Every 1st-year student enrolling at Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine receives a new convertible laptop computer during their orientation week.  These computers are the student's window to their education throughout the 4-year curriculum, providing access to electronic versions of all curricular materials made available via the CVM Intranet and/or K-State Online (including text, images, audio, and video), as well as serving as a communications and collaboration tool between their fellow students and their professors. 

The program benefits for students and parents include:

• Uniformity - Students will have hardware and software that is compatible with all other veterinary students and their professors.
   

• Flexibility - Students can more effectively use computers throughout the Veterinary Medicine complex and from other locations on campus. Since the computers offer wireless access, they will provide “anytime, anywhere” convenience, enabling the students to connect to all network services and functions between the College of Veterinary Medicine and Kansas State University.
   

• Support - The computers will be under warranty, and CVM IT staff will be vendor certified and available to troubleshoot and make repairs if needed.  Complete computer replacement within 24 hours will be available for catastrophic damage.
   

• Value and Convenience - The burden for students and parents on deciding which computer and what software to buy has been greatly reduced, as the computer will be furnished, configured, and maintained as part of the student's technology fee.  Overall cost to the student will be lower than individual purchases due to buying power, academic incentives, and standardization.

The model expected be provided in the fall of 2008 is the Toshiba Portégé M700.  Click on one of the following links for more information:

• Toshiba's M700 Web Page

• M700 Spec Sheet (PDF) - some specifications on the model delivered may vary

• KSUCVM Student Computing Initiative Brochure (PDF)

For those students transferring into KSUCVM who will be part of the class of 2009 or 2010 and currently have their own computer or wish to purchase another brand, in order to connect to the KSUCVM network those computers MUST meet the following minimum standards:

Laptop or TabletPC - IBM Compatible
      - Macintosh computers are not supported at KSUCVM.

WindowsXP Professional, Visat Business, or Tablet Edition Operating System
      - XP with Service Pack 2.  WindowsXP Home and Vista Home editions are not recommended.

1.7 GHz Pentium M Processor or equivalent

80.0 GB Hard Drive

1GB RAM

14-inch TFT display (12-inch for TabletPC), 4x AGP bus video, 64MB video RAM

16-bit Sound

10/100/1000Base-TX and 802.11b/g wireless network capability
      - wireless access is available throughout the CVM complex and most of the K-State campus.

In addition, a basic office suite of software will be needed.  The K-State Student Union offers the Microsoft Office Suite at a greatly reduced academic price to all K-State students.

Before connecting to the CVM network, please be sure to come to room 4 Trotter to have your computer configured for access.  Initial setup for connection to the CVM network is free of charge and includes a virus scan, installation of the latest Windows updates and patches, and installation and configuration of the university’s required anti-virus software.  Configuration also includes: 

• CVM Network and E-Mail account creation

• Configuration of installed network/wireless hardware

• Installation of the CVM Novell Network Client

• Installation of software required to view/run programs used for teaching at CVM 

To make the setup process go smoothly, please try to have all updates and patches installed beforehand.  You are also encouraged to go to the CaTS website at http://www.vet.k-state.edu/depts/cats to download and install antivirus software and perform a virus scan to be sure your computer is clean before bringing it in for configuration.  If, during the configuration process, your computer is found to be infected with a virus or worm, you may be asked to have it cleaned before configuration can proceed.  Please note that some infections call for a reformat of the computer’s hard drive in order to be considered “clean” (see the following note on security). 

IMPORTANT COMPUTER SECURITY INFORMATION

The risk of computer viruses and worms continues to rise, and a vulnerable machine can be attacked and compromised within a few seconds when connected to the Internet, even through a dial-up connection. To protect the university's network and resources as well as other K-Staters’ systems, K-State now requires computers connecting to the university network to:

1. Install the university’s site-licensed anti-virus software and have it configured to update continuously through a local server.
2. Set Microsoft Update to check for updates daily and install critical updates automatically.

K-State actively scans its network to identify computers that are unpatched, vulnerable, or infected with a computer worm or virus. If yours is identified as such, it will be blocked from accessing the network until it has been repaired and/or patched. Once a computer is compromised, it may be necessary to reformat the computer's hard drive in order to return it to a known safe state.  To help avoid this scenario, KSUCVM has adopted these additional policies:
 

3. Computers will be configured to download and install critical updates through the CVM Windows Server Update Services.  This insures that the latest critical patches and updates are available to CVM computers even if Microsoft's servers are temporarily overloaded or unavailable, and allows the updates to be installed at times that are convenient to our users.
4. Computers will be configured with a universal administrative user account and strong password. In the event of a failure of the CVM Windows Update Server, the network administrator will be able to use this account, in conjunction with Network Security software, to push critical updates and patches to vulnerable computers as necessary.
5. The universal administrative account will be configured to have access via Remote Desktop, so that in the rare instance where procedures #1 and #2 fail, the network administrator can remotely log into a vulnerable machine and manually install critical updates and patches. 

Campus and local network administrators will scan the CVM network on a regular basis, particularly following the release of any critical updates from Microsoft, to identify unpatched and vulnerable computers.  Steps 1-3 will be followed as needed until all identified systems have been successfully updated and their vulnerabilities addressed. The configuration requirements above can be removed upon leaving the university.

Students with Toshiba TabletPCs are required to bring them to room 4 Trotter Hall for service.

For all other CVM students, computer troubleshooting and repair services are available for a fee at locations both on and off campus, and can be found in the local Yellow Pages.  However, as a convenience to our students, CaTS technical services are available to students at a cost here at KSUCVM.  The following services are available by visiting Room 4 in Trotter Hall:

• Problem Diagnosis/Troubleshooting

• Upgrade, optimization, peripheral installation assistance

• Virus/Malware Removal

• Data Recovery/Backup

• Network/Wireless Card Installation and Configuration

• Hardware/Software Installation

• Operating System Installation 

Any service request made after 7 days following initial KSUCVM network setup will be billed at the rate of $60/hr with a $30 minimum.  Any repair estimate over $60 will require written approval from the student before being performed. 

For hardware/software/OS installations/configurations, computer must be operational. Proof of license/ownership required where applicable.