SYSTEMS STAFF MONTHLY UPDATE - OCTOBER 2003

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.

When you use WREQ for your request it goes to the entire staff simultaneously, so that the person best able to help you sees it immediately. It is logged in a central location so that it cannot accidently be overlooked in someone's mailbox. You will automatically receive updates by email when the problem is either resolved or updated along the path to resolution. Finally, you can look it up online yourself at any point to see its status and any notes a staff person may have made.

NEW! 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.

Announcements

Congratulations to Bin Zhang on receiving his Permanent Appointment. Bin is a valuable addition to our community and we can look forward to working with him for years to come.

There have been some electrical problems in the building in the past few weeks. A printer and 2 PCs were damaged by power surges. Please make certain that all of the equipment in your office and labs is on surge protectors. Report any electrical problems to SECWREQ at cs dot sunysb dot edu.

Software for Solaris

The web browser of choice at this time is Mozilla (/usr/local/bin/mozilla). If you are having problems with a particular URL and Netscape please try Mozilla. Our installation has recently been upgraded to version 1.6a. The Opera browser (/usr/shareware/bin/opera) is also available for those who would like to try it.

The gnu tar utility has been upgraded to version 1.13 (/usr/local/bin/gnutar). Use the command "info tar" to access the online documentation.

The Maple mathematical software package has been upgraded to version 9. Launch maple with /usr/local/bin/maple.

Software for PCs

The following software has been installed on the graduate Citrix server:

  • SGI's Image Format Library(IFL) v 1.3.1
  • TCL/TK v8.0p2
  • Scanalyze v1.0.2

Labs

Remember that even if you are working on a joint project you may not share your user accounts and may not give out the combinations to department labs to non-CS students. In particular we ask that 1239 remain for CS graduatestudents only. If you wish to work in collaboration with other students please use room 1204 and please have them use their own account. You should be familiar with this and other department policies, they are all available at:
http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/DepartmentPolicies.html

Linux

A reminder that Linux is available in the department both for applications and for kernel development. Send email to VMWARE at cs dot sunysb dot edu if you would like one of these accounts. The vmware servers have recently been upgraded to GXS Server V2.5.1.

The following applications software is available under linux:

  • ImageMagick-5.4.3.11-1
  • gnuplot-3.7.1-17
  • bison-1.35-1
  • python2-2.2.2-11.7.3
  • gedit-2.2.1-0
  • tcl-8.3.3-67
  • emacs-21.2-2
  • byacc-1.9-19
  • gcc-2.96-113
  • opera-7.11-20030515.1
  • netpbm-9.24-9.73.2
  • balsa-2.0.11-1
  • ncftp-3.1.3-3
  • ooo-1.0.3-0
  • bzip2-1.0.2-2
  • lynx-2.8.4-18.1
  • asp2php-0.76.2-1
  • flex-2.5.4a-23
  • dos2unix-3.1-10
  • unix2dos-2.2-15
  • emacs-el-21.2-2
  • joe-2.9.7-4
  • unarj-2.43-10
  • gcc-g77-2.96-113
  • gimp-1.2.3-4
  • ghostscript-6.52-9.5
  • evolution-1.4.3-0
  • python-1.5.2-43.73
  • wget-1.8.2-4.73
  • netscape-communicator-4.8-1
  • galeon-1.3.5-0
  • gzip-1.3.3-1
  • curl-7.9.5-2
  • nedit-5.2-2
  • xemacs-21.4.6-7
  • mozilla-1.3.1-0
  • xpdf-1.00-7
  • MoscowML v2.00-2
  • Grasp Feb-2000
  • Muddy v1.7
  • mChaff 2001.03.23
  • zChaff 2003.10.9
  • Uclid v1.0

Infrastructure Changes and Upgrades

New Email Aliases

Several new email aliases have been created for department use. The list of department aliases can be found in /var/adm/sysinfo/aliases on any department Unix host.

Antispam Facility

At the direction of the Operations Committee the department spam filtering system has been enabled.

This system fulfills two critical requirements for our email service:

  1. ensure that email is never rejected or deleted as spam by the system
  2. reduce the annoyance and wasted time dealing with true spam

Department users have the choice of participating in the spam filtering system. If you choose to be OUT of the system ALL of your mail will be delivered without spam screening.

If you choose to be IN the system your mail will be filtered for spam content. Non-spam mail will be delivered as usual.

Mail flagged as likely spam will be set aside in a holding area by the anti-spam system. Three times per day you will be emailed a spam digest. The spam digest will list your spam mails which have accumulated since the last digest was emailed to you. If you receive no spam then you will not receive a digest.

The spam digest includes: time of spam arrival, sender, subject, and spam probability for each message.

By replying to the digest you can choose to have any or all of the spam-flagged messages delivered to you.

By default all faculty are opted out of the spam filtering system, and all students are opted into the spam filtering system. Anyone can change their option in the spam filtering system by visiting http://intrawww.cs.sunysb.edu/~sso. Your login and password are the same as you use to log into the unix systems.

Please see the FAQ at http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/FAQ/DepartmentSpamFilter.html for answers to questions you might have about this facility.

Also note that information is available for customizing filters in all common mail readers at http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/FAQ/EmailFilterJunk.html.

New labs

Work is progressing on the new Wireless Lab which will be located in rooms 2314/2315 on the second floor.

Lab Upgrades

In the Visualization Lab, 27 VolumePro 1000 boards from Terarecon have been installed on the HP cluster. It will be the largest VolumePro 1000 cluster in the world. VolumePro 1000 board offers real time 3D volume rendering with superior image quality.

New Network Facilities

The department wireless network has been extended to cover all faculty and student offices and surrounding areas. For ease of use the SSID and key have been consolidated for all areas with the exception of the 2311 Seminar Room. Please see the file /var/adm/sysinfo/info/wireless.connect on any department Unix host for complete wireless access information.

PCs and Laptops

The campus has announced a change to the DoIT software distribution web site. It has changed from accepting social security number as user id to use of the (9 digit) Stony Brook University ID number. This is the number on your SBU ID Card and it is the same number used for the SOLAR system. The password will remain the same, your birthdate in the format YYMMDD.

At approximately 10:43 pm on Th. Oct 23, 2003 about 300 computers in ResNet started a DDOS(Distributed Denial Of Service) attack targeting computers off Campus. As a Result, the campus networking division had to cut off ResNet from the Internet. All PC and laptop users should make certain they have up to date anti-virus software installed on their machines. You can download Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition from our downloads website at http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/Downloads/index.html. To access the downloads, get the login information from /var/adm/sysinfo/info/downloads.password from any of the unix machines in the department.

Future plans

Meetings have commenced for the planning of the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology.

HOW TO REPORT A PROBLEM or MAKE A WORK REQUEST

First you should check the FAQ pages at:

http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/FAQ/index.html

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:

  1. The room you are working in, either room number or lab name.
  2. 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).
  3. The sequence of things you did just prior to having the problem as best you recollect.
  4. 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

Previous Newsletters


Campus Events