Topics

1) General News: Collaborative approach to purchase computers and printers?
2) General News: Use DHCP instead of static IP addresses; return unused addresses
3) General News: UTS changes its name into OIT
4) General News: OSUWeb.net, a new ISP service
5) General News: Upgrades of chemistry Unix server pending
6) General News: Temporary shutdown of Computer Lab 2105 NW
7) General News: Changes to the Online Purchasing System
8) General News: Personal Firewalls for home computers
9) Unix News: Linux computers in the Department

Newsletter Archive:

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

Due to the many hyperlinks, COMPNEWS is best viewed on the web
at the above URL, or by going to the main Chemistry page and
clicking on Internal --> Computer Support --> The Newsletter Archive



1) General News: Collaborative approach to purchase computers and printers?


Your research group may benefit by sharing computers and printers with one or
more other research groups. We would be happy to advise research groups
contemplating joint purchases of computers and/or printers. Please feel free
to contact us.

There are no departmental computing resources beyond the Unix ("chemistry")
and NT servers ("chem-nt") which offer email, web pages, file storage, print
services and general-purpose computing. The Graduate Computer Lab 2105 NW
supports PCs and Macs, a few Unix workstations for teaching needs, and color
and b/w printers.

The Unix workstations in 2105 NW are not sufficient to support departmental
research computing and many groups have purchased their own Unix
workstations. The care and feeding of a Unix computer require special
expertise, so Computer Support has maintained virtually all such computers in
the department.

Not all research groups need the power of a dedicated computer. Many groups
would be served well by sharing with another research group and pool their
resources. Along the same lines, it might be advantageous for research groups
to buy color printers jointly. The one color wax printer (Tektronix Phaser
360) in 2105 NW is insufficient for a Department occupying 5 buildings. Good
color printers (wax or laser printers) cost about $2,500; this is an amount
of money that few research groups could justify spending unless absolutely
necessary. Low-end color printers (inkjets) cost only a few hundred $$, but
their operating costs are much higher, and they don't produce acceptable and
affordable transparencies in a reasonable amount of time. Consider sharing a
color printer with other research groups as a way to increase your group's
access to color printing.

Due to increased usage and the high cost of printer consumables and
maintenance, we may need to introduce some form of cost recovery for the
color wax printer in the Lab 2105 NW in the future. We will announce details
in a future issue of COMPNEWS.


2) General News: Use DHCP instead of static IP addresses; return unused addresses:


The Chemistry Department has available an address space of about 1,000 IP
addresses. Based on statistics collected by our network switches, we know
that there are about 500 active computers in the Department. However, more
and more IP addresses are being requested, and we're in danger of running out
of usable addresses. There is no reason to assume that we will be assigned a
larger address pool anytime soon, so we need to live with what we have.

This is an urgent plea to all research groups to return unused IP addresses
to the pool by filling out an IP-request form

  Internal --> Computer Support --> 

In the "Comment" field, say "I release the following addresses: ."

For new computers, please use DHCP and don't request a static IP-address.
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) assigns and releases addresses
dynamically and allows a more efficient use of the resources we have. Please
request a static address ONLY for Unix machines or other server-type
computers.


3) General News: UTS changes its name into OIT:


OIT, the Office of Information Technology, is the result of a merger between
UTS (University Technology Services) and ARMS (Administrative Resource
Management System). You can read more about the mission of the new office on
OIT's home page at http://www.oit.ohio-state.edu/. As you may have guessed
already, the URLs for UTS web pages, excuse me, OIT web pages, will all
change eventually. At this point, only a small fraction of the pages seem to
have changed, and all the old URLs still work and transfer you to the new
pages. Changing all the references and links in our documentation and FAQs
will be a gradual process, so expect to see the names UTS and OIT used
synonymously and in parallel for a while (no, they didn't simply change 'uts'
into 'oit' in all URLs, that would be too easy).

Those of you who have been around for a while remember that UTS used to be
called ACS (Academic Computing Services) not too long ago. There are still
many URLs with acs.ohio-state.edu in use, and many of you will recognize the
address postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu. I am told that other previous names were
ATS, IRCC, CC and NCL. Luckily, these names predated the existence of the
Web. Anybody willing to bet (a) how long they will keep their new name, and
(b) what entity they will merge with next? Candidates for a merger would be
TELR (Technology Enhanced Research and Learning), SIS (Student Information 
Systems) and UNITS (University Network Integrated Telecommunications System),
all separate organizations under the Office of the CIO (Chief Information
Officer).

Speaking of name changes and inconsistencies: On the page of the CIO, the URL
for "Information Technologies Strategic Plan" is
http://www.acs.ohio-state.edu/units/uts/strategic_plan/. No further comment
:-)


4) General News: OSUWeb.net, a new ISP service:


UNITS is now apparently in the business of network access service (hey, I
thought that's what OIT was doing? But it's only fair, since OIT is offering
IP Telephony).

UNITS is now offering low-cost dial-up Internet access for faculty, staff,
and students from off-campus locations. Users pay $6.95 for 100 hours of
access and also receive web space and networking software. Contact:
Customer Service, 292-8648. Or go to the OSUWeb.net web page at
http://www.osuweb.net

The same access rules that apply to Homenet also apply to OSUWeb.net, i.e.
SSH is not required.


5) General News: Upgrades of chemistry Unix server pending:


We will upgrade the chemistry Unix server shortly. This will require an
overnight shutdown which will be announced one week in advance. At this
point, we are still waiting for pieces and parts to ship.

We try to perform yearly upgrades on our servers in order to keep pace with
growing demands on resources. The Unix server is now about 1 year old. We are
going to double the amount of memory (RAM), add a redundant (hot swappable)
power supply and add a lot more disk space (the /home filesystem is currently
96% full).

A more detailed account of the upgrade will follow in the next issue of
COMPNEWS.


6) General News: Temporary shutdown of Computer Lab 2105 NW:


Room 2109 NW, formerly known as the "Graphics Office", will be renovated and
turned into a machine room to house all central computer equipment (Unix
server, NT servers, disk storage, backup devices, research group compute
servers). Planned work includes more network outlets, more electrical power,
and cooling independent of the building air supply. The latter project will
require a temporary shutdown of the Graduate Computer Lab 2105 NW because of
work to be performed above the ceiling in 2105. The shutdown will probably
last several days.

We will make a detailed announcement as soon as we know when and for how long
the Lab will be closed.


7) General News: Changes to the Online Purchasing System:


We are proud to announce the new  online
ordering system. Although very similar to it's predecessor, the PCARD script,
this new version differs in several important ways.

First is the lovely new background color. Actually, this was done so that
users would realize that the form had changed.

Second is the fact that the form is now compliant with and requires the new
'chart field' information mandated by ARMS-General Ledger. By this time you
will all be aware of this and many of you may have had problems with reports
of invalid chart fields, though you were using the correct information
provided to you. These problems have been largely addressed, often by Steve
Parker. Contacting Steve is no longer necessary, as the administration script
that allows the accounting shop to handle these types of problems has been
completed, installed and tested. Now it is appropriate to contact Tim Mazik
and crew directly to handle any problem with the online system.

Third, and I think you will like this one, the system keeps a copy of your
input even when it believes that you have entered an invalid chart field. In
the Pcard system, when you entered an invalid fund, this was a single six
digit number, and it was appropriate to request that you correct the problem
before your work was saved (the fund number was used to create the file name
and reference number under which the request was saved). It is no longer
considered a simple correction to fix the two or three input fields necessary
to specify a cart field. This and the fact that input of online procurement
requests can entail a great amount of effort and time, I have implemented a
feature whereby a temporary reference number and file name are used to save
your work and this information is given to you in the report of error. You
should write this down and contact the accounting shop should this occur.

This leads me to my last point. A great deal of effort was put into the
design of this system. The script that handles your online request is very
complicated and may yet contain bugs. The script does, however, do its best
to report what information it has at the time of failure and to inform us why
it has failed. Although this information may not be understandable to you, I
will need it to debug any error. Please write down or cut-n-paste anything
you see should the script fail.

After all that talk of failures, I would like to end this item by saying that
the script seems to be very hardy and I am very proud of it.

ENJOY!

-Steve.


8) General News: Personal Firewalls for home computers:


If your home PC is connected to the Internet via an "always-on" broadband
connection such as DSL or cable modem (Roadrunner), you should install a
Personal Firewall to protect your PC against hackers. The Department is
somewhat protected by our departmental firewall, but ISPs generally don't
offer anything to protect your computers at home.

For more information on personal firewalls, visit our security web page at

  Internal --> Computer Support --> Security and Virus Information

The products that are most recommended by computer journals are Black Ice
($40) and Zone Alarm (free).


9) Unix News: Linux computers in the Department:


If you are a research group and you do a lot of compute-intensive work (e.g.
g98 calculations), buying a Linux computer may be an excellent and
inexpensive solution to increase your compute power. Before you buy any
computer, however, you should always talk to Support first so that we can
help you assess what solution would best fit your needs. We will be happy to
install and maintain your research computers.

Should you run your own Linux computers, please understand that you need to
configure your machine securely and keep current with patches. A poorly
configured Linux machine, or any poorly configured computer, can be an easy
target for hackers and a high risk for everybody else in the Department.

We would therefore prefer to manage all permanent Linux machines centrally.
In the case of privately owned laptops or dual-boot machines, we would like
to check your configuration before your machine goes on our network. With a
modest amount of effort, Linux machines can be made reasonably secure.

The 3 most important guidelines for almost any computer:

 o stay current with major operating system releases
 o disable all services that you don't need
 o install all security related patches promptly