Topics

1) General News: The last few months; recent developments
2) General News: Staff changes
3) Security News: Sircam virus, Code Red worm and lessons to be learned
4) General News: Problems with TWIG solved
5) General News: Diskquotas on Windows file server
6) General News: "Exchange folder" replaced by "scratch"
7) General News: Please don't send attachments to mailing lists
8) General News: Bulk Computer accounts for students
9) General News: ISIS/Base software updated
10) Security News: New firewall coming soon
11) General News: Correct email address, correct web URL
12) Unix News: HTML encoded emails in pine, elm and mutt
13) General News: Web-based calendar system 'Calcium'
14) Lab News: Printer definitions in 2105
15) General Tips: Did you know that...?

Chemistry Department Related FAQs:

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

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



IMPORTANT VIRUS WARNING:


A new virus is being reported called W32Nimda@MM. This is an Internet worm
that arrives as an e-mail attachment and affects ALL Windows computers. The
virus causes mass e-mail to be sent and can cause network traffic jams. For
more details on the Nimda@MM virus, go to:

  http://vil.nai.com/VIL/newly-discovered-viruses.asp

If you receive any e-mail attachments that you cannot verify as legitimate,
delete them without opening them to avoid infecting your computer.

To detect and eradicate the Nimda virus, download the extraDAT file for
VirusScan 4.x from Software To Go at

  http://softwaretogo.osu.edu/upgrades/stg2wnx.html#302818

For more information on computer viruses, visit OIT's InfoPages at

  http://www.oit.ohio-state.edu/infopages/virus.html.

You need to have DAT file version 4160 to be protected against Nimda.


1) General News: The last few months; recent developments:


The last issue of COMPNEWS was published in May. What happened to Computer
Support in general and COMPNEWS in particular during the months of June, July
and August?

Good question; we're glad you were wondering :-)

What transpired in those three months can be summarized in a few lines:

 - vacations
 - viruses and worms, lots of them!
 - expected and (very) unexpected staff changes


2) General News: Staff changes:


Our former webmaster, Liz Mieczkowski, left us at the end of July as planned.
Liz, Loki (her ferret) and Craig (her fiance) moved to New Orleans since
Craig got a tenure track position there. They have all survived the hazards
of moving and like their new place. We are very sad to have lost both Liz and
Loki and we wish them all the best. Loki was an excellent customer service
representative; he would bite users who asked too many questions already
answered in our FAQs on the web :-)

Tim Cogley, our Windows administrator of the last four years, was terminated
by the University on July 27.

To make matters worse, at the same time the Sircam virus as well as several
waves of Code Red infections swept through the Department (more below).

As if this were not enough, while various virus and worm attacks were
unfolding, Barb was out for a week and a half, Steve was out for one week,
and we were reduced to 40% of our full-time staff during this time.

Our student workers, Nick Leali and Mutsuko Fukushige, have been working very
hard and have done their best to address all requests in a timely fashion.
Nick just got married and spent a week on his honeymoon. Congratulations!

We have since hired a new webmaster, Ken Petri, who started on September 4.
He was selected among approximately 25 applicants. He has been busy reading
documentation, getting acquainted with the Department, and becoming a father
for the first time (Eva was born through C-section on Monday, September 10).
Please extend a warm welcome to Ken. You can reach him via email under the
collective address support@chemistry.ohio-state.edu or under
webmaster@chemistry.ohio-state.edu for web-specific issues.

We have received more than 50 applications for the Windows administrator
position, and we are hopeful that we will be able to fill the position soon.


3) Security News: Sircam virus, Code Red worm and lessons to be learned:


During the month of August, what was left of Computer Support spent an
unbelievable amount of time eradicating viruses (mostly Sircam) and finding
(and eliminating) rogue webservers in the Department.

A few observations:

a) The Computer Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (CERT/CC), a
center of Internet security expertise operated by Carnegie Mellon University,
has observed a significant increase in activity resulting in compromises of
home user machines. Many home users do not keep their machines up to date
with security patches and workarounds, do not run current anti-virus
software, and do not exercise caution when handling email attachments.
Intruders know this, and we have seen a marked increase in intruders
specifically targeting home users who have cable modem and DSL connections.

b) Security is about education. A cracker's infiltration of Microsoft's
computer network last year again underscores the danger that just one
unprotected computer can bring to an entire network. Telecommuting poses
security risks because family members may use the computer at home, and
people at home are more likely to open attachments they wouldn't touch at
work. Telecommuters need to have security measures in place: anti-virus
software, personal firewalls, and encryption capabilities for sensitive data.
The same applies to laptop users.

c) "Do it yourself" virus cleaning is dangerous. People who pass along
unverified virus warnings can be a major part of the virus problem.

d) University computers are seen as desirable targets for crackers due to
their often ubiquitous vulnerabilities and weak protection. In addition, the
systems offer storage space for illegal software, fast Internet connections
for launching denial-of-service attacks, and access to a plethora of
sensitive data. Crackers have been known to trade addresses of compromised
.edu computers on the "digital black market."

The lessons to be learned from all of this are the same as in the past:

On any computers that you manage yourself (in your lab, office, or at home),

 - don't run any unnecessary services (such as a webserver, FTP server,
   telnet server, etc.); if you don't know what these services are, you
   likely won't need them!

 - keep current with patches, updates and/or service packs

 - install virus checking software on PCs and Macs and keep the virus
   definitions current

 - if you have broadband Internet access at home (cable modem, DLS) you
   need to have a personal firewall in place on your laptop(s) and/or
   desktop machine(s)

If you neglect to follow the above recommendations for home computers and/or
for computers in your research group, you live on borrowed time, and  - worse
- you put the entire Department at risk.

We strongly encourage home computer users to review the document

  http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/home_networks.html

It illustrates the threats to home users and outlines countermeasures that
can be used to mitigate against them. You should also familiarize yourself
with our "Computer Security Recommendations" under

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


4) General News: Problems with TWIG solved:


If you have tried the web-based email interface 'TWIG' in the past and
encountered a problem where you would continually be returned to the login
page, please try again.

There is now a note at the bottom of the login page which describes how to
fix this problem. Briefly, the crucial requirements for TWIG to work are one,
cookies must be enabled in your browser, and two, the PC or Mac must have
correct time/date settings (including correct timezone and am/pm setting).

TWIG accessed through Netscape doesn't seem to care much about time
discrepancies, but IE does.


5) General News: Diskquotas on Windows file server:


We've started testing disk quotas on the Windows file server. We implemented
quotas on one volume first, and since this didn't cause any obvious problems
we have rolled out disk quotas on all user volumes.

Disk quotas aren't meant to prevent you from storing work related data, but
they are meant to keep a small number of users from using a disproportionate
share of the available space at the expense of all others who, as a
consequence, can't store their work-related data.

The space on the Windows file server is an important resource for the entire
Department. It is backed up regularly, and it shouldn't be wasted for storing
MP3s or other non-work-related content.


6) General News: "Exchange folder" replaced by "scratch":


As announced in June, what was known as the "exchange" folder has been phased
out and was replaced by a "scratch" folder. "Exchange" used to be a storage
area (a network share) accessible from both Macs and PCs. Many users whose
U: shares were not "macified" (made accessible from Macs in addition to PCs)
used "exchange" to move files created on a Mac (e.g. in the Computer Lab 2105
NW) to their U: shares.

With the advent of the new Windows file server running Windows 2000 Advanced
Server (in production since April; see COMPNEWS issue 36) is now easily
possible to macify larger numbers of U: shares without facing any undue drain
of resources. Therefore, if you need to access your U: share from Macs on
occasion, don't hesitate to request that it be macified.

Details on how to access the "scratch" folder from Macs and PCs can be found
under

   Internal --> Computer Support --> Chemistry Department Related FAQs -->
        How do I access short-term scratch space from Macs and PCs in the Department?


7) General News: Please don't send attachments to mailing lists:


If you send a 1 MB attachment to misc@chemistry.ohio-state.edu, keep in mind
that we have about 700 users. Each user will get a copy of your message, and
all the copies will be stored in the mail spool. Adding 700 MB to the mail
spool in a matter of minutes can cause serious problems, especially since
many users don't heed our requests to reduce their usage. See our web pages
for more details in a new FAQ "Mail Spool Size Issues & Eudora Settings".

If you want to share an image or some other document, please put it on your
web page and only mail out an announcement where the image can be found. If
you have problems or questions concerning how to do this, contact our new
webmaster at webmaster@chemistry.ohio-state.edu or 292-5496.

Use good judgement before mailing anything big to a mailing list. In
particular, please don't send attachments to misc@chemistry or
everyone@chemistry.


8) General News: Bulk Computer accounts for students:


If you teach a class and you need computer accounts created in bulk for your
students, please make your request at least 2 weeks in advance. It takes
considerable time and effort to create accounts and to make sure there are no
duplicates or name collisions.

For bulk account creation, please send a plain ASCII text file (not a Word
document or an Excel spreadsheet) with the format

  first name, last name, SSN#

Output from the MARX system is acceptable.


9) General News: ISIS/Base software updated:


The ISIS software package from Molecular Design Limited with the
ChemInform/REACCS chemical database, available on the Chemistry Unix server
and accessible from the Macs and PCs in the Computer Lab 2105 NW, has been
upgraded to the latest release.

The ChemInform/REACCS database is a compendium of all organic reactions and
transformations since the mid 1980s, and is a powerful database for finding
conversions of one functional group to another as well as for all syntheses
of a certain molecular structure. The ISIS package uses the ISIS/Draw utility
for chemical data input, and is easy to use with a nice graphical interface.

If you are interested in using the ISIS software package, please contact
support@chemistry.ohio-state.edu for instructions and guidance.


10) Security News: New firewall coming soon:


We are about to replace our existing firewall, a proprietary device called a
"Karl Bridge", with a new system that will allow us to implement more complex
filter definitions while being able to sustain both higher speeds and better
network throughput.

Until now, the departmental network has been connected to the University
backbone with 10 MB/s half-duplex. As soon as the new firewall is in place,
we can increase this speed to 100 MB/s full-duplex, which will largely
eliminate an existing bottleneck.

When this change happens in a few weeks from now, network connections through
the firewall will be disrupted for a short time. We will announce this a few
days in advance. Note that there won't be any disruptions of any networking
functions inside the Department.


11) General News: Correct email address, correct web URL:


This is another reminder that an address of the form
user@www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu is NOT a valid email address, it has
never been advertised as an email address, it never worked in the past, and
it won't work in the future. Correct email addresses are ONLY of the form

   user@chemistry.ohio-state.edu

Don't send mail to www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu or to chem.osu.edu.

Furthermore, the URL for the Chemistry Department web site is and has always
been

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

Don't advertise anything else; in particular, don't leave out the www! Many
of you still advertise incorrect URLs in your mail signature files; please
correct them.


12) Unix News: HTML encoded emails in pine, elm and mutt:


HTML content in email messages have long been the bane of those of us that
use character-based email reading programs on chemistry like 'pine', 'elm' or
'mutt'. This is no longer the case. With the installation of the program
'links' (similar to, but better than its counterpart 'lynx') and the addition
of a line in the system-wide mailcap file

  text/html; links file://%s; ; nametemplate=%s.html

we will now be able to read these messages and attachments. This way of
reading attachments may not be as pretty as some other graphical based email
programs (for instance, graphics are replaced with the character marker
'[IMG]'), but messages are usually presented well enough to decide whether or
not to fire up Netscape and use TWIG to view the messages in more detail.


13) General News: Web-based calendar system 'Calcium':


Computer Support has purchased a web calendar called 'Calcium'. If you are
interested in using this software, an account and calendars can be created
for you. Please specify who you would like to be able to view your calendar
(e.g. your lab group meeting calendar should only be visible for those who
have logged in from your group). We ask that graduate students log in under
their faculty member's account, because new accounts need to be created for
anyone wishing to view or edit private calendars.

Public calendars are visible by going to

  http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/cgi/calendar

and clicking any of the calendars you see. The office hours for computer
support members can be seen by clicking on "Computer_Support_Office_Hours".
Or, click on any of our names, and you can see our individual office hours.
"Computer_Support_Vacation" shows the days that we have scheduled to be away
from the office.

We have set up calendars for equipment reservations, and we would like
everyone to use them to reserve equipment themselves. Please contact
support@chemistry.ohio-state.edu for this information if you don't already
know what username and password you should be using.

Detailed instructions on how to use the calendar to make reservations for
equipment can be found under

  Internal --> Computer Support --> Chemistry Department Related FAQs -->
           --> How do I use the Calcium Calendar to reserve equipment?


14) Lab News: Printer definitions in 2105:


Recently we've had some concerns expressed that users had to constantly set
up printers at every new computer in the Lab, which was annoying and time
consuming for everyone. Now, printer definitions in the 2105 NW Lab are set
up automatically upon each and every login for every user. The list of
printers includes 'Phaser', 'Hotstuff', and '2105NW'. Regardless of whether
a user has ever used a particular computer before, or any other factors, the
printers listed above will be set up upon login.

We are planning many more improvements and new features in the Lab in
particular and for all Windows computers in the Department in general once
we've hired a new Windows administrator.


15) General Tips: Did you know that...?


 ... you are supposed to send all requests and problem reports to

        support@chemistry.ohio-state.edu

     and NOT to individual members of the support staff? Otherwise, you might
     not get any response if one of us is sick, on vacation, or very busy
     with other tasks.

 ... you can map your Windows U: share as

        \\windows\username$

      and your Unix home directory as

         \\unix\username

      from all Windows computers in the Department? Your U: share lives
      on the "windows" file server, while your Unix home directory lives
      on the "chemistry" Unix server.

 ... the preceeding information can be found on the web under

        Internal --> Computer Support --> PC and Mac information -->
                  --> Windows FAQ     ?

     Whenever any information changes, this document and all the FAQs are
     updated in a timely fashion.

 ... our FAQs on the web pages contain lots of information about
     recurring problems? Check them out under

	Internal --> Computer Support --> Chemistry Department Related FAQs

     If you have a question that looks like something that somebody else may
     have asked already, try checking the FAQs first.

 ... if you get a message from someone telling you that IBM or another computer
     company just released info about the latest and most terrible
     virus, this message is very likely a hoax? See

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

 ... you must not yourself deploy wireless access points (e.g. Apple
     Airports) anywhere in the Department? Open (unauthenticated) access
     points are in violation of University policies; they would allow anybody
     on the streets to get behind our firewall and onto our network. Current
     wireless encryption is inadequate. Deployment of wireless services in
     the Department will require careful study, design and implementation.

     There will be more on wireless networking in upcoming COMPNEWS issues.