Unofficial IT Tips & Tricks

bnt

I did mention Dropbox Portable AHK before - definitely works at UCD, just not with network drives such as H: (a Dropbox limitation by design). It's OK syncing with a USB key, but can take quite some time on first sync.

Will

Fuzzy_Dunlop wrote: »

Would you be able to explain how you fixed it?

I first set up my ucd connect account to forward to my main gmail.
Then I "shared" my ucd connect calendar with my main gmail - read only, no editing ability.

Figured this would be enough to access it from my calendar as I'd google sync set up on my iphone as it was.

Long story short I basically re-synced, made sure contacts,calendar and mail were selected and up it popped.

bnt

This is more official than unofficial, bit worth pointing out. Previously I was concerned that normal mail packages wouldn't work with your UCD mail. Google wasn't handed your UCD password, so connecting to the new email system requires Gmail to authenticate you against UCD's servers, complicating the whole process.

It turns out you have the option of breaking that connection and setting up a password for your account on Google's servers, so that you can access your mail using more standard methods, as per the link above. Look under "What if I’m using an application like Outlook to access my email?"

I haven't tried this myself, since I'm happier forwarding to my other Gmail account, but this should be a good solution for people with e.g. iPhones. I stlll recommend using the Microsoft Exchange method of connecting, rather than IMAP, since that uses standard HTTP ports and plays nicely with UCD's proxy servers. It also supports syncing of your Calendar and Contacts too. If you do this, the "Exchange Server" is m.google.com, use your full email address as username.

ironclaw

In Case You Changed Your UCD Gmail Password - iOS Devices

I was having an odd problem when I changed my password after logging into the UCD Gmail interface. If you do this (Click your email in the top right corner, its under Account Settings), your given the option to set the password as the same as your UCDConnect password or choose a new one. If you do either, you'll probably lose connectivity from your iPhone, iTouch etc.

To get back in, delete the mail account on your iPhone but instead of adding "Other" chose "Gmail" and fill out the details as before. Its actually abit easier than having to go through the lenghty UCD IT Services with the server, SSL ports etc.

bnt

Red Alert wrote: »

Connect Files seems to now be the new way to store your files - you can map a drive / set it up as a volume on your laptop. Question: is this now H: or has it even got a drive letter on the lab PCs?

I'm bringing this thread back up because there are more IT changes on the way. The current H: drive is going away, and Connect Files will be the new H: drive. This is already the case on the PCs in the Daedalus building, and it's being rolled out across campus soon.

I don't know whether the IT dept are going to migrate your current data for you, but I wouldn't assume that. If you have data on H: you can still get to it via the IT Services tab on the UCD Connect portal, and I hope they'll leave that up for a while.

The good news about Connect Files is that it follows the WebDAV standard, so you'll be able to connect to it from home or anywhere else. I think I've talked about this elsewhere in this thread - there's a way of finding the URL you require for this. You can do it with "Add Network Folder" method, or if you want a drive letter, look up the "net use X:" command line method.

The bad news about WebDAV is that this flexibility comes at a price: it's slower than the existing file access method. But you do get more space (2GB vs 500MB), and that doesn't include the 25 GB provided by Google if you log in to UCD Connect, select "Email" then "Drive".

PS for the geeks: I'm currently testing a service called Otixo that aggregates multiple "cloud storage" services under one WebDAV link. I'm currently using it to access 9 separate services, including 2 Google Drive accounts (the UCD account and my own), UCD Connect Files, Microsoft SkyDrive, Dropbox, box.net, and others. (It will be 10 when they add support for cx.com as promised.) Each service appears as a folder under a single WebDAV link, and I can also move data between them via the website. Since it uses the standard SSL port (443), it all works inside UCD too.
Since they don't provide storage themselves, there's no space limit, but they do have a bandwidth limit staring at 2GB/month. A referral is not required, but using one gets us both an extra 100MB/month - PM me your email address if you want a referral. No, I don't put any personal data on "the cloud", nor do I do piracy - at the moment, this is a solution in search of a problem. :cool: