Information Technology offers the MS Software for Home program to UW faculty and staff (student employees are not eligible) as a part of UW's Microsoft Campus Agreement. The Software for Home (WAH) program allows current faculty and staff to install and use Microsoft Office and Windows XP at home for campus-related work. We offer extremely aggressive pricing on Windows upgrades and Microsoft Office products.

For more information visit the Software for Home (formerly Work at Home) page (www.uwyo.edu/InfoTech/services/Sales/Software/WAH.htm).

UW employees and affiliates may use the Microsoft Outlook e-mail program to access their Exchange mailbox from a home computer. The e-mail application is included in the Office Suite.  Additionally, users may access their Exchange mailbox by using a Web browser and going to http://uwmail.uwyo.edu.

Other e-mail applications including non-Windows based programs may be configured to access an Exchange mailbox.

For details on how to configure certain applications and access e-mail, check out the instructions in the “E-mail” section of our Ask IT "How To" site (www.uwyo.edu/ASKIT/default.asp?parentid=1).

Many users report having another antivirus software program installed on their home computers. However, we have found that some people may not be aware that unless they pay a subscription fee, their antivirus program does not get “updated” with the most recent pattern files to protect them from the latest rash of viruses.  New computers may come with antivirus software pre-installed. The software may only be a trial version that is helpful for the first 90 days or so of ownership. If users are unsure, they should check with their computer vendor or the software vendor.

Information Technology strongly encourages all users to use antivirus software, whether it is through a service paid for by the user or through the “no-cost to the employee or student” service provided by us.

Faculty and staff with UWYO domain accounts are eligible to install and use Trend Micro's OfficeScan antivirus software at no additional charge. This important piece of protective software is available for institutionally-owned Windows-based computers. In addition, faculty and staff may install Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security on their personally-owned computers free of charge.

UW students are eligible to install and use Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security software on their personal computers free of charge.

To find out more about Trend Micro's OfficeScan and PC-cillin Internet Security software, visit our UW-Provided Antivirus Software page (www.uwyo.edu/antivirus/).

Spyware is, "Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge."¹

Malware may enable pop-up ads, change browser behavior, or collect personal information about a user’s browsing habits, credit card information, passwords and email addresses. Malware can severely degrade and disrupt the performance of a PC.

Information Technology recommends that all faculty, staff, and students take advantage of software available from the Internet to help combat increasingly aggressive attempts to collect personal information from PCs and to keep personally owned computers functional.

IT suggests the following application to help fight malware on personally owned (home) computers:

• Spybot Search & Destroy is free and may be downloaded by visiting www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html. Under the Home section, click on the Download link. Donations are accepted by the Spybot Search & Destroy authors, but they are not expected. A browser search may take users to other Web sites that try to mimic the popularity of this free product. Be careful to get the authentic Spybot Search & Destroy.

Protection for home computers is available through other free and fee-based applications that are intended for personally owned computers.

Although Information Technology is unable to support personally owned computers, the information we pass along on this Web site, in the IT newsletter and other IT forums may help you maintain your own computers. IT cannot assure any of these programs will work properly on personally owned computers.

¹See www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/spyware.html for a complete definition of spyware.

Free UW dial-up modem pool access:

UW Students, Faculty, and Staff have free access to a limited number of dial-up modems so that they may configure their home computers to dial into the university remote access server. You must have an active UW computer account before you can establish a connection to the UW network. Access is not guaranteed and wait times increase during the evening and weekend hours. Users should be aware that this older technology is slower than DSL or cable modem access that is available through third-party vendors.  Instructions for configuring a computer to access the UW modem pool, and information on time out periods may be reached from the Dial-Up Modem Connections page (www.uwyo.edu/InfoTech/Support/data/modems.htm).

For assistance with the services described above, please contact the Information Technology Help Desk at 766-4357 (6-HELP), option 1, e-mail Userhelp@uwyo.edu, or contact your assigned IT user consultant (www.uwyo.edu/InfoTech/Support/uclist.asp).

The University of Wyoming is a participating member of Dell’s Education Personal Purchase Program. UW faculty, staff, and students are eligible to receive special discounts and offers that are not available to the general public.

Some of the benefits of this program include:

• a 5 to 8 percent discount from Dell Home Sales list pricing on Dimension desktops and Inspiron notebooks
• additional discounts on OptiPlex desktops and Latitude notebooks
• academic pricing on peripherals
• access to additional holiday promotions
• discounted ground shipping
• 24-hour Dell hardware telephone technical support

To take advantage of this program go to UW's Dell Education Personal Purchase Program Web page (www.uwyo.edu/InfoTech/services/sales/dellspecials/).

Purchases, agreements, warranty repair and licensing are solely between Dell and the customer.  For questions about this program e-mail Kirk Brown, itsales@uwyo.edu, or call Kirk at 766-2875.

A Home User's Security Checklist for Windows¹
(www.securityfocus.com/columnists/220)

Microsoft's Security at Home Web page
(www.microsoft.com/athome/security/default.mspx)

¹Information Technology does not endorse nor support every aspect of the checklist provided at the site listed above, but the concepts are applicable for many home computer users. The opinions of the author are theirs alone and do not represent the opinions of the University of Wyoming nor Information Technology. UW Information Technology does not support the use of personal firewalls when using VPN to access University resources. Specific configurations of the Outlook email client may not be compatible with UW servers. Please check with your user consultant before incorporating any changes into your Outlook email client at home.

The resources described on this page are for home users only. IT user consultants will assist you with your office computer to ensure secure environments through antivirus, browser settings, Windows Updates, and environmental configurations to help protect institutionally owned computers.