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Frequently Asked Questions About the OCF

Q: How do I get an OCF account?
A: Go to the OCF computer lab located in Heller Lounge in the MLK Student Union. There you will find a stack of account forms in a gray tray immediately on your right upon entering the lab; you will need to take one, complete it and bring it, as well as valid student ID or other proof of University affiliation, to an available OCF staff member on duty (please check our staff hours for available times.) The staff member will take you through the approval process, eventually asking you to enter a password into the computer. Your account will be activated and ready for use a few days after the approval was completed.
  
Q: How do I find OCF staff members?
A: Staff members are usually available in the OCF computer lab in Heller Lounge. Within the lab there is a white board that has a schedule of when staffers hold their office hours to handle password changing or general questions; quite often they are down there at other times though.
  
Q: Who can get an OCF account?
A: Any currently registered U. C. Berkeley student or current employee or faculty member of the Berkeley campus. Also eligible are employees of groups affiliated with the University such as the Lawrence Berkeley Labs, Space Sciences Lab, Math Science Research Institute, and the Center for EUV Astrophysics. Students enrolled in U. C. Extension classes on the Berkeley campus, concurrent enrollment programs, or the Graduate Theological Union can also get OCF accounts. Neither alumni status nor attendance of another U. C. campus are qualifications for an OCF account.
  
Q: Where can I use my OCF account?
A: You can login to your account from anywhere you can access the campus computer network, including from a modem on a home computer, the Mac & PC facilities around campus and in the dorms, from instructional accounts, and from other computer accounts.
  
Q: What exactly is the OCF?
A: The OCF is an ASUC-sponsored Student-Initiated Service Group. Our limited funding comes directly from the ASUC and our computers are almost completely from donations. Our staff is all volunteers (no one is paid a cent) and policies are set by the OCF Board of Directors, which is made up of students interested in helping provide computing services to the campus community. The Board is always accepting new members; for more information come to a meeting (usually held weekly - announced in the login messages) or send e-mail to gm@ocf (the OCF General Manager - the student in charge of running the OCF organization).
  
Q: What's the difference between OCF and UCLink 1/2/3?
A: If all you want is a place to send and receive e-mail, there isn't much difference. If you want to do more than e-mail, Usenet news, file transfer, and gopher, then you will need an OCF account since UCLink 1, 2, & 3 accounts are limited to those things, while OCF accounts have very few limits as to what you are allowed to do with them. The other major difference that the OCF is run entirely by volunteer students while UCLink is an official University run service with paid employees.
  
Q: What's the difference between OCF and UCLink 4?
A: UClink4 is just a central storage location for e-mail. To do anything else (such as read that e-mail) you need to use another computer, such as the OCF, one of the campus-network connected Macs & PC's in the Microcomputer Facilities, or a home computer capable of running Connecting@Berkeley or some other SLIP/PPP software.
  
Q: Where can I get help if I have any other questions or problems?
A: You can ask OCF staff in person or send e-mail to us.

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