Things which Support doesn't Support

Sadly we don't have the time or expertise to help with absolutely everything - and these are some of the things which we can't help you with. Use them at your own risk.

On Linux...

emacs (but xemacs is supported)
ream
elm
netscape mail & news - but we'll help with web-browsing problems.

Programming Problems

If you're writing a program, and it's going wrong, we can't help you to debug it. We just don't have enough expertise or time. Try asking a friend, colleague or course tutor for help if you're stuck.

Occasionally a correct program will malfunction because of a bug in the programming tools or in the operating system. If you're sure that this is happening to your program, then try to construct the smallest, simplest correct program which exhibits the problem, then mail it to faults with an explanation of what's going wrong.

Other Peoples' Computers

We can only help with Informatics computers at KB, in the dcs.ed.ac.uk domain. Other support services cover the Informatics computers at Buccleuch Place and at Forrest Hill / South Bridge.

Most other Edinburgh University computers are covered by the Computing Service, EUCS. It provides separate support services for undergraduates and for staff and postgraduates.

We can't help with home computers, except to provide a bit of advice on dialling up from home.

Microsoft Windows

Some staff and postgraduates run Windows on their office PCs. We can help if the computer or network connection seems to be physically faulty, and we can help with software licences, but apart from that we can't help, except to suggest a trip to eduni.dcs.win-nt.

CS4 students who are using Windows machines for their projects can get some help from Archie Howitt.

Other Windows problems and needs are met by the EUCS - try its computing labs, its undergraduate support services, or its staff and postgraduate support services for instance.

Macs

A few staff have Macs in their offices. We can help with the basic network connection, but we don't cater for any special Mac needs such as Appletalk or printing from Macs. In particular, we don't carry the University's AppleShare zones on our network.

Mac files can be safely transferred over the internet using an ftp application such as Fetch, provided that the resource fork is protected, for example by telling Fetch to encode non-text files using MacBinary.

As with Windows, the EUCS can help with Macs - for instance, some EUCS computing labs provide Macs for general University use, and there's a summary of Mac support at Edinburgh.

Other problems

Buildings faults - for example, lights which don't work or broken doors - are usually fixed by the Estates and Buildings Department. If you know of such a problem, please mail a short description to buildings@dcs.ed.ac.uk. Thanks.