Topics

1) General News: Procurement Card replacing LDPOs at OSU
2) General News: Chemistry passwords
3) General News: Eudora-only accounts
4) General News: Account cleanups
5) General News: Changes to firewall configuration
6) General News: Webmaster position filled
7) Network News: Apple Computer Networking Problem

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



1) General News: Procurement Card replacing LDPOs at OSU:


With the introduction of ARMS Finance, the University is abandoning Limited
Dollar Purchase Orders (LDPOs) for purchases of less than $400. Instead, the
Department has a "procurement card" (a credit card), against which purchases
can be charged. Internally, the balance will be transferred to the
purchaser's departmental funds.

Computer Support has written a web interface that allows easy submission of
purchase orders. This interface makes sure that each purchase request is
approved by the owner of the fund before it is passed on to Accounting. After
approval by Accounting, the purchase order will automatically be faxed to the
vendor.

For more details, go to the Accounting web page under
Internal --> Purchasing


2) General News: Chemistry passwords:


We have installed the program "npasswd" on the chemistry Unix server that
will carefully screen prospective new passwords.

You remember that it is essential to have good passwords, and we have
repeatedly pointed out that names, parts of names or dictionary words are not
acceptable as passwords. The new program will reject all prospective new
passwords that it thinks are not strong enough.

Here are some of the new requirements for passwords:

 - the password must be 8 characters long

 - out of the 4 character classes (uppercase characters, lowercase characters,
   digits, punctuation characters) you have to pick at least 3 classes

 - the password must not be found in any of npasswd's dictionaries

In addition to enforcing good new passwords, we are checking all old
passwords using the same program that hackers use. This program will be the
judge; if we manage to "guess" your password, then it obviously was not good
enough, and we will ask you to change it.

More information on npasswd can be found on the Bulletin Board:
Internal --> Computer Support --> Support Bulletin Board

You can also read npasswd's man-page ("man npasswd") on chemistry.

To change your password, telnet to chemistry and simply type "passwd" as
before.

ATTENTION: It can take up to 15 min until the new password goes into effect.
           Until then, the old password will still be valid.


3) General News: Eudora-only accounts:


There are many people in the department who use their chemistry accounts for
the exclusive purpose of receiving and sending email with Eudora on their PC
or Mac.

We have converted some accounts who had not been used interactively for an
extended period of time into Eudora-only accounts. The advantage of a
Eudora-only account is that it cannot be used by hackers to break into our or
other computers. Therefore the requirements of having a good password are
substantially relaxed; after all, if you chose a bad password and somebody
else guesses or finds it, all this person can do is read and delete your
email.

If you have a Eudora-only account, you cannot

 - telnet to chemistry (you will see a message telling you that this
   account is for Eudora-only access)

 - use ftp

 - upload new or changed web pages

 - use the vacation feature

If your account has been converted and you need interactive access, or if you
want to have your account converted to Eudora-only, please send email to
support@chemistry.ohio-state.edu.


4) General News: Account cleanups:


Recently, all faculty members received email containing information on all
Unix accounts in their research groups. We have asked for corrections; in
particular we are trying to remove old unused accounts and accounts of people
who are not with the department anymore. Also, we are trying to move all
"firstyear" students who are not in their first year anymore into the correct
research group.

If you find your account closed even though you are still with the department
or you have other legitimate reasons to continue to have an account, please
let us know.


5) General News: Changes to firewall configuration:


Less than a year ago we introduced a firewall to protect the computers in our
department against breakin attempts from outside. A firewall is a network
device that looks at each data packet entering or leaving the department. The
firewall increases protection of all computers behind it by blocking
protocols on our "exclusion list" (example: telnet connections are only
allowed to the chemistry Unix server; the firewall will block all telnet
attempts to other machines; examples of protocols are telnet, ftp, rlogin,
rsh, http, ssh, netbios, X,...).

Maintaining a firewall is not an esoteric exercise designed to give us joy
and make your life difficult. We would like to point out that our computers
are scanned on average at least 3 or 4 times a week. Scanning is the
computer-equivalent of walking from house to house, checking each door and
window for easy access, taking extensive notes and then coming back later and
gaining access to many of these houses. With about 500 computers in our
department, it is impossible to guarantee that each and every one is secured
against all kinds of possible threats. A firewall is literally a protective
wall around all these houses, and there is (ideally) only one door (which can
be reasonably guarded; it would be impossible to guard 500 doors). The
departmental firewall is an essential tool that has substantially improved
our ability to detect, block and eliminate attacks on our computers.

Our exclusion list has been getting longer and longer in recent months and it
has become impractical to maintain. Also, the "exclusion list" scheme offers
only limited benefits. We are therefore planning to "invert" the
scheme; instead of "allowing every protocol except those on the exclusion
list" we will "block every protocol except those on the allowed list".

If you use any protocol that you think is non-standard, please let us know.
If you rely on such a protocol for your research purposes, we will likely put
it on the allowed list, or else we will help you to find a work-around. Also,
please contact us if you have any questions or would like more information.

If you only telnet to chemistry from home or check your mail via Eudora, this
will not have any impact on you.

The new firewall scheme will likely not be implemented before
mid-February.


6) General News: Webmaster position filled:


We have finally hired a new Webmaster. Andy Fenner started his job on
December 28 last year. He is currently very busy getting aquainted with
people, computers and software in the department. We are glad to have him on
board.

Andy will primarily focus on web administration and related issues, but his
past job experience makes him an ideal choice to help out with Mac and
PC-problems when needed.

His office is 2109 NW. Please send web-related requests to

	webmaster@chemistry.ohio-state.edu


7) Network News: Apple Computer Networking Problem:


There is a potential networking problem in regard to Apple Computers using
the Apple networking adaptor that looks like a box with two BNC connectors on
the end of a long cable. If the adaptor is connected properly, with a
separate coax cable connected to both BNC connectors then the unit will
operate normally. If, however, a tee is used to connect the coax cables
together and only one of the BNC connectors on the adaptor is connected to
the tee, then reflections will be sent along the network causing intermittent
problems for other users. The Apple adaptor should not be used with a tee
adaptor when connecting to a coax network.

If you have any questions regarding this, please contact Jim Robbins.