This document covers some general queries relating to the department's main network login server, igor. Some of these questions are covered in more detail in other documents.

You can connect to Igor using a program called 'Secure Shell Client' which is installed on all Windows PC's in the Department's labs. Igor does not allow connections using traditional Unix programs such as telnet and ftp as these are fundamentally insecure protocols which can leave servers open to attack from hackers.

2) How do I connect to Igor from outside the University?

To connect to the DoC server Igor from outside the University, you will need an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides you with a connection to the Internet. You can then connect to Igor using a secure shell client (see 1 above) at the following address:

  igor.gold.ac.uk

Within the Goldsmiths network, Windows allows you to access files residing on local network servers (such as Igor) as if they were actually stored on your own PC. This is done by 'mapping' your space on the server to a virtual disk in Windows, which you can then use as if it were an ordinary disk (like the C: drive).

To map your space on Igor, do the following:

1. Start Windows Explorer.
   
   
2. From the 'Tools' menu, select 'Map Network Drive'. A dialog box will appear.
   
   
3. Select any unused drive-letter to use for the virtual drive (unused drive-letters have no text after the letter in the list).
   
   
4. Enter the following into the 'Path' box:
   
   \\igor\homes
   
   
5. Ensure that the 'Reconnect at logon' checkbox is checked.
   
   
6. Click 'OK'

You should then be able to access your space on Igor using the drive-letter you selected above.

Publishing web-pages on Igor is simply a matter of creating a directory called 'public_html' within your home-directory on Igor and copying your HTML (and related) files into it. Your pages will then be visible on the World-Wide-Web.

For example, suppose user ma007 copies a file called mypage.html to their public_html directory. This page could be accessed using the following URL:

If your browser displays a message something like 'Forbidden - You do not have permission to access this page', you will need to change the default file-permissions of your files on Igor to make them accessible. To do this, you need to connect to Igor using 'Secure Shell Client' (or equivalent) and type the following two lines:

The first line makes your home-directory and your public_html directory accessible and the second line makes the files within public_html readable.

Yes, an email service is running on igor. This is completely independent from the main email service provided by the college. You can use the standard mail commands on igor, such as 'mail' and 'pine'. You can also use the email web-interface at:

http://www.doc.gold.ac.uk/webmail

Igor receives mail that is sent to either igor.gold.ac.uk or doc.gold.ac.uk. So if your username was, for example, ma123xyz, your email address for igor would be either of the following:

ma123xyz@igor.gold.ac.uk
ma123xyz@doc.gold.ac.uk

If you can login to computers in the library but not in the DoC labs (WB300/WB316/HH15/HH16), it may be that you need to be added to the DoC user group. This is usually because you are an international student or are taking an DoC course as part of a degree run by another department.

If this applies to you, please send an email specifying your username to sysadmin@doc.gold.ac.uk to get yourself added to the DoC user group.

If you are creating PHP webpages that connect to MySQL or PostgreSQL databases on igor, you must specify igor, doc or php.doc as the hostname in the URL, eg:

http://doc.gold.ac.uk/~ma123xyz/mysql.php

http://php.doc.gold.ac.uk/~ma123xyz/mysql.php

You should not use www.doc.gold.ac.uk, as this will generate an error message something like:

Some areas of the department's website (eg. the Intranet) are served via a secure server which is certified using a site security certificate. This site certificate is updated periodically, which may cause web-browsers to complain that the certificate is no longer valid. To update your site certificate to identify the Department of Computing's secure websites, click on the link below:

Install the Department of Computing Site Security Certificate

Last updated Thursday 1st October 2015