Information Technology Services (ITS) provides comprehensive infromation technology services with a state-of-the-art IT environment to support teaching, learning, research and administration of the University. Its facilities include an advanced campus network, powerful central servers, high-performance computer (HPC) clusters, cloud computing and modern learning environment, and its services include unified communication, portal services, learning management system “Moodle” and web-based administrative applications.
ITS runs 24-hour, non-stop system and network services to support the IT needs of the University. All students are given a computer account, identified uniquely by a HKU Portal UID (User Identification) and an associated PIN (Personal Identification Number), for accessing a wide range of network services and applications conveniently.
The HKU Portal provides a user-friendly and easy-to-access interface for University members to access all the centrally provided IT services including services offered under the Student Information System (SIS), electronic mail, learning management system, web-based administrative applications, and Library services through a high-speed campus network.
Powerful central computer servers support various web-based applications, departmental web sites and electronic email. Software packages for supporting engineering computation, scientific applications, simulations, graphics applications and statistical analysis are installed on these servers for use by staff and students.
ITS provides expertise and central support in high performance computing (HPC) and Cloud/Grid Computing to facilitate compute-intensive research activities of the University. A new 2,320-core HPC system (theoretical peak power of 103.4 Tera-FLOPS) equipped with the latest technologies, including GPGPU, MIC and Luster file-system, has just been put into service for supporting compute-intensive and accelerated computing. In addition, a 2,256-core 64-bit HPC system (theoretical peak power of 29.15 Tera-FLOPS) serving as the Hong Kong node of the China National Grid (CNGrid), is supported by ITS for shared use with the Department of Computer Science for supporting multi-disciplinary researches and systems research.
ITS has installed a high-speed and sophisticated campus network based on 10-Gigabit Ethernet and Fast Ethernet technologies with over 49,000 network access points installed which links together all the computer servers, workstations and PCs in the main and remote campuses.
Wireless access to the campus network and Internet is provided by over 4,300, WiFi access points and is available in all centrally-administered classrooms, public areas in the main campus, department offices and halls of student residence. Apart from the University’s WiFi network “HKU”,students can also enjoy WiFi access off-campus at CSL and Y5Zone WiFi hotspots in town, and at other local and overseas universities using “Universities WiFi” and international “eduroam” capability respectively.
The University of Hong Kong is a member of the Joint Universities Computer Centre (JUCC) that manages HARNET (the Hongkong Academic and Research NETwork) and coordinates inter-campus network services among the eight tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. The HKU campus network is connected to other tertiary institutions in Hong Kong through a resilient optical network backbone of HARNET that is built on the most advanced optical network platform supporting two 10Gbps ports at each institution to cater for future expansion. HARNET is connected to mainland China’s CERNET (China Education and Research Network) and TEIN3 (Trans Eurasia Information Network 3) in Europe through the high-speed connections of HARNET. The University also connects to mainland China’s CSTNET (China Science and Technology Network), ASGCNET (Academia Sinica Grid Computing Network) in Taiwan and KREONET (Korea Research Environment Open Network) in Korea.
Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing and storage capacity as a service to a heterogeneous community of end-recipients. ITS has implemented a private cloud infrastructure to better support the University’s dynamic computing needs. The service portfolio includes provision of Platform as a Service (PaaS) in the first instance followed by application Software as a Service (SaaS).
ITS manages the central learning environment of the University, which comprises classrooms, lecture theatres and learning commons. A wide variety of the latest IT and audio visual facilities are available for use by students and staff members. PC software packages, including word-processing, web page design, graphical and multimedia tools, and statistical analysis are available on communal PCs at the learning commons . Laser printing services are also provided in the learning commons at nominal charges. Apart from the central learning environment managed by ITS, PC laboratories are also available at the Faculties.
ITS provides a wide range of IT support services to members of the University. Orientation courses are offered to new students at the start of each academic year. Regular IT seminars, induction courses and training workshops on popular IT topics and commonly used software packages are also held throughout the year.? Students may visit ITS’ Service Desk on the 1/F of Chi Wah Learning Commons at the Centennial Campus, General enquiry Counter on the 1/F of library Building (Old Wing) or send email to ithelp@hku.hk to get assistance in using the central computing and network services. For more information about the services of ITS, please visit its web site at http://www.its.hku.hk.
1.HKU Portal UID and PIN
The HKU Portal UID and PIN will be distributed to new students upon admission registration.Thus, no application is required. The pre-assigned UID begins with “h” or “u” followed by the 3rd to the 9th digits of the HKU student number.? For example, if the 10-digit student number is 2015567890, the pre-assigned UID will be h1556789and the corresponding email address will be h1556789 @connect.hku.hk.? Similarly, if the student number is 3031234567, the pre-assigned UID will be u3123456 and the corresponding email address will be u3123456@connect.hku.hk. Students can use the simplified email address UID@hku.hk for receiving emails as emails will be automatically forwarded from UID@hku.hk to UID@connect.hku.hk. This email forwarding function will be available for use until student’s graduation.
Students can change their pre-assigned UID (once only during the entire study at the University) upon admission registration at the University if they prefer to choose another UID. A fee of HK$200 will be charged for subsequent requests to recover part of the administrative overhead. The UID chosen should resemble his name. ITS reserves the right to disapprove any chosen UID which is deemed inappropriate.
Since the personal information of students can be accessed using their UID and PIN, students are strongly advised to change their initial PIN as soon as possible and form a habit of changing their PIN regularly to prevent unauthorized access to their personal information. They must also keep their PIN confidential. The change of PIN can be done via the HKU Portal at https://hkuportal.hku.hk.
2.Connecting to the HKU Network
The network connection procedures for connecting to the campus network can be found at http://www.its.hku.hk/services/network/connect.
Students can also access the “Wi-Fi.hk via HKU” service (requires no prior configuration) before their mobile devices are configured for connecting to the University’s WiFi network, “HKU”. However, please note that Wi-Fi.hk via HKU is only for quick and immediate network access in an unsecure mode within limited bandwidth. More details can be found at http://www.its.hku.hk/documentation/guide/network/wifi/wifihk.
In summary, after the one-time configuration and registration of a PC, students can access Internet services from the HKU campus without further configuration steps.
For accessing the campus network services outside the University network, you will need to first login the HKUVPN2 gateway using your HKU Portal UID and PIN. See http://www.its.hku.hk/documentation/guide/network/remote/hkuvpn2 for the configuration and connection steps for making HKUVPN2 connection.
3.Protect Your PC from Computer Viruses and Network Attack
Students must protect their PCs vigilantly against computer viruses, trojan horses and spyware because they affect not only the operation of their PCs but also the performance of the entire campus network and the Internet. It is every user's responsibility to do the following (more details available at http://www.its.hku.hk/faq/personal/pc/virus):
| (a) | Perform Windows Critical Update whenever new critical update is available. |
| (b) | Install anti-malware software on the PC and update it with the virus and spyware definition file daily, preferably to be done immediately after the PC is started up. Students can download one copy of the Sophos anti-malware software for use on their PC during their studies at the University under HKU Portal (type “Sophos” under the Search field of HKU Portal and click the searched link “Download Sophos Anti-Virus”). |
| (c) | If a PC is infected with a virus, the virus may disable it from accessing anti-virus web sites and so it cannot be updated with the latest virus definition file. Students must use another PC to download the special removal tools and the latest virus definition files from the anti-virus web sites (please refer to the FAQ page on Computer Virus at http://www.its.hku.hk/faq/personal/pc/virus ). |
| (d) | Do NOT open suspicious mail or attachment from unknown/suspicious source. |
| (e) | Do NOT visit suspicious web sites or click on unknown web links. |
| (f) | Always remember to switch off a PC when not in use for a prolonged period to reduce its chance of being attacked and if infected, to attack other computers or the network. This also saves energy. |
4. Policies and Regulations
All students are required to abide by the policies and regulations in using the University’s computer and network facilities and services. These policies and regulations can be found in the appendices of this Handbook or at http://www.its.hku.hk/about/policies.
5. More Information
More useful information to new students can be found from the ITS Guide at http://www.its.hku.hk/documentation/handbook/its-guide/2015-2016. A comprehensive overview of the services provided by ITS is available at http://www.its.hku.hk/services Students can also refer to ITS homepage at http://www.its.hku.hk/ for a general coverage of the information on its popular facilities and services.