New Users
This document provides basic information intended to familiarize
new users with Waisman Computing Services (WCS). It is not a
complete source of all the information about WCS, but merely an
attempt to point you in the right direction.
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Use of Waisman network or computing services is governed
by policies adopted by both
UW-Madison and the Waisman Computer Services
User Committee. These
policies are presented during the account activation
procedure described below in Your First Logon.
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In order to keep your account from expiring you must first
activate your account using an internet browser. Unless your
account is activated using the username and temporary password
issued to you within 45 days, it will expire and the temporary
password will no longer work.
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If you activate your account from a location off campus (not on the UW
Campus network) you will be prompted to enter your username and temporary password
twice.
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You must have your username and initial password before
activating your account. These are usually provided to you by email.
They may also have been sent to the person that requested the account for you.
You must also use a
web browser configured to accept cookies for the activation
procedure to work (this is the default for most browsers).
If you have your username and temporary password, you can
proceed to the account activation procedure at:
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When you visit the link above, you will be directed through
the three easy steps of the activation procedure:
- Presentation of the UW and Waisman Appropriate Use
Policies. You will be
asked if you agree to abide by these. You must agree
in order to go on to the next step.
- Initial logon with the username and temporary password
that was assigned to you. These were supplied to the
person that requested your account and may have also
been e-mailed to you.
- Change your password. Choose a new password that is
secure. From this point on, only you will
have access to your computer account using your new
password. You should never share your password with
anyone--not your co-workers, nor even your supervisor.
- You have 45 days from the time you receive your instructions
to activate your account.
- During the last step of the account activation procedure you
will be asked to choose a new password.
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The new password you choose must meet the following requirements
per
Campus policy:
Passwords must:
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Must be between 8 and 14 characters long.
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Be memorized; if a password is written down it must be kept in
a secure location.
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Must Contain at least one (1) character from three (3) of the
following categories:
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Uppercase letters (A-Z)
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Lowercase letters (a-z)
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Digits (0-9)
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These special characters: ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * ( ) + = _ - { } [ ] | \ : ; ' / ? , .
Please note that space, ampersand (&), double quote (") and angle brackets (<>)
are not allowed in passwords.
Passwords must not:
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Contain a proper name, login ID, e-mail address, initials,
first, middle or last name. In addition your password should
not contain a phone number, address, license plate number or a
word found in a dictionary (any language). The ideal password
would return nothing in a Google search (but don't attempt
this since doing so would immediately compromise your new
password).
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Be shared with anyone else
.
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You will receive an error message if the new password you choose does
not meet the requirements above. We recommend your password contain a
mixture of letters (mixed case), numbers and special characters to
make it more difficult to guess or crack.
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Case matters!
We recommend the password you choose be a mixture of upper and lower
case letters, numbers and special characters. While Windows 95/98
ignores case in passwords during logon, other authentication methods
do not (NT, XP, telnet, ftp and the copy machines) so please remember
which characters you type in upper case.
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It's very important to pick a password that's hard for others to guess
but easy enough to remember so you don't have to write it down. The
password you choose should not contain any word found in a
phonebook, dictionary, encyclopedia, literature, arts, and movies or
anywhere on the internet - even if its characters are reversed. The
password should not contain any personal information about you
such as an address, social security number, license plate, mother's
maiden name, name of your child or pet, a birth date, etc. If you do a
Google search on the password, it should not find anything.
DO NOT use any combination of words that are each in a
dictionary! These can be cracked with minimal effort. An
excellent choice for a password would be to use the first letters of
words in a phrase. For example, the phrase "I like to
have toast at 7 am" would yield:
"Ilthta7am" and make a very secure password (but don't use this
one!).
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Never share or write down your password. You do not need to
(and never should) give out your password for someone to copy a file
from you. Send the file to them using an e-mail attachment or place
it in their "pick up" folder (covered in training courses). If you
have access to any personal health information (all client data
qualifies) you are required by federal law (HIPAA) to take appropriate
measures to keep it confidential. If you suspect someone may know
your password, change it immediately. Never share your
password with anyone, never. If you give your password to
someone and they commit a crime using your account, you may end up
being prosecuted. Always remember to log off! Remember, you are
responsible for any malicious actions caused by others when they are
using your account. Your reputation, career and future quality of
life can be irreparably damaged by the malicious use of your account
by others.
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It is recommended that you change your network password
periodically (or whenever you suspect someone else may know it) to keep your
account secure. To change your Waisman password after you've activated
your account visit the web page:
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On Windows computers, you absolutely must have up to date virus
protection software to protect not only your computer but all other
computers on our network from virus infections. In fact, this is a campus
requirement stated in the
electronic devices policy.
The campus provides Symantec Anti-Virus software at no cost. Many PC's at
the Waisman Center already have this installed. If not, and you wish to
install it yourself (would require Administrator access
for Windows NT or later), it can be
downloaded from DoIT.
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After installing this software it must be configured to check
for virus updates (LiveUpdate) every day at a time when the computer
will be online. If you would like us to install and configure the Symantec
software (takes only 30 minutes or less) please contact one of the computing
staff members to install it for you.
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Please be aware that while anti-virus software lowers the risk of
virus exposure it does not eliminate it! When a virus first breaks
there is no protection from it until the anti-virus vendors develop a way to
detect it! That can be hours to days. As a result you always have a
responsibility to engage in "safe computing" practices. Four golden rules of
safe computing are:
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Never open any e-mail attachments unless you are expecting something from
someone. Even if it's from someone you know - if you're not expecting it DON'T
OPEN IT! This is the primary infection vector for most viruses - conning you
into opening an attachment. Don't fall for this!
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The more convincing it sounds to open an attachment or visit a web site
the more likely it's a trick. Examples include: situations involving money,
stranded family members and lost children. The more your emotions are telling
you to open the attachment or visit that site the more alarm bells should go
off - Don't fall for it!
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If you do open it, never click on the links within. Visiting
a "bad" web site just once is all it takes to become infected.
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Never install anything on your computer from the internet. This
includes the latest cool screen saver, joke program, movie clip or hit song.
All of these can be infected with trojan horse software that can lay dormant
and then wake up and take over your computer (including files and passwords) at
any time.
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Please keep in mind that cleaning up after a virus infection or other damage
from another exploit can result in computers being out of commission for days
or even weeks as this task is usually given the lowest priority.
Also, the cost of cleanup will be charged to the grant or
account that funds your computing activity at the current rate of
$90/hour. This will include not just cleaning the computer you use,
but every other computer it may have infected as a
result! Cleanup of an infected computer is NOT OPTIONAL
since University policy does not permit an infected computer to remain
connected to the network and they will block it's access.
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If you already have a DoIT WiscMail account or use the "My UW" web
portal (have an e-mail address ending in @wisc.edu) you may continue to use
that or you can use an @waisman.wisc.edu account. Forwarding is available
in either direction
- If you use an off campus
email provider such as Gmail, your messages will be subject to spam analysis
and may be quarantined by campus mail systems. Mail from campus mail systems
is given preference in spam analysis on Waisman's mail system.
You will also be responsible for meeting Wisconsin's Administrative
rule on Electronic Records Mangement with any off campus email provider.
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All students and staff are
eligible
to use campus provided services such as e-mail, wireless and calendaring.
Use of these services requires a "NetID" (username) and password. To
activate your NetID,
a UW ID number is required. For more information on Campus provided services
please refer to the Guide
to computing for faculty and staff or
for students.
For instructions on setting up various e-mail clients (please don't use
Eudora) for WiscMail please refer to:
configuring
your e-mail client for WiscMail. Note that no setup if necessary to use the
WiscMail Web client.
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One major advantage of WiscMail is the web interface. By using the web
interface, you don't need any e-mail client such as Thunderbird to be installed
on the computer from which you wish to check/send e-mail messages. You can
use any computer with a web browser - anywhere. The web interface for WiscMail
is available from the MyUW Madison portal or directly at: http://www.wiscmail.wisc.edu.
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For security reasons, we recommend using the Waisman e-mail service
exclusively while conducting Waisman related business which will provide an
address ending in @waisman.wisc.edu for greater visibility. We offer
an extremely safe, highly reliable mail service with less wait time and more
effective virus prevention measures than WiscMail. If you already have a
WiscMail address (NetID@wisc.edu) listed in the University directory, your
Waisman e-mail will be forwarded to that address since we assume you will
continue to use WiscMail. If you do not have an @wisc.edu address in
the University directory, settings for Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client will
be automatically configured to use Waisman e-mail the first time you logon to
a Windows system with Mozilla's Thunderbird installed. For home computers,
Thunderbird will require manual configuration steps which can
be found in our FAQ on Thunderbird E-mail.
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A secure, web based e-mail client is also available called
SoyMail. While it
doesn't have the features of a native e-mail client such as Thunderbird, it
accesses the server's mailstore directly without using an intermediate transport
like IMAP so is very fast. Since it only requires a web browser and no setup
it's useful for circumstances while traveling. To try it out visit:
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There are two levels of anti-spam measures in place for Waisman e-mail
addresses. The first one checks incoming mail to see if the sender's mail
server is listed in several online databases or 'block-lists' of known spammers,
open relays, exploited systems and other potential sources of spam. If the
sender is in one of these databases the mail is not accepted (rejected) and an
explanation message is returned to the sender. The databases we currently
use to filter out e-mail sources are:
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This anti-spam measure
occurs very early and before the message ever gets to the second level of
anti-spam filtering (below). As of 10/2006, approximately 72% of the spam is
stopped by this method, so it is extremely effective. If you are made aware
of mail that is being filtered inappropriately at this level, we can add
the sender to an exceptions list so that mail from that source will not be
rejected.
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The second level analyzes mail that has already been accepted (passed the
level-one checks above). It is a commercial anti-spam filtering system known
as the PreciseMail
Anti-Spam Gateway from Process Software. It scores messages for their
potential to be spam and quarantines messages with high scores for 3 weeks.
Each user can view their own quarantine and release messages they want. It is
optional however - you need to Opt-in before it will be in effect. For
instructions please refer to:
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Why should you use Waisman e-mail instead of WiscMail?
While we don't wish to duplicate existing campus services there are some
good reasons to use the Waisman e-mail service:
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We block dangerous executable attachments viruses use to spread during the
critical hours before Anti-virus vendors can update their definitions.
For example, during the outbreak of Bagle-AI, WiscMail had 150,000 infected messages
during the few hours before the Anti-virus software update was available.
We had none because we block executable attachments.
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You don't want to be limited to 100MB of storage or a 45MB
attachment size.
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It's important to have the shortest wait time for messages to
be sent and received. However, messages with unusually large attachments
(over 15MB in size) can be delayed for up to 4 hours in order
provide the fastest delivery time for more typical messages.
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You wish to promote an association with the Waisman center by having
an address ending in waisman.wisc.edu.
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We no longer configure, support or recommend Eudora since
it has proven extremely unstable (prone to crash - especially in POP mode)
and is no longer licensed or supported by DoIT. If Mozilla Thunderbird is
installed on the Windows XP system you use, it will be automatically
configured the first time you logon as a Waisman Domain user. If you would
like Mozilla's Thunderbird Client installed on a Windows XP system, please
contact one of our staff.
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Caution: Due to security risks, and past experience we strongly
discourage using off campus e-mail providers such as HotMail, Yahoo and AOL.
Upcoming security policies may require
these services be blocked in the future. This is especially important if
you share a computer or use a shared project storage area (see below) since a
virus that infects you may be transmitted to all other people who use the
computer or hide in any project drives to which you have access. Remember,
the cost of cleanup will be billed to the grant that funds
your computing activity.
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To use the Waisman e-mail service for other computers that you use (at home
or another department example) you need change the server or e-mail account settings
on your other computers:
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Use imap.waisman.wisc.edu for the incoming mail server.
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Use smtp.waisman.wisc.edu for the outgoing mail server.
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Use your Waisman username for incoming mail.
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Enable SMTP authentication for sending mail. If this is not done,
messages sent to non-Waisman addresses will be returned with the error
Relaying not permitted.
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For details of how to configure Thunderbird for Waisman e-mail please
refer to the FAQ on Thunderbird account settings.
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Most mail clients allow you to create multiple mail accounts or personalities that
each have different settings so you can check mail on different servers (Waisman and
WiscMail for example) with one operation.
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If you wish to consolidate your e-mail at one location (Waisman, for example)
you can forward mail from other e-mail services (such as DoIT's WiscMail) to
your Waisman e-mail address. To do this for a WiscMail e-mail account (@wisc.edu
address) see:
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Another very popular option for reading mail from elsewhere is using Remote Desktop.
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File storage is available on your computer's local hard
drives (e.g. the "C:" drive) and from a storage service on the network
that is part of a Storage Area Network (SAN) made possible in part
from a generous gift from Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2003.
This highly reliable, state of the art virtualized storage is available from
any computer on the network that supports CIFS (Common Internet File
System) file services. This means Windows, Macintosh (OS X or later) and
unix systems (with a Samba client) can use this network storage provided you
have an individual network logon (username and password). We can also provide
NFS (Network File System) as an alternative access method for server storage if needed.
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On Windows systems,
making use of network storage typically involves mapping a local drive
letter (J-Z) to the network storage location that is of interest, which is known as a
folder name (also called a share or directory). Mapping a drive letter to a
folder is another way of saying the drive letter points to a particular storage
location. For example, drive M might be mapped to the network folder name
\\wcs.waisman.wisc.edu\jones, where wcs.waisman.wisc.edu is
the server name and jones is the folder (share) name of Ms. Jones'
personal home directory. Please note that drive mapping, while
convenient, is not required to access a file on the network. Ms. Jones could
also specify files on her home directory by using
\\wcs.waisman.wisc.edu\jones (or in most cases the short form \\wcs\jones)
directly.
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Mapping a drive to a network folder (or share) can be done manually with the
Windows file explorer or happen automatically at logon. For a drive to be mapped
automatically at logon, a command to perform the mapping must be present in the
file M:\NETLOGON.BAT, which is executed during every logon. Unless you have
experience with the syntax of the NET USE command, we don't recommend you modify
or change this file; though you may want to look at it. Keep in mind that drive
letters are specific to every user. For example, your L: drive may "map" to a
completely different location (network folder) than the L: drive of your
colleagues.
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Please note that network storage is intended to store Waisman
related work and data - not to store music, pictures or other data that
are personal in nature and are not part of the mission of the Waisman Center.
Network storage is not to be used as a backup for your local hard drives.
If possible, you should save and work with important data and documents
from network drives directly and consider that the master copy. If that is
not possible, for example you will not be able to "play" high resolution
video smoothly from a file stored on the network, DoIT offers
a very economical network backup service called
Bucky Backup that can backup
local hard drives at scheduled times.
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Since all network storage is automatically backed up on the evenings of
each business day, it is intended to store files, documents and data
that are the result of the work you do that cannot be easily
reproduced. For example, you would not want to store raw data that
could be re-digitized from an audio or video tape but you would want to store
the results produced by an analysis of it that could not be easily re-done.
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Local drives
on a PC such as the C: drive are not backed up and typically hold only
application software installed on the PC or temporary work files that can
be replaced. Application software can be re-installed from the original
media if the local drive should fail; so the lack of backups for local drive do
not present a significant concern, providing only application software and
temporary downloadable files are stored on the local drive (C:). You should
never store important data (your work product) on local drives since it
cannot be recovered should the drive fail. Always store your work on
network storage to prevent loss. If you choose not to do this, DoIT offers a
backup service called Bucky Backup
that is very reasonable and can schedule backups of your hard drive during
periods of low network activity.
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All network storage (except scratch storage) is subject to space limitations to
prevent a single user from consuming all the available free space on a particular
disk volume and prevent or impact others from working. These space limits are called
disk quotas.
- Initially, each new user is provided with a disk quota of
250MB. This is not a 'hard' limit since it is increased automatically as your usage
needs grow. You may also request additional storage by sending e-mail to help@waisman.wisc.edu or calling the Waisman
helpdesk at 890-1000.
Large requests (more than 10 GB) may require additional time for
approval. Very large requests (100GB or more) will require approval and may be
subject to current capacities on hand or require purchase of additional capacity.
Except in rare circumstances, we will not provide an increase in storage limits for
the purpose of backing up a local hard drive from your computer since network
storage is not intended to be used as a backup for local storage - you should be
saving your work directly on network storage which is already backed up not using
network storage as a backup for your files.
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In many cases you will usually not be aware that you're approaching
your disk quota limit until an application displays an error.
The error may be generic and not indicate that your storage limit has been exceeded.
While we periodically monitor low quota conditions it's best to know how to
tell how much disk quota remains.
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While not always accurate, on Windows, you can find out how much disk quota
(free space) remains by displaying the properties on the network drive by
"right" clicking on it using the file explorer and noting the free
space figure. Since that is resource intensive (opens every file on the
drive) and often incorrect, it's recommended you visit the following web page
instead to check your storage limit for your personal (M: drive) share and
any project shares you have access to:
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Please be extremely aware that your computer's hard drives
(i.e. the C drive) are not backed up!
Therefore, unless you have a
reliable backup procedure for your own hard drives that includes
off-site storage, work product must only be stored on network drives.
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All Network drives (such as M) are backed up during the evenings of every
business day. Those backups are for the purpose of disaster recovery.
That means:
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If there is an equipment failure that results in loss of data the
goal is to recover all data from the backups made during the evening
of the previous business day. The storage hardware is designed and
qualified (and has proven itself) to sustain the failure of at least
a single disk drive without data loss or interruption.
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If there is a physical event such as a fire, explosion or flood that
destroys all equipment and on site backup media, the goal is to
recover all data as it existed on the evening of the last
business Thursday. This implies up to one week's worth of data could
be lost in such an unlikely scenario.
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The goals of the backup strategy above are not intended to cover accidental
deletion or corruption of files. However in most cases the backups we
make are sufficient for that purpose provided all of the following conditions
are met:
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The file must have existed from 6PM until 11PM during a
previous business day.
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We must have received a request to restore the file within two
weeks of it's deletion or damage.
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If you fail to notify us in within two weeks of deletion the file
may not be recoverable!
Example: you request a file be
restored that you think existed only during June and was deleted
on July 1. It's extremely unlikely that this file could be restored. If
the file existed for a longer period, say at least 4 months, then it's much more
likely to be restored from a random point in time during that 4 month period. This
is merely an example and we make no guarantees based on any of these numbers.
The leads to the following general rule: The longer a file exists, the higher
the probability it can be restored
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Also keep in mind that there will be a charge to your computing account for
each restore incident. Please refer to the Computing Rates Table for more information.
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The ability to restore a file to any point in time is
not a feature provided by a backup system. This is a feature provided by
an archiving system which we do not have and is extremely unlikely to ever be
cost-justified in the current budgetary climate.
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Anyone with a Waisman username and password may optionally develop their own personal web
pages (or entire web sites) by placing web documents in the WWW folder (directory) of their
personal storage area. From a PC logged on to the Waisman domain,
this folder would be: M:\WWW. For example, if your username happened to be Smith, then the URL:
http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/~smith/
would send the file index.html (or index.htm) in Smith's WWW
folder from the web server to the client's browser
(Firefox or Internet Explorer) and display the contents as a web page.
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We use the very popular apache web
server and support the scripting languages PHP
and perl for web development. We host the MySQL database server for which both PHP and perl provide
access functions. As such we do not support Microsoft's proprietary FrontPage
server extensions but this doesn't prevent using FrontPage for producing web
pages - provided you avoid using the extensions. DoIT offers classes on web page
development including Dreamweaver, CSS, PHP and MySQL. If you are interested
in hosting a PHP or perl application on our webserver, particularly one that
may be of benefit to other programs and labs, please contact
Carl Karcher.
before obtaining, writing or purchasing any software.
- Also, be sure to visit the Waisman Center home page at:
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If you would like a link from the Waisman web site to web
pages that describe your research or lab please contact
webmaster@waisman.wisc.edu.
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For assistance in developing web pages also contact
webmaster@waisman.wisc.edu.
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For hosting information about the apache environment or other web server issues please
contact hostadmin@waisman.wisc.edu.
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Wireless access is available throughout the Waisman Center
with excellent coverage in nearly every area. If your laptop
or notebook is equipped with a wireless card, the first time
you open a web browser a login page should appear requesting
your Campus
NetID and password. This will be the only site you can
get to until you enter a valid NetID and password.
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If you don't have a wireless card but would like to purchase
one for a UW owned laptop please contact
Dan Heindl or (263-5937). To purchase a
wireless card or a
wireless USB adapter for a personally owned laptop visit
the DoIT Tech Store.
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There are official
Wireless Internet access points also found in other areas
of the campus so the same connection details and restrictions
apply. These wireless areas use 802.11g (54mbs) technology and
are intended for convenient and secure connection of mobile
devices such as laptops. They provide access to basic network
services such as web, e-mail and calendaring. Other Waisman
services such as file and print (drive mapping) are not
available from wireless connections.
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If you are interested in installing wireless access for your lab
or areas that don't already have coverage (there shouldn't be any!) please contact
Carl Karcher.
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The following topics are of interest to those wishing to use
Waisman network services from outside the Waisman center. Since
the Waisman Center's building network is connected to the Campus Network
through a firewall, not all Waisman network services are available from
outside the center and the internet. The following sections describe
some common types of remote access.
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On campus access:
-
Access to most Waisman network services from outside
the Waisman Center is available from any point on the Campus Network.
Access to Waisman e-mail is available from anywhere on the internet.
Use of other services such as file and print may require permissions
to be setup prior to use. Contact Carl Karcher to discuss
any needed arrangements.
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Remote Desktop
-
If you have Windows XP there is a very useful feature for called
Remote Desktop that makes the desktop view of your Windows XP
computer available from anywhere on the internet. You see the same icons
and programs as you would while sitting at your office PC.
Remote Desktop requires the WiscVPN software described below. You
also must be a member of the "Remote Desktop Users"
group on the PC you want to Remote Desktop to. If the PC was
originally setup for you, then you probably already are a member of this
group. You also need to know the name (host name) of your office
computer, e.g. toto.waisman.wisc.edu. Of course, your office computer
also needs to be turned on with no one else logged in.
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The PC you are using remote desktop from needs to have the "Remote
Desktop Client" software installed. A Remote Desktop Client is built in on
Windows XP though it can be a bit difficult to locate. To find it: click Start, All
programs, Accessories then Communications. It can be
downloaded from Microsoft and installed on Windows 98 and later systems. A
Remote Desktop Client is also available for Macintosh computers.
For step by step information on Windows, please refer to
FAQ on Remote Desktop.
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VPN access
-
The campus also provides a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service that allows
access to restricted campus services from anywhere on the internet. To use the
VPN service (called WiscVPN or Cisco Systems VPN Client) you need to provide
your campus NetID and password to authorize yourself. Once logged on to the
WiscVPN software, all network traffic between your PC and the campus is
encrypted, you appear as though your computer is attached to the campus network
(the virtual part of VPN) and can use services that are otherwise not available
from the internet. The WiscVPN service is required to map network
drives and use Remote Desktop. Mapping network
drives from the VPN may also require adding a 'hostmap' for your account. Contact Carl
Karcher to request this if you cannot map network drives from the VPN.
Using WiscVPN
requires installing a software client on the remote computer. For more
information and instructions on how to download the client software visit:
.
http://www.doit.wisc.edu/network/vpn/index.asp
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Dialup access
-
The University provides dial up internet access for staff and
students that have a valid UW-Madison Photo ID card. This service is
called WiscDial and the software that makes use of it
is called WiscWorld. To use this
service you will need a valid UW-Madison NetID. This is not the same as
your Waisman username and password. For more
information and how to obtain a NetID please visit
http://www.doit.wisc.edu/wiscworld/dialininfo.asp
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The Waisman Center maintains an FTP server for transferring files via
the internet. The address for FTP is:
ftp.waisman.wisc.edu
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Anonymous FTP is supported for reading files but not writing. A
username and password is required to write files in any directory you
would normally have access to.
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FTP access is restricted to on-campus locations. For off-campus
locations, a permissions list is used to determine access for each
user. Contact Carl Karcher to request off-campus locations be added
to this list prior to using FTP from them.
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Please note that the FTP server will not work well with GUI FTP clients
(WinFTP, SecureFX, etc.) when using extended file names (that contain
punctuation characters such as spaces). It's recommended you avoid using
extended file and directory names if you plan to also access files via a
GUI FTP client. A command line FTP client (such as the one provided with
Windows) can be used with extended file names without issues.
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The Telnet address for the Waisman Center is:
telnet.waisman.wisc.edu
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This is a fast character oriented command line interface (or
"shell) intended for those without access to (or desire to use) PC's to
perform basic tasks such as MAIL and file manipulation or perform
specialized tasks. A graphical interface (X-windows) is also available
(commands are: SET DISPLAY and CREATE/TERMINAL/DETACHED).
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Telnet access is restricted to on-campus locations only and will
require explicit permissions to use from other campus locations other
than Waisman. Since telnet has no encryption, it's possible for your
password to be viewed by others and is therefore strongly discouraged.
Use SSH (below) instead.
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SSH stands for "Secure SHell" and is basically telnet with strong encryption.
The SSH address for the Waisman Center is: ssh.waisman.wisc.edu
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Only SSH version 2 is supported.
The big advantage of SSH over telnet is the entire session (including your
username and password) between you
(the client) and the server is hidden from any potential evesdroppers.
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One very useful feature of SSH is that nearly every kind of network connection
(including drive mapping and remote desktop) can be 'tunneled' over an ssh
connection effectively encrypting all traffic. This is done with a feature called
"port forwarding" which requires some knowledge of networking and is not intended
for beginners. Similar to a VPN (virtual Private Network) but requires no
software other than an SSH client.
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Currently the recommended SSH clients
are: Van Dyke's SecureCRT. This client is site licensed for
the UW Madison and is currently part of the
WiscWorld
suite. It can be downloaded from DoIT at:
http://shelf.doit.wisc.edu/securecrt/
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One thing of note is that due to software inconsistencies, the password used for SSH logins may need
to be in all uppercase. We expect this restriction to be lifted at a
future date.
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To maintain security we strongly discourage the use of
administrator level accounts on local computers. All of the software typically
installed by WCS does not require administrator access to use. Installing
additional software (including viruses and spyware!)
does require administrator access, typically during
installation only. Using an administrator account for normal use defeats many
security features added to PC software in the last few years. I.e. you might as
well be using Windows 98 or Mac OS 8.
For more information, see the FAQ on Administrator accounts.
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If you bring a laptop and want to connect it directly to our network
we require you to have it inspected for the latest security patches
and virus definitions. A single infected laptop puts all other computers
on our network at risk and effectively bypasses most security measures
by being walked past our firewall. For this reason we recommend you obtain
a wireless card for your laptop and use one of the many wireless access points
within the building (see below for locations). Should a computer you bring in
infect or compromise other computers, the grant that funds your
computing activity will be liable for the clean up costs of all computers
infected. Also note that any personally owned computers are not
HIPAA compliant.
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For e-mail support send e-mail to:
help@waisman.wisc.edu.
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It is a good idea to include a subject that indicates the problem area.
E-mail to help@waisman.wisc.edu will create a "ticket" in a request
tracking system and the appropriate person will contact you
as soon as possible. It will also provide documentation of
the solution for future occurrences of the same problem.
If there's an error message, that's always helpful, particularly
if you can quote the first line. Don't forget to include your phone
and room number.
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A WCS Staff Directory is also available.
Other Information Sources
© 2013 Waisman Computing Services
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Contact us
| March 10, 2013
