CSS Account Services

Additional Storage Space

Faculty and staff who need more disk space or mail storage than your quota allows can purchase extra disk storage at a cost of $1.50/gigabyte/month. If you have large storage needs and will pay for 1 year in advance, CSS offers storage at $1500/terabyte/year (or $125/terabyte/month). Contact the CSS main office, 1256 SC, 319-335-5751, with your MFK or to ask for additional information.

To determine how much home directory quota you have and are using, from a Windows computer open a view of Properties of your H: drive. This is not accurate, but may be a close approximation of space used. From a Linux workstation, type quota -s at a shell prompt. Usage is given in kilobytes; you must divide by 1000 to get the equivalent megabytes.

To determine how much mail quota you have and are using, see the mail status section at the top of the Account Tools page or run Webmail, which shows your mail quota and usage from the Inbox view.

Backups

As of July 2008 files on your home directory have previous versions available. Every 4 hours a copy is made of files that have been modified. You can view, copy, or restore these previous versions by selecting the file (or directory), right click and select Properties, then click the Previous Versions tab to select the version to restore.

For disaster recovery, CSS backs up critical services daily, including files stored in user's home directories. If you have accidentally deleted or overwritten a file, use the Previous Version capability described in the paragraph above. If the file is on a file share, it may be recoverable from the CSS backup tapes. Go to the consulting office, 1253 SC, to complete the form to request this service.

You can make backups of your files by writing them to CD, DVD, flash drive/thumb drive/USB key. If you are leaving the College of Engineering by graduating or changing employment and you want the files stored on your account, make a CD or DVD of those files. There is a CD and DVD burner in the consulting office, 1253 SC. Many of the computers in the Elder (1231 SC), Hering (1220 SC), and 2301 labs have CD or DVD burners.

Firewall Service for Self-administered Computers

CSS uses a firewall service for self-administered computers on the 30 and 31 subnets. This service makes your computer invisible to the outside world, and so more secure, yet allows you access to the Internet. With the firewall in place, access coming in to your computer is blocked. Contact Doug Eltoft, 1256 SC, 319-335-5752, for more information.

updated: 21 October 2009