On Campus Computing

Most students elect to bring their own personal (or ministry/work) laptops or tablets with them for the intensive sessions. We are Windows-, Mac-, Android- and iOS-friendly. Our ability to provide “helpdesk” support, however, will be limited to the devices we are most familiar with–so please be patient with us.

You will want to check with your instructor for specific guidelines on the use of computers, but all classrooms are equipped to power students’ laptops and other devices. Please refrain from checking social media and email during times of in-class instruction and discussion.

Internet Access

IWS works hard each session to provide a secure wireless network that covers classrooms and other significant meeting places and facilities. The security key to the network will be posted in each location.

We do our best to maintain the network throughout the session but internet service depends on a multitude of variables, from your own computer to the service delivered by our Internet Service Provider. We don’t have control over every variable in every location, unfortunately. If you have your own personal internet “hot spot,” you may find it useful to bring it with you to campus. You may also find it helpful to provide yourself with an alternate method of transferring files that does not depend on the internet (such as a USB flash memory drive).

You are responsible for getting your computer connected to the internet via our service. Our Coordinator of Information Technology, Rev’d Dr. Ken Rushing, will be on campus to assist you with any problems. You can email him if you’d like.

There is one public computer available in the IWS Office; please be prepared to be patient while waiting and courteous while using it. Printers and a copier are available in the office as well. A 10¢ donation is requested for each page to help offset the cost of ink, paper, and maintenance.

Safe Computing

While on the IWS network, please be sure to practice safe computing for the sake of your own PC as well as the equipment and data of other students, faculty, and staff. You are responsible for maintaining a “clean” computer (the Director of Technical Services and Coordinator for IT are happy to assist as we are able). To protect the health of the IWS network, computers spreading malware or behaving improperly will be cordoned off of the network until the problem is solved. Students may download avast! antivirus for free.

Information transmitted over the Internet on connections that are not secure (that is, websites without https at the beginning) may be vulnerable even on wi-fi networks that use encryption. You should never transmit sensitive data over an insecure connection.

Email is an easily-manipulated platform–much like postal mail, it’s easy to fake the “from” address of an email. Be careful opening attachments, pay attention to warnings from your Operating System or Antivirus software. If you’re not expecting an attachment or link from someone, verify they really did send it.

Keep your passwords secure, and never use the same password for multiple website. If you must write them down, don’t store them near your computer. Good passwords use letters, numbers, and symbols–and the easiest to remember are often phrases rather than unintelligible codes. For example: Beethovens#5thSymphonY is long, has different kinds of characters, and is not easily guessed. And you’re much more likely to remember it than you are the password H834#;3>>jkLQQQv3593Lc,mmmn.