An engineering account is a windows NT account for all engineering graduate students. Most people in the stat department apply for an engineering account so that they can print to dh2088, dh2093 from their PC. (As a matter of fact, you can print from your PC without an Engineering account, but this can not be done without administrative privilege.) To apply for an engineering account, submit a problem via IT problem webpage http://problem.rice.edu. (For 2004 new students, enginerring accounts have been created).
Many Rice web services, such as the IT problem webpage http://problem.rice.edu, the IT software page http://software.is.rice.edu, and the registrar's office http://sisweb.rice.edu are only accessible from within Rice network. That is to say, you can not use these services at home or when you are off campus. The VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows secure transporting of data between Rice University and a remote user connected to the Internet outside of Rice, and thus allows remote users access to Rice resources just like they do in their offices. To use the VPN, you need to have a VPN account and VPN client software which can be downloaded from the Rice VPN homepage http://www.rice.edu/Computer/Dialup/vpn/index.html. You must request a VPN account via the Problem tracking system by simply stating "VPN account request." When your account is ready, you will receive an email reply asking you to bring a photo ID to the office of the VPN administrator to pick up your VPN password. Please refer to the remote access chapter for more details.