The IT offer
Your h_da user account
As the university computer centre, the IT Services and Applications Department is responsible for the entire area of information technology and central applications.
When you start your studies, you will receive the access data for your h_da-user account. These are:
- The user ID (user name) consists of the first letter "st", the first two letters of your first name and the first five letters of your last name. You will receive the user ID by post together with your campuscard,
- The master password is similar to the PUK on a SIM card. It is permanently stored and cannot be changed by you. You need the master password to set your own h_da password. It is also used to reset your h_da password via secure access if you have forgotten it or to reactivate your account if it has been blocked due to too many invalid login attempts. You can get your Master password by logging in again at my.h-da.de with your application ID after your enrolment.
- You have to assign your h_da password yourself in order to be able to log in, for example, to work with e-mail. This password is also required for using the WLAN or various web services. Access is not possible without a password.
Keep your password secret, even the IT staff will never ask you for your password!
Your h_da user ID gives you access to a variety of IT systems on the h_da campus. However, due to possible software errors in operating systems and application programmes, IT Services and Applications - like any other IT service provider - cannot guarantee that a system is available and secure at all times. Therefore, make backups of your important data at regular intervals. The university expects all participants to handle the systems provided responsibly. Details can be found in the user guidelines, which you must agree to before using the systems.
Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences has a campus contract for the anti-virus solution Sophos, which students can also use. You can obtain updates of the Sophos software via the h_da update server with the Sophos update account of the current semester. Further information is available at sophos.h-da.de. Here you will also find installation instructions, but you must first log in with your h_da access data.
BigBlueButton is an open source videoconferencing tool provided by the h_da Computer Science department and the IT department, and has been jointly adapted to the h_da's needs.
BigBlueButton is suitable for different purposes:
- for events where only the moderator and his or her presentation are visible and the participants can only listen or ask questions if necessary,
- for joint chats,
- as a virtual learning space.
The offer is supplemented by a notes page and so-called "screen sharing". When you enter the conference or learning room, you can configure various parameters.
You can reach BigBlueButton at rooms.h-da.de.
All students automatically receive an e-mail address as their central electronic university address. This is in the form vorname.nachname@stud.h-da.de. You can check your e-mails from any networked computer via web access, POP3S or IMAP4. You can find information about this on the registration page for webmail access.
If you want to share files with other students, your lecturers or external people, or work on documents together, you can use the Hessenbox. This cloud solution was specially designed for Hessen's universities and implemented with data protection in mind.
With Hessenbox you can:
- Automatically exchange and synchronise data between different end devices,
- make data available to external third parties via an Internet link,
- give people access to the system by invitation and assign read or read and write permissions for folders,
- edit documents online in OnlyOffice in a web browser.
Your storage space is up to 100 GB.
To use the Hessenbox, go to hbx.fhhrz.net/login and select Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences from the drop-down list. An h_da account is required for the login.
Whether it's PowerPoint, VBA programming, Java, Excel, Photoshop, Linux or even networks - a good manual makes it easier for you to get to grips with new topics. The "Regionale Rechenzentrum Niedersachsen" (RRZN) offers publications on numerous topics. After registering from the campus network (or via proxy), all university members can download the documents from herdt-campus.de free of charge.
At the beginning of your studies, you will probably have to prove your student status with a certificate of enrolment at various places. You can easily download this certificate from "my.h-da - My University Portal", save it as a PDF and print it out.
You can also use the portal to manage your university data. So be sure to change your address if you move. Otherwise, you may not receive any mail from the university.
On the portal, you can also view the online course catalogue and register for courses. You can also use the portal to register for and deregister from exams or to view your grades. To find out whether your degree programme uses this option, contact your department directly. All important information about the specific regulations in your degree programme is available at the introductory events in the respective degree programme. So be sure to attend!
If you still have difficulties using my.h-da at the beginning, just take a look at the tutorials that the IT department has created especially for this purpose. By the way: the tutorials are available in both German and English.
Are you looking for the contact details of a professor, lecturer or secretary? At personen.h-da.de you will find a directory of all university staff with their office address, telephone number and e-mail address. The appearance of the directory varies depending on whether you access it from on or off campus. For example, there are no e-mail addresses for people on the internet, only contact forms. By the way, you can also conveniently call up and use the directory of persons in the webmail application.
In the future, certain lectures and seminars will continue to be offered in a digital format.
Depending on the degree programme, BigBlueButton (BBB), Zoom, Jitsi or department-specific video conferencing tools will be used. Your department will tell you in good time which digital service will be used in your degree programme.
The eduroam WLAN at the h_da is available to all students. You can also use eduroam with your h_da access data (h_da email address and h_da password) at all participating universities (e.g. TU Darmstadt and Goethe University Frankfurt) as well as at research institutions in Germany and abroad.
For a simplified WLAN setup, also for your mobile devices, we recommend the configuration via the CAT of the DFN: accessible via cat.eduroam.org. Download the configuration file for your device and for the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt and then start the installation programme. More information at wlan.h-da.de.
Zoom is a video conferencing tool. If you want to use Zoom on your own for exchanges in study groups or for working together on projects, go to h-da-de.zoom.us and click on "Sign In". This will take you to a login page at the h_da. Here you enter your user ID and your h_da password and are logged into Zoom. The so-called "Single Sign On" (SSO) is used here for the login. The university has licensed Zoom through a provider in Germany and students are thus managed as basic users. On the one hand, this means that you can invite up to 100 participants to video conferences and, on the other, that a data protection review has been carried out. Another advantage is that the 40-minute limit on meetings has been waived by Zoom for educational institutions, so that students can also schedule and hold longer meetings.
Students at the h_da have the opportunity to use the digital information resources licensed by the library (databases, e-books and journal full texts) outside the university network. For this purpose, access has been set up via an h_da proxy server, which you can use with your h_da user name, but for security reasons with a separate password. Alternatively, with an increasing number of offers, access via Shibboleth is also possible. This procedure also allows access to licensed e-journals, databases and e-books from outside the campus network with your personal h_da login.