Information Technology News Archive

1996 - 2017

New Software Reseller

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UC has for many years coordinated certain discount licenses for the campuses. Acquiring software at a discount under these terms requires purchase through selected resellers.

On October 1, Technology Resource Center (TRC) replaced Software Spectrum as UC’s reseller for the systemwide Microsoft, FileMaker, Adobe, IBM/Lotus, and Symantec agreements. TRC’s special UC website is http://www.gotrc.com/casystemsstore.htm. You can also request an online account to order software licenses and media online. Contact Barbie Bower at TRC. (Contact information may be found on the Licensing web page,http://licenses.nacs.uci.edu/)

Caller ID

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Over the Christmas break, NACS implemented incoming Caller ID on the campus telephone system. On campus phones that have an LCD display, the phone number of the calling party will now be displayed when off-campus calls are received. An outside caller may have Caller ID blocked on his/her telephone; in this case the word “public” or “private” will be displayed instead of the caller’s telephone number.

NACS has completed the implementation of outgoing Caller ID as well. Previously, the originating phone number was provided to the remote party only for a subset of outgoing, off-campus calls in the local area. Now all outbound calls will pass along the caller’s UCI telephone number.

To request Caller ID blocking, please submit a NACS Service Request Form available at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/telephone.html. The fee is $10 to block Caller ID on 1-3 phones. This fee will be waived for requests received by NACS before March 1, 2002.

If you have questions or concerns about Caller ID, please contact NACS at extension 4-5123, or send e-mail to nacs@uci.edu

Network Security Group

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NACS has formed a new 3-person team, Network Planning and Security (NPS or NetPlanSec). NPS is active in a variety of ways to improve the safety and reliability of UCInet.

NPS runs periodic scans for vulnerable servers on campus before attackers do. They also regularly publicize security information and notify system administrators when weaknesses are discovered. Presently, NPS is implementing the campus firewall and Intrusion Detection System. (Details may be found in the Border Router article below.)

NPS staff Garrett Hildebrand, Mike Iglesias, and John Lenning are available for consulting, both one-on-one and in public forums, on such issues as network security, wireless networking and security, and network planning.

Finally, they participate in the UC Policy and Security Officers Group, to develop and assess UC system-wide strategies to resist “cyberterrorism.”

Enterprise Services

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NACS has made a number of changes to central services to better meet client needs.

Disk capacity for EA and E4E has been expanded. Users have two separate storage areas: one which provides temporary storage for incoming mail (“inbox”), and the other, with substantially greater capacity, is for long term storage of mail messages, attachments, and any other files (“home directory”).

Undergraduate students are allocated 3MB of inbox space and 8MB of home directory space. Graduate students are allocated 10MB of inbox space and 20MB of home directory space.

Staff and faculty are expected to keep their inbox usage to 10MB, but can continue to receive new mail until the inbox reaches 30MB. Inbox space is limited, and users are advised to download their incoming mail (for POP users) or to refile it to other folders (for IMAP users.) Users who compromise others’ ability to use e-mail by sustained use beyond the 10MB inbox limit are subject to losing the 30MB temporary storage privilege. NACS staff are available to assist users with inbox management.

Regular attention to one’s inbox is recommended, since the main campus e-mail server has been upgraded to allow attachments as large as 10MB. While this change was made as a service to faculty collaborating with off-campus colleagues, it does mean that even a 30MB inbox can fill quickly.

Staff are allocated 20MB of home directory space (but may use up to 50MB on a temporary basis), while academic senate faculty may use up to 100MB of home directory space. Users may review their disk usage and quota at http://www.e4e.uci.edu/ (click on “Quota Check” and authenticate with your UCInetID and password.)

Additional home directory space, if needed, is available for $5/month for each 100MB. Disk space in E4E is high-performance, fault-tolerant, and includes backup and security services. Users whose priority is economy are encouraged to purchase local disk for their desktops and keep their large files there.

Border Router

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UCI now has a versatile border router providing a more configurable and secure connection to the Internet.

The border router is a Cisco Catalyst 6509 with a crossbar-fabric switch. The router currently features 32 ports, each running at one gigabit per second (1 Gbit/s) bidirectionally, and is expandable to 180 ports as campus needs grow. It replaces a router with a total bandwidth of 2.4 Gbit/s and represents a substantial upgrade in network capacity.

The border router now aggregates formerly separate circuits to CalREN, the Internet, and Internet2 (Abilene), allowing a single set of policies and security measures to protect the campus across all our links to the rest of the world.

The router is a sophisticated device that allows network administrators to build circuits into, out of, and even back into the router. This permits a virtual path from the Internet to the router, through the campus firewall, back through the router, and on to UCInet. The border router also will support an “intrusion detection system”, presently being designed and implemented, which will complement and enhance the campus firewall.

The intrusion detection system will be able to spot subtle patterns in campus network traffic which represent a network-based attack. It will alert campus network staff when an attack begins, and allow the creation of precise rule sets for network traffic, which will allow UCInet to remain open to legitimate network uses while filtering out many kinds of hostile traffic.