Connecting to the internet
Resnet.
Some say its expensive, but there’s really no where else in canada (outside universities) that you can get ~10 mb/sec upload and download (I’m pretty sure it maxes out wireless and ethernet) for under $100 dollars. Windows users need to get ida to connect (and engineers need ida for some required software.) Mac users actually have an easier time connecting since it only requires a confirmation page.
The school recently required ida 2.1 to connect to resnet, you can get it here:
Wireless
The most useful thing on campus that somehow not everyone knows about: connect to QueensuSecure_WPA2 to avoid logging in every time you try to connect to the internet. It actually astounds me how many people don’t do this when I walk into the library and see an odd number of people logging in. You can only do this on campus of course but the link on the how to is here for reference.
Queen’s WebMail.
Queen’s Mail formats are netid@queensu.ca. The fastest online way to check them is by going to webmail.queensu.ca. Alternatively, you can check them when you log in to my.queensu.ca (log in –> Palette –> launch webmail).
E-mail clients
Connecting Queen’s Mail to your preferred desktop client. It’s really unwieldy to always log into queensu.ca to check your mail. I recommend connecting it to a sort of email client to get the most out of it. Windows users are recommended to use outlook, but if you can figure out how to configure it (steps are mostly the same) Mozilla Thunderbird is free. Mac users are recommended to use the default mail client.
instructions on connecting: Apple Mail (Apple users need to remember to configure outgoing mail or you cant send anything), Outlook 2010
changing your display name
Queen’s university supports email Aliases. So instead of the ugly (for e.g. Jane Doe) 1jxd2@queensu.ca it can be shown as j.doe@queensu.ca. It can be changed here at https://netid.queensu.ca/idm/user/login.jsp. If you want to change it, do it now before you start giving out the unwieldy 1jxd2@queensu.ca to all the clubs that you’re going to be joining.
Miscellaneous
Mac Software
Macs do have a bunch of software that the school recommends. I’m of the opinion that the only really useful and necessary one is the antivirus program.
Residence Website Login
Over the course of the year people have often asked “how do I check how many meals I have left.” You do it from the page where you registered for residence. The page is a bit hard to find using google so I would recommend that you bookmark the page so that you can check your meal equivalencies.
https://studentweb.housing.queensu.ca/
Residence Phones
By default people in residence are listed in a residence phonebook. This phonebook is visible to all queen’s students (so long as the housing gateway isn’t locked I just checked and I could see the phonebook). I would recommend delisting yourself from the phone directory (also from the studentweb portal). It wasn’t a problem for me, but it’s usually better to be on the safe side of privacy if you are unaware or unwilling to take any potential risk. Though, there isn’t that much risk, the numbers are only valid on the queen’s campus with a queen’s phone) so if you’re willing to be open, but all means continue to leave your number on the directory for the year (chances are you wont be there to pick it up most of the time anyway).
Queen's Life 