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eSmith Portal
(Revised 8/11/2004)
Introduction
The goal of the eSmith 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.
Availability
The portal is available to all faculty and staff,
and to students with Business and Management as their primary field of study.
It is highly recommended you use Internet Explorer on Windows to access the
portal.
The portal may be accessed at https://portal.rhsmith.umd.edu.
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, 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.
Feedback
on this system is encouraged! Please send your questions and comments to
portalhelp@rhsmith.umd.edu.
Updated 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:
|
Feature |
Benefit |
|
Email channel |
For users of Smith's Notes mail system,
displays the five most recent email message headers and provides single
sign-on into web-based iNotes. |
|
File browser for Netware files |
Upload and download files from both
your home directory and shared departmental directories |
|
Single sign-on to Blackboard |
Without having to log in again, click through to Smith's Blackbaord system |
|
Sametime and Quickplace collaboration |
Sametime provides the ability to do
audio/video, text chat, whiteboard, file transfer, and application
sharing. Quickplace provides virtual team rooms where collaborators
can keep an online shared workspace. |
|
Messages based on your profile (faculty,
staff, student, or a combination) |
Filtered school messages based on your
profile. You will see only those messages targeted to your profile. |
|
Portable bookmarks |
Maintain a list of browser bookmarks
in your portal profile. You can then have access to your bookmarked
sites even when away from your personal computer. |
|
Payroll and HR Applications |
Single sign-on to the campus ARES payroll
and human resources applications |
|
Access to windows applications |
Run Windows
applications in your browser. Applications include research tools (VBIC,
Research Insight) and the Windows version of the Lotus Notes client. |
Ready? Connect to the portal!
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