PC or Apple laptop

Snow18

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Hi, I know that the Naval Academy gives its students laptops, but if you want to bring your own, does it matter if you have a PC or an Apple laptop?
 
Hi, I know that the Naval Academy gives its students laptops, but if you want to bring your own, does it matter if you have a PC or an Apple laptop?

Be aware that although you could probably bring your own laptop there will be likely be a policy that says you cannot connect it to the network.

Hopefully a current mid can chime in and get you the ground truth.
 
This year each Plebe was provided with a desktop and a netbook, not a laptop. From what I have been told, most rarely use the netbook. They are not allowed to have their own laptop. Mine keeps his laptop at his sponsor family's home
 
Do not buy a laptop. If you already have one, sure, bring it.

Classes 2013+ get issued a netbook and a desktop. 2013 doesn't use their netbooks often because they suck, but the ones 2014 got seem to be better and I always see the plebes using them.

If you have your own laptop (I have my own that I use for writing papers...I wasn't issued a netbook), you will not be able to connect it to the network. If you think that it's worth it, then go for it, but there's no added convenience because you're getting issued the netbook whether you want it or not.
 
It is current policy (as it is as most large companies) that you cannot connect a non-issued PC to their network. You could use it on weekends and connect to other available external networks not associated with the Academy.
 
Can students use their email address issued to them to send personal emails to friends & family?
I notice that my son has friends that attend USNA that are on Facebook quite regularly....how are they able to do this?
 
Per my plebe; student email addresses (ending in .edu) are for official academy business only. We send personal email to her via Gmail or yahoo accounts.

Facebook is an official form of communication authorized by the DoD. Many military bases have pages and use it as a primary means of notifications and announcements. I assume the NA knows about mids using it and has approved. (It would, after all, be an easy block.) Here is a link to Commander Naval Installations Command's FB page: LINK
 
We were all issued desktops and netbooks. The desktops are actually high quality and I've never really had a problem with them. The few instances where I had trouble was when I had to deal with all of the USNA network/security/updating software that was preloaded onto it by the IT department.

The netbooks, however, suck. They are extremely slow, are bogged down by almost any piece of software you try to run on it, and for some people (including me) won't even connect to the USNA wifi networks in the different academic buildings. The only thing they're really good for is viewing documents away from your desktop or watching movies, but we were all issued an 880 gigabyte hard-drive that makes the task much simpler, and a lot of mids just use their phones to check email/view or transfer documents.

I bought a macbook pro about a year before I reported on i-day, and I definitely don't regret it. Although I can't connect to the internet with it on academy grounds, I am able to at my sponsors' and other places, and it just runs much better than the issued netbook. If anything I prefer to do homework on it and then just convert the file format and transfer to my pc to print off, as not having internet access helps me concentrate more on getting my work done. It's a great machine.
 
Cannot speak to your Facebook question, but would strongly suggest your Plebe have a separate email address to send/receive emails from family and friends. On average, Mids receive about 40-50 emails daily to their USNA email address that directly relate to the business of being a Midshipman. Those messages are going to be their top priority to read/reply. Best to keep personal emails in a separate account which they can access at their leisure, either on their desktop in Bancroft or on a smartphone that has email and/or text capabilities.
Personal experience with my Plebe son has been to text if I need a quick reply. Anything else is communicated via email to a "gmail" account.
 
Can students use their email address issued to them to send personal emails to friends & family?

Yes. However, as others have stated, it is more realistic for MIDN to use their own email account. Commercial email websites are not blocked on the USNA domain.

I notice that my son has friends that attend USNA that are on Facebook quite regularly....how are they able to do this?

Apparently, it isn't a bandwidth issue at peak time. One of the perks of being on a EDU vs MIL domain! I remember at one point they threatened to shut off ports and certain websites (which included Facebook) during "study hour" but that never ended up happening...thankfully! Ultimately, it is up to the Superintendent (or if the authority is delegated) to block websites.

And as always, everything done through the USNA network is subject to monitoring!
 
There is no computer access during plebe summer. Desktops are issued as part of the post-PPW ritual in August and IIRC are pre-loaded with the USNA-appropriate software, so there may not be an advantage to bringing your own. Desktops are issued in much the same way as the textbooks (paid for out of the ACE Loan), so the only thing that needs to be purchased outright is the printer, which is available at the Mid Store. I do know of some Mids who have two monitors, though, for whatever reason.
There may be contact information in the Permit to Report package so you could call USNA to ask the question and get the official answer.
 
As far as computer regulations, you would not be able to plug it into the network. As far as regulations governing what is authorized to be in your room, that depends on MIDNREGs and a special request chit --- remember you do have limited space, anyhow.

What would be the purpose of bringing your own desktop?
 
are you allowed to bring your own desktop?

Again the same policies would prevent you from connecting it to the network making it a big ole paper weight.

As to facebook, currently the DOD allows access to social networking sites on their networks.

In the last 5-10 years there have been huge changes to the military networks including those at USNA.
 
My Mid daughter reports that with the introduction of the IPad, there are a few Mids with them. In order to use them, they purchased a Hot Spot with a provider like Verizon or Cricket so they can access the internet. It's like a cell phone when used like that.
 
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