March 1999 - Spring 1999 System Update Information

• Networking - We are happy to announce that the complete rewiring of Lindley Hall is complete! This project involved running over 45,000 feet of enhanced category 5 twisted pair cable and several dozen fiber optic cable runs. All machines are now running on the new cable and the switched network. This was very much a group effort involving everyone in the Computer Systems Group, with TJ Jones and Caleb Hess taking the lead on the rewiring.

  This new switched network is a major improvement in performance and security compared to the old shared ethernet segments in use previously. Instead of several dozen machines sharing a single 10 Mbit/s ethernet segment, each and every machine now has it's own dedicated 10 Mbit/s connection. In addition, we are also providing 100 Mbit/s Fast Ethernet, 155Mbit/s OC3 ATM, and 622Mbit/s OC12 ATM connections where higher bandwidth is needed. Since the network is now switched, the data on the network is inherently more secure since the network traffic to/from your workstation does not show up on the network interface of many other machines on the network. This greatly reduces our vulnerability to "sniffing" attacks for network traffic within Lindley Hall.

• Burrow Memory Upgrade - The Suns in the burrow cluster (LH004) have been upgraded from 64MB of memory to 128MB.

• CSG FAQ - Do you know what to do when a printer isn't printing? Or, do you know how to clean your monitor? Find the answer to these, and dozens of other computing questions, in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

• Software - Have you tried out the newest version of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) or WordPerfect 8 on the CS Suns? Did you know that Version 6.0 of Chez Scheme is now available? Have you given Star Office a test drive? You can find out more about the software that is installed on the CS systems by checking out the software database.

• Netatalk - If you are a Mac user, you may be happy to know that you can now access your unix home directory from a Mac. We have installed netatalk on the server whale. You should see whale show up on your Mac just like any other appletalk server.

• Disk Quotas - All graduate student sharkestra/whale disk quotas have been doubled, from 40MB to 80MB. All undergraduate burrow/paca quotas have also been doubled, from 20MB to 40MB. Use the "quota -v" command to check your current quota. You may also want to check out the Quota FAQ Entry for information about how to make the most of your allocated disk space.

• Remote Access - We now have new remote access hardware on-line that will support V.90/56K and ISDN. If you are a faculty or staff member and would like to start using this new hardware, please let us know. We have several user's migrated to the new system and are moving more phone lines from the old netblazer to the new hardware. Please see the ISDN/V.90 Policy Statement for more information.

• Wireless Network - Lindley Hall is now completely covered by a wireless network. If you have a notebook computer and you want to get "connected" to this network, please let us know.

• Window NT Terminal Server - The new NT Terminal Server hardware is up and running Citrix MetaFrame. With this server, you have access to a whole suite of Windows applications from your Unix or Mac workstation. This server is available to all CS faculty, staff, and graduate students.

• C335/Multimedia lab - The new lab of PCs in LH035 supporting the new multimedia class during the second half of the Spring 1999 semester is complete. These new PCs will also be equipped with additional hardware to support C335 starting with the Fall 1999 semester and will replace the current custom 68030 machines.

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