How Can We Help?
Quick Start Guide
The Economics Department’s IT Team (Econ IT) provides high quality computer support for all faculty, staff and students. The team currently consists of three full-time IT Professionals. Our goal is to provide the Department with state-of-the-art technical resources and support services. The resources we provide supplement those provided by MIT’s central IT Department, IS&T.
Where to go for help
The main Econ IT office is located in E52-311, and is generally staffed by appointment only. Please email all support requests to econ-support@mit.edu.
Getting an Account
In most cases, you will have both an MIT Kerberos account and a separate ECON account. The username for both accounts will always be the same, but you may set different passwords. Your ECON account is used to access departmental resources where your MIT account is used to access resources provided by IS&T. If you do not yet have an MIT account, you can create one at https://web.mit.edu/register/.
If you do not already have an ECON account, you can request one by emailing econ-support@mit.edu. If you believe you have an account but do not remember your password, you can reset it at https://econ-pass.mit.edu.
You can access most MIT browser-based resources by using a personal certificate. To create or renew your MIT certificate, visit https://ca.mit.edu/ca/.
Many resources will require Duo two-factor authentication. This system will require you provide authentication via secondary device (typically your smartphone) in addition to your password. More information is available from IS&T.
Computer Labs
Although the Department no longer provides a traditional computer lab space, we offer a Windows-based “virtual lab” system which can be accessed remotely from your personal computer or from many zero clients throughout E52. Zero clients are available to any PhD student with office space, and in the following shared spaces:
| Name | Room Number | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Undergrad Lounge | E52-574 | 2 |
| Graduate Lounge | E52-486 | 3 |
| UROP Lab | E52-568 | 3 |
The virtual lab system is available to any student (both grad and undergrad) with an ECON account. More information about the system is available at here.
Home Directories and Data Storage
Every member of the Department is provided with a home directory on our network storage system. Home directories are accessible from both Department Windows Desktops and Linux servers (as well as personal computers, including Macs). They provide a high level of reliability and user accessible backups (snapshots). When working on any virtualized windows system or Linux server, you should save all personal files to your home directory. Windows profile folders (e.g. Documents) are automatically redirected to your home directory (under the winprofile directory). Staff and Students are provided with a 200GB quota, faculty members are given 1TB. To discuss options for increasing your quota, email econ-support@mit.edu.
Many faculty members have shared “proj” directories on the Linux research servers. This is a shared storage space intended for collaboration with students, RA’s and co-authors.
Research Computing Servers
Econ IT supports many RedHat Enterprise Linux-based research computing systems. This includes both shared systems open to all Dept. Faculty/Students and private systems used by individual faculty members and research groups. These systems allow you connect remotely and run computationally intensive jobs regardless from both on and off campus. The primary shared systems are blackmarket, supply, demand, and econometrics.
Wireless Network
Wireless access (802.11b/g/n) to MITnet is available throughout campus. Guests to MIT can connect using the “MIT GUEST” network. Regular users should connect to “MIT SECURE”, which will require you to enter your MIT Kerberos credentials. If you need assistance getting connected, we can help.
VPN
You will first need to connect to the MIT VPN in order to access many resources from off-campus (including all econ research computing servers). More information about connecting is available from IS&T.
Software for Personal Computers
The following software can be obtained for use on personal computers at no cost:
Additional Documentation
Econ-Help is our knowledge base system, you can find documentation and answers to common questions. You will need to login with your ECON account to access most of the site. IS&T also maintains a Knowledge Base.