Technology

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How do I access the DrewNet portal? Hide

New students will receive a login during orientation in the first week of school. New parents will be receiving information about their own logins via email during the summer and we will also be holding a parent tech orientation session before school starts.

Existing students and Teachers can log into the DrewNet portal using the same username and password they use to log into the computers at Drew.

Existing parents must have an email address on record at Drew. If you do have an address on record, go to the Parent link under DrewNet and click on the "New Users" link to receive your password. If you don't have an email address on record, or possibly have a different address, contact the Front Desk by email at frontdesk@drewschool.org or phone at 415 409 3739.

My laptop is filthy what should I do? Hide

Come on by room 201! We have safe computer cleaning products on hand, and a little advice to help keep your computer looking like new!

How can I get my personal laptop on Claw-Net? Hide

Drew school has a very extensive wireless network available to all registered Drew students. To get access you will need:

1. A computer that is capable of handling 802.11 a\b\g wireless traffic (most are).
   
2. A computer that can function in a WPA2 security environment (most can).
3. A computer with up-to-date Anti-Virus and spyware protection.
4. A computer with no Peer-to-peer software on it at all. These include Limewire, Soulseek, Bittorrent and all clients, Kazza, etc... Sorry no exceptions!
   
5. The WPA2 security key! This will be distributed to your system by either Tom or Anthony, only after we have checked your system to make sure it meets our standards.
   

How can I access "My Documents" from a personal laptop? Hide

There are several ways one can access files that are stored on Drew's servers:

1. The simplest and most straightforward way I can think of is to buy\borrow a USB flash drive, plug in to a system already connected to the Drew School network and retrieve the necessary files that way.
2. Email. This can be a very powerful tool and at the same time a real pain. Generally emailing yourself small files (< 1Mb) is ok but great care has to be taken when using this method. There are several reasons for this, for instance many email service providers (including Drew) block a wide variety of content that can potentially carry a Virus or Trojan, these include all files with the .exe, .zip, .rar file extensions as well as a few others. It is best to make sure the file you are attempting to send has the appropriate extension (i.e. .doc for documents, .ppt for powerpoints, .xls for excel files etc). There is also a 10Mb send\receive limit per email in place at Drew and in most of the world. This is in place to prevent people from sending huge files that would otherwise clog up networks and storage systems.
3. All other mediums: Floppy disk (small 1.44Mb), CD-R (700Mb) and DVD-R (very large capacity 4.5Gb) work here as well but can be a little cumbersome and time consuming to create. I should add that Drew School has free media for all registerd students and staff that wish to take this approach (Room 201).
4. Last but not least there is a very advanced and direct method to access your network materials from a personal laptop, but it requires information and access not available to the general public or Drew students. Only if "all else fails" will one of our friendly tech staff help out on a one-on-one basis, and even then not before trying all of the methods listed above.

Where would I find a good tutorial on.... Hide

Microsoft Windows XP
Difficulty rating: All levels

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/using/windowsxp/default.mspx
Microsoft's home base for Windows XP tips and help can be found at the above link.

Adobe Photoshop
Difficulty rating : Advanced

http://www.elated.com/articles/cat/photoshop/
This is a very good link for beginners questions. The learning curve on this program is very steep but the rewards to knowing how to use it are boundless. Googleing specific questions is usually the best approach to getting help: "How do I make a new brush...." etc...

Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Outlook, Excel, Powerpoint)
Difficulty rating : Beginner

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/FX100565001033.aspx
There are literally thousands of articles and tutorials out there for this product suite from the Microsoft family available on the net as it is the most widely used desktop publishing software around. Keep your eyes peeled for some updated links for Office 2007, the new and very improved version of this suite.

As a student or teacher, where can I buy software or hardware at reduced prices? Hide

Many vendors offer discounts to students and teachers - for example, Apple offers a discount on most of it's computers, accessories, and software. Always ask the vendor if they offer academic pricing.

Through a special arrangement with CDWG, a reseller, Drew students and teachers can purchase Microsoft software at big price reductions, often as much as 80% off the retail price. Follow these instructions below to access the special pricing:

Click here. The web address is: http://cdwg.onthehub.com

In the drop-down window under "Institution Type" select "K-12."

In the drop-down window under "State/Province" select "California."

Click on the "Go" button.

Scroll down and click on the Drew College Prep School link. You will now be viewing the Microsoft products that are available for purchase.

Click on the product in which you are interested to obtain pricing information.

Follow the standard steps to make your purchase.

I've lost my file! What should I do?!? Hide

Well for starters don't panic! Obviously every situation is different but there are a few common scenarios that we might be able to help with:

1. Check the Recycle Bin in Windows or the Trash on a Mac. Sometimes files just end up there by accident.
2. Do a search on you computer for the filename, make it very broad.
3. If you were working with a file here at Drew that was in your "My Documents" folder there is a very good chance that we still have a copy of it in one of our many backup sets. Generally we have 2-3 weeks of backups on hand and can usually find some thing that was lost\deleted that same day.
4. Many people who email themselves files from home to work with at Drew make the fatal mistake of opening the file directly from the web browser rather then saving it first to the computers hard disk. Files that are opened in this manner (usually using the "Open With..." function) are saved temporarily to the computer and deleted right after the program you used to open the file with is closed. There is very little magic on this one and this method of working on a file should ALWAYS be avoided unless you're sure that you won't need the file after you're done working with it.
   

How do I print on my personal laptop at Drew? Hide

This document will instruct you in the process of configuring a printer on a personal laptop using the Drew School network. This will only work with Windows XP and Vista.

My mailbox has exceeded its limit! What Should I do? Hide

In order to deal with the large numbers of email accounts we have here at Drew, the Tech Department has implemented strict size quotas on mailboxes. If you find yourself suddenly unable to send or receive mail and are given the warning "Your mailbox size has exceeded its limit" there are a few tricks you can use to free up space besides just outright deleting your mail.

1. The first thing to try is to open Outlook 2003 and instead of arranging your mail by date received click on the "Size" button at the top of the list. This will sort your mail by size and will show your messages in order from the largest to smallest and the mail will then be grouped into clusters based on size. For example, mail that that exceeds 10 Megabytes (10 Mb) will be labeled as "Enormous" and should be saved to your network drive or deleted from the system. To help put this number into perspective, the average email with no attachment is about 7-15 kbs. This means that the one 10Mb email is worth about 1000 smaller ones! Groovy!
   
2. Empty your Deleted Items folder! This is the last stop for most old email and is often forgotten. Emptying this is crucial and can avert a headache down the line.
   
3. Any mail you send using the Drew School email system will save an exact copy of its self (including all attachments) to your Sent Items folder. This folder can quickly fill up your size quota with often useless or redundant material.
4. If you have tried all of these steps and are still having issues, take the time to clean out your main Inbox and folders! By arranging the mail by Sender, Outlook 2003 will cluster all messages by the name of whoever sent it, making it very easy to clean out useless spam and unwanted mail.