~snapshot	- to recover backups from elsewhere on your N: drive
  \\artsfile\psych\~snapshot	- to recover backups from the network share

  If you aren't using IE, just enter one of the above locations in the address field in Windows Explorer.

  The "hourly" backups are the backups made in the last 48 hours with "hourly.0" being the most recent. In the same way, the "nightly.0" and "weekly.0" backups are the most recent from each night and week. The "weekly.3" backup is from 4 weeks previous and is the oldest available.

• To recover files from D:\users, contact Carlos.

• Backups are not kept forever. - be sure to make your own additional backups on a regular basis to avoid disasters. Backups of My Documents, N: or \\artsfile\psych are only kept for about 17 weeks. Backups of D:\users are only kept for about 2 months. Be sure to make your own backups on a regular basis in case you delete something critical today, but don't realize it until 6 months from now.

No Recycle Bin

There's various issues which prevent the use of the Recycle Bin in a multi-user environment with roaming profiles. These are design decisions built into Windows by MS. Google for "roaming profile recycle bin" and you'll see what I mean.

One workaround is to create a folder called "D:\users-nobackup\to-be-deleted" (or something like that). Then, instead of moving files to the Recycle Bin, just move them to this folder. This way, stuff isn't deleted immediately, it's just moved out of the way. Every once in a while go into that folder and delete what you are sure can be removed. BTW, the reason I suggest putting it under D:\users-nobackup where it won't get backed up is that you don't really need to worry about things accumulating and becoming too large for our nightly department backup.

Nexus Accounts

• If you are an undergrad without a Nexus account, set one up here. Faculty. staff and grads will need to touch base with Carlos or myself.

Accessing Your Nexus Files From Elsewhere

• Only workstations in the Department of Psychology have the "Psych Shortcuts" icon on the desktop. If you are elsewhere on campus (including wireless), do this:
  1. Click Start --> Run and enter: \\artsfile\psych
  2. If you are working from wireless or a non-Nexus workstation, you'll be prompted for a userid and password. When specifying your userid, enter 'nexus\YOURUSERID' (all lowercase) along with your Nexus password.
  3. Alternatively, if you are reading this with Internet Explorer in Windows, just click here.

• If you are working at home, you can also access \\artsfile\psych if you first install UW VPN Service. The VPN basically makes it look like your home machine is on campus which allows you to access resources not normally available from the outside world. Once installed, the steps are basically the same as above, but you need to specify the fully qualified IP name (i.e., "artsfile.uwaterloo.ca" rather than just "artsfile":
  1. Click Start --> Run and enter: \\artsfile.uwaterloo.ca\psych
  2. When prompted for a userid and password, enter 'nexus\YOURUSERID' (all lowercase) for the userid along with your Nexus password.
  3. Alternatively, if you are reading this with Internet Explorer in Windows, just click here.

• To access your My Documents or public_html folders with myWaterloo:
  1. Go to myWaterloo (https://www.nexusmail.uwaterloo.ca/) and login.
  2. Click 'File Manager' in the left pane (you may need to expand it if minimized.
  3. In the Server field, select "Nexus N:\ Drive (SMB) - different password" (the different password option will work for everyone, but you can try without which may save you a step later). The Hostname and Share fields should pick up the correct values for your id. Enter your Nexus userid and password.
  4. From here, I'm sure you'll figure out how to transfer, rename or delete files. Avoid deleting or changing files or folders you don't recognize as there will be a number of files there containing your profile settings.

• To access the psych share folders including the psych-lab-* folders with myWaterloo:
  1. Go to myWaterloo (https://www.nexusmail.uwaterloo.ca/) and login.
  2. Click 'File Manager' in the left pane (you may need to expand
  3. In the Server field, select "UW SMB Server" (or perhaps "Nexus N:\Drive (SMB) - different password" if you use different passwords for Nexus and email). Set the Hostname to "artsfile.uwaterloo.ca" and Share to "psych" and enter your Nexus userid and password.
  4. From here, you'll figure it out.

• Of course, people with Nexus stations in their office can also have them configured to use Remote Desktop so that you can login to your office machine remotely. In addition to working on the machine, before you login select "Options/Local Resources" and enable drives which will allow you to copy files to/from your Nexus workstation (you will see additional drive letters of the machine you are sitting at). If someone is logged into a machine remotely, others can't login at the keyboard - for this reason we typically don't enable Remote Desktop on teaching lab machines and a number of faculty members do not want Remote Desktop enabled on their lab machines (no harm asking your advisor though).

Why Nexus?

• Roaming Profiles - your desktop settings, preferences follow you around to whatever machine you login to.

• Network Filespace - the N: drive provides network storage space for you which allows you to access your files on any Nexus machine on campus (yes, including lecture rooms) which you login to. You can also access these files from home or anywhere in the world using the myWaterloo Nexus portal.

• Shared Network Filespace - Faculty members and divisions have separate network shares available which allows limited access for only members of each group. This should let you avoid the use of things like Dropbox, etc.

• Security - it's much, much, much more difficult to shoot yourself in the foot and infect your machine with viruses or malware (things that can mess up your data collection timing or steal your files or passwords). Nexus uses the LUA principle for individual user accounts. Security updates happen automatically overnight. Backups also happen regularly - network file space is backed up each hour for the previous 48 hours and kept for 17 weeks.

• System Management - we're able to manage machines throughout the department remotely which has many obvious advantages. Systems are not updated while someone is logged on to the machine which avoid issues with data collection, etc. Updates only happen when the machine is rebooted which happens automatically in the wee hours. Or, if you have requested additional software for your machine and we've set things up for the machine to receive the software, you can reboot the machine yourself at your convenience in order to receive the package sooner rather than later.

General Notes

• Rather than sending email as tidbits come up, I'll often just post things in the top right corner of the beeHive. Most people in the department use this as their browser home page and I would encourage you to check it at least once a day. To make the beeHive your start page, start your browser and go to http://beehive.uwaterloo.ca/. Once you have the beeHive as your current page:
  • If you use IE, click Tools/Internet Options/Use Current
  • If you use Firefox, click Edit/Preferences/General/Use Current Page
  Quit and restart and the beeHive should be your start/home page.

• You may want to avoid using Eudora on Nexus. It will download your email to your local Nexus account which means the messages won't be available if you login from home or elsewhere with myWaterloo. Only use Eudora or other clients if you want your email folders and nicknames available under Nexus only. For faculty and staff with machines that no one else uses, touch base with Carlos or myself for a few tweaks before your start Eudora the first time.

• Nexus systems reboot every night in order to install system and software updates. Be sure to save your files and logout before you leave each evening.

• Software installs/upgrades are done automagically in the wee hours when a reboot is forced. Nothing will be updated on a machine while someone is logged in which ensures your data collection timing won't be interfrred with. If we've set up a machine to receive a new package, you can reboot a machine yourself during the day so the package gets installed sooner rather than later. If you see software being added or removed when a machine is rebooted, please let it finish without clicking the 'restart' button.

• Nexus stations should be powered on 24/7. System monitoring, cleansing, software updates and backups happen in the wee hours. If a machine is off, these things won't happen.

• We use roaming profiles which allow you to login to any Nexus station and you'll have the settings you are used to (desktop background, icons on the desktop, etc). These files need to be copied from the network drive to the local machine when you login. If you have files or folders on your desktop, these need to be copied. If you have a lot of stuff which needs to be copied, this can take a chuck of time which will slow you login. To speed things up, avoid creating files and folders on your desktop - use Shortcuts instead which are very small and won't cause a slowdown.

• If you think you may be having problems with your system, select Start --> Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Event Viewer --> Application. If you see any errors or warnings here since the last time the machine was rebooted, please contact Carlos or myself.

• People were having a bit of greif with other users not logging off before they left. If you need to force a logoff, don't power off the machine - you can force a logoff by pressing Shift-F12. But, if an individual intentially locked the workstation, SHift-F12 won't work and you should really contact the individual since they probably chose to lock it for a reason.

• Do not store files or folders on your desktop. If you ever see errors error or warning messages relating to your profile during logon or logoff, contact Carlos or myself asap. These messages would indicate that infomation isn't being saved correctly so it should be dealt with immediately before you lose stuff - don't wait until the next day or things will definitely be lost.

• if you need to read newsgroups, answer the wizard questions and enter 'news.uwaterloo.ca' for the NNTP server.

• If you have SPSS on your machine, you can get to it from "Start / All Programs / Data Analysis". The "SPSS for Windows" menu item is currently blank (we really should get rid of it).

• Here's a few additional links to other Nexus documentation on campus:
  • ACO Waterloo Nexus notes
  • Waterloo Nexus Network users Guide from Eng

If you are having problems, please let us know. We can't solve problems if we don't know about them.

• Bill Eickmeier, bee@uwaterloo.ca, PAS 4008, x36638
• Carlos Mendes, carlos@uwaterloo.ca, PAS 3006, x35669

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Last Updated: by bee@uwaterloo.ca