At some point in your college career, you will need to share files between yourself and your peers. A great solution is Netfiles, 500 MB of online web storage for each Illinois student.

Some cool things about Netfiles: you can store files only for yourself, or you can share them with specific UIUC Netfiles users, or you can make them available on the public internet (available to any internet-enabled computer in the world).

Something that you may not know, however, is that you can mount your Netfiles directory as a drive on your computer. This means that just as you can save a file to your “C drive,” you can enable your Nefiles folder to be another drive letter like the “W drive.” This is done through an excellent program called WebDrive. Check out all the information on using WebDrive with your Netfiles account on the CITES Netfiles Documentation.

When I reinstalled Windows last December, I didn’t install the Java Plugin on purpose, because U of I’s Blackboard Learning System (branded Illinois Compass) does a Java check on each login. This Java check takes forever, and is much shorter if Java is not installed (which makes no sense). I have not had any reason to install Java for three months. It was a great decision, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to speed up their Illinois Compass browsing times.

Yes, the word that all college students love – free. Hulu.com, an online video site that is a collaboration between NBC and FOX, launched earlier this week. This is indeed a replacement for player that NBC was previously using to stream their TV shows online, but Hulu.com also features free full-length movies. Yes, you heard it right – now you can watch classics like Ice Age, The Big Lebowski, and October Sky in addition to your favorite TV shows House and Conan. Plus, they offer a “high resolution” mode, although it must be enabled manually.

Overall, it’s a great service with unobtrusive ads – exactly a service that will attract college students away from the torrents. Way to go NBC.

Andy Ihnatko: No need to jump through hoops to enjoy Hulu

Today I had to use the CITES VPN client. As usual, I browsed over to cites.uiuc.edu/vpn. What I found was a new version of the VPN client! Yes! This is excellent news for all University of Illinois students, considering the old Cisco VPN client was bloated, slow, and didn’t work well with Windows Vista.

For Windows Vista, there is no extra program needed to use the new UIUC CITES VPN. All you need to do is add a VPN connection in the Network and Sharing Center. The instructions on how to do this were very good, and I set up this connection in no time. It worked well.

For Windows XP, however, the new VPN client program is required. Although this program is only for adding and managing Windows settings (the VPN connection is actually using Windows networking infrastructure), it still works well. I downloaded the VPN client from the CITES Webstore as described. The installer was a measly 544 KB – much less bloated than the Cisco VPN client used to be.

The install process is easy and quick. It placed a shortcut on my desktop to the VPN client, which, because the program is highly customized for UIUC, has a neat little UIUC logo for the icon. It is very simple – all you have to do is type in your netID and password – no choosing between 4 different connections like before. Again, this is a very nice touch.

I typed in my netID and password, and voilà! I was connected! I did run into a problem that I could not connect for 30 minutes one time – hopefully this is only a one-time problem (or it may have been a problem on my end). Either way, the new VPN solution is very good, and it will only get better with time. (Plus, I think it is cheaper than the expensive Cisco solution). Way to go, CITES!

Note: the old VPN is still available at cites.uiuc.edu/vpnarchive

University of Illinois CITES has now released a VPN solution for Windows Vista users. As you may know, VPN is required for all CITES wireless access if you don’t want to use the feeble “Quick Connect” option. Links for CITES VPN are below:

CITES VPN Home
CITES VPN for Windows Vista

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