At ING we provide a number of public computers and peripherals for general use by our visiting astronomers. We kindly ask our users to follow the conditions of use for ING computers and networks. The information given below does not include the computers or the user accounts of the observing systems of every telescope.

User accounts

A computer user account is allocated for your observing run by default, details of which are available from your Support Astronomer. We can provide you with up to 3 additional guest accounts if necessary, please contact your Support Astronomer for details. For more guest accounts that you might require, or if you are visiting the ING and you need a guest account, please complete the Computing Facilities Questionnaire for visiting astronomers.

Certain access restrictions are applicable when using these guest accounts. In accordance with the ING Computer Security Policy, guest accounts are provided to be used within the ING network domain. That is to say, access to ING resources via these accounts is only permitted if the user is on ING premises.

Public computers and installed software

You can use the following public desktop computers logging on using the provided account on your arrival (the computers used on the telescopes' observing systems are not listed below):

Computer	Location	Operating system
INTDRPC1	INT control room	Linux Fedora 14
INTDRPC2	INT control room	Linux Fedora 14
WHTDRPC1	WHT control room	Linux Fedora 14
WHTDRPC2	WHT control room	Linux Fedora 14
WHTDRPC4	WHT terminal room	Linux Fedora 14
WHTDRPC5	WHT terminal room	Linux Fedora 14
WHTDRPC6	WHT astronomy office	Linux Fedora 14
WHTDRPC7	WHT astronomy office	Linux Fedora 14

This list of installed software on the Linux PCs gives the name of the application, its description, the startup commands and the latest version installed.

At our sea-level base you can access ingext wireless network. In case you need access to a public terminal there (Linux, Macintosh, Windows or Solaris) please contact your Support Astronomer or Astronomy Computing at the contact provided at the bottom of this web page.

At the observatory, we could provide you with a Windows XP laptop or a Macbook, please contact your Support Astronomer or Astronomy Computing at the contact provided at the bottom of this web page.

Portable computers

ING's wireless external network 'ingext' is password-protected and available at the WHT and INT control rooms, please contact your Support Astronomer or Observing Support Assistant to get the password, or check your visitor's pack upon arrival. For accessing ingext elsewhere, submitting a Computing Facilities Questionnaire for visiting astronomers and DHCP are necessary. Ingext is available in the following areas: WHT building, INT control room and dome, Residencia's lounge, and ING's sea-level office.

You may apply for static IP addresses, or cable network access (based on DHCP), by providing your MAC address using the Computing Facilities Questionnaire for visiting astronomers. There is also a list of IP addresses available and reserved for visitors that can be used if the MAC address wasn't registered previously.

IAC operates a wireless network at the Residencia that can be accessed from the bedrooms. Details on how to use it can be obtained at the reception of the Residencia. ING also provides a network hub in the computer room of the Residencia. For plugging your computer there you need an IP address. Please request one using the Computing Facilities Questionnaire for visiting astronomers.

Users of Macintosh are requested to contact the ING Computing Group using the Computing Facilities Questionnaire for visiting astronomers well in advance of their visit, if they suspect that they will require any specific support for their computers. We encourage users of these devices, where possible, to be sufficiently au fait with their computers that their needs can be adequately fulfilled without delay.

Observational data

The ING provides the visiting astronomers with DVDs for data recording, or DDS3 tapes if using the INT/WFC, whilst they are observing. Please follow these instructions for recording data. USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 external disks can also be plugged to download the observing data.

Data can also be copied to our ftp area at /obsdata/outgoing/<username>/, where <username> is the one provided by your Support Astronomer (see 'User accounts' above). They can be accessed from outside by ftping anonymously to ftp.ing.iac.es and changing to the <username> directory. Please delete the data once it has been downloaded, or contact your Support Astronomer to do it on your behalf.

It is an ING policy that all astronomical images are archived and eventually sent to the image archive operated by CASU Astronomical Data Centre in Cambridge (see the ING data ownership policy). To ensure that all images are archived, please do not delete any files on the observing directories.

If you need to recover any data or an observational log of your run during the propietary period, your request will need to be made via the ING Astronomy Group. Please contact the Support Astronomer of your observing run or the Head of Astronomy.

There are a series of disks that may be used for the temporary storage of files, for instance, for doing data reduction and analysis:

Directory	Assigned to	Comments
/reduction/local/	WHT and INT observers	Local scratch areas (not exported on the network) available on computers: *DRPC*
/scratch/inta/	INT observer
/scratch/intb/	INT observer
/scratch/whta/	WHT observer
/scratch/whtb/	WHT observer
/scratch/whtc/	WHT observer

Please be aware that these areas are not backed up. Moreover, files can be removed without warning, for instance, when free disk capacity drops below 10%.

To work with observational data, first copy the files from the /obsdata directories to a scratch area (/reduction/local or /scratch) on a *DRPC* computer. Then work normally logged on as a guest (use accounts *guest).

Printing

The following printers are available (to obtain the IP address of a printer, type the command in the column 'To obtain IP' at the prompt of a computer within the ING network):

Printer	Location	Description	To obtain IP
wht_laser	WHT terminal room	B/W duplex laser printer	nslookup hpwht
wht_color	WHT terminal room	Colour duplex laser printer	nslookup whtcolor
int_laser	INT control room	B/W duplex laser printer	nslookup hpint
hp-5d	5th floor, sea-level office	B/W duplex laser printer	nslookup hp-5d
hp-5c	5th floor, sea-level office	Colour duplex laser printer	nslookup hp-5c
astrofax	5th floor, sea-level office	Colour duplex laser fax, printer, copier and scanner	nslookup astrofax

To print on the above printers from the public computers, please write the following at the command line:

lp -d<printer> <file>

lp -d<printer> -o sides=two-sided-long-edge <file>

Please follow the instructions on How to print to ING printers as a guest (on ING's intranet) if you wish to print from a portable computer on ingext wifi.

Internet access

If during your stay you experience a problem accessing the Internet or your home institution, please feel free to log the problem in the Fault Database. To help us diagnose the nature of the fault you should include as much information as possible about what you were doing when the fault occurred and the time of the fault.

The ING is only responsible for the network between and within the WHT, INT and JKT as well as the network between the ING sea-level office and the observatory. The connection to the Internet is maintained by the IAC and thus sometimes we may not be able to offer you an immediate solution to your problem. This would be the case if the problem occurred at the weekend or before 09.00am or after 03.30pm. IAC provides the Internet access through the Spanish RedIRIS network.