Everything you need to know for a smooth IT setup in 2024
When you’re getting ready to start your course, the last thing you want is to get bogged down in technical troubles.
Visit the IT website for a quick start guide, or the IT Inductions website for more detail — but here are some simple tips to help everything go a little smoother.
Before you start your course
It’s likely that you’re busy preparing for the start of term, but taking care of a couple of tasks now will mean you’ll have much less to worry about sorting when you get here.
- Did you know you can set up your username and password long before you get to campus? You can get it set up as soon as you get your student ID number from us.
- Once you’ve got your username set up, it’s worth taking a little time to set up Duo. It’s what we use for two-factor authentication — just like you’d use for your bank, Google account, and other things like that — so it’ll help protect your account and is important for getting into certain University systems.
- You also don’t need to go and buy a subscription to Microsoft 365 or other office software! As a student, you’ll have access to Microsoft’s office tool for free!
- It might be handy to download some of our apps. Safezone is a useful way to call for help — be it first aid or mental health incident, or an emergency. The UniLeeds app will give you access to things like your timetable, the Library catalogue, laundry availability in residencies and sports bookings. It even has a campus map, which brings us to…
Your first few days
You’ve made it! We know you’ll be really busy meeting new people and getting started, so we’ll keep this bit short.
- If you’re in halls this year, there would have been a handout in your room when you arrived. You’ll want to hang on to it as it’ll tell you how to get online in halls. You can find the details online, but believe us — the physical copy comes in really handy if you exchange your old phone or computer to get a new one!
- Speaking of phones, you can connect to wifi when you’re out and about on campus. The network is called eduroam, and you can use it in a bunch of different universities around the world, too.
Settling in
Ok, so you know your way around a bit now and know enough to nod wisely when someone mentions the name of a place to eat on Woodhouse Lane and suggest somewhere better when they tell you how great it is. What now?
- Caught without any battery, or just want to go and do some work where there are other people to compare notes with? You can visit one of our computer clusters.
- Find out how our printing system works. Obviously you should think twice about the environment and whether or not you really need print that document out, but we’ve made the cheapest, most environmentally-friendly option the default if you absolutely need to.
- Time flies, and October is cyber security month, so it’s worth making sure your passwords aren’t completely rubbish and brush up on other security tips.
Hopefully that helps get you started. If you need tech support, visit it.leeds.ac.uk and login (once you have your username and password set up) to access a huge database of help articles, advice pieces and tips on all sorts of things, including:
- Duo two-factor authentication
- Self-service password reset
- Connecting eduroam, the wifi network
- Finding a computer on campus in one of our computer clusters
- Printing
Each article offers a selection of related articles that may help answer your exact question.
If you still need help, click the speech bubble in the bottom right of the screen — Falco, our chatbot, can help point you in the right direction.
