Important Introductory Notes

The Essentials page is an advanced web application that interacts with your computer. It runs best in Internet Explorer on a Windows PC, but will run in Netscape or Mozilla and on other platforms. For security, it uses the SSL protocol to encrypt communications. For your convenience it can download and run programs on your computer. Also, it uses pop-up windows extensively in its operation so that you can use a feature of the portal in a window without having to keep track of which window you used to log in to the portal.

Running programs from an untrusted website is not a good idea, so web browsers will by default pop up warning messages when this occurs. Also, some web sites use "pop-up" advertising to sell products, and people use software to block those ads. Both of these factors, while useful to protect your computer when surfing the Internet, will interfere with portal use. Here's how to turn off the web browser warnings and pop-up ad blockers. Again, these messages, while annoying when using a site you trust, are there to protect you when using the public Internet.

In Internet Explorer:

All of the following are specific to a computer, not to your account on the Essentials page. When you save these settings on one computer you shouldn't see the messages again, but if you switch to another computer (say, at home vs. at school) you will see them repeated.

When you first connect to the portal, you might get a warning that looks like this:

This is simply alerting you to the fact that you are using a secure, encrypted connection, and has no impact on the operation of the Essentials page. You can very safely check the box that will prevent this screen from showing up again and hit the OK button, and it will not bother you in the future.

When you submit your username and password on the login screen, you might see this message:

This dialog box is asking if you would like Windows to remember your password for you. This means that anyone who comes to the Essentials page on the computer you're using will not have to know your password, because Windows will have saved it. This is dangerous to do, because you don't know who might be next using your computer. It is our recommendation that you check the box that says "Don't offer to remember any more passwords," especially if you are on a shared computer. At a minimum, you should click the "No" button to protect access to your Essentials page.

Some links on eSmith (the file browser, for example, or Sametime) require Java. Launching a page with Java will result in warnings that look like this:

These warnings are telling you that you are about to run a program that can access your computer. You can trust programs downloaded from the portal as being OK to use; they will not install viruses or report information to anywhere. You should still always be careful when running web-based programs from sites other than those you know and trust.

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About eSmith / Getting Started

The goal of the eSmith Essentials page web portal is to provide an attractive, easy to use gateway to navigate through the network of both public and private information, services and business functions of the school and the University. It provides a secure infrastructure to present Web-based applications and information to the Smith community. The portal is focused on tools for collaboration, research, and personal productivity.

The portal is available to students with Business and Management as their primary field of study, faculty, and staff.

Features and Benefits:

In August, 2004 eSmith underwent a major revision that primarily affected the Windows Applications tool in the portal. The new features include:

• No more Java! -- the client installs as a native application on the client computer, and integrates with the browser similarly to Acrobat Reader
• Better compatibility -- so far, all tested browsers have worked with the tool – Internet Explorer, Mozilla variants, and Netscape variants, on both PC and Macintosh Smaller client -- the client is only 2MB, so it is faster to download and launch (the client is also available on the Smith IT Tools CD for 2004, for those who don't wish to download the client) Quicker page display -- the client is only is loaded when you actually launch an application, so the pages can draw without loading all of the helper code Windows applications in eSmith can work with your client computer -- you can save documents from the applications directly to the disk drives on your client computer, and can print to a printer attached to the client computer, with no intermediate steps No more login screens -- once you have saved your Netware account information in the portal you will have single sign-on access to the applications
• More tightly controlled application publishing -- faculty or staff who need applications published for teaching or administrative purposes can make the applications visible only to certain users, and can limit the number of copies of an application that are launched (to comply with licensing requirements)

Here is a list of the features and benefits to be found in eSmith:

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Login Help

To log in, you must use your University Directory username and password (sometimes also known as your LDAP username). This is the same login you might be using with other campus systems such as Blackboard, the wireless computer network, Testudo, CorporateTime, and WebCT. You can also optionally use this username and password with ARES and Testudo. If you have never used your University Directory username before, there is help available for first-time users at http://www.smith.umd.edu/portal/portal_login_help.html. Because this is a private system for internal use by Smith faculty, staff, and students, there is no guest access available.

The portal uses information collected from a variety of campus data sources. The Smith school is only a consumer of this information; we have no ability to make changes to this information in the source systems. If you see some information listed incorrectly here (for example, your e-mail address or the spelling of your name), please edit your personal information in Testudo (for students) or Ares (for faculty/staff-go to Payroll and Human Resources on the menu, then Display/Update Personal Data). Most changes should be reflected here in about 24 hours, though depending on the nature of the change a weekend may have to pass before the results take effect.

If you have questions (after reading the Q&A section below), please contact portalhelp@rhsmith.umd.edu for more assistance. If there is something that should be added to this page, please contact us with that information as well.

Q& A:

• Can't log in...
• If I change this password, what happens?
• What's the point of using the University Directory password? And what's an LDAP anyway?

Q: I can’t log in.

Answer: Are you are using the username and password that can be found at https://ldap.umd.edu/cgi-bin/chpwd?searchbyssn? Other usernames and passwords you may know (Testudo, Ares, Netware, Notes, and so on) will not work in this system.

Alternate Answer: Access to this portal is only given to University faculty and staff and to students whose primary major is in BMGT.  If you do not fall into this category you will not be able to log in.

Q: If I change this password, will it affect other campus systems that I use?

Answer: Yes, changing the University Directory (LDAP) password can affect other systems. Here's a rough map of what passwords are used on which systems:

• University Directory: Smith (not Engineering) Blackboard, Smith Education Portal, the campus wireless network system, WebCT, and CorporateTime. It can optionally be used with Testudo and ARES as well, though they still accept the old "SID/PIN" pair.
• SID/PIN: Testudo, ARES, MARS
• Smith Netware: only Netware
• Smith Notes: only Notes
• WAM, Glue, ACCMail, etc, etc... only those systems

So, for example, if you were to change your University Directory password, you would have to use that new password in WebCT and CorporateTime as well. It would not affect your Testudo account, even though you might have used the Testudo username and password to change the University Directory password. You also cannot start using your University Directory username for Testudo--Testudo will continue using the old SID/PIN for a while longer, until it can be rewritten to use the University Directory username/password.

Q: Why did we add yet another password to the list I have to remember?!? What's so good about the University Directory password?

Answer: This answer is kind of technical, but we figure many people will be curious.

Though it might seem that we're adding another password, it's a part of a University-wide effort to actually reduce the total number of passwords people use. Undergraduates are likely already using the University Directory, since they probably have classes that use WebCT elsewhere in the University. BMGT students, faculty, and staff use it for the Smith Web portal and Blackboard, as well as for the wireless networking system. And remember: previously, students had individual usernames and passwords for the Notes databases for each class they were in (and had to get a new set of five every semester), but now will just have the one University Directory password for Blackboard for the whole time they're in attendance.

Users may now have over a dozen username/password pairs to remember. This is a legacy of all the different systems that have grown up independently around campus. Until the past year or so, there has been no way to tie the security on systems from different vendors together; there was no common standard. Now, the University Directory is that common standard. New systems implemented in the University interface with the University Directory for usernames and passwords. We're also working to move old systems to use the University Directory as well, so that all systems on campus will hopefully eventually use the University Directory for security--the most important being ARES and Testudo. This is important, because the use of social security numbers as usernames is highly discouraged, and passwords that are only made up of numbers are fairly easy to guess, or "hack."

An advantage that the old SSN/PIN had was that it was guaranteed to be unique for everyone at the University, while systems that were only in certain schools or departments were not. The the University Directory username shares this characteristic, so it can be used by any system anywhere in the University without fear that a second user showing up and clashing. This is extremely handy when integrating systems; we know for certain that if someone signs into the Web portal as <username>, that they will also be <username> in Blackboard, WebCT, and so on.

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Essentials Page Overview

• Channels Overview
• Applications Tab
• Links Tab

Channels overview

The content on the tabbed pages is placed in little boxes, which are called "channels." Each tab has it's own set of channels, and its own organization of the channels.

In a change from previous releases of the portal, all channels have now been pre-populated by default onto the tabbed pages.

Many channels have an Edit button () in the right corner of their red title bar. This is where you can edit the settings for a channel. The settings for the channels are described below.

Applications tab

The Applications tab looks something like the screen below. Based on who you log in as, you might get different contents in the channel.

Smith School Messaging channel: The Smith School Messaging channel is the core of the integration between eSmith and the Smith School Notes/Domino systems. It is where you set the username and password that is used throughout the system for Domino integration. This is done using the Edit button of the channel.

Undergraduates and others who do not have a Smith Notes/Domino account may pick the option "I do not have a Domino account." This will log them in to Domino applications (such as Sametime and Quickplace communities) with their University Directory account. Most functionality in these systems is still available without a Domino login, but users who would like an account can apply for one here.

Users with Notes/Domino accounts can enter their username and password in this box, and all Domino applications launched from eSmith (such as Sametime and Quickplace communities) will use this account. Users that have Notes email accounts (not just forwarding addresses) will see message headers from their five most recent email messages in the window.

System Messages channel: Messages containing updates about various Smith IT systems are published here. Also, emergency messages about things like school closures due to snow will also appear in this box. There is nothing to configure in this channel.

Windows Applications channel: This is documented in a separate page located here.

Smith Calendar channel: A summary of the Smith School Calendar. When configured with the Edit button, you can pick which calendar categories you are interested in, and how many days of calendar information you would like to view. For full functionality, click on the link to the full Smith calendar.

Links tab:

Reference: Commonly used campus links.

Smith Communities: This channel provides single sign-on links to Smith community tools like Samtime Instant Messaging and Quickplace. Quickplace is an excellent tool for creating online collaboration spaces. It can provide a place for workgroups to store documents, have discussions, and so on. For more details, see the Quickplace home page.

Public Home Page: Provides a thumbnail of the current www.rhsmith.umd.edu home page, so you can tell at a glance if the page has changed since you last read it. Click on the thumbnail to see the full-sized home page.

Timesheet and Payroll: Single sign-on to the campus ARES payroll and human resources applications.

Bookmarks: The Bookmarks channel allows you to save browser bookmarks in the channel. You can configure the links inside this box by hitting the Edit button.

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