IT Responsible Computing Practices

Facstaff Email

Scots Email

Faculty/Staff Purchasing Program

GMAIL

FAQs

- General FAQ

- Student FAQ

Responsible Computing Practices

Responsible E-Mailing

Remember, the e-mail messages you send become the possession of the receiver. They can then be forwarded to other e-mail addresses or e-mail lists, so make sure you know exactly who your are e-mailing.

Make sure your e-mail is exactly the way you want it before you send it, once it is sent, it is almost impossible to stop it from being delivered.

Although security measures implemented by IT and campus policy make e-mailing secure, very confidential messages should probably still be done face to face with the intended party..

Delete messages that are no longer of any use or very old.

Never send or forward chain mail, whether it promises fame and fortune, or even supposed donations for a sick child. Check out http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxCategories.html to see if what you are passing along is truth or not.

Don't pass on unconfirmed rumors -- especially about viruses -- because they often only cause needless panic. You can check at for a list of well-known virus hoaxes at http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp

Don't open or execute attachments that may seem questionable even if they appear to be coming from a friend. Attachments have become an increasingly popular way of automatically distributing viruses, and your friend may not even know that his or her e-mail account is being used for that purpose.

Maryville College policy prohibits use of College computing resources for commercial purposes.

Responsible Data Handling

Back up your data regularly. Make more than one backup to ensure data integrity.

Store the backup diskettes where they would be available in the event of a disaster.

Know how to restore the backed-up data.

Reformat unwanted diskettes and use them again.

Lock your data diskettes in your desk or in a locked, fire-resistant cabinet.

Close programs such as Microsoft Word and Outlook that may have important or confidential data in them before you leave your desk for any length of time. Also, save your work before you walk away from the computer.

Responsible Password Maintenance

Choose a good password for your MC logon - one that is not easily guessed.

Make it a combination of more than 6 letters and numbers or special characters($%^#@). Once you have chosen a good password commit it to memory.

Never write it down and never tell it to anyone. Having it posted on your monitor with a sticky note, is not a good idea.

Remember the only thing keeping your important data files safe and personal is your password. Please treat password security seriously and with great care.

Regular Virus Check

Your computer at MC comes equipped with AVG Anti-Virus. The program is set to update virus definitions every day to stay current, and to do a full scan of the computer every night, to ensure virus-free computing. If you suspect your system may be infected, right click on the AVG anti-virus icon located on the bottom right of the screen. .Select "Run AVG Anti-Virus" by left clicking and you should be brought to this screen:

Select "Run Complete Test" and AVG will test all of the files on your hard drive, as well as boot sectors for any suspicious files.

Running Disk Defragmenter

Disk Defragmenter is a Windows application to speed up your hard disk. Over time by adding and removing data to your hard drive it will become "fragmented" which is wasting space. Also, disk defragmenter will move the data around in a manner which will enable your computer to access the most often used information quicker.

Before attempting to run disk defragmenter you should close all applications that are currently running on your system. This includes virus scanners. The reason for this is because any program that is running will want to write to the hard disk that the disk defragmenter is scanning. If something attempts to write to the area then disk defragmenter will start over. Try to clear as many icons from the system tray as you can. If you can get it down to just the sound settings and the clock then you have gone as far as you need to go. The process can take as long as an hour, so you may want to run it before going to lunch, or leaving for the day.

To run Disk Defragmenter, click on START-PROGRAMS-SYSTEM TOOLS-DISK DEFRAGMENTER

Once the Disk Defragmenter menu comes up, click on analyze to see if your hard drive needs to be defragmented. When it is done analyzing, a message will be at the top of the analysis report stating whether or not the hard drive needs defragmenting. If so, choose defragment now.