Computer Science Department - Systems Staff Monthly Update

WREQ Problem Reporting Tool
Email work requests and problem reports are now being entered into the WREQ problem reporting tool. You should submit all requests directly to WREQ and not to ntadmin or individual staff members. You can do this by posting a request through the web interface at: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~wreq or simply by sending your email request to WREQ AT cs dot sunysb dot edu.

WREQ Problem Reporting Tool for Administrative Requests
There is now a WREQ Problem Reporting Tool for work requests directed to the department secretarial and administrative staff. You should use secwreq for requests such as requisitions, course room changes, office supplies, grade changes, room reservations, payroll issues, tuition issues, reimbursements and building management needs. This tool can be found at http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~secwreq or you can send mail to SECWREQ AT cs dot sunysb dot edu.

A set of utilities for handling pdf files has been installed in /usr/local/bin. They each have a manpage.

xpdf reads and prints pdf files. (In testing it has been able to print Microsoft generated pdf files which Acroread cannot print.)
pdffonts is a font analyzer for pdf documents
pdfimages extracts images from pdf documents
pdfinfo can give you information from a pdf file such as author and pdf version
pdftoppm converts to ppm format
pdftops converts to postscript format
pdftotext converts to text

CSIM version 19.0 has been installed. Csim is a general purpose discrete-event simulator for block diagram oriented systems. See http://www.atl.external.lmco.com/proj/csim/overview.html for more information.
Run /usr/local/pkg/csim_c-19.0/csim to try it out.

On the Web
The proxy server has been upgraded. Please see http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/FAQ/InternetDepartmentProxy.html for
information on using the proxy to access non-standard internet services.
Work continues on the Alumni website. It will include a form that graduates can fill out with information of interest to
other department members, such as how to contact the alum in the future.

New/Upgraded Software on MS Windows
The following software has been upgraded in the undergraduate translabs:

Classroom Laptops
Room 2311, the new Lecture/Seminar room on the second floor, includes in its resources 20 laptops with wireless connectivity that can be used for classroom teaching. The laptops have the following configuration:

Please send mail to WREQ AT cs dot sunysb dot edu with a short paragraph detailing your proposed classroom use if you would like to use some of these laptops in a class.

Symbol PDAs
We are pleased to announce the availability of 100 Symbol PPT 2746 PDAs for use by Computer Science Department Faculty and Staff. Currently about 40 of the units are being reserved for classroom use.

Microsoft Windows CE Version 3.0.9348 (Build 9456)
Processor: MIPS Vr4181
Memory: 16 MB
Display: High contrast, anti-reflective monochrome LCD display 1/4 VGA resolution (240 x 320 pixels)
Network Adapter: Spectrum 24 Wireless Adapter
Firmware Type: 802.11b
Supported Rates: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 MBit
Operating Mode: ESS
Encryption Modes: No Encryption, 40-bit, and 128-bit
Additional: Symbol 1D Barcode Reader

If you would like to use one of these PDAs please send e-mail to either ptonra AT cs DOT sunysb DOT edu or bzhang AT cs DOT sunysb DOT edu to coordinate the pick up of your PDA. If you would also like to use several PDAs for a research project or a class please send email with a short proposal detailing how these PDAs will be used to either ptonra AT cs DOT sunysb DOT edu or bzhang AT cs DOT sunysb DOT edu.

Infrastructure Changes and Upgrades
SSO - Not your typical Single Sign On
We will make the switch to SSO on www on June 7th at 8am. Your browser will likely warn you that you are entering a secured site and complain that the site is using an unknown certificate authority. This warning may be ignored. Please see below for detailed information on SSO.

1. What is SSO ?
SSO stands for Single Sign On. What SSO provides is One Sign-On and access to manyapplications. All the
applications available through SSO require user verification and have access restrictions (e.g. You must be a faculty member,
students have read-only access, Good Standing Letters are restricted to department graduate students). Your credentials are
entered once per session and used for all the applications available on SSO during the session.

2. Why do we have SSO ?
SSO resulted from a desire to provide web access to department applications, services and data with the need to control access to these applications or data. For example, we do not intend to provide MSDNAA access to the entire campus or Internet community but we'd like to provide access to our user community at home or in their dorms. This requires some form of access control and authentication. We also desired one-stop-shopping. One place to access certain services or data.

3. Why is SSO accessed using https ?
Because you will type your login name and password into the login screen of SSO to start your session. Department policy and common sense prohibit transmission of login information in clear- text. Some of the data provided to or from SSO is sensitive and we prefer to see it encrypted before it wizzes over the Internet. Rather than bounce from encryption to non-encryption (and being vulnerable to accidental clear-text transmission) we prefer to CYOA and encrypt everything.

4. What services are available through this SSO ?
MSDNAA, AntiSpam Options, ReserveRoom, Good Standing Letter Form, Faculty data, downloads.

5. What is MSDNAA ?
Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance. The goal is to put their latest tools, software and technical information
into the hands of CS and IS faculty and students. MSDNAA requires tracking who has access to software.

6. What is AntiSpam Options ?
AntiSpam Options allows a department user to opt to utilize the CS department email AntiSpam System (spam filtering, and journal of suspected spam emails) or to opt to be outside this system (All email goes into your inbox without any identification or screening of spam). You can also request a journal email of all spam mails being retained in the system addressed to yourself.

7. What is ReserveRoom ?
Reserveroom is a room reservation program. Essentially a calendar system to mark, and track the usage of conference and classrooms. Creation of reservations is currently restricted to faculty.

8. What is Faculty Only Area ?
As the name implies the content is meant for department faculty only.

9. What is the Good Standing Letter Form ?
Students in the U.S. on a visa require a Letter of Good Standing if they plan to visit home and return to the U.S. to continue their studies. This is a form which collects the essential information required to create the letter and emails the result to the graduate secretary who creates the letter for you. This is restricted to department graduate students. Domestic students do not need a letter of good standing to visit home.

10. What is the Downloads item for ?
The Downloads contains software which has been acquired for the use of computer science faculty, staff and students. Some software is also available to all Stony Brook students via university channels.

11. What user name and password do I login with ?
Use your department login and password (also referred to as compserv login or Unix login) not your editwww login information.

12. How do I end my session ?
Select the logout item from the main menu, close your browser or current window. This prevents other users from using your
credentials to access SSO.

13. How do I report problems and make suggestions for new applications ?
Use http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~wreq on the department web site or email WREQ AT cs dot sunysb dot edu

14. How do I use the MSDNAA application ?
Log into SSO, select MSDNAA. You will see a list of software available to you. Items highlighted in red require an activation key to use the software. Software titles in black font can be installed directly from the CD. Other colored fonts may be displayed depending if the software is restricted your group (faculty/grads/staff). Click on your software selection and then click on submit. The loan agreement will be displayed next. Next you will get a page (that needs to be printed and filled out). It is the physical receipt which the CS library retains when you go to check out your CD. Any license keys are emailed to your account.

15. How do I use the AntiSpam Options application ?
Log into SSO, select AntiSpam Options. You have 3 bulleted choices: Opt into Spam filtering, Opt Out of Spam filtering, and get a current digest (on demand copy) of all frozen Spams for you. You can only make one choice at a time. Select submit and exit to submit your choice or the "Back" button of your browser to leave the application without taking any action.

16. How do I use the Reserveroom application ?
First the bad news: only faculty and administrative support persons can make reservations. Students may view reservations. Log into SSO and select ReserveRoom. A pop-up of all rooms and associated capacities will appear. You should read it at least once. Next a calendar like webpage will appear with room names and numbers on the left side of the page. There will be a list of rooms for each day of the current week. Across the top of each day's list of rooms are time slots in 15 minute chunks. At the top and bottom of the page are some buttons and boxes. You can advance a week or revert a week by clicking the appropriate button. You can fill in the week to go directly to that weeks reservations. A button is available to take you back to the SSO menu, to pop-up the room list and to pop-up the department room reservation priority guidelines. Room reservations are blocked in red and the letters RSV are placed in the start time of the reservation block. The shortcut method to find who has reserved the room is to hover your mouse over the RSV for the room and time slot you are interested in. The name will appear (similar to a tag). If you click on the RSV you will get a pop-up which will show more details about the reservation (reason, resources needed). If you are the owner of the reservation this pop-up will allow you to modify or delete the reservation. To make a new reservation go to the start date desired and click on the room number or name. A pop-up will appear which you need to fill out with at least your login-name, the start and finish times for the reservation. If this is a repeating (weekly, bi-weekly etc) then use the pull down list to select the repeating sequence that fits your needs. Select Reserve or Cancel to back-out. If you select Reserve and there's no conflicts then you'll get an Ok pop-up listing the dates reserved. If there are conflicts those dates will noted and not reserved.

17. How do I use the Faculty Only area ?
If you're not faculty, you don't. If you are faculty then log into SSO and select Faculty Only. If you need items added to
the Faculty Only area email wreq or use WREQ on www to have it done please.

18. How do I use the Good Standing Letter Form ?
If you are not a CD department graduate student you can stop here. You can't use the form. Grad students log into SSO and select Good Standing Letter Form. You fill in the blanks and after you submit the form it will be emailed to the proper graduate secretary who will put it into an INS pleasing form for you. If you enter rubbish you'll annoy the secretary and INS.

19. How do I use the Downloads application ?
Log into SSO and select the Downloads application. The downloads page is grouped by purpose of the software (e.g. anti-spyware, X11, SSH, Anti-virus). There are three columns: the link to the actual software, the package's website, and comments regarding the software. When you select a package the download process will begin.

PCs and Laptops
Recently it was discovered that one of the research labs in the department had several PCs harboring a trojan horse program and also several PCs missing critical security patches. There is an FAQ on how to make certain you have all critical patches for your PC at: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/FAQ/MiscWindowsUpdate.html. There is another FAQ on protecting your PC from viruses and sypware at: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/FAQ/VirusesAndSpyware.html. We recommend that private labs set up a centralized server to distribute patches, manage security policies, and distribute and manage anti-virus software. Please send mail to wreq if you would like assistance from the staff to set up such a server.

HOW TO REPORT A PROBLEM or MAKE A WORK REQUEST
First you should check the FAQ pages at:
http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~faq

There is also a link to an index of FAQs.
If the answer to your question is not in the faq's you should use wreq to report the problem or make a work request.
There is a short blurb on wreq in the faq area (search by index).
Wreq lives at: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~wreq/

You can also send email to:WREQ AT cs dot sunysb dot edu from your dept account, or campus account. The subject line should cover what is wrong or what you need. The body of the email can supply any details.

Your problem report must include the following information for us to be able to help you promptly:

The room you are working in, either room number or lab name.
The name of the host you are working on (hostname command in Unix, machine number in 1239, the number written on the bookshelf by your desk in the student offices).
The sequence of things you did just prior to having the problem as best you recollect.
The exact text of any error message you see on the screen, or a complete description of the problem that occured.

Please report problems promptly as they occur so they can be investigated under the same set of conditions as far as possible. When in doubt, feel free to send email to:

Unix and network problems:ROOT AT cs dot sunysb dot edu
PC problems:NTADMIN AT cs dot sunysb dot edu