CONTENTS

• What is supported
• Getting Windows
• Security
• Applications

Specifically, we support.

Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. We use MIT computing-help as a backup for support.

MITLNS Windows Domain.

Contact windows@lns.mit.edu to have your PC included in the MITLNS NT Domain. This makes it possible for us to provide you with centralized print and authentication services.

Software.

See below for downloads of LNS supported software. Also see the MIT support summary and additional downloads.

If you wish to install Windows on a machine that you own, we recommend that you install Windows XP. Hardware requirements are: 700 GHz processor or better, 512 Mbytes of RAM, 10 Gbyte hard drive or better. It will be necessary to obtain a license for Windows XP, which you can get by applying at the MIT/Windows XP Professional licensing page. Contact David Woodruff (253-6943) if you would like more information.

Running Windows Securely

• Current security bulletins from Microsoft. Get information and patches.
• Downloadable software for Windows network security.

Browsers

Email

Of the three, Thunderbird is the fastest and easiest to use, although Windows Mail on Vista comes very close, being a great improvement over earlier Microsoft email clients. MS Outlook comes with Microsoft Office, and has extras, such as calendaring software.

See the page which Describes 'Email at LNS'. On that page you will find instructions for configuring mail clients for use with the MIT mail servers

Printing

Other Applications

• Secure shell. SecureCRT is a VT terminal emulator which has support for Secure Shell (ssh) connectivity to remote machines
  • Available by site license from MIT Windows Software Download, free for MIT users. Certificates are required.
  • If you are not from MIT, see Van Dyke Technologies, Inc. for information and an evaluation copy.
• Secure copy. SecureFX is a secure ftp program
  • Available by site license from MIT Windows Software Download, free for MIT users. Certificates are required.
  • Another very good secure copy application is WinSCP. I prefer to use WinSCP, and I install it on all machines that I configure.
• Secure telnet. HostExplorer is a VT terminal emulator program which uses Kerberos version 4 for authentication and encryption. HostExplorer is available to members of the MIT community. See "HostExplorer at MIT" for download instructions.
• Virus protection. Members of the MIT Community have access to virus protection software for windows and Macintosh. These are covered by various site licenses and agreements.
• Encryption/Digital signing. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) offers public key encryption. It also offers encrypted links between computers. See the Internation PGP Home Page for information and downloads.
• Web Certificates and Kerberos are standard tools used at MIT to allow secure connections to MIT resources. See the Web certificates page, and the download page for kerberos client for secured MIT services.
• SAPgui is necessary if you are tasked with, for example, approving purchases on an MIT account. See SAPgui for SAP purchase authorizers.
• BrioQuery is useful for accessing the MIT Data Warehouse, or local databases of your own. See BrioQuery for querying and reporting from the MIT Data Warehouse.
• Find the link to the SAPweb page here. The "SAPweb page" is useful for making purchases with MIT accounts.
• Adobe PDF Document tools
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader for reading and printing PDF files.
  • LNS has a limited number of licenses for Adobe Acrobat. Contact windows@lns.mit.edu to obtain one.
• An inexpensive license for Office 2003 may be purchased with an MIT account number through GovConnection. Once there, do a search on the string 'select': MIT gets a large discount for this. Contact windows@lns.mit.edu to borrow the installation CD, or purchase one of your own through GovConnection.
• Open Office OpenOffice is a freeware alternative to MS Office. It is more than adequate for most purposes, but it is not recommended as a replacement for MS Office on Windows.
• PostScript editing software Ghostscript is great for viewing and printing PostScript files.
• A good utility for simple edits and the printing of graphics files is VuePrint, a useful and inexpensive image viewer and editor.
• The TeX/LaTeX system is available for Windows. See MiKTeX, a free TeX/LaTeX distribution for Windows. windows@lns.mit.edu for CD if you get tired of waiting for the download to complete.
• The natural Editor for MiKTeX is WinEdt. It is a Windows editor which integrates nicely with MiKTeX.
• 'Zipping' software
  • The standard for this software is Winzip for zipping/unzipping files. It is not free, but it has a free evaluation period.
  • Aladdin Expander is useful if you have binhex files, but it is also a 'global expander'.
  • If you don't need the power (or cost) of Winzip, you will find JustZIPit to be a fine tool. It is simple and free, and it is more than adequate for most uses.
• For X-graphics
  • MIT has a site license for X-Win32. Download it from the MIT Windows software download page
  • Hummingbird Exceed has many bells and whistles, well worth getting if you will be doing a lot of work remotely.

• Microsoft homepage.
• Microsoft Windows homepage.