Topics

1) General News: Policy guidelines for computer purchases
2) Unix News: Macromodel 6.5 available
3) General News: Security of Xwindows displays
4) Unix News: Online documentation
5) Unix News: Netscape upgraded
6) Unix News: "Etiquette" for IBM workstations in 2105 NW
7) Web News: New course template for faculty and lecturer use
8) General News: Eudora-only accounts

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



1) General News: Policy guidelines for computer purchases:


We have written up some general guidelines about how to best proceed with
computer equipment purchases. This is not a new set of policies, but rather a
condensed written version of guidelines that we have been following
implicitly for a long time.

In short, please consult with us prior to any purchase; we have significant
experience with many vendors, computer models and operating systems. If you
purchase computer equipment without consulting with us or against our
explicit recommendations, we cannot assume any responsibility for it. In case
of difficulties with such equipment you will need to contact the vendor
yourself; in particular, we will not attempt to do any maintenance of such
equipment while it is still under warranty.

The full document is available in the Policies section on our web pages:

Internal --> Computer Support --> Policy Statements


2) Unix News: Macromodel 6.5 available:


After some initial problems, the new version of Macromodel is now available.
Due to a different licensing scheme, version 6.5 is only available on one
of the IBM workstations in the Computer Lab 2105 NW, and that is
mendelevium. When you login to mendelevium, Macromodel 6.5 will be the
default version as of today.

Macromodel 6.5 came with online documentation, which is available under

Internal --> Computer Support --> Online Manuals and Frequently Asked Questions

We would like to point out that the old version of Macromodel, version 5.0,
will continue to be available on the other 2 IBM workstations in the Lab,
nobelium and lawrencium, and in general on all IBM workstations that mount
the central /usr/common filesystem.

Note: to avoid overloading the computers, please don't run more than one
      Macromodel job per user per machine.


3) General News: Security of Xwindows displays:


The following is important to consider for all types of Xwindows displays,
but has recently come to our attention in particular with regard to eXceed.
The program eXceed is an Xwindows server for Windows PCs; eXceed is
available on the PCs in the Computer Lab 2105 NW as well as on many PCs in
research groups.

By default, eXceed will accept X-connections from any source (the
equivalent of the command "xhost +" on Unix machines). In this unsecured
state, any computer in the world can (a) open X-applications on your screen
(a nuisance, but otherwise harmless) and (b) read all your keystrokes,
including passwords that you type within Xwindows applications (e.g. xterms),
and write to your Xwindows applications and thus issue commands as you.

This is obviously EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! Please familiarize yourselves with
the security options within eXceed and limit access to the host(s) that need
to be able to access your display.

Example: if you want to run X-applications on hosts chemistry and nobelium,
then enable access only for those 2 hosts (xhost.txt).

Please understand that the firewall will currently NOT protect you against
these security risks! It is in your own hands to secure your Xwindows display
against arbitrary access by outside intruders.

Note: While you have full control over eXceed on PCs in your research group,
      you cannot change any of the eXceed security settings on the PCs in
      the Computer Lab 2105 NW. Therefore, use eXceed in the Lab cautiously
      and avoid running xterms. We're working on ways to let you control
      the security settings yourself.


4) Unix News: Online documentation:


New documentation available online:

                MSI documentation (Cerius2)
                Macromodel 6.5

Wherever possible, we will make online documentation available on our web
page

Internal --> Computer Support --> Online Manuals and Frequently Asked Questions


5) Unix News: Netscape upgraded:


We have upgraded netscape from version 4.0.3 to 4.5.1 on all Sun Sparc, IBM
AIX and SGI IRIX computers. Older versions are still available on some of
these platforms.

If you have a workstation or a PC/Mac on your desk, please don't run netscape
via Xwindows on the chemistry server. We don't have sufficient resources on
chemistry to allow that.


6) Unix News: "Etiquette" for IBM workstations in 2105 NW:


Currently, the 3 IBM workstations in the Computer Lab 2105 NW (mendelevium,
nobelium, lawrencium) are the only public "compute servers" in the Department
(we're actively trying to seek funding to improve this situation).

However, all 3 computers were - at least in part - purchased with educational
funds. Therefore, education and courses take precedence. We have closed the
"_small" queues in the NQS batch queueing system to the public; these queues
are now only available for students doing their course assignments.

In addition, we want to ask our users to limit their computations to one job
per user per machine. This is important primarily for applications that run
interactively rather than through the NQS batch queueing system, such as
Macromodel. If you start more than one job, your own jobs will compete with
each other, and it will take even longer to get results.


7) Web News: New course template for faculty and lecturer use:


Many faculty and lecturers have created web pages for courses they have
taught, and many more have expressed interest in doing so. We have created a
generic course web page template. The template is simple and mirrors the
style of the Chemistry web pages. Although it is not feasible for us to
design and maintain web pages for all courses taught in the department, we
are providing this template to help you get started creating web pages for
your courses. If you run into problems, Andy Fenner, our webmaster, will be
available to answer your questions.

To use this template:

  1. Telnet to chemistry.ohio-state.edu
  2. At the prompt, type "makecoursepage". You will be prompted to type in
     the number of your course (ex. 123).
  3. After all the files are copied, you can open each one individually and
     edit it as needed.
  4. Give the URL to your students.


8) General News: Eudora-only accounts:


The following note about Eudora-only accounts was first published in the
January 28 issue of COMPNEWS.

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.