ITS Office Hours:
Tuesdays, 4–5 pm EST (Join here)
Fridays, 11 am–12 pm EST (Join here)
RPTS Teams/Zoom Support:
Monday–Friday,
11 am–12 pm EST (Join here) and
5-6 pm EST (Join here)
Office Hours and Trainings
Contact Us
Need help? Contact the ITS Help Desk.
Email: tech.central@necmusic.edu
Phone: 617-585-1235
(M–F, 9 am–5 pm EST)
Check out our Frequently Asked Questions topics below for quick answers to things you might need help with.
Accounts and Passwords
How do I reset a forgotten password?
Go to https://portal.office.com/ and follow these steps:
- Click "Can't access your account?"
- Click "Work or school account"
- Enter your NEC email address and the randomly-generated captcha code
- Click "Next"
- Select "I forgot my password"
- Follow the steps to verify your identity with your phone or alternate email address and reset your password.
How do I change my password?
Go to https://portal.office.com/ and follow these steps:
- Click "Settings" (near the gear icon in the upper-right)
- Click "Password" and then "Change your password"
- Make your changes and click "Save"
How do I unlock my account?
Go to https://portal.office.com/ and follow these steps:
- Click "Can't access your account?"
- Click "Work or school account"
- Enter your NEC email address and the randomly-generated captcha code
- Click "Next"
- Select "I know my password, but still can't sign in"
- Follow the steps to verify your identity with your phone or alternate email address and unlock your account.
How do I reset multi-factor authentication (MFA)?
This may be necessary to do if you got a new phone on which you'd like to set up MFA, if you're unable to receive text messages or calls to your current MFA phone number, or if you'd simply prefer to change your MFA phone number.
To do this, please reach out to the ITS Help Desk at tech.central@necmusic.edu or 617-585-1235.
Computers and Equipment
We have a limited number of loaner laptops available for staff, faculty, and students for use if individuals do not have sufficient computer equipment at home. All requests must get prioritized and approved by Elizabeth Dionne and Tom Novak before being fulfilled. If you need a loaner laptop to do your work or participate in classes, please reach out to the ITS Help Desk at tech.central@necmusic.edu or 617-585-1235.
Teaching, Learning, & Classrooms
What tools do I have to teach remotely?
- Neo is a learning management system, so it's a good tool for assigning work to/collecting assignments from—students, maintaining a gradebook, posting resources for your students to use, etc.
- Teams (and Zoom) is a collaboration tool, so it’s good if you want to instant message, voice/video chat, share your computer screen, or work on a document with someone else. (Teams is actually Microsoft’s “upgraded” version of Skype.)
- OneDrive (and DropBox) is good for sharing files and working together (live!) on collaborative files in Word, Excel, etc.
- The Office Suite applications—Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook—are now available for all staff, faculty, and teachers to use and share for live collaborative documents!
To access Teams, OneDrive, and the Office suite apps, go to portal.office365.com and sign in with your @necmusic.edu credentials.
To access Neo, please reach out to equus.trundy@necmusic.edu to get set up!
Chat, Video, & Collaboration
How can I stay in touch with my coworkers and students?
NEC staff, faculty, and students all have access to email, Teams, and OneDrive. Ways to communicate within these include:
- Text chat in Teams
- Voice/video call in Teams
- Screenshare in Teams
- Whiteboard in Teams
- Staff have access to their usual fileshare folders via GoToMyPC or VPN
- Staff and faculty can also create a folder in OneDrive to share documents with other users
- Faculty have a group in Neo—contact ITS to be added!
TEAMS: How can I create new teams or add people to a team within the Teams software?
In order to keep things simple and flexible, teams are currently based on department and organization structure. We will be revisiting the creation of new teams after the dust has settled, but because of the back-end implications it creates on the system structure, we do not allow the creation of new teams at this time.
Creating a group chat with cross-functional groups has the same collaborative features: file sharing, video calling, scheduling meetings, etc. We recommend that you create a new chat group with everyone you want to include, and then rename the chat to make it easy to identify!
ZOOM: How can I improve the audio quality on Zoom?
Follow these steps:
- From the Zoom app or browser on your computer, click the "Settings" tool icon at the top right (or "Preferences" on the browser).
- Go to "Audio"
- Uncheck "Automatically adjust Microphone volume"
- Go to "Advanced" and disable both background noise filters.
- Make sure the box above those for "Enable Original Sound" is checked.
- Once in the Zoom lesson, look at the top left; there should be a box that says "Turn On Original Sound"—click it and it will say “Turn Off Original Sound.” It should be better.
File Sharing and Storage
What's OneDrive?
OneDrive is Microsoft’s online storage service (similar to Dropbox or Google Drive). It offers a simple way to store, share, and collaborate on files and documents with other people. Any documents or files you add to OneDrive are automatically accessible from any devices. For more information on how to use OneDrive, take a look at Microsoft’s training and support page here: https://support.office.com/en-us/onedrive.
Who can use OneDrive?
Just like the rest of the of the Office365 apps, OneDrive is available for all NEC staff, faculty, and students at no cost, using their @necmusic.edu email address.
How do I access my files in OneDrive?
All of the files you add to OneDrive are accessible from any of your devices in the OneDrive app (if you have it installed), or on the web at https://portal.office.com/. You can upload, share, edit, and collaborate on documents right from the web, or you can install the app for easier access and collaboration on your computer or phone.
How do I share a file with someone in OneDrive?
After you’ve added some files, you can share a file by going to the OneDrive site (https://portal.office.com/), selecting the file, and then clicking “Share” at the top of the page. You can then either copy a link to the file, and send it via email, Teams, or anywhere else. You can also add a file that’s in your OneDrive right from an email in Outlook by clicking Attach File > Browse Web Locations > OneDrive – New England Conservatory.
How much storage do I have?
Everyone at NEC automatically gets 1TB of storage (1000 GB). That’s enough for almost 500 hours of HD video, or millions of regular files and documents!
What about my NEC home folder ("H: drive")?
If you were using your NEC home folder (i.e. your “H: drive”), we will be moving any data that you had stored there into your new OneDrive account automatically! So that we can focus our efforts on supporting OneDrive, we’ll be making those home folders read-only so that you can access any files stored there, but you will not be able to add any new files.
Wi-Fi, Internet, and VPN
How can I access Teams and other NEC resources from outside the U.S.?
If you’re running into issues accessing Neo, Teams, or other NEC services while abroad due to geographic issues, please reach out to the ITS Help Desk at tech.central@necmusic.edu and we can help you get set up with a VPN.
How do I set up the VPN?
Click here for VPN Instructions for Windows.
Click here for VPN Instructions for Mac.