About Us

Tech FAQs

GENERAL SUPPORT CONTACT INFORMATION

RECOMMENDED LAPTOP SPECIFICATIONS

The following are the recommended specifications as of fall 2023 for a laptop for a student majoring in computer science, computer engineering, information technology, or cybersecurity. These are only recommendations, it is possible that a laptop of lower specifications will be sufficient for a student. 

We recommend Windows laptops with Windows 10 or Macbook* with MacOS Catalina 10.15, CPU i5 quad core, 16 GB of RAM, 500 GB (Solid State Drive) of internal storage capacity, video resolution of 1920x1080, HDMI/miniDP/Thunderbolt video output, USB ports, track mouse, keyboard, microphone, speakers, a headset, webcam, wireless connectivity 802.11n, and 8 hours of battery life.  In addition, we also recommend a 3-year warranty and an external USB backup drive of 500 GB.

*ARM based Macbooks with M1 or M2 CPU require the purchase of Parallels Desktop for Mac 

Faculty and Staff FAq's

How do I setup Panopto Cloud for Asynchronous Delivery of Instruction and Video/Screen Recording?

As part of the Canvas tools, Panopto Cloud allows the recording of computer screen, and other audio and video devices for asynchronous delivery of instruction. The steps for getting Panopto Enabled and installed on Canvas are included in this document.

How can I check the voicemails delivered to my office phones?

You can access your phone's voicemail by going here. Use your USF NetID and password to log in and your voicemails you be listed on the screen. Each message can then be selected individually for playback.

Additional Information related to telephone services can be found here.

Faculty, Staff and Students FAq's

How can I access my computer from off campus?

There are various options, namely USF RDG, or VPN.

a. USF provides the USF Remote Desktop Gateway (RDG) to access on-campus Windows-based computers.  To use this service please navigate here.   


b. For VPN connectivity, USF relies on the PaloAlto Global Protect. To install and configure the VPN clients on your computer, please refer to the following documentation.
Instructions for Windows
Instructions for Mac  
Instructions for Linux 
MD5 - A36A64A13F7072558E65C475B2E6807C
SHA256 - B3DD3335AC1105206F507ACFC685A99845FFEE9BD734BD7461048FFC9E00E6F3

What applications can students and faculty access remotely without requiring to use VPN or RDG?

USF provides the Application Gateway as a virtual resource where Engineering and other applications can be accessed remotely using Citrix virtual technologies. For more information please go here.

What additional resources are available to work remotely for faculty, staff, and students?

USF IT provides useful information for faculty, staff and students to help connect remotely to campus computing services and resources. This information is found here.