Topics
1) General News: Relaying of email
2) Windows News: Folder redirection on Windows computers
3) General Reminder: SFTP has replaced FTP to the chemistry Unix server
4) General Reminder: Respect Copyrights
5) Security Reminder: Security Policy
6) General News: How to deal with spam
7) General News: Wireless update
8) General News: Career Resources links
9) General News: Improvements to SciFinder Scholar
10) Lab News: New scanner; PCs will be upgraded to WindowsXP
11) General News: OIT's "Software To Go" renamed
12) General News: OIT Buckeye Bundle licenses extended
13) General News: OIT web proxy server will be discontinued
14) 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
1) General News: Relaying of email:
In the old, commercial-free days of the Internet, it was considered common
courtesy to receive email from any computer in the world and to relay it to
anywhere else in the world. With the commercialization of the Internet,
unsolicited commercial messages (spam) became widespread. Often, spammers
would try to hide their identity by relaying spam through mail servers that
allowed relaying, making the relaying sites look like the perpetrators.
Eventually people started to blacklist the sites that allowed relaying. As a
result, we abandoned our policy of free relaying of email from anywhere to
anywhere in December 1999. Since then, we have accepted only email that was
destined for us or another address at OSU.
For users with laptops, this no-relaying policy meant that they had to
configure a different SMTP server when sending email from outside campus.
While the laptop was in the Department, their SMTP server was
chemistry.ohio-state.edu; while the laptop was elsewhere, they had to put in
the SMTP server of their Internet Service Provider (ISP). Another solution
for laptop users was to tunnel their SMTP connection through SSH, but this
was a bit more complicated.
We now have a mechanism in place that will allow relaying of email to
authenticated users, i.e. users who first establish an encrypted channel
and then send their username and password. This sounds complicated, but it
isn't. It can be configured by checking a few boxes in most email clients
and does not rely on SSH software.
We have updated our Email Relaying FAQ. For more information on how to turn
on authentication in various email clients, go to
Internal --> Computer Support --> Chemistry Department Related FAQs -->
--> Why can I not relay through chemistry anymore?
2) Windows News: Folder redirection on Windows computers:
When you log into a Windows computer in the Department, you can always access
your U: share and the files stored in it. PCs running WindowsNT, Windows2000
and WindowsXP will automatically map your U: share; on other Windows
operating systems you can map your U: share 'by hand' (see FAQ). Therefore,
if you want to access your files from different locations in the Department,
just put them into your U: share.
However, anything you leave on your Desktop or in the MyDocuments folder will
be stored in local folders on the PC you logged in, not on the file server.
In other words, if you work from a different computer, you won't be able to
access files you left on the Desktop of another computer.
With folder redirection, we now have the ability to redirect
Desktop
My Documents
My Pictures
Start Menu
into sub-folders of your U: drive. This means that the Desktop, the My
Documents folder, and even elements that you changed or added to your Start
Menu (such as shortcuts) will follow you from computer to computer.
For those of you who are familiar with roaming profiles, folder redirection
is not quite the same as and has neither the limitations nor all the benefits
of roaming profiles.
With roaming profiles, everything in the profile (the Desktop, My Documents,
etc.) is copied to the local machine when you login and copied back up to
the server when you logout. With large files on your desktop, this can
consume substantial amounts of time. As you logout, the entire profile is
uploaded, and once that process is complete, only then the old profile on
the server is removed. If you don't have enough disk quota left on the
Windows file server, your profile can get corrupted. With folder redirection,
if you don't have enough disk quota left, you can't put a huge data file on
your desktop in the first place; there is never any danger of corrupting
anything.
However, with folder redirection, neither the Favorites folder nor the look
and feel of the GUI (backgrounds, colors, other customizations) will follow
you around from computer to computer. But we may be able to add roaming
profiles to folder redirection at a later point in time, trying to combine
the advantages of both features.
Folder redirection was enabled for all Windows computers in the Lab 2105 NW
about two months ago. We are planning to roll it out to staff and research
groups soon. You need to run Windows2000 or WindowsXP, and your computer must
be a member of the CHEMISTRY domain for this feature to work. If you log into
a Windows computer on which you already have files in the local Desktop or
the My Documents folder for the first time, these files will be moved to the
file server automatically and merged with whatever is already there.
If you want to try out folder redirection in your research group, please
contact us.
3) General Reminder: SFTP has replaced FTP to the chemistry Unix server:
We want to remind you that FTP logins to the chemistry Unix server from
outside the Department were phased out on January 1, 2003 (see the
announcement in COMPNEWS issue 42). We still see repeated failed attempts
every day.
Unlike FTP, SFTP (Secure FTP) is based on SSH and doesn't send passwords over
the net in unencrypted form.
You can use SFTP to access your data on both the Unix and the Windows
server. For more information, see
Internal --> Computer Support --> Chemistry Department Related FAQs -->
--> How do I access data on the central Unix and Windows servers
from outside the Department?
For more information on SSH, see
Internal --> Computer Support --> The Great SSH Primer
4) General Reminder: Respect Copyrights:
If you add a new computer to your Lab, make sure you have the proper licenses
to run all your software, including the operating system. Don't illegally
install software that you're not licensed for. If you purchased one license
for a given product, you may install this software on only one computer.
5) Security Reminder: Security Policy:
If someone asked you if our Department had a Security Policy, how would you
respond? In case you didn't know, we have had one for a long time. If you've
never read it, please take the time to read it now.
See
Internal --> Computer Support --> Policy Statements --> Security Policy
Security is no longer a case of restricting individual freedom and personal
convenience. It's a matter of protecting other users on the network from
those that can't or won't safely operate their computer.
6) General News: How to deal with spam:
Spam is a growing problem for all of us. See COMPNEWS issue 44 for a recent
discussion.
There are a few simple steps you can take to minimize spam:
- Don't respond to spam asking to be taken off their mailing list. Chances
are they will not honor your request. By responding to them, you confirm
that they found a valid email address.
This is the most important step of all, yet it is the one most often not
followed.
- Refuse to buy anything from companies that use spam.
- Use anti-spam software. We offer SpamAssassin and instructions how to set
it up.
Spamming will continue to get worse until meaningful federal laws are
enacted. Even with federal laws in place, it is unclear how they will be
enforced.
At present, it costs spammers about $500 to send out a million spam messages
If at least a small fraction of the target audience makes purchases, the spam
has been profitable. Spamming will continue as long as it is profitable for
companies to do so.
For more information on SpamAssassin, see
Internal --> Computer Support --> Chemistry Department Related FAQs -->
--> How do I block spam email?
There are different ways for spammers to harvest email addresses. Addresses
can be purchased in bulk. They can be picked off of web pages with automated
search tools. They can also be obtained with "send this email to everyone you
know" schemes, an example of which follows.
You may have seen a version of an email that has been making the rounds
lately with a From: address something like "FWD: concerned parent" or "FWD:
concerned mother" bemoaning the "large problem facing our nation" about the
distribution of spam and pornographic materials via email, and offering a
service to stop the spam if you click on the www.remove.org link in the
message.
DO NOT FALL FOR THIS. It sounds good, but it's bogus. It plays on your
sympathies to draw you in. It seems that remove.org is a scam and email
address harvester. You may also see consumer-resource.net references in the
email message (if you look carefully at the html code). A link to that
redirects one to a site www.bulk-email-broadcasting.com.
Do not reply/respond to these emails in any way. Do not forward the message
to everyone you know. Delete these emails. There are other emails you may get
from consumer-resource.net as well.
This is a pretty clever attempt to trick gullible users into giving out their
email addresses, so the perpetrators can bombard them with more spam.
- They are using "think of the children" psychology.
- They are pretending to be a concerned parent instead of the commercial
venture they really are.
- They play on the fact that many users are sick of spam, pretend to be spam
fighters, and use that as a way to collect more email addresses -- for
purposes of spamming.
A last tip: Regardless of the subject or the topic, whether it is a plea for
help or a warning about a destructive virus, if you get an email asking you
to forward it to everyone you know, NEVER EVER do so. If it's not a scheme to
harvest email addresses, it's likely some kind of hoax that takes away
network bandwidth and clogs users' inboxes. Virus hoaxes can be as time
consuming to deal with as real viruses. We can (and do) filter out real
viruses, but we cannot filter hoaxes.
7) General News: Wireless update:
We featured a more detailed discussion of OIT's wireless efforts in COMPNEWS
issue 44. We pointed out that the CIO had retracted the initial, very
attractive offer to deploy a wireless infrastructure in departments. While
the wiring of classrooms is now complete, we have no information whether
those access points have been enabled. We have also not been updated on any
new offers concerning departmental wireless projects.
For more information on OIT's wireless project, see
http://www.osuweb.net/wireless/
If you as a research group or as an individual are interested in a wireless
infrastructure in the Department, outside of the classroom areas, please let
us know. If you are interested, how much would you be willing to pay for this
service (in terms of Dollars per month per user, or as an up-front cost)?
8) General News: Career Resources links:
A new web site menu item has been added. Compiled by the Graduate Studies
Office, the Career Resources link contains pages of interest to graduate
students and job seekers, including strategies and information for
interviewing, online workshops, and information on the Interfolio and ResLink
services. This link also is designed to provide departmental career
information to employers.
Three recently created pages under
Internal --> Graduate Studies Resources -->
Listings of 885 seminars and 999 research numbers
Listings for housing opportunities and items for sale
Listings of career workshops, jobs, and departmental career events
(the URLs depend on whether you are inside or outside the Department).
9) General News: Improvements to SciFinder Scholar:
As of June 17, the number of simultaneous SciFinder Scholar connections from
OSU has been increased from 4 to 8. This means that 8 users campus-wide can
now use SciFinder at the same time. Also, substructure searching is now
possible.
These changes were possible due to generous negotiating by CAS and a
contribution from OSU Libraries.
SciFinder Scholar is the online search tool from Chemical Abstracts Service
(CAS). For more information on SciFinder, see
Internal --> Computer Support --> SciFinder Scholar
10) Lab News: New scanner; PCs will be upgraded to WindowsXP:
There is a new, legal-sized flat-bed scanner in the Lab.
We are planning to upgrade the PCs from Windows2000 to WindowsXP over the
next few months. While the look-and-feel of XP is slightly different, the two
operating systems are very similar, and this change should not cause any
problems.
11) General News: OIT's "Software To Go" renamed:
OSU received a trademark infringement notice on "Software to Go". OSU Legal
researched the issue and determined that the infringement claim was
legitimate. They advised OIT to change the name to avoid the risks of legal
action and associated costs.
The download service for Site Licensed Software and related site licensing
downloads will now be referred to as the Software Downloads Page. It has the
web address:
http://osusls.osu.edu
12) General News: OIT Buckeye Bundle licenses extended:
The OSU Buckeye Bundle is a suite of software that Ohio State site-licenses
from Microsoft Corporation on a Custom Enterprise agreement. The bundle
consists of:
Windows Upgrades
Office Pro and Office Macintosh
Visual Studio Pro
FrontPage
Back Office Client Access Licenses (license to authorize access to
Microsoft servers)
This agreement had an initial term of 3 years, was extended into a 4th year
(due to expire October 1, 2003) and has just been extended again until May
2004.
OIT administers the Microsoft Enterprise licensing agreement. Details about
the Buckeye Bundle can be found at
http://www.oit.ohio-state.edu/site_license/mslicense/
13) General News: OIT web proxy server will be discontinued:
OIT has been running a proxy server for several years so that the university
community has off- campus access to electronic resources provided by
University Libraries. Last fall, the Libraries implemented proxy software to
provide off- campus access to library resources and consequently, OIT will
discontinue their proxy server in September.
If you have your browser software configured to connect to the OIT proxy
server, you should delete those settings and connect via the Libraries' proxy
software. No special configuration of your computer or software is necessary
to connect via the Libraries' proxy software.
Do the following: Connect to the Libraries' web site; click the Off-Campus
Sign In button; enter your osu.edu username and password and click Submit.
Once the system verifies that you are a valid OSU user, the Libraries' web
site will re-appear without the sign-in button and you will be able to search
all electronic resources provided by the University Libraries.
For more details, see
http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/
14) General Tips: Did you know that...?
... chemistry.ohio-state.edu and www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu are two
different computers? You use the first address, among other things, to
access your email, and the second address for web pages.
... you need to remember your passwords? See FAQ "Why do I have so many
accounts/passwords?" The most frequent reason why users think the DPR
system, or their Eudora, or the Calcium calendar is broken is because
they can't remember their password, or they don't know which password to
use.
... you may not deploy wireless access points (e.g. Apple Airports) in the
Department? Open access points are against University policies, and they
allow anybody on the street to get behind our firewall.
... you're not supposed to remove shortcuts, remove software or install
any software on the PCs in the Computer Lab 2105 NW?
... if you use one of the Macs in the Computer Lab 2105 NW, you need to
authenticate with your osu.edu username/password before you can use
an application that accesses the network (such as SciFinder)?
... staff members should not attempt to install new software on their
computers themselves? Usually such attempts result in broken systems,
and it often takes hours to fix them.
... 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.
... 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.
... we perform daily backups of Unix home directories and email spools on
the chemistry Unix server, as well as daily backups of all U: shares on
the Windows file server? There are NO BACKUPS of files on individual
PCs, Macs or Unix workstations.
... 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, or one that says that this warning is very new and to SEND IT TO
EVERYONE YOU KNOW! this message is very likely a hoax? See
Internal --> Computer Support --> Security and Virus Information
... Computer support has two words to say about ANY MESSAGE that says 'send
it to everyone you know':
DO NOT!
Send it to us, and we will verify its urgency and authenticity and warn
the chemistry community appropriately.
... laptops being taken in and out of the Department represent a huge
security exposure against which our firewall and other tools are
powerless? Unless you have secured your laptop, have disabled
unnecessary services, have kept up with patches and are running a
personal firewall, it is only a question of time until disaster
strikes.
... we cannot tell you your current passwords on Unix or Windows? Passwords
are stored in encrypted form. We can only change them. If you want to
have a password changed, please stop by in person and bring an ID.
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