IT info to get you up and running at MSU

The IT accounts and services listed below are key to being able to get up and running at MSU from day one.

UIT Service Desk New Employee Orientation Presentation

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Start at the beginning

The NetID is an identifier made up of 2 alpha and 5 numeric characters using the conventional a12e345 (example: a12e345).

To Claim your NetID:

  1. Go to Claim/Recover Your NetID and follow the prompts to retrieve your NetID.

To set your NetID password:

  1. Go to http://password.montana.edu
  2. Read instructions to set up new user profile in Self-Service Password Portal.
  3. Proceed to Password Portal to set NetID password.

What do I use my NetID for?

Your NetID is used to access most services at MSU.  For a complete list of services visit the IDs and Services page and/or IT Services for Faculty and Staff.

MyInfo is part of MSU's administration information system and is the online location where employees go to enter and receive payroll information, update personal information, select insurance, get class info, etc.  

To log into MyInfo: 

  1. Go to http://www.montana.edu/myinfo and click the Log into MyInfo link. You can always find the link by going to montana.edu and clicking the Faculty & Staff link on the top banner.
  2. Enter your NetID and password.
  3. If you do not know your NetID, click Claim/Reclaim NetID.
  4. Follow prompts to set security ID verification profile and then set password.
  5. Click the Personal Information tab -> View IDs
    Your MSU ID and NetID will be listed here.

All MSU faculty and staff members are automatically provisioned an Office 365 mailbox.  Email addresses are in the form of first.last@montana.edu. More information about Office 365 email...

Outlook is the supported email client on campus. There is also a web client referred to as Outlook Web or OWA that can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection.

To log into Office 365 Outlook Web:

  1. Go to http://www.montana.edu/office365/owa/  and click the blue login button.
  2. Enter your NetID@msu.montana.edu for username and NetID password (as set in step II above).
  3. Set language and time. 
  4. Send a test email to your supervisor. 

Duo

Duo is a form of two-factor authentication that uses an app on a mobile device,  phone call, passcode or token to verify the person logging into your account is actually you. 

All faculty and staff  are automatically enrolled in Duo.

For more information visit

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https://www.montana.edu/uit/duo/

Safe Computing

Hackers and cyber evil-doers target individual computers to use as entry points to the university network. A compromised network puts all of MSU's research and the personal identification information of students, faculty and staff at risk. Keeping your computer safe is the first line of defense to protect everyone.

For more information visit http://www.montana.edu/uit/safecomputing/.

Be a good data steward

Understand MSU's different data classifications and store your data in the appropriate location. Refer to the Data Storage Security Grid for more information.

Emergency Alerts

Enroll in the MSU Alert notification system to receive critical information in the event of an emergency.  

 

Services available to MSU employees

Visit the IT Services for Faculty and Staff page to familiarize yourself with additional resources including Office 365, cloud file storage options, Webex, and more.

 

Student Workers / Graduate Assistants 

When a student is working in their Student Worker / Graduate Assistant role, they should be logging into MSU computers with their Student-Worker account, and using the associated student-worker email account accordingly.

When anyone enrolls as a Student at MSU, they are automatically assigned a NetID username and an associated Student User Account and Student Email Address.

If a Student also becomes a Student Worker, a Graduate Teaching Assistant or a Graduate Research Assistant, they then are assigned a (firsnamelastname@msu.montana.edu) work username and an associated User Account and work Email Address.

Only student-worker and graduate assistant email accounts should be added to departmental or shared email accounts, not standard student email accounts.

  • This enables students to keep their student work and their worker/assistantship work in different user accounts, to compartmentalize messages and work, related to your two roles with MSU.
  • Providing Student worker/assistantships with two separate user accounts enables MSU to grant specific work-related permissions to your worker account, which should not be granted to any Student account, due to IT Security purposes.
  • Other Notes about Student email accounts:
    • - Email Forwarding from your work email account to your Student email account is not supported and is highly discouraged, to maintain the separation between the two types of accounts.
    • - Email Forwarding from MSU email accounts is not recommended or supported.
  • - When a Student becomes a GTA/GRA they are then automatically assigned a Student Worker username and an associated Student Worker User Account and Email Address.
  • - Non-GTA/GRA Student Worker accounts require a department/supervisor to submit this request form when they hire a new Student Employee (non-Grad): Office 365 Mailbox & Account Request Form
  • - Student Worker accounts are created from a nightly feed out of Banner. The job records in Banner are used to query who the currently active Student Workers are.
  • - A delay between EPAF submission and the creation of the account could be the result of a delay in the data in Banner getting set or the job has a future start date. 

Students can only see both accounts listed AFTER they reset their password in ReACT. The ReACT tool will show a “success” or “failure” report for each account.  

Examples showing your user accounts:

Student Account

Student Username (NetID): a12e345
Student Email Address: champ.bobcat@student.montana.edu

Username Format to log into your Student Email Account: a12e345@msu.montana.edu

{The username for email access includes your NetID username and our MSU Domain information to locate your account on Microsoft.}  


Student Worker/Assistantship Account

Work Username (FirstLast): champbobcat
Work Email Address: champbobcat@montana.edu
Username Format to log into your worker Email Account: champbobcat@msu.montana.edu

{The username for email access includes your "firstlast" username and our MSU Domain information to locate your account on Microsoft.} 

Changes to netID Password

    • Whenever you update your password on your user account, the updated password applies to both your normal Student and your Student Worker accounts at once.

Because today’s browsers use Cache ’ed history to speed up browsing, this can cause a problem when you have multiple accounts.

Solutions

Additional Computer User Profile

A student worker can login to their MSU owned computer using their student worker netID e.g. champbobcat. The student can then login to the computer with their normal student netID to do school work, and the student worker netID to do MSU related work. This will create 2 profiles on the computer. 

      • Use an Incognito/Private Window to access these services online
        • Incognito = Chrome
        • Private Window = Firefox
        • Private Window = Microsoft Edge
        • Using the Incognito/Private Window allows the browser to not used the Cache ’ed history, which would try and pull in your student account information and cause confusion when trying to access both accounts.
      • Clearing Cache

You can clear cache to address this issue, but using this method will re-Cache the information for whatever account you use on your browser next. After that, this single account info will be cached and you would either need to clear cache again, or you a an Incognito/Private Window.

Browser User Profiles

More information in creating Brower Profiles can be found here:

https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9310144?hl=en#2.2

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-remove-switch-firefox-profiles

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/sign-in-and-create-multiple-profiles-in-microsoft-edge-df94e622-2061-49ae-ad1d-6f0e43ce6435

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Find Support

UIT Service Desk

The UIT Service Desk provides IT and computer-related support and assistance to all MSU constituents and are available weekdays from 8 a.m. - 7 p.m. 

(406) 994-1777 | helpdesk@montana.edu  |MSU Library Commons   

Teaching & Learning Technologies 

ATO's Instructional Technology Support team maintains the Registrar-controlled Smart Classrooms/Podiums on campus.

Location and Contact Information Can Be Found at this URL at https://ato.montana.edu/technologies/learning-spaces/

Brightspace Learning Environment

Brightspace Learning Environment is commonly known as Brightspace, BrightspacLELE, or D2L.

Brightspace Learning Environment is a complete web-based suite of teaching and learning tools for course development, delivery, and management.

Brightspace is accessed through a password, maintaining a secure environment for course content and instructor/learner information.

Location and Contact Information Can Be Found at this URL

https://www.montana.edu/ecat/

Departmental IT Help 

gold triangle point to the right.If your department or unit has a dedicated IT staff person(s),  contact them first when looking for IT help.   They know your environment best and with the bonus of proximity, often can provide answers/resolutions in the most efficient manner. 

Departmental IT Contact page

Training Resources

Free IT-related training resources for faculty and staff at MSU.

MSU Employee Training Registration - MSU training sessions

Banner Training - Log in with your NetID and password

Library Workshops (Microsoft Office software, Zotero, Mendeley and more)

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com) - online software tutorials for business, software, technology, etc.

Safari Tech Books Online - great technology ebooks on programming, IT, project management...