Network Access at SCC:

Overview
SCC's network has grown in the past few years. In the past our network was separated between Administrative and Instructional computing. In designing new network systems this operational separation along with a need to centrally manage the systems was taken into account. This has lead us to a network schema that contains two account contexts. One is called client.main.sc (for employee based services), known as the "client" context. The other is called learner.sc (for Instructional computing), known as the "learner" context or "SIREN" account.

"Client" context accounts are created with special permissions to access administrative network resources. The accounts are normally used from an office environment. These accounts also govern dialup access support at SCC. The naming convention for accounts in this context is based on LastName. Repeated LastNames are appended with an underscore "_" First Initial.

"Learner" context accounts are created for accessing the computing environment within our classrooms and labs. The account are automatically created for Faculty and Students. Naming conventions in this context are limited to 8 characters. Faculty based accounts use First Initial of your FirstName combined with your LastName (James N. Smith = jsmith). Student accounts use the First Initial of the FirstName and the Middle Initial combined with the LastName (James N. Smith = jnsmith). Extended information for Students and Faculty is available at the SIREN Home Page.

Historically, these contexts have been separate for both security and management reasons. So faculty teaching in the SIREN system may have two entry points to their networked resources: their "client" account or their "learner" account. By default, you log in to one context or the other, and that context is usually determined by the machine where you are working. So when you log in to your Netware account from a lab or classroom, by default you attach to an academic (sc_nwsrv1) or a location (AirPark) server. When you log in from your office, you attach by default to an administrative (sc_nwsrv2) server.

Your files can cross contexts if you set up security equivalence, a procedure whereby your accounts are linked across contexts. When your accounts are equivalent, you can map a drive on a "learner" based server using your "client" account; or you may do the reverse. Or on a Mac, create aliases.