One can download for free from Nomachine for Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OSX 10.3/4/5, and various distributions of linux (Suse 10.3/Fedora 10), a client that will allow you to work directly on calclab1.math.tamu.edu over the internet using the GUI interface.

The configuration is straightforward: Login and Password are those that you use on calclab1. Session is calclab1. Host is calclab1.math.tamu.edu. Desktop is unix KDE. Speed is ADSL. Display can be set to Available area.


Turning off the icon zoom on calclab.

Various individuals have mentioned to me that when they connect from the Vista Open Access Computer Labs to calclab1 using nx, the machine essentially freezes because the icons zoom when one mouses over the tool bar. It usually takes 30 seconds or more for the zoomed icon to complete, during which time the nx connection is unusable.

There is an easy fix for this problem. One can use the text editor kate on the calclab machines to edit the kickerrc configuration file and turn the icon zoom off.

From the terminal window, type

kate .kde/share/config/kickerrc

click on new session, then scroll to the bottom and insert the two lines

[buttons]
EnableIconZoom=false

Click to save the edited changes, and on the next login, there will no longer be a large zoomed icon when you mouse over. NX logins will then be fast and easy.