Mac @ NUS (Part 1)
This is a little collection of information about using Mac computers in NUS (and SoC). The Macs work pretty well here, as long as you know how to get it configured correctly. There are four main configurations covered here:
- Wireless Network
- Exchange Email
- Network Drives (NUSNET H: drive or SoC UNIX server)
- Printing (particularly for printing to SoC printers)
That should be pretty much the main things you’ll need to know. There are some additional topics covered on a separate page.
Wireless Network
The first thing is to get onto the network. Nothing works without the network.
There are two main wireless networks in NUS: One that goes by the NUS SSID and the other NUSOPEN SSID. This section is about configuring the wireless network with NUS SSID. This is a secure wireless network were your over-the-air traffic is encrypted. NUSOPEN works like Wireless@SG (login through a web-based captive portal), is insecure and trivial for anyone to sniff your private network traffic. Don’t use NUSOPEN.
- Start System Preferences.
Click on Network (under Internet & Network).
On the left panel, click on AirPort.- Click on Advanced…
Click on the + sign.
For the Network Name, enter NUS.- For Security, select 802.1X WEP.
- No need to enter the User Name and Password now. It doesn’t seem to be remembered anyway. Make sure 802.1X is set to Automatic.
- Click Add.
The new NUS configuration will probably be listed at the bottom of the Preferred Networks list. Drag the NUS item to the top of the list.- Click OK.
- Click Apply.
- Your Mac should now automatically try connecting to the new NUS wireless network. If it does not, choose NUS in the Network Name selection box.
The 802.1X Authentication window appears. Enter your NUSNET account details. No need for domain part of the userid.- You’re done. If you want to login automatically to the NUS wireless network, continue: Quit System Preferences completely. Restart it, click on Network, then click on Advanced.
Click on the 802.1X tab. On the left, click on User Profiles, then WPA: NUS.- For User Name and Password, enter your NUSNET account details.
- For Authentication, deselect TTLS and EAP-FAST. These are not used in the NUS wireless network.
- Click OK. Then click Apply. Quit System Preferences.
Ok, you’re done.
If you’ve a N95 or N95 8GB, configuration information is available here. The information will probably be useful for most modern Symbian based phones (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, etc). iPhone users can refer to Lester Chan’s guide.
For Linux Users, check SOC NOC and Linux & Open Source @ NUS.
Exchange Email
Here’s how to access your NUSNET Exchange email from Mac OS X’s Mail application.
- Start the Mail application.
- Press Command-comma.
- Press the + sign.
Type in your Full Name and Email Address. The Password is not necessary at this point.- Click Continue.
For Account Type, choose Exchange IMAP.- For Description, enter NUSNET or anything you like to describe this account.
- For Incoming Mail Server, enter imap.nus.edu.sg.
- For User Name and Password, enter your NUSNET account details.
- For Outlook Web Access Server, enter exchange.nus.edu.sg.
- Click Continue.
For Description, enter NUSNET Outgoing or anything you like.- For Outgoing Mail Server, enter smtp.nus.edu.sg.
- Check the Use Authentication checkbox.
- For User Name and Password, enter your NUSNET account details.
- Click Continue.
Your Account Summary window should look similar to this. Click Create.
You’re done. The Mail application should now connect to your Exchange account, grab the list of folders, synchronize email, etc.
Network Drives
NUSNET provides one network drive, often referred to as the H: drive in Windows. SoC users also get another network drive from their SoC UNIX account. To access these drives from your Mac:
- Go to Finder, press Command-K.
For the Server Address, enter the following: smb://nts09.comp.nus.edu.sg/com/comlaizs. This is the format for SoC staff users. For students, this is something like smb://fs5.nus.edu.sg/stuhome/u0x/u0×0xxxx.- Just click Connect.
You will be prompted for authentication. Entier your NUSNET account username and password here.- Then click Connect.
You’ll see your network drive in Finder.
The Server Address for your NUSNET network drive tend to be varied, depending on whether you are staff or student, staff of which faculty, student undergrad or postgrad, etc. If you have more information to share, I’d be glad to update this page. You can also login to a Windows machine (and into your NUSNET account), and check how the H: drive is mapped using the NET USE command.
The Server Address format for SoC UNIX users take the following format: smb://sunfire.comp.nus.edu.sg/<userid> (for students) and smb://suna.comp.nus.edu.sg/<userid> (for staff).
Printing
Here’s how to configure printing to the printers/print queues in SoC.
- Start System Preferences.
- Click on Print & Fax.
Click the + sign.
If there is no Advanced button in the toolbar, you may have to add it there before continuing. Right-click the toolbar (or Control-Click), then drag and drop the Advanced button to the toolbar.- For Type, select Windows.
- The URL is the complicated bit. Make sure you get this right. The URL has the following format: smb://<nusnetid>:<password>@nusstu/nts27.comp.nus.edu.sg/<printername>
- where <nusnetid> is your NUSNET account name
- <password> is your NUSNET account password
- change nts27 to nts09 for staff users
- <printername> is the queue name of the printer which you can find listed at SoC Printers or Print Queues.
- For Name, enter anything you fancy to help you remember what print queue this is.
- Same for Location, whatever you fancy.
- For Print Using box, choose either the Generic PostScript Printer driver, or select the specific printer driver for the print queue. You can find the list of printer types at SoC Printers or Print Queues.
- Click Add.
Usually fine to leave the option settings unchanged.- Click Continue.
That’s it.
Other Stuffs
Here’s a bunch of other miscellaneous information that you may find useful.
- NUS Dialup (still on dialup?!):
- 6557-1070 for students
- 6657-1090 for staff
- SoC Dialup:
- 1800-7761022 toll-free for both SoC staff and students
- NUS VPN:
- The older Cisco VPN based on IPSEC protocol is deprecated. Best not to use it.
- The newer Web VPN: http://webvpn.nus.edu.sg/
- SoC-VPN:
- Head over to https://noc.comp.nus.edu.sg/vpn for more info.
That’s it.
very useful guide indeed.
Do you know how do we access to the H: of the nusnet network drive?
Can you email me for the afp or smb address… thanks =)
Ok, I’ve updated the info on this page. I’m not sure if it is right… but give it a try.
hey zit seng,
thanks for the info. i’m a nus student using mac too, and found yr guide most useful.
just 1 question: how do i print duplex copies of a file? i know i have to check ‘duplex unit’ in the installable options, but when my printer at home is added automatically via USB connection, the installable options pop-up doesn’t appear, and i can’t seem to find it.
would be most grateful for yr help!
hey just wanna noe if i am able to send my print job from my macbook to a printer in computing centre or central library… i am from fac of eng cant soc is like quite far away haha..
[...] for starters, ALL mac users in nus do refer to this website: zitsengsuperwall. it features VERY useful stuff like logging on to NUS network instead of the insecure NUSOPEN one, [...]
Just wanted to say THANKS because this guide is really useful (:
As an undergraduate matriculating in August this year, I just wanted to say thanks for all of the helpful info on this site. NUS’ documentation regarding OS X is decidedly hopeless, so it was good to find another online resource to allay my IT worries.
hey, will it be possible to download softwares like adobe creative suite from the nus server?
hey,
found your site very useful in helping me set up. Just wanted to check: the nus mail is a POP account. Therefore I would not be able to keep it online right? Is there an IMAP option?
It is actually an IMAP4 account. I don’t think POP3 is actually supported? The above instructions are for IMAP.
Thank you very much for writing such an easy to use guide. You make my life at NUS much easier.
Thanks so much for the information. It is extremely useful.
how do i connect to LAN port using NUSNET in school?
Hi,
I used to be able to print pdf files from my Mac without much problems at the central library.
Recently, when I try to print my readings, which let’s say is 10 pages, it appears to be hundred over pages at the printing counter (the place where we insert cashcard and pay for our printing). You have any idea why that might be so?
It’s really affecting me because I print a lot of readings form my laptop. Hope you can help on this. Thanks!
hey zit seng, i’m a nus student who’s a new mac user and thanks so much for your info on setting up our mail on Mac! it’s useful! thanks! =D
hi zit seng, do you have a guide on how to connect to the printers in central library and not just SoC? that would be helpful. thanks!
Unfortunately not… perhaps someone around here could help.
Hey zit seng! This is really useful! Thank you so much for it! I set up my email account in the shortest amount of time!
Hi,
Found your website really useful.
Just wondering about something – the “Outlook Web Access Server” did not show up if I chose the account type “Exchange 2007″ but it did when I chose “Exchange IMAP”. So I was wondering did I miss anything in the configuration steps. I am using Snow Leopard.
By the way, have you gotten your WebVPN to work with Snow Leopard yet?
Gordon
Thanks. I’ve changed the text to read Exchange IMAP, but I won’t be updating the screenshot. I wrote the above during the time of Leopard, there was no Exchange 2007 support then.
With regards to WebVPN… I didn’t work when I tested shortly after upgrading to Snow Leopard. I haven’t tried since, partly because I don’t normally need to use it anyway.
Hi Gordon,
WebVPN is now working on Snow Leopard for me. It is quite simple, basically you just need to run the following command under Terminal:
sudo mkdir ‘/Applications/Network Connect.app/Contents/Frameworks’
I got the information from http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/9f2oo/whos_running_snow_leopard_now_what_do_you_guys/c0cjdd5
cheers,
Budiman
has anyone else gotten VPN to work with Snow Leopard? Does Budiman’s trick work?
Yes my VPN works fine with SL. Just follow the information by Budiman. It is quite a common issue, go google.
Hi Zit Seng! Thanks so much for this page. I was nervous bout getting a new Mac but this set it up fine.
Do you know how to get this working off-campus? I can receive mails under these settings but I can’t send anything. It says the smtp server is offline.
Off campus like where? There are some free networks (Wireless@SG included) that transparently redirect port 25 traffic, which will cause problems when you configure to use NUS outgoing server.
Oh, like in another country. Or just anywhere with a private internet connection as opposed to the school, or wireless@sg.
Do you know if it’s ok on a normal broadband isp connection (e.g. StarHub MaxOnline, SingTel ADSL, or any of the 3G broadband data)? I used a few of them and they’re ok for me. I believe the likely cause of the problem you face is what I mentioned earlier: some networks transparently redirect port 25 to their own SMTP mail server, or perhaps they might even block entirely. There are ways to troubleshoot and identify the cause, but a little too longwinded to describe in here.
We can discuss separately if you want.
Oh, I see. That’s okay since I’m back in Singapore now..for the time being. I really appreciate your help, though. Thanks so much.
Thank you for all the useful information. In five years at NUS, I’ve learned everything I know about using macs on campus from you.
Hi Zit Seng,
I have the same problem as Annie and I’m interested to in finding out how to trouble shoot. I can’t send my emails out as well. It said the smtp server is offline. How do I resolve this issue?
Heh. Ok, can we move the “support” to Answers@Comp (http://answers.comp.nus.edu.sg/). It is a user support community setup run by some of SoC student helpers. I can follow-up in there too.
Hi Zit Seng,
I have the same problem as Annie whereby I can receive incoming emails but I can’t seem to send out any emails through my nus account. My smtp server is offline also.
I would like to know how I can troubleshoot this problem. Can help??
Hi Glen,
Let’s go over to http://answers.comp.nus.edu.sg/ to follow-up. Thanks.