Help:Contents

Documentation of how-to and frequently asked questions and answers as they pertain to meetings hosted at and/or sponsored by NESCent. These will frequently be duplicates from other HowTos or FAQs.

Getting IT Help

Who is the system administrator

Jon Auman is NESCent's sysadmin and located in office A212. His phone number is 919-668-9104.

How to get help for IT-related problems

Send an email to support@nescent.org with a succinct description of the problem in the subject. Your email will automatically be entered into an issue tracking system called RT, which will issue you a username and password upon your first ticket. You may ignore this account as RT can handle all ticket-related communication through its email gateway. If desired, you can use your account to obtain a full display of your ticket's history with all communication.

If you need help immediately, stop by Jon Auman's office (A212) during working hours, or call the IT emergency number 919-668-9105 (89105 from within NESCent) during off-hours. It will ring to the NESCent IT person on call, currently usually Jon Auman.

Using NESCent's shared office

Using the printers

NESCent has shared B/W and Color printers located in the "mail room" (the open room adjacent to the kitchen. To use them, setup the printers as IP printers:

NESCent Black White printer (HP LaserJet 4250)

IP Address: 152.3.59.89

In Windows

First download a driver and run the exe. You can download it here:
http://internal.nescent.org/software/hp/lj4250pcl6win2kxp2003.exe

By default. it will unzip the drivers to this location:
c:\HP LaserJet 4x50
You'll need to know this later on.

1. Start > Settings > Printers and Faxes
2. Add a Printer
3. Next
4. Choose Local printer, uncheck automatically detect plug and play printers if selected.
5. Select "create a new port" and Type of port : standard tcp/ip port
6. Next > Next
7. Printer name or IP address : 152.3.58.89
8. Next
9. default of "Standard: generic network card" is fine
10. Next & Finish
11. Select Have Disk
12. Browse to the location where you unzipped the drivers (e.g. 'c:\HP LaserJet 4x50') and hit next
13. Select the HP LaserJet 4250 PCL6
14. Printer Name: whatever you want, i call the NESCent HP LJ4250-B&W
15. Default printer? your choice
16. Print test page? your choice
17. Hit Next & Finish if necessary

NESCent Color printer (HP LaserJet 4650)

IP Address : 152.3.58.90

First download a driver and run the exe. You can download it here:
http://internal.nescent.org/software/hp/clj4650pcl6win2kxp2003.exe

By default. it will unzip the drivers to this location:
c:\HP color LaserJet 4650
You'll need to know this later on.

Same as above, except use 152.3.58.90 for IP address.
Use HP LaserJet 4650 PCL6 as the model

Using the scanner

The copier in the mail room doubles as scanner. You can have scans emailed to an address of your choice. Please follow the step-by-step instructions located on the left hand side of the copier.

Connecting to the wireless or wired network

Locating network jacks

Each conference room has network jacks to plug standard ethernet cable (CAT5) into. The large conference space has network jacks in the back.

In order to use the wired network, your network card has to be registered with Duke. You need a Duke NetID to register a card, so as a meeting participant typically you cannot do this step yourself. See below for how to get your card registered if it is not already.

Wireless Coverage

Conference rooms, breakout spaces, and all offices are covered by a wireless access point of the DUKE network, too. This network is operated by Duke University (surprise!).

There is no password or encryption required to connect, however, your network card needs be registered with Duke. You need a Duke NetID to register a card, so as a meeting participant typically you cannot do this step yourself. See below for how to get your card registered if it is not already.

Registering network cards

Network cards need to be registered to Duke OIT in order to connect to the internet. To register your card, we need its MAC address. Normally, providing your MAC address is part of the meeting preparation in advance. If you couldn't provide the address before, below is how to obtain it. Write down the address and drop it off at the system administrator, Jon Auman, in room A212.

Obtaining the MAC address on Windows

1. Click the Start button
2. Click Run
3. Type in "cmd" (w/out the quotes) and click OK
4. In the black box type, "ipconfig /all" (no quotes) and Enter
5. You should see something like this example:

Windows IP Configuration
      
  Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : jonauman
        Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
        Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Peer-Peer
        IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
        DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : aas.duke.edu

   Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:
        Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-12-F0-55-F8-88

   Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
        Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : aas.duke.edu
        Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Cont roller
        Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-11-43-76-94-3E
        Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
        Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
        IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 152.3.58.xx
        Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 152.3.58.1
        DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 152.3.250.12
        DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 152.3.250.1		152.3.250.2
        Primary WINS Server . . . . . . . : 152.3.58.91
        Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, January 19, 2006  9:24:14 AM
        Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, January 20, 2006 9:24:14 AM

I need the physical addresses to set up your wireless connectivity. From the example above, my wireless address is 00-12-F0-55-F8-88 and my wired address is 00-11-43-76-94-3E.

Obtaining the MAC address on Mac OSX

1. Go to System Preferences
2. Click on Network
3. Where it says show, click on Built-in ethernet
4. On the next screen, click on Ethernet
5. Your Ethernet ID is the first address I need
6. Go back and repeat again for your wireless card address by clicking on AirPort from the show drop down box.

Obtaining the MAC address on Linux

1. Open up a terminal window
2. Type /sbin/ifconfig
3. You will see something like this

   eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:A0:D1:E4:53:22
          inet6 addr: fe80::2a0:d1ff:fee4:5322/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:634142 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:311838 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:81409293 (77.6 MiB)  TX bytes:306772114 (292.5 MiB)
          Interrupt:7

Use whatever comes after HWaddr. In this case, it is 00:A0:D1:E4:53:22

Use audio/video conferencing equipment

Use the audio PolyCom for teleconferencing

• Phone number is 919-668-4568

Setup

The polycom has got two peices. One piece has the phone line, and connects to the wall. This is the smaller piece. The other piece is the voicepiece that looks like a triangle.

Connect the phone cord of the smaller piece into the analog wall jack. In conference rooms #1 & #2, this jack is under the table. In #3, it is near the window. Plugin the powercord.

Plugin the triangle unit. It will find the wall unit and once connected you should be able to get a dial tone.

Usage

• Making a call

To connect to just one party, press the large button on the left hand side with the icon of a phone receiver. Dial the phone number with area code. You do not need to dial 9, but you will need an access code to dial long distance (oustide the 919 area code).

• Making Conference calls

You may conference with two parties. Our setup does not allow more than that. To add a second party:

1. While on an active call, press the Conference button . The first call is automatically placed on hold.
2. Dial the number you wish to call. You may use the Redial or Direct Dial method.
3. Press the Conference button or JOIN soft key to join the second call. To drop the second call, press the Conf key again.

-OR-

1. Press the HOLD soft key to place the first call on hold.
2. Press the Conference button and enter the number you wish to call. You may use the Redial or Direct Dial method.

• Receiving a call: To receive an incoming call, just hit the phone button.

• Answering a Second Call: If you are on a call when another call is received, you will hear a Call Waiting tone.
  • Press the Conference button (picture of a bunch of people, just under the phone button) to answer the incoming call. This first call will be automatically placed on hold.
  • Switch back and forth between calls using the conference button.

Consult the the full user manual for further details.

Use the PolyCom for a videoconference with collaborators outside the center

Setup

Setup the videoconferencing cart where you want. Make sure you are close enough to a network jack in order to connect the polycom unit. Plug in the master power cable in the back. Plug in the network cable.

Turn on the monitors with the silver remote control. You can each individual monitor by stepping close to that indiviual monitor and aiming directly at it, otherwise the remote will control both. By default the left hand side will show the remote connection, and the right hand side will show your local camera, or your laptop if connected and setup correctly (to be discussed later).

To turn off the machine, disconnect all calls, turn off the monitors, and unplug the machine.

Dial a call

Use the black remote. Simply enter the IP address or IP name in the dialing field, and press the green call button at the upper left hand corner.

You can call up to 4 different sites at one time. This is called a mutlipoint call. To place a multipoint call by adding sites to a call:

1. Call the first site.
2. When the call connects, press Call on the remote control.
3. Select Add Video Call, and place a call to the next site.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all sites are connected.

Receive a call

Our machine is setup to automatically answer incoming calls. But should you ever need to answer a call, simply press the green call button.

End a call

Simply press the red hangup button

To share your desktop application

Showing Content with a Visual Concert VSX or ImageShare II Before you show content, check that the computer video is configured to use one of these supported resolutions and refresh rates:

Resolution Refresh rates (Hz)

640 x 480	60, 72, 75, 85
800 x 600	60, 72, 75, 85
1024 x 768	60, 70, 75, 85
1280 x 1024 (scaled and sent to the far site in 1024 x 768 format)	60

To set the resolution and refresh rate, go to your computer’s Display Control Panel.

To start showing content using a Visual Concert VSX:

1. Connect the computer to a Visual Concert VSX device:
2. Press the purple content button (lower left corner of remote) on the Visual Concert VSX, or press Graphics or Camera on the remote control.

To stop showing content using a Visual Concert VSX, press the purple button again.

Connect to a videoconference Polycom from your computer

Things you will need

1. web cam
2. microphone (if not built-in your webcam)
3. H.323 client

Make sure you've got your webcam/microphone working properly before proceeding.

For Mac OS X 10.4

Xmeeting - you can install the latest version from the project's sourceforge site.

Once you've got it installed, the client will take you to a setup screen, in most cases defaults will work.
Next, type in 'video.nescent.org' (without quotes) in the address field and hit the connect button. You should be able to connect.

For further troubleshooting, you can read the documentation here.

For Mac OS X 10.3

ohphonex - you can install the latest version from here:

Once you've got it installed, the client will take you to a setup screen, in most cases defaults will work.
Next, type in 'video.nescent.org' (without quotes) in the address field and hit the connect button. You should be able to connect.

For further troubleshooting, you can read the documentation here.

For Windows XP/ 2000

In Windows 2000, Microsoft NetMeeting is found by clicking Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to Communications, and click NetMeeting.

In Windows XP, there is no shortcut by default. so you need to:
1. Click Start, then Run, and enter Conf.
2. Click OK.
3. In the NetMeeting Wizard, supply the necessary information, and then select the Put a shortcut to NetMeeting on my desktop (or on my Quick Launch bar) check box.

Next type in 'video.necent.org' in the call box and click on the phone icon.

Rules for Travel

Non-U.S. Citizens

We would appreciate your letting us know if you are not a US citizen. If you will be arriving from outside the United States, we will provide you with a formal letter of invitation briefly outlining the purpose of your visit. This letter may be required during your travel to the US, and we encourage you to keep a copy with you. Please send via email your office mailing address so that we can send the formal letter of invitation. For all non-US citizens we will need to make a copy of your passport and I-94 and/or visa waiver during your visit.