Division of Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences Computer Services Help Desk

The Biological Sciences Computer Services Unit maintains a help desk to provide a more convenient and efficient point of contact for all persons needing computer or network assistance in the Division of Biological Sciences.

The help desk can be reached at help@biology.ucsd.edu or (858) 534-6355 (which is the same as UCSD local extension 46355). As we use an automated case tracking system which logs all email communication to and from the help desk, email is the most reliable and effecient method to request assistance. This tracking system makes it much easier to track problems (especially when more than one staff member is working on them).

The general hours for phone support are 9am-4pm Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Drop in support is also available, but you are strongly encouraged to make an appointment for such service. The Help Desk is located in 1900 Urey Hall.

Among the many things the help desk is responsible for are:

  • Serving as the Biological Sciences Computer Services primary contact point: All trouble reports, questions and requests for service should be addressed to the help desk.
  • Distributing account information: All new employees of the Biological Sciences Division are automatically assigned an account. The information about these accounts (passwords, usernames, etc) and how to use them (Eudora tutorial, etc) will be passed out by the help desk. Users will have to show photo ID to receive their account packets. Forms for requesting accounts for 199's, volunteers and visiting scholars are available at the help desk and here: Account Request Form.
  • Assigning network addresses in core Biological Sciences buildings and activating network jacks.
  • Allocating space for class and lab web sites.

The help desk aims for a response window of less than 4 business (9am - 4:00 pm weekdays) hours. Due to limited resources and the nature of computer problems we cannot guarantee the resolution of problems within this window of time, however.

We welcome any feedback on the help desk. Please send comments or questions to Tom Pfender, the help desk manager (tpfender@ucsd.edu) or Jude Poole, the Computer Services Director (jude@ucsd.edu)