Laptop Support

Introduction

The size of the ICT group is (a.o. things) determined by the number of desktop workstations in the faculty. Laptops are not part of this count. Hence, support for laptops is different from support for desktop workstations.

There are three laptop categories:

Personal Laptops

These systems are bought by yourself without financial support from the faculty.

Faculty (home) Laptop

Laptops financed by the faculty (institutes and departments) that are used both outside and within the faculty complementary to a fixed desktop system

Laptops as replacement for fixed desktop systems

Laptops financed by the faculty and used as the main computer for the user (no fixed desktop system is available for the user).

Personal Laptops

For laptops in this category only limited software support is provided.

Software Licenses

If licenseconditions allow it, software available from the Informatiserings Centrum can be installed on these systems. The user must buy this software from the the Informatiserings Centrum. The FNWI ICT group does not provide support for this.

If licenseconditions allow it, software for which the ICT group has a license may be installed on these systems. Such software is available from the faculty library. The FNWI ICT group does not provide support for this.

Nota Bene: most softwarevendors have different conditions for using software at home than for using software on a faculty desktop system. Many people mistakingly think that software installed on faculty desktop system may be used for free at home.

Network connection

Personal laptops cannot be hooked up to the normal production networks within the faculty.

Personal laptops may be connected to the laptop networks (if these are available in the building). In this case the laptop must have a valid DHCP configuration. Requests for such a network connection must be made by the institute director via email to the Service Desk.

Backups

The user of a laptop is him/her-self fully responsible for regular backups of the system.

Faculty (home) Laptop

If such a system is managed by the user him/her-self support for the system falls into the "Personal Laptops" category, and is not supported by the ICT group.

Software support contract

Faculty (home) Laptops can be maintained by the ICT group provided a software support contract is paid for. Such a contract has a standard agreement duration of three (3) years. The support contract costs € 450 for 3 years. Dualboot laptops cannot be supported.

The software support contract provides carry-in service four (4) times a year for bringing the operating system and application software up-to-date. In normal circumstances the carry-in service takes a day provided the laptop is brought in before 10 o'clock in the morning.

The price of the support contract does not include the software costs. It only covers the labourcosts.

Hardware maintenance contract

Apart from the software support contract every laptop is initially purchased with a three (3) year hardware maintenance contract. If a laptop needs to be repaired it has to be carried-in including any applicable periferals. Note than the ICT group cannot give estimates for repair-time, since this depends on the hardware maintenance contract conditions.

Backups

The user of a laptop is him/her-self fully responsible for regular backups of the system.

Through the SMB protocol (Windows filesharing) laptops have access to the users' homedirectory on one of the central faculty fileservers. Documents that are saved on the fileserver are backed up every night by the ICT group.

Software Incidents

If for some reason software starts malfunctioning the ICT group can in general fix this for the laptop user. However such repairs are charged to the insitute of faculty department (the fee is € 30 an hour).

Supported brands and operating systems

At the time of this writing only Toshiba and Apple laptops can be maintained by the ICT group.

The ICT group support the same operating systems for laptops as for desktop system. For an overview see the operating systems page.

Network connection

If local facilities allow this a 'Faculty (home) Laptop' can be hooked up to the normal production networks. The institute director (head of a faculty department) has give his/her consent before the ICT group can make the connection.

Requests for network connections should be filed with the Service Desk.

Laptops as replacement for fixed desktop systems

Laptops are considered a replacement for a fixed desktop system if the user does not have a fixed desktop system at his disposal.

Laptops in this category are also bought with a standard three (3) year hardware maintenance contract. For software support by the ICT group no additional charges apply (as is the case for fixed desktop systems).

If a software account is made available on the laptop incidental software fixed by the ICT group are charged € 30 an hour.

Dualboot laptops cannot be supported by the ICT group (as is the case for fixed desktop systems).

Backups

The user of a laptop is him/her-self fully responsible for regular backups of the system. Note that during hardware or software maintenance documents that are not backed up may be lost.

'Laptops as replacement for fixed desktop systems' can access the users' homedirectory on one of the central filesyservers. Documents that are saved on the fileserver are backed up every night by the ICT group.

Network connection

'Laptops as replacement for fixed desktop systems' are hooked up to the standard production networks.

Requests for network connections should be filed with the Service Desk.

Pricing

Item	Price
Software maintenance contract for 3 years	€ 450
Software repairs not covered by the above contract, per hour	€ 30