Topics

1) General News: Vacation and absences
2) Computer Lab News: New PCs available
3) Unix News: ssh and pgp
4) Computer Lab News: Lost and Found

Newsletter Archive:
        http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/compsupp/Newsletter/



1) General News: Vacation and absences:


Barb Bennett: MON, 8/31/98 thru MON, 9/7/98 (Labor Day)

Tim Cogley:   TUE, 9/8/98  thru FRI, 9/11/98 for training
	      MON, 9/21/98 thru FRI, 10/2/98 for more training


2) Computer Lab News: New PCs available:


Almost all of the new PCs in the Lab are available now. They are Pentium II
350 MHz machines with 128 MB of RAM running Windows NT Workstation 4.0.

Most of the software packages are installed and tested. We are still in the
process of creating documentation detailing what's available where. If there
are any problems, please send email to support@chemistry.ohio-state.edu.

The generic accounts, username "student", password "student", are still
valid. We are in the process of creating individual user accounts for
everybody in the Department. We are targeting the beginning of fall quarter
for general availability of these accounts.

Using the "student" account, you could not store any files on the PCs in
the Lab; you had to bring your own floppy disk. With an individual account,
you will be able to store files on the central NT server and transparently
access them from any correctly configured Windows NT PC in the Department.
You will also be able to access your files from PCs running Windows95. There
will be no need to run around with floppy disks anymore.


3) Unix News: ssh and pgp:


Logins across the Internet using plain text usernames and passwords are
inherently risky; there are many ways for hackers to intercept these and
thus gain access to computers, often unbeknownst to the legitimate users
of those accounts.

Whenever you telnet into chemistry from home, your username and password
will be transmitted in plain text. Whenever you telnet into chemistry from
a collaborator's university, your username and password will be transmitted
in plain text across the Internet. Whenever you check your mail from a remote
location using Eudora or Netscape (pop or imap protocol), the same thing
happens.

The only way to prevent eavesdropping and password sniffing is to encrypt the
entire session. One tool that allows such encryption is ssh ("secure shell").
ssh can be used as a subtitute for the Unix commands telnet, rsh and rlogin.
But ssh can do a lot more. It allows encryption of all mail, news and
X-windows sessions as well.

In order to provide encryption, ssh software has to be installed on each end
of the connection (ssh server and client). You can't use ssh to login to
chemistry from a collaborator's university if they don't have ssh.
Similarly, you can't encrypt your Eudora connections from home to chemistry
if you don't have an ssh client for your home PC.

Computer Support has installed ssh on chemistry. You can use ssh to login to
a remote host in the same way you would using telnet, and you can ssh into
chemistry from another host that has ssh (see "man ssh"). We are working with
UTS to get a Campus License for an ssh client for PCs and Macs.

Until then, we invite you to familiarize yourself with ssh on chemistry. We
would like you to understand that security and encryption are extremely
complex topics. It will take a while until we have everything configured
correctly, and until everybody in the department is security-conscious and
actually uses these features.

We would also like to caution you about email in general. It is quite trivial
to forge email headers, intercept email and invade your privacy. Only email
that is encrypted and digitally signed maintains privacy (nobody else read
it), authenticity (it comes from who it claims to come), and integrity
(nothing was changed).

A program that can encrypt and digitally sign email is pgp ("pretty good
privacy"). It is available on chemistry (see "man pgp").

We will bring you more information on these topics in upcoming months.


4) Computer Lab News: Lost and Found:


We've created a pile of Lost and Found items in the Computer Lab on the book
shelf on the right side closest to the red fire alarm. If you forgot a pen,
notebook, etc., please check there.