Topics

1) General News: Tim Cogley is back
2) General News: Student hired in Computer Support
3) General News: Laptop installations
4) General News: news.math.ohio-state.edu has shut down
5) General News: Recycle IP-addresses
6) General News: Please conserve resources!!!
7) General News: Password security, telnet/rlogin and ssh
8) Unix News: Scratch space usage
9) Unix News: Record uptime of chemistry
10) Unix News: enscript available
11) PC / Mac News: UTS discontinues older versions

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



1) General News: Tim Cogley is back:


We are happy to let you know that Tim returned to us. It appears that the
Chemistry Department can't easily be beaten when it comes to work atmosphere
(and deadlines). It is rumored that Tim was simply missing the many friendly
faces who used to chase him down the hallway with PC problems every day, and
so he reconsidered...


2) General News: Student hired in Computer Support:


We have hired Shawn Broughton in June to help with PC and Mac support.
Shawn is a grad student in Dr. Bursten's research group.


3) General News: Laptop installations:


Faculty members who ask us to install their laptops, please remember the
following guidelines:

 - give us sufficient advance notice (more than a week)

 - we cannot install privately owned laptops; in general, we do not have
   the resources to support computers in your home, or equipment that you
   privately purchase

 - for most laptops, DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol) will be used,
   and we will not need a static IP-address

 - all laptops will be equipped with ssh (secure shell), and the cost of the
   license (less than $50) will be charged to you


4) General News: news.math.ohio-state.edu has shut down:


The following notice from the Math Department reached us a few days ago:

We will be shutting down our news server (permanently) on Wednesday,
July 21st. We apologize for the short notice, but we just found out that our
network load is causing major problems for our ARMS users. The largest
percentage of traffice is made up of news (~50%) with http coming in second
(at ~48%), yet it benefits the least amount of users. If you are using our
server (mathserv.mps.ohio-state.edu or news.math.ohio-state.edu), you will
need to switch over to UTS's server (nntp.service.ohio-state.edu).


5) General News: Recycle IP-addresses:


The Department has an assigned range of about 1,000 addresses. We are filling
this space at an alarming rate, yet we know that there are only about 500
computers in the department.

If you have requested IP-addresses that you are not using anymore, please
return them. If you replace an old computer with a new one, please reuse your
IP-addresses. If you know of any machines that don't exist anymore, please
report their addresses.

For all changes or address releases, please use the form

Internal --> Computer Support --> 

If you are unsure what IP-addresses are registered under your name, please
contact Jim Robbins.


6) General News: Please conserve resources!!!


The Departmental computer resources (cpu, disk storage, printers) are for
chemistry related purposes only. This is another reminder, especially for our
students, that the Chemistry Department does not provide resources for CIS
classes or other non-chemistry purposes. You are not supposed to do your CIS
homework on Chemistry computers. You are not supposed to print non-chemistry
related material on any of our printers.

We have hit new highs in the consumption of printer paper for the Lab 2105 NW.
Unless abuse stops, we will be forced to introduce accounting for each
and every page that you print. If we continue to find color printouts of
youth hostels in France or Chinese newspapers we will have to disable your
computer account. We will also have a friendly chat with you if we find that
you print large jobs and never pick them up.

If you print something, please PICK IT UP and don't let it sit in 2105 NW!


7) General News: Password security, telnet/rlogin and ssh:


First a reminder about passwords:

 - DON'T use the same password on different computers! Otherwise a hacker
   who breaks into one of your accounts has access to all of them.

 - passwords on the chemistry Unix server must have the following
   characteristics (these rules are enforced by the password change program,
   "passwd"):
	o 8 characters long
	o at least uppercase and lowercase letters, then alternatively
	  digits or punctuation characters
	o no names, or words, or parts thereof in any language

 - passwords are like underwear...
        ... the more unusual the better
	... don't use them more than once
        ... don't share them with friends
        ... don't expose them

IMPORTANT:

  Don't use rlogin/rsh from anywhere outside the Department to chemistry;
  check your .rhosts file and remove all hosts that are not in the
  Department.

  Whenever you use telnet from outside the Department to chemistry, your
  chemistry password travels in clear text over the net. If a hacker has
  installed a sniffer somewhere along the route, your username and password
  will be captured, and the hacker can later gain access to your account and
  abuse our systems. This has happened more than a dozen times over the last
  year.

  The solution is to use ssh ("secure shell") instead of telnet. ssh is
  available on the chemistry Unix server. We will install ssh on the PCs and
  Macs in the Computer Lab 2105 NW as well. We will make sure that students
  can obtain an ssh license for their home computers at low cost. If you
  login back and forth between chemistry and other computers, even if they
  are on campus, USE SSH INSTEAD OF TELNET!!! If other Departments or
  universities don't have ssh available, convince them to install it as soon
  as possible.

  Just as with telnet, the only computer that you can ssh to from outside the
  Department is the chemistry Unix server.

  For previous discussions of ssh, see COMPNEWS issues 13 and 19.

  WE WILL BLOCK TELNET TO CHEMISTRY FROM OUTSIDE THE DEPARTMENT WITHIN THE
  NEXT 9 MONTHS. Then, only logins via ssh will be possible. In general, you
  will need ssh for any service from outside the Department that normally
  sends passwords in clear text (e.g. Eudora, Outlook, Netscape mail). This,
  together with well-chosen passwords, will greatly reduce the risk of
  exposure of passwords and subsequent breakins.


8) Unix News: Scratch space usage:


We currently have about 4 GB of scratch space (/scr) on the chemistry Unix
server. This space is meant for short-term storage of data that can be
reconstructed in case of loss. The /scr filesystem, as the name implies, is
not being backed up, and it is not meant for permanent storage. If you need
more permanent storage space in /home, please contact us and request that
your disk quota be increased. We tend to honor all reasonable requests.

If you ask for a disk quota of 2 GB, we will likely consider this an
unreasonable request; in case of such high storage needs, we recommend that
your research group purchase their own disk (9 GB, 16 GB), which we will hook
up to the chemistry server and make available for your exclusive use. If you
are likely to have such increased storage needs in the future, please contact
us and discuss them with us.

You can check your current disk usage by logging into chemistry and typing
the command

  quota -v

The three compute servers in the lab, mendelevium, nobelium and lawrencium,
each have 4 GB of /scr as well. The /scr filesystems are always local to each
machine. The same rules apply to all /scr filesystems.


9) Unix News: Record uptime of chemistry:


We would like to point out that the chemistry Unix server had reached a
record uptime of 139 days when we performed a maintenance reboot on July 15
that interrupted service for about 5 min. This means that chemistry has been
available since Feb. 26 until now with only a 5 min interruption. The planned
downtime of about one night in February was used to double the space of /home
and make some other disk-related improvements (see Support Bulletin).

We are planning to replace the chemistry server with a new machine in the
near future. The transition will cause some downtime, which we'll announce
sufficiently in advance.

The chemistry Unix server handles all departmental email, web pages, general
purpose computing, Unix home directories and serves as the entry point into
the department from the outside.


10) Unix News: enscript available:


GNU enscript is now available on all platforms (Solaris, AIX, IRIX).

Enscript converts text files to PostScript and spools generated PostScript
output to the specified printer or leaves it in a file.

More information can be found in the man-page ("man enscript") and in the
enscript FAQ at

Internal --> Computer Support --> Online Product Manuals and FAQs --> GNU enscript FAQ


11) PC / Mac News: UTS discontinues older versions:


UTS has sent the following announcement:

Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 09:59:21 -0400
From: Sally Hritz hritz.1@osu.edu
Subject: UTS Discontinues Support for Older Windows and Macintosh Operating
 Systems and HomeNet/OfficeNet Version 3.0

On August 31, University Technology Services will discontinue support for
Windows operating systems versions 3.x and earlier and Macintosh operating
systems versions 7.x and earlier. Users still running these operating systems
are advised to upgrade as soon as possible.

At the same time, we will discontinue support for HomeNet/OfficeNet versions
3.0 and earlier because they rely on those older operating systems. Beginning
August 1, HomeNet/OfficeNet 3.0 documentation will no longer be available on
UTS servers and no longer sold at the OSU Bookstores. However, UTS continues
to support, and OSU Bookstores continues to sell, version 4.0* of HomeNet and
OfficeNet.

There are many reasons to discontinue support for the older operating
systems. They are outmoded technology, are no longer distributed by most
vendors, no longer packaged with new computers, no longer sold off the shelf
in stores, including the bookstores. In addition, they are not
Internet-ready, but require separate dialers and networking protocols, many
of which are no longer distributed or supported.

The new policy enables UTS to continue providing high levels of support by
expending its resources on current standards. If you have any questions,
please contact the UTS Support Center by sending e-mail to 8help@osu.edu or
by calling 688-HELP (688-4357).

*Software in HomeNet/OfficeNet Version 4.0:

Windows
Netscape Navigator 4.0.4 (world wide web browser)
Eudora Pro 3.0.3 (e-mail)
Free Agent 1.11 (news reader)
Adobe Acrobat 3.1 (document reader)
QWS3270 1.1 (TN3270 telnet)
WS_FTP 95112 (file transfer)
WinQVT 3.9 (16-bit telnet, news, FTP, and server software)

Macintosh
Netscape Navigator 4.0.4 (world wide web browser)
Eudora Pro 3.1 (e-mail)
Newswatcher 3.0.3 (newsreader)
Adobe Acrobat 3.1 (document reader)
Better Telnet 1.2 (telnet)
TNS3270 2.4.a7 (TN3270 telnet)
Fetch 3.0.3 (file transfer)

Updates are available for Netscape and Eudora on the "Software to Go"
web page at 
http://www.osu.edu/units/uts/publications/upgrades/