Welcome to the SSCC!
(For SSCC Members)

Welcome to the SSCC! The Social Science Computing Cooperative provides computing services for many departments and research agencies in the social sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The SSCC's hardware, software, and computer help are tailored to the needs of social science researchers and those who work with them, giving you a level of service and support that is unavailable to much of the campus community.

If you have questions or run into problems, the SSCC Help Desk is available to help you from 8AM to 12PM and 1PM to 4PM. There are several ways to get in touch with the Help Desk: you can call 262-9917 (2-9917 if you're using a campus phone), you can email helpdesk@ssc.wisc.edu, or you can stop by the SSCC staff offices in 4226 Sewell Social Sciences Building. Look for the yellow sign that says SSCC Consultant or the red sign that says Stat Consultant so you know who's "on duty."

Accounts

An SSCC Member is someone who has been sponsored for an SSCC account by one or more of our member agencies and departments. This means you have full access to all the SSCC's resources without charge. The costs of your membership are paid by your sponsor(s).

If you're reading this you've probably already activated your SSCC account. In the process you should have set your password and security questions, decided whether to request an SSCC orientation, and decided whether to use your SSCC email address or forward it to another address. Some important reminders:

Never share your SSCC account or give anyone your password (even SSCC staff)
We will send announcements to either your SSCC email address or your forwarding address—including when it's time to renew your account. Make sure you either forward your SSCC email or read it.

We suggest using Thunderbird or our web mail to read SSCC email. Instructions for configuring email programs to read SSCC email can be found in the SSCC Knowledge Base.

Internet Access

You can access the Internet throughout the Sewell Social Sciences Building by connecting to the campus wireless network. To do so you'll need to give your DoIT NetID and password (so make sure you activate your NetID at DoIT's web site). This network is not provided by the SSCC, so if you run into difficulties with it we may need to refer you to DoIT's help desk (264-HELP). The first time you use it you must open a web browser and log in to the campus wireless network before you can use other programs that need network access, such as email. Unfortunately the campus wireless network is not encrypted, so we suggest you turn on a VPN connection whenever you use it so your communications are secure.

The wired network in the building is provided by the SSCC, and gives direct access to SSCC resources. When you use the wired network you are behind our firewall so we ask that before you plug into it you make sure both your operating system and your antivirus software are up-to-date and update themselves automatically. For PCs running Windows, we suggest you use the free Microsoft Security Essentials. For Macs, we recommend the free Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition. If you prefer, you can drop off your computer in 4226 Sewell Social Sciences Building and our PC Support group will set up everything for you. See Securing Your Windows PC in our Knowledge Base for more security suggestions.

Software

The SSCC provides a great deal of software—most likely everything you'll need. This includes general purpose statistical programs like Stata, SAS, SPSS and R, many special purpose statistical programs, research tools like EndNote, and common software like Microsoft Office. The programs are provided on the SSCC's servers (especially Winstat) and/or in the computer labs so you probably won't need to purchase them or install them on your personal computer.

For a full list of all SSCC software and where it is installed, see our software web page.

Servers

Winstat is the SSCC's Windows Terminal Server farm. Winstat allows any SSCC member to log in and run Windows on the server, with full access to the SSCC network and a tremendous amount of software. You can also use it to transfer files between your computer and the network. This makes Winstat a very useful tool whether you're in the Sewell Social Sciences Building or anywhere else in the world.

To use Winstat you'll need to download and install a small, free client program. Our Knowledge Base article Using Winstat has instructions. One important rule to remember when using Winstat:

Save all your files on network drives like U:. Do not save files on your Windows desktop, in the Documents library, or anywhere on the C: drive. Files saved in the latter locations may or may not be available the next time you log into Winstat.

Linstat is the the SSCC's Linux computing cluster and provides additional computing power for those who need it. If your statistical job is taking more than a few minutes on Winstat, it would probably run more quickly on Linstat. Running statistical software on Linstat is probably easier than you expect; Using Linstat will get you started.

Computing Resources at the SSCC gives detailed descriptions of all the SSCC servers and suggestions for choosing the right server for your job.

Network Disk Space

The SSCC provides a very large amount of network disk space for our users. This space is secure, available from any location and backed up every night. We strongly recommend that you save all files related to your research work or other University business on the network rather than the local hard drive of your computer.

The SSCC has both Windows file servers and Linux file servers, and you have space on both. A program called Samba makes the Linux space available to Windows sessions as regular network drives.

Private space is provided in your two "home directories." When using Windows, your Windows home directory is the U: drive and your Linux home directory is Z: drive. This is where you should put anything you're working on individually. Shared space is provided in Project directories, which are on the X: drive (Windows) and the V: drive (Linux). Project directories allow groups working together on a common project to share files.

The Y: drive is temporary space. You can use it if you need a lot of disk space for a brief period, or to quickly share files with people who are not part of an official "project." However, you should keep in mind that files on the Y: drive are not secure, are not backed up, and are removed after 30 days.

Network Disk Space at the SSCC has more information, including how to request that a file be restored from backup.

Personal computers running Windows or Mac OS X can be set up to access the SSCC's network disk space, and most can also use the network printers. We will be happy to do this for you—just drop off your computer in 4226 Sewell Social Sciences Building. If you're not in the building or your computer cannot log into our domain you can easily access network drives and printers using Winstat. Alternative methods include VPN and FTP.

Printers

The SSCC provides general use printers in our computer labs: 4218, 3218 and 2470 Sewell Social Sciences Building. Setting Up Network Printers in Windows will tell you how to use these printers. SSCC members are not charged for printing.

Remote Access to SSCC Resources

Winstat, Linstat, files on the network, and even your office PC can be used from home or any location with Internet access. Working From Home and Other Remote Locations will tell you how.

Computer Labs

The SSCC provides three public computer labs in the Sewell Social Science building. 4218 is the main lab, 3218 is available when not in use by classes, and 2470 is a quiet place to work with your laptop (see the SSCC Computer Labs web page for more details).

Learning More

The most valuable resource for learning about the SSCC is the SSCC's web site (ssc.wisc.edu). It includes our policies, information about the SSCC, tools for working with your account, and links both to Winstat and our web mail.

But the most important part of the SSCC web site is the SSCC Knowledge Base, a collection of articles on SSCC resources and statistical computing in general. Topics range from basics like logging into Winstat to general introductions like Stata for Students, SPSS Statistics for Students or Stata for Researchers, to specifics like Bootstrapping in Stata or Exploring Regression Results using Margins.

We also offer free training classes each semester. Typical topics include Stata, SAS, SPSS, R, NVivo, and making web pages using WordPress. Visit our training page to see the schedule and register for classes.

The SSCC has a small library of statistical software documentation in 4218 for use in that lab. A few more books can be found in the 4226 staff offices.

Getting Help

The SSCC Help Desk is open 8AM-12PM and 1PM-4PM. You can contact the Help Desk by — helpdesk@ssc.wisc.edu, calling 262-9917 (2-9917 on campus) or stopping by 4226 Sewell Social Sciences Building.

From 1PM to 4PM SSCC staff with expertise in statistical software, primarily Stata, SAS and SPSS, are available for consultations. We can answer some general statistical questions, but we do not have a statistician on staff. We also cannot write your programs for you. But we will be more than happy to help with planning your project, figuring out the tricks that will make your program work, and of course finding and fixing bugs.

Again, welcome to the SSCC. If there is anything we can do to make your computing more productive, please let us know.

Last Revised: 8/14/2012

Welcome to the SSCC! (For SSCC Members)