WebDAV and such

[Patrick O. Dolan]

Why isn't there more dissemination of useful computer information? Why is it that the most useful tips or ideas on computing I've received have come from chance conversations with somebody in CNS or otherwise in the know (Thunderbird, Firefox, WebDAV)? What else am I and the rest of the Drew community missing?

[Kevin P. Egan]

Originally Posted by Patrick O. Dolan

Why isn't there more dissemination of useful computer information? Why is it that the most useful tips or ideas on computing I've received have come from chance conversations with somebody in CNS or otherwise in the know (Thunderbird, Firefox, WebDAV)? What else am I and the rest of the Drew community missing?

There is a lot of useful information available on the CNS website as well as the ITS Documentation Bin . The CNS website has information on Remote Access and Enterprise Applications, as well as various other things. The ITS site has lots of info on how to use many applications made available to the Drew community (Dreamweaver, excel, word etc...) and general computer maintenance. News about current and upcoming projects can be found at the main page of the CNS departmental website and the CNS Live website.

Conversations with CNS and ITS employees is a great way to pickup little tips which often don't make it into documentation. Often times useful tidbits of information is discovered by just using the program. But it would be a long process to add every little tip that someone discoveries to official documentation.

Firefox and Thunderbird, although very useful (at least in my personal opinion), are not officially supported by the University. Because they are not supported, it is unlikely that documents provided by the University will include information on these programs. The best place to find information about them would be from their respective websites. The best place to find information about configuring them for use with Drew servers would be to ask a Helpdesk employee.


In the future, I would suggest looking through some of the available documentation for some answers. If you cannot find what you're looking for, you can ask someone at CNS or ITS for help.


I hope this helps.

[E. Axel Larsson]

Originally Posted by Patrick O. Dolan

Why isn't there more dissemination of useful computer information? Why is it that the most useful tips or ideas on computing I've received have come from chance conversations with somebody in CNS or otherwise in the know (Thunderbird, Firefox, WebDAV)? What else am I and the rest of the Drew community missing?

I can speak to the Firefox/Thunderbird issue. There isn't anything on the CNS or ITS site about Firefox or Thunderbird because these applications are presently not supported by the CNS Helpdesk. The Mozilla Suite is the supported web-browser and e-mail client. There will be forthcoming support for the Firefox browser, which will be announced some time in the near future and which will coincide with some changes to email (that's all I can say right now---stay tuned!)

For WebDAV, NetStorage documentation (which includes both browser-based and WebDAV) is available on the CNS web site. There haven’t been any announcements promoting it since we launched the service last year however, so it may be time to promote it again.

Do you have any general suggestions insofar as what you think has been lacking in terms of announcements and any preferences on how you’d like to get this information? (email, newsletters, RSS feeds, presentations given at various events, etc.) This is useful feedback!

How to set up Mozilla Thunderbird to send and receive emails for my drew account

[Betsy Black]

There is some documentation for setting up GroupWise through IMAP here: http://depts.drew.edu/cns/groupwise/clients.php#imap

The CNS Helpdesk does not support this method of accessing email.

[Krista White]

Patrick, I understand your frustration. Axel and others who have responded have provided useful links to the information that *is* currently online.

ITS is undertaking a complete revamping of its website in the next year or so, specifically with an eye to providing better access to more technology information for the Drew community.

So, don't despair - we're going to get there!

Krista White
ITS Training Coordinator

[Patrick O. Dolan]

Like DocX? I've been asking CNS for something like this for years (a way to share documents with colleagues at other institutions; I even have an open support incident since early June). Rather than tell me we have software that provides this exact capability, or at least let me know that there is software being tested, the case just sits unanswered. If I hadn't by chance discussed this with somebody who by chance happened to know that the software exists, I'd still be waiting.

Patrick

[Mike Richichi]

Yes, we'll be rolling out new software soon, and it is being implemented in direct response to user requests. We've been doing some testing with a few customers. If you still have an immediate need I would ask you to follow up with the Faculty Lab and they would be happy to discuss it with you in detail.