The purpose of this page is to describe the steps students enrolled in CPS121 or CPS122 must take before using one of the computers in the Macintosh lab (KOSC 118) for lab work. The steps outlined here are the same, regardless of which software tools one actually uses for software development.

To follow these steps, you will need an account on the department file server. Each student enrolled in the class will have an individual account and an individual password on the server. Though your username will be your standard Gordon username (the one you use for email, etc.), your password will not be. (Click here for directions for changing your server password). All of your files will be stored on the server, which means you can access them from anywhere on campus - not just the specific computer you used to create them. Nothing that you create will actually remain on the computer you use - everything should be created and stored on the server. (In fact, whenever the computer is rebooted, anything you have stored on it will automatically be deleted!)

A server account will be set up for you, and the password for your server account will be furnished to you if you are enrolled in CPS121 or CPS122. Note that your server password is an individual password - unique to you, and usable from anywhere on campus where you can access the server.

Before you can access the tools described here, you need to log on to the Macintosh. You login to the computer using your regular Gordon username and password - the same as you use for accessing email, etc.

Once you have logged in, you need to connect to the server.

1. Be sure the Finder is the currently-running program. (The name Finder will appear as the program name at the very left of the menu bar at the top of the screen.) If not, click anywhere on the desktop (outside of the window for any application) and the Finder will be made current. (When the Finder is the current application, the word "Finder" will appear at the left end of the menu bar.)

2. Choose the "Connect to Server..." option at the bottom of the Finder's Go menu.

   
   
   
   

3. A Connect to Server dialog box should appear, which will look like the following:

   
   
   
   

4. Type the samba protocol specifier (smb://) and the name of the CS department server
   

   smb://files.cs.gordon.edu

   In the Server Address box, then click "Connect". (It may already appear there, if the last server accessed on this machine was the CS server - in which case you can simply click "Connect", or it may appear in the list of favorite servers, in which case you can double-click it.)
   
   
5. In any case, you will now see a dialog like the following:

   
   
   
   

6. Enter your personal username (your email name), and your Samba password (which will echo as all bullets), then click "OK". You will now see a dialog like the following: You will now see a dialog just like the following:

   
   
   
   

   You may choose:
   • Your own server volume (same as your server account name)
     or
     
   • The common volume, which contains files being made available to the class as a whole. Its name is your course ID. (You may also see volumes for other courses, which you don't need to access.)

   To select a single volume, select it in the drop down, and click "OK". If you need to select more than one volume (e.g. if the lab directions call for mounting both your own volume and the common volume) then you will have to go through process twice - though you won't be asked to authenticate again. There does not seem to be any way to select to mount two shares at once.

7. An icon for the volume you have selected should appear on your desktop (possibly after a brief delay.) When you want to open a window for a server volume, you can double click on the icon for that volume.

   
   
   
   

VERY IMPORTANT: When you are through with your session in lab, you should logout from the computer. To to this, select Log Out (the last item) from the "Apple" menu at the upper left hand corner of the screen. You will see a confirmation box, asking you if you are sure you want to log out now. Click the Log Out button and you're done! (The volumes you mounted are dismounted when you log out.) Note that if you fail to log out, and leave your Volume on the desktop, someone else can do nasty things to you!