Topics

1) General News: Greetings to new faculty/staff/postdocs/students
2) General News: ssh (again)
3) General News: No support for home machines
4) General News: Old quarter-inch tapes available
5) Unix News: New chemistry Unix server on order
6) Windows-NT News: New NT servers, NT accounts
7) Unix News: Scratch filesystems
8) Network News: Network topology and coax cables
9) Library News: OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center Changes

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



1) General News: Greetings to new faculty/staff/postdocs/students:


We welcome all our new faculty, staff, postdocs and students to the
Department. This newsletter is a semi-periodic forum to let you know
what's going on in Computer Support and to inform you of important
new computer-related developments and issues in the Department.


2) General News: ssh (again):


Ssh (secure shell) is now available on all public Unix machines in the
department. Ssh is a secure replacement for telnet and related programs that
send usernames and passwords over the net in clear text:

	insecure	secure program

	telnet		ssh
	rsh		ssh
	rlogin		slogin
	rcp		scp

The man-pages on chemistry provide a lot of information on ssh ("man ssh").

The most important reason why we're writing about ssh in almost every issue
of COMPNEWS is that TELNET TO CHEMISTRY FROM OUTSIDE THE DEPARTMENT WILL BE
PHASED OUT WITHIN THE NEXT 8 MONTHS. You will need ssh for any service from
outside the Department that normally sends passwords in clear text (e.g.
Eudora, Outlook, Netscape mail). If you want to connect to chemistry from
outside the Department, you will need ssh. This, together with well-chosen
passwords, will greatly reduce the risk of exposure of passwords and
subsequent breakins.

Ssh is available as freeware on the Internet, as well as in the form of
inexpensive commercial applications, available at the OSU Bookstore (F-Secure
and SecureCRT). More and more departments, universities and national
laboratories require ssh for incoming connections. What we're planning is not
unusual, nor is it an attempt to make your lives harder. Instead, it is an
important measure to reduce the risk of breakins through eavesdropped
passwords.

Q&A 1: "I use Homenet to connect to chemistry from home. Should I go to the
	Bookstore and buy F-Secure or SecureCRT now?"

	No, you don't need to buy anything now. We will probably buy licenses
	in bulk, configure Homenet for use with the ssh software, and sell
	the entire thing to you at cost (around or below $30).

Q&A 2: "I telnet to chemistry from another Department/University. I won't be
	able to connect to chemistry anymore."

	If you connect via Homenet, you will be fine (see Q&A 1). If you come
	in via Roadrunner, you will be fine, too (we will provide the
	software at cost along with instructions how to configure it). If you
	come in from another Department/University that hasn't yet made
	security high priority and thus hasn't made ssh available, you will
	not be able to connect to chemistry. It is for this reason that we
	are announcing this change so far in advance. If you regularly login
	from elsewhere, or if you have collaborators who login from
	elsewhere, you and/or they need to talk to whoever is responsible for
	their remote computers and ask them to make ssh available.

	Look for an afternoon discussion of the ssh protocol, the client
	software available, its benefits and how to set it up, sometime in
	the next few weeks.

For previous discussions of ssh, see COMPNEWS issue 23.


3) General News: No support for home machines:


We have been asked several times in the recent past about personal computers
and software or hardware problems that members of the department are
experiencing with them. While we are always happy to consult with you on
issues such as the type of ISP to choose (e.g. Homenet vs. IBM ISP vs.
Roadrunner), we regret that we do not have the resources to provide service
for personal computers, i.e. those computers purchased with private funds. In
particular, we cannot support telecommuting, we cannot provide technical
solutions for hardware or software problems at home, and we cannot make any
guarantees that any specific networking feature will work or continues to
work from home.

If the license agreement of a particular software package allows installation
on a home computer, you are welcome to borrow this software to install it on
your home computer, but if you run into problems, we cannot provide
assistance.

It is quite a challenge just to support all the equipment in the Department.
We simply don't have the resources to extend our support beyond the
Department.


4) General News: Old quarter-inch tapes available:


We have a lot of used quarter-inch tapes, most of them of the type "DC600A".
If you happen to have a quarter-inch tape drive and could use these tapes,
please let us know. If there are no takers, we will eventually throw the
tapes away.


5) Unix News: New chemistry Unix server on order:


We are pleased to inform you that our new Unix server is on order. It will
replace what is known as "chemistry" or the "chemistry Unix server", aka
chemistry.ohio-state.edu. The new server will be a 4-processor machine (4x400
MHz) with 1 GB of RAM, replacing the current server with 1 processor (1x143
MHz) with 448 MB of RAM. We expect delivery of the new machine shortly. We
will keep you posted on progress in setting it up.

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.


6) Windows-NT News: New NT servers, NT accounts:


We are in the process of setting up dual redundant NT servers and add more
disk space. The new servers will be faster and more reliable than the current
single NT server. If critical hardware in one of the servers fails, it will
be possible to move operations to the other server with minimal downtime.

The NT server currently supports most administrative users in the Department
and a growing number of research groups. It offers file and print services;
all NT users get a personal home directory (their "U-drive"), similar to
users' home directories on the chemistry Unix server. These U-drives are
backed up regularly and can hold all your files. If you keep all your files
on your U-drive, you don't have to worry about backups anymore, your files
will be available to you on any PC or Mac in the Department, and no files
need to be moved if your computer is upgraded or replaced. For students who
use the PCs and Macs in the Computer Lab 2105 NW and elsewhere this will have
the positive consequence that you don't have to carry your data around on a
floppy anymore.

As soon as the new servers are operational and the extra disk space is
installed, all users in the department will get their own NT account.  The
generic "student" account on the PCs in the Lab 2105 NW will then be
discontinued.


7) Unix News: Scratch filesystems:


Based on popular demand, we repeat our disclaimer about scratch space (/scr)
on all public machines: /scr is meant for short-term storage of data that can
be reconstructed in case of loss. The /scr filesystems are not being backed
up, and they are not meant for permanent storage. Don't leave the results of
your CPU-intensive calculations on /scr.

For more on this topic, see COMPNEWS issue 23.


8) Network News: Network topology and coax cables:


Over the last few months, there have been major changes in the network
topology of the Chemistry Department. McPherson Lab has been reconnected to
the Chemistry network, the connections between four of the buildings
(McPherson, Celeste, Evans, Newman-Wolfrom) have been converted or are being
converted from copper to fiber, and the general topology has been changed
from a flat bus-like structure to a switched star. All of these measures
greatly improve network connectivity and bandwith between all our buildings
and the central servers. Work is still in progress, in particular with
respect to Evans Lab, and we will report about the network topology in more
detail in a future issue of COMPNEWS.

A few things, however, have not changed, and are only going to change slowly
over the next few years due to normal budgetary constraints. The networks in
Johnston and Evans are still coax based. Computers are hooked into a coax
segment with T-connectors. If you open up a T, or if you remove a piece of
the coax segment, you interrupt the network on your entire floor or on a
major portion of your floor. If you have inadvertantly done so once and
experienced the wrath of your floor, you know that this is "A BAD THING" (tm)
to do. Further, if you add computers on, say, each side of a large lab, run
coax in a zig-zag pattern back and forth and thus add another 100 ft or more
of coax cable to your segment, this may be an "EQUALLY BAD THING" (tm) to
do.  Coax segments have a natural length limit, and extending them
significantly beyond that limit means asking for trouble.

If you're unsure about Ethernet cable rules, please consult the Electronics
Shop. In general, please always consult Jim Robbins before you connect any
computer to any portion of the network in any of our buildings.


9) Library News: OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center Changes:


The following has reached us from Nancy Simons, our Chemistry Librarian.

Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 13:39:58 -0400
From: Nancy Simons simons.28@osu.edu

I have just been notified that OhioLINK has implemented their new Electronic
Journal Center 
http://journals.ohiolink.edu/. In addition to the new
interface, below are some of the changes that you might notice.

1.  In addition to e-journals from Elsevier, Academic Press and MUSE,
e-journals from Springer and Kluwer have been added.  Wiley (e.g. Angewandte
Chemie, etc) and APS journals will be added in the "near future" so keep
checking the site. They are still working on the site so they cautioned that
the best way to check for new journals is the look in the Alphabetical List
of Journals. The project to add links to the subject category lists is
progressing but the alphabetical list is the most current.

2.  OhioLINK cautions that some bookmarks may break. Bookmarks to old journal
url's will be redirected to the new url for that journal. However, bookmarks
to specific issues of journals will be redirected to the new url for the
journal and then you will have to refind that specific issue.

3.  OhioLINK is working on the registered accounts feature and hopefully it
will be operational within the next few days. They are concerned that
because they have loaded a great deal of new material since the last time
saved searches were run, the first saved search run will produce a very long
result list which may clog some e-mail systems. If I hear more about issues
related to this feature I will pass the information along.

Remember -- in addition to the e-journals that we access through OhioLINK,
there a large number of e-journals that OSU contracts for separately from
OhioLINK. Examples are the ACS, RSC, and AIP e-journals and other individual
titles such as Annual Review of Physical Chemistry and Annual Review of
Biochemistry. To determine if OSU has access to an e-journal, do a title
search in OSCAR (web version) and if electronic access is available, there
will be a title entry followed by "Online". Select this record and then
click on "Connect to web site" and bookmark that site.

As always, please contact me with any library questions, concerns or problems.

Nancy Simons
Chemical Sciences Librarian

Ohio State University
Science and Engineering Library         Voice:  614-292-3051
175 W. 18th Avenue                      Fax:    614-292-3062
Columbus, OH  43210                     E-mail: simons.28@osu.edu