Computers for Class of 2014

I was just curious if anyone knew the computer situation for the class of 2014. I was going to get a laptop from my parents as a combination Chritmas and birthday present, but didn't know if I should now that I am planning on going to the Naval Academy. Any insight would be helpful, Thanks!

I found on a site just recently a listing of the entire IT suite issued to each Midn each year. It included notebook and desktop and the entire software package needed to access the Navy campus. I wish I could remember where I found it but it was on an official site. I am sure a current mid can tell you exactly. I was going to give my son a notebook for graduation until I found this information.

Computers

This is the hyperlink to the Technology Suite that was issued to the Class of 2013:
http://candidatedata.usna.edu/computerspecs.asp
It includes a calculator, netbook and computer

EWNordy248 said:

This is the hyperlink to the Technology Suite that was issued to the Class of 2013:
http://candidatedata.usna.edu/computerspecs.asp
It includes a calculator, netbook and computer

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Not sure how accurate this is, but I have a friend who's a plebe now, and when we got into a discussion about this one day, said friend mentioned that the class of 2013 is a guinea pig for the IT department to see which computer they end up using more, and will adjust computer issue accordingly in the future.

RascalFlatts5858 said:

I was just curious if anyone knew the computer situation for the class of 2014. I was going to get a laptop from my parents as a combination Chritmas and birthday present, but didn't know if I should now that I am planning on going to the Naval Academy. Any insight would be helpful, Thanks!

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You should know that the Naval Academy is in the Dark Ages compared to even your average community college as far as internet access is concerned. There is no wireless access anywhere for any midshipmen. You cannot connect a non-Academy computer to the network, even with an ethernet cable. They do not permit you to use any USB memory sticks.

During "rush hour", (i.e. those times when many of the mids are all on their computers at the same time) there is a noticeable slowing down of the system.

Also, Macs are not permitted to be connected to the network. So, if you're a Mac-lover and a PC-hater, you're going to have to learn to get over that quickly.

So from the above responses i could not use my own computer at the Academy and they will provided one for midshipmen correct? Also I couldn't bring say my portable hardrive or flashdrive right?

RascalFlatts5858 said:

So from the above responses i could not use my own computer at the Academy and they will provided one for midshipmen correct? Also I couldn't bring say my portable hardrive or flashdrive right?

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They're going to give you everything you need - already configured.

Plebes are usually not allowed media privileges. No iPods, no listening to mp3's on your computer, no Hulu, no YouTube, etc ...

Of course, that is very difficult to monitor. Also, they tend to be less strict about this as the academic year progresses.

The academy has its own, private intranet that includes all kinds of TV channels. However, Plebes are not permitted to access it as long as media privileges are not extended.

USNA is a DoD unclassified network (not an ordinary college network) and thus, subjected to many restrictions. Navy has two commands responsible for the operations of its networks: Naval Networks Warfare Command (NETWARCOM) in Norfolk, VA and TENTH Fleet (C10F) at Fort Meade, MD. Normally, policy is set at one of these places. The USB restriction is a Navy-wide ban, not a USNA specific issue -- USNA isn't the only command that is inconvienced by this restriction. There are many other alternatives, such as emailing the file, burning it to a CD, placing it on a sharedrive, etc.

I really never had any issues with the LAN while at USNA. As for wireless, there were very few laptops that needed to be connected to the LAN as of 2 years ago (maybe things have changed).

As for standard computers, you cannot attach your own (unapproved) device to the LAN. You can maintain a laptop as a MIDN, just not attached to the network.

MIDN complain about everything -- including the lack of bandwidth (slowness of the LAN) at night. My suggestion, start limiting access to Facebook, MySpace, and AIM. Facebook eats a lot of bandwith and when 4,000+ try to access it all at once, a lot of resources are being used. But I am sure the MIDN would not want that -- but then again, who is on there during study hour?

Enjoy the LAN while at USNA, just wait until you become commissioned and get to deal with the real Navy Networks.

jadler03 said:

USNA is a DoD unclassified network (not an ordinary college network) and thus, subjected to many restrictions. Navy has two commands responsible for the operations of its networks: Naval Networks Warfare Command (NETWARCOM) in Norfolk, VA and TENTH Fleet (C10F) at Fort Meade, MD. Normally, policy is set at one of these places. The USB restriction is a Navy-wide ban, not a USNA specific issue -- USNA isn't the only command that is inconvienced by this restriction. There are many other alternatives, such as emailing the file, burning it to a CD, placing it on a sharedrive, etc.

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Yet, none of these restrictions exist at USMA and USAFA (I don't know about the other academies). Go figure.

You can leave your personal laptop at your sponser family and use it on Saturday when you have liberty. Otherwise, you cannot use your own computer as indicated above.

GoNavyMom