Students are encouraged to bring a laptop computer to campus. At Denison, you’ll find many technology resources at your disposal to enrich your college experience. Having a laptop computer helps you take full advantage of the resources available. But if you don’t have a computer, don’t worry – Denison provides many computer labs for students including a 24/7 computer lab in Fellows Hall. You’ll also find laptops available to check out for use within the Library.

Bringing a printer is a matter of personal preference. Denison students are provided with a generous print allowance to use when printing to the B&W laser printers available in labs and public spaces around campus.  The yearly print allowance equates to 1200 sides/600 pages when printing double-sided or 900 pages when printing single-sided. Students can add money to their Denison Dollars account and continue to print at a very low rate ($.03 per side when printing double-sided; $.04 per page when printing single-sided). Color printing is available through Office Services' Copy Center.

All buildings on campus (including residence halls) have wireless network service. Residence hall rooms provide one data jack per person so each resident can use a wired network connection if desired.  Denison’s ITS provides Ethernet cables to students upon request.  

Mac or PC? Denison's labs are about 50% PC (Windows) and about 50% Macintosh. Students' computers generally reflect those percentages, though it changes each year. ITS’ first recommendation is to check with the department of your intended major to see if the department has a recommendation. If you have not yet selected a major, or the department of your major does not have a recommendation, you should purchase the type of computer you are more comfortable with. The computer labs will generally provide whatever additional resources are needed for any project.

For information on minimum and recommended configurations, please see Computer Recommendations for Students.

Denison does not sell computers, but the vendors Denison uses for university-owned computers provide educational (or better) pricing to Denison students.  For more information, please see Computer Recommendations for Students

If you do not want to have to transport a computer to campus, once you are assigned a Slayter box number in July, the Slayter mailroom will hold packages for you until you arrive on campus. Therefore, you may order a computer and have it shipped directly to Denison, eliminating the need to transport it yourself.

Denison provides Microsoft Office and McAfee antivirus software to students at no cost. The software can be downloaded online. Once you receive your username and password, please visit MyDenison (http://my.denison.edu) and log in. Click the "Computing" tab and locate the "Software for Student Use" area.

Note: Microsoft Windows upgrades are also available at no cost. Students may install the operating system upgrade themselves or seek help from the ITS Help Desk Student Annex.

Public labs are available during normal building hours (8:30am to 9:00pm). Departmental lab hours vary due to class schedules and lab monitoring hours. Fellows 100 - our largest public lab is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  A list of labs is available online: Public & Departmental Labs

The software on each public computer is updated at least once or twice a year. The computers in each of the labs are replaced about every four years.

As an educational institution, Denison takes its responsibility to educate students about copyright issues very seriously. Denison’s Acceptable Use Policy is clear - students must abide by all applicable laws and university policies. So while you may use P2P file-sharing programs, you must NOT illegally download or share copyrighted music, videos, or other files.  To learn more, see Denison's P2P policy.

In order to ensure equitable distribution of network resources, there is a maximum network bandwidth each person can consume. If you are doing something that consumes an extremely large amount of bandwidth, you may see lags.

To connect to Denison’s network, you’ll need to meet a few basic computer requirements.

• Your computer must have an up-to-date operating system with all current security patches installed. (Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, or Windows 7; Mac OS 10.5 or higher)
• You must have antivirus software installed with up-to-date virus definition files. (Denison provides antivirus software to all students, so you don’t need to worry about purchasing that.)

The first time you connect to Denison’s network – either by plugging in to the data jack in your residence hall room or selecting the “Denison” network from your wireless networks list – you’ll need to register your computer. To do so, simply open a web browser and follow the prompts. Registering your computer ensures it meets the above requirements so it is protected while connected to the network. Connecting to the network and registering is a simple process and ITS will be available to help if you have any questions or problems.

Denison has had few, if any, laptops stolen from locked dorm rooms. To protect your computer, never leave it unattended and always lock your room if you are not present.

Yes, you’ll be assigned an email account when you enroll. Email is an important form of communication on campus and students are expected to check email regularly.

Each student is given ample space on the email server in addition to 100MB of space on our Novell server. If this space is not sufficient for your academic needs, you can request an increase in storage space by emailing the ITS Help Desk (helpdesk@denison.edu).

ITS recommends that students consider purchasing an external hard drive in order to back up all of your important files on a regular basis. Additionally, students often find it valuable to have a USB memory stick (aka pen or thumb drive) to transport files between computers.