Information Technology

Students using laptop computer

IT Support Overview

Desktop support, Campus accounts (bMail/bCal/Box, etc), Telecom and device support are available from Berkeley's Campus Shared Services (CSS). Software licenses are described below.

HOW TO REQUEST HELP WITH CAMPUS SHARED SERVICES

CalNet ID Activations & Cards

If you need help with your Calnet ID or need to make guest accounts, see https://calnetweb.berkeley.edu/

If you need a Cal1Card, see https://cal1card.berkeley.edu/

Wifi

Visit the Berkeley IT website for information on WIFI options.

Molecular Graphics and Computation Facility

The College of Chemistry has a scientific computing facility called the Molecular Graphics and Computational Facility

Many scientific software packages are available to MGCF users along with HPC servers, training and consulting. The MGCF also has a poster printing service.

Research Group Websites on the CCHEM Server 

There is currently no support for this server. If you have a site on cchem and need emergency assistance, MGCF staff will try to help. No other support is given. Email MGCF at: mgcf@berkeley.edu

How to use the cchem staging server:

College CCHEM Staging Server Quick Guide:

If you have a cchem hosting account with the college, the following is a quick guide to get you started:

      • Example stage server url: (use prefix http://) stage[dot]cchem[dot]Berkeley[dot]edu/~XXX (~, 'XXX' is your account name)
      • Example production server url: (use prefix http://) cchem[dot]berkeley[dot]edu/XXX (no ~, 'XXX' is your account name)
      • use SFTP to connect to the stage server (FTP will not work)
      • web pages should be located in a subdirectory called public_html
      • be sure to designate your home page as index.html within the public_html folder

Research Group Websites

hosting & Site building information for research groups

Each research group must design, develop, and maintain their own website. Anyone within the research group can take on the webmaster responsibilities, or the group can hire their own web developer.

For information on essential, cost-effective website solutions, visit  Berkeley Web Platform Services

Open Berkeley

Open Berkeley is a Berkeley Branded, turnkey web platform solution for UC Berkeley campus websites. Campus employees with no prior web experience can use Open Berkeley's powerful toolset to easily build sophisticated websites, and customers can rely on Open Berkeley to provide critical solutions to ongoing Security, Accessibility, and Maintenance issues. This is a highly recommended platform if you intend on connecting a berkeley.edu domain. 

Google Sites (bConnected)

Google Sites is available for free via Berkeley bConnected*. Google sites allows you to create a simple personal website, wiki, or project site without any prior programming or design skills. With an intuitive drag & drop interface, you can work alone or collaborate with others to build your site in a short amount of time. 

Rates: Google sites are free via Berkeley bConnected.

*Google site domains are configured with the customname appended after the final /.
(Pointing a berkeley domain name to a Google Site is not currently supported.)

Pantheon Hosting with Berkeley (Wordpress & Drupal)

Pantheon Hosting: Drupal/Wordpress Pantheon provides powerful, easy-to-use tools for building and maintaining Drupal and Wordpress websites and applications. IST has partnered with San Francisco-based Pantheon to provide affordable hosting plans with 24/7 support. This is a recommended platform if you intend on connecting a berkeley.edu domain.  If you need help professional help with web design and development, see Pantheon's trusted network of agencies  for highly skilled teams familiar with the Pantheon platform.

Other Hosting Options

If you choose a different hosting service other than those listed above, be sure to  read the UC Berkeley Guidelines for Berkeley.edu websites and be aware that no-code websites are flagged by Berkeley as being non-compliant with privacy policies.

How to get a Berkeley Domain Name (berkeley.edu)

Registration Service: Hostnames are assigned by IST-CNS only for "berkeley.edu" domain locations. Hostnames are generally registered on a first-come, first-served, basis. Requests will be granted within two (2) business days. See the IST Domain Name System (DNS) Service Policy webpage for more details.

Request a Berkeley Domain: Offsite hostname registration is available through Berkeley's Information Security Office

All UC Berkeley websites, those in the berkeley.edu domain and any website affiliated with the University, must comply with both campus and UC-systemwide policies.

Website Accessibility Requirements & Training

Please review the Berkeley Digital Accessibility website or contact improving-accessibility@berkeley.edu if you have any questions or would like to talk with a digital accessibility consultant.

Sign up for a UC Berkeley SiteImprove account to help keep your site accessible.

Campus IT Security Policies

The Information Security Office (ISO) is responsible for the development and maintenance of campus IT Security Policies. We focus on the protection of information and information systems across the University.

Visit the Berkeley Information Security Office website to learn about significant campus IT policies and related standards, guidelines, and procedures.

Licensed Software

Software licenses for many programs are available. Many of these are paid for by UC Berkeley, or by the College of Chemistry or College of Engineering, and some are paid for by other consortia of researchers and departments. Depending on the funding structure, some of the programs listed below will require contributions from researchers. Visit Software@Berkeley for more information.

Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud is a collection of desktop and mobile applications and services used for designing print and online media assets, video editing, web development, and photography.

ChemDraw
This software is paid for by the College of Chemistry on behalf of campus users. It requires a yearly renewal, usually in May/June. http://mgcf.cchem.berkeley.edu/mgcf/chemdraw.html

LabVIEW
The College of Engineering has paid for a site license. However, they expect College of Chemistry users to contribute to that cost. If you download from this link, then your research group will be asked to contribute a cost share proportional to the number of downloads made by members of your group. Do not download unless your research group is willing to contribute to the cost share. This cost share is accounted annually. Currently, only the Leone and Yang groups are contributing to this cost share. Other research groups in the College of Chemistry have licenses for their individual groups but are encouraged to join the College of Engineering consortium when they are due for renewal since it is more cost effective for everyone.

Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 Apps is a collection of services that includes access to Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint. It comes with access to the latest features, security patches, and fixes.

MATLAB® is a high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and programming. Using MATLAB, you can analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications.

Do I have to pay for MATLAB? Matlab licensing is paid for by a consortium of campus units. Undergraduates using Matlab for coursework are not required to pay for Matlab when used on their personally-owned computers. The College of Chemistry expects researchers to pay for their share of the cost of Matlab. These costs are prepaid by the College of Chemistry to the consortium. Campus will notify the College of Chemistry Recharge Team of any researchers downloading Matlab, and then the Recharge Team will contact the PI to recover that cost.

Mathematica
Mathematica is a computational software program used in many scientific, engineering, mathematical and computing fields.