Hummer Instructions
MSU College of Business
Fall 2004
The portable laptop lab is available for your use. Here are the basic instructions for using the
cart.
1. Reserve the cart in Reid 451 well in advance of the date you will use it..
2. Pick up the cart 10 minutes before the start of your class. Don't forget to get the keys for the
front doors from Karen. The cart will be plugged in to keep the laptop batteries charged so be
sure to unplug the cart before you move it. Unless you've spent some time driving the cart I
would recommend that you bring someone else with you to help you move the cart.
3. When you get to the classroom unlock the doors, plug in the power cord on the side of the cart
where the network access point is mounted (green lights will flash) and plug in the blue network
cable to the wireless jack on the classroom wall.
4. Open the doors and ask the students to carefully unplug their laptop from the recharge cord
and take a copy of the student instructions in the box on top of the cart.
5. When running on battery power the laptops are not really bright so you may want to dim some
of the lights in the classroom.
Students follow student instructions . . .
When your class ends . . .
6. Ask the students to carefully return the laptops and plug in the recharge cords.
7. Lock the doors and unplug both the power cord and the network cable.
8. Return the cart to Reid 451.
9. Plug in the power cords to keep the batteries charged and return the keys to Karen.
NOTES:
* If your class meets in Reid 450, 452 or 453 you can leave the cart in place and take the laptops
directly from the cart. Follow the steps as listed above, but plug the blue network cable into the
top jack behind the work table next to the copy machine.
* If it were me using the cart I would test drive all of this once before the day I planned to use
the cart.
* If you have a personal laptop or a college laptop that you would like to use along with the
laptop cart we can ask ITC to add your MAC address to the wireless device that is mounted on
the laptop cart. Contact me if you would like me to make these arrangements.
* Due to the fact that ITC has installed wireless acess points in the Reid Foyers the laptops
within the cart can be used in many Reid classrooms even if they are not in close proximity to
the cart itself.
These classrooms are likely to include 101, 102, 201, 202, 401 and 402.
I haven't taken the laptops to the back of each of these classrooms to verify the strength of the
signal, but we tested the laptops in Reid 101 and it appeared that there was good coverage
throughout the room.
Implication: This means that if you only need a few of the laptops (maybe for group work) that
you can take some of the laptops without the cart, allowing other instructors to use the remaining
laptops.
Consequently, if you reserve the cart on the sign-up board in Reid 451, please indicate in
parenthesis the number of laptops that you plan to use. For example, at any particular day/time
we might see something like the following on the sign-up board:
11:00 am S. Dana (10), B. Brown (5), S. Bryant (10)
This would indicate that 25 of the laptops had been reserved for 11:00 am. If you want the entire
cart use the number (36) to indicate that you are reserving the entire cart. As we adopt this
partial checkout procedure it will be crucial that only faculty members remove computers from
the cart. Laptop computers from the cart will not be checked out to students under any
circumstances unless accompanied by a faculty member. Also, unless the cart is locked, if the
staff are required to leave Reid 451 temporarily they will be required to lock the room to protect
the laptops.
* The default storage state for the laptop cart will be with the power plugged in and the blue
network cable attached to the top jack behind the work table next to the copy machine.
Implication: The cart will serve as an active access point at the end of the fourth floor hallway
unless it is in use somewhere else in the building. For Reid rooms near the cart, 450, 452 and
453, you can use the laptops and leave the cart in place. If you move the laptop cart you must
carefully unplug everything first, otherwise you will damage the cords/cables. When you return
the cart you must plug everything back in so that it will function as an access point by default.
* Mapping and Privacy Concerns:
1. When you, or a student, maps one of the laptops to a personal drive the mapping is
stationary unless you formally disconnect it when you are done. The student instructions
indicate the requirement to disconnect the mapping, but when we checked a laptop
yesterday afternoon we had complete access to the personal files of the student who had
preveiously mapped to their opal directory. If you map your cob184 directory to one of
the laptops, and you do not formally disconnect it, then the next person who uses that
particular laptop will have access to your cob184 folder. Please disconnect.
2. You should remember that the wireless traffic on the campus network, RFconnect, does
not use any encryption. That means that any traffic can be intercepted with the
appropriate hardware/software. For a period of time this won't be much of a concern
because the entire campus is new to wireless. But, at some point in the future your
transmissions will be vulnerable if you are using a wireless laptop on the campus wireless
network. Tests, assignments, grades, personal info, etc. should all be protected.