Overview

As a guest of ICTP you have the possibility to connect your laptop to our network and access the Internet. You can either use a classic cable connection or use the wireless network. The latter is a little bit more complicated to set up, therefore we have a separate Wifi-Howto page.

Please make sure first that your computer is virus-free. You can have a look at the Virus How-to to find out how. If your computer is infected, it could start flooding our network trying to infect others. This in turn would trigger a mechanism blocking the network port you are using.

Where to connect

• In or near the computer labs there are dedicated desk spaces left free for laptop users, with Ethernet cables fixed to wall outlets, ready for use.
• Each room in our guest houses has one active network outlet. However, there is no cable. If you don't have one, you can buy one at our mail offices in the Main and Enrico Fermi Buildings. Due to administrative problems it is not possible to borrow network cables.
• You can also use the wireless network. See the specific wifi how-to for this purpose.

Setting up the software

TCP/IP

Make sure that your computer is using DHCP so that it automatically obtains an IP number from our servers. This is typically the default configuration, but might have been changed if you need a different setup at home. In Windows, open the Control Panel from the Start menu (under Settings), choose Network or Network and Internet Connections or Network and Dial-Up Connections (depending on the Windows version), then Network Connections (if present) and Local Area Connection. Click on Properties, choose Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and activate the options to obtain IP and DNS addresses automatically.

Web access (proxy settings)

You can find detailed instructions in the Proxy How-to page.

Tell your web browser to use our proxy. In Internet Explorer, use the Tools menu, Internet Options, and select the Connections tab. Click on the LAN Settings button. Make sure that only the second checkbox is active, and insert as URL http://wpad.ictp.it/wpad.dat.
Additionally you can use a manual setting, where you specify the hostname proxy.ictp.it and the port 3128.

On a Macintosh with OS X, you will find the proxy settings under the System Preferences, Network. It is useful to create a New Location (call it ICTP, for example). In the second option list, choose Built-in Ethernet and click on the Proxy tab. Activate either the manual or the automatic proxy option and enter the corresponding value (as shown in the previous paragraphs).

e-Mail

If you want send e-mail from your computer, make sure that it is configured to use TLS or SSL for outgoing connections, with port 465 or 587. Port 25 cannot be used. Which of the secure protocols you can use depends on your home mail server.

Printing

For Windows and macOS, please download the Ricoh printer driver first. Use your favourite search engine to find "Ricoh C4500 driver", pick a page from the ricoh.com domain and select a driver corresponding to your operating system (if there's a choice, PS and not PCL).

In Windows, use the menu path Start icon -->  Settings --> (Devices) --> "Printers and Scanners" --> "Add a printer or scanner" -->  "Add device"   --> "The printer that I want isn't listed /Add manually""  --> "Select a shared printer by name"  and add the URL shown below. PLEASE REPLACE printername with the correct name: such as apubc1 or lpubc1, etc..   You should be prompted to select a driver for the printer.

http://printsv.ictp.it/printers/printername

where printername can be found on a yellow label on the printer itself (e.g. lcmc1, apubc2, etc.). See also this video.

In Linux, open a terminal window and use the following command:

sudo lpadmin -p printername -E -v http://printsv.ictp.it/printers/printername

In macOS, under System Preferences/Printers, add an IP Printer and fill in the fields as follows:

Address: printsv.ictp.it
Protocol: Internet Printing Protocol - IPP
Queue: printers/printername
Name: printername
Use: Generic PostScript Printer    OR
 the Ricoh driver previously downloaded

See also the corresponding chapter in the ICTP user guide.

VPN

If you have to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to connect to your home institution then there are some limitations to live with. First of all, UDP ports are generally blocked and therefore you should configure your VPN software to use TCP if your software and the servers you connect to give this possibility. It is also necessary that all connections are initiated from your computer (at ICTP) towards the outside. For security reasons connections cannot be initiated from outside.