++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 
++ An Overview of Loyola College Campus Technology and Its Uses ++ 
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+++++++ by evil_deceiver +++++ for MD2600 ++++++ nov.1999 ++++++++ 
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[Publicly Available Systems/Services] [Technology in the Classroom] [The Network] [Switches and Routers] [Printers] [E-mail] [Web Space] [Passwords] [The AT&T OneCard System] [ID Numbers] [The ROLM Phone System] [Campus Television] [UNIX and Like Operating Systems] [Assorted Items] [Reference]  

++( Publicly Available Systems/Services )++  

The computer labs on Loyola's campus (http://www.loyola.edu/isguide/maincampus.htm)  contain computers running Windows 95, NT, and various versions of MacOS.  Some UNIX/Linux workstations exist on campus, but,  with the exception of those in the Computer Science Department's UNIX  lab, they're all owned by faculty members. Win95 machines are gradually  being phased out in favor of WinNT, which can more easily be configured to  prevent users from altering settings or preferences (i.e., changing the  wallpaper to something pornographic). About the only lab that runs Win95  anymore is Knott Hall 265 (for a map of the Evergreen campus, see http://www.loyola.edu/map/). The  Control Panel and Display Settings are disabled on these, and the  Windows-E and Windows-R shortcut keys don't work, but everything else you  know about Windows machines should still apply. The WinNT machines, on  the other hand, have had their Start Menus stripped and nearly every file  and folder hidden. However, you can configure Explorer to "Show All  Files", or, if you prefer, you can (a) run Winfile or Progman (Explorer's  predecessors) or (b) operate the system from a DOS prompt, from which you  can still launch Windows programs.  All computer labs have networked printers in them,  usually LaserJets, usually pretty good ones too. Some have image scanners  connected to certain individual WinNT or Macintosh machines (with the exception of one lonely non-networked Windows 3.1 box in KH474, whose scanner is pretty bad anyway). To my knowledge, there are no document (character-recognition) scanners available, though many members of the college community have uses for them. Certain technology items (such as laptops, digital cameras, camcorders,  record players--I kid you not) are available for rent from Classroom Technology (x2255, KH153). Faculty members can call or show up in person to check one out. Students can do the same, but must have a faculty  member to vouch for them (unless they work for Information Services).  Channel 50 on campus cable is the school's Events Channel. All it really is is a computer watching http://events.loyola.edu/ 24/7 and  send its screen across the cable wires. Administrators can request an account to insert pages into the channel's rotation through a weird web  interface. Students can request the same kind of account, but their posts have to be approved by Student Activities before being included in the rotation. Once upon a time, the Events Channel box was in a place where mischeivous IS employees could get to it . . . which they did. Now, I don't know where it is. The Events Channel is also displayed on random TV  monitors strewn about campus buildings. 

++( Technology in the Classroom )++ 

Designated "technology classrooms" are equipped with a collection of electronic teaching aids, such as a document projector, a Windows PC, a port to plug a laptop into, and a VCR) at the professor's station. A screen can be lowered in front of the blackboard, and the visual data from all of these sources projected onto it. The piece of equipment that coordinates this is an expensive apparatus manufactured by Barco. It's controlled by a fairly simple remote, but still seems to confuse professors more than anything. The über-technology classroom, KH157, has a WinNT machine (with as many restrictions as IS knows how to implement) at every student's desk. All of these computers, however, are tied to the one at the teacher's station through a hardware/software application called SmartClass. SmartClass allows the professor to freeze one or all of the student               workstations, take control of one or all of them (for purposes of  demonstration), and display the screen of a particular workstation on the main screen at the front of the room. The potential for abuse of this privilege is significant, but it's probably just as well--I find that when I spend the entire class reading slashdot and HNN, I learn different things than the ones I'm paying to learn. But it gets better: the godfather of technology classrooms is the Distance Learning Classroom in Maryland Hall. Here, in theory, students can take class with and interact with students from all over the world (those who have similar equipment, anyway). Whether or not any courses are actually taught in the Distance Learning Classroom, I don't know, but damn, does it look good in the brochure. 

++( The Network )++ 

Almost all faculty and staff workstations are connected to the internet over a 100Mbps T1 (that is, the uplink to the outside world is100Mbps--most buildings on campus, however, are only 10Mbps). Students with network interface cards may plug into the same network in their dorm rooms. Students without NICs may purchase the cards and configuration & support services from Information Services for an exorbitant price  (especially for a non-profit religiously affiliated educational institution). All dorms have at least one ethernet port per bedroom, and often one in the common room, though it may not be turned on (a problem easily fixed by a simple call to the Technology Help Desk, x5555, option 1). Some newer dorms have "ports per pillow", i.e., at least one port for  every resident.  Loyola College owns the 144.126.*.* subnet of IP addresses. I'm told we have a class B internet license, but I don't know what that means. For the most part, each building on campus gets a different subnet (or two) within that range; for example, computers on the bottom floors of Guilford Towers will almost always be in the 144.126.186.* subnet. Administrative machines or servers (most of which are located in Knott Hall) are the major exceptions to this rule. In many cases, the .1 address in a particular subnet will be that subnet's gateway. 144.126.1.1 is a notable exception to this rule; that address belongs to the VAX. IP addressing for nearly every workstation or non-critical machine on campus is handled via DHCP.  144.126.1.10 is the College's primary DNS server. If there is a machine that can be said to be "loyola.edu", this is it, but really, its main job appears to be to distribute tasks/information to other machines. It's a Windows NT box, which is dumb. In fact, all the campus' servers are either NT or Novell NetWare. Windows lab computers, as well as those in faculty, administrative and staff offices, are almost all connected to the Novell NetWare network. Through a "Novell Application Launcher" window that starts when Windows does (and in some cases cannot be dismissed), the NetWare protocol provides workstations with programs available only on network drives (a list of which is available at http://www.loyola.edu/isguide/maincampus.htm#Software).  Most of these programs are useless. Some are good, and a precious few can even be copied from the F: (progams) network drive and FTPed to your own computer. (Well, everything can be copied, but most won't work once they get there.) Macintoshes get their distributed programs from eden, a G3. This is a less interesting process. I'm not very good with Macs, either, so I won't be able to say much about them.  NetWare on Loyola's campus is run over IPX, not TCP/IP. For this reason, IPX is not routed to the residence halls--the administrators don't want students downloading the NetWare client software and logging in from their own computers. However, students who find themselves sharing a building with a computer lab or an administrative office will probably be able to do so anyway, since IPX is either routed or not routed according to subnet, not individual machine. Users in Charleston Middle Courtyard, for example, can log in to NetWare from their rooms, since the presence of a computer lab on MCY 2nd floor necessitates that IPX be routed over their subnet.  Students who want to use the 10Mbps connection to play StarCraft against  their friends are not entirely out of luck, provided their friends live in their subnet. It appears to be possible to make IPX connections within a subnet that does not have the protocol routed to it. However, if your opponent is outside of your subnet--even elsewhere on campus--you'll have to be content with Battle.net.  File sharing via Network Neighborhood is possible, but only in your own subnet. In administrative and faculty subnets, Network Neighborhood usually contains a whole lot of directories that lead nowhere, random printers, and computers with administrative purposes.  For the most part, faculty and staff users have their own personal NetWare accounts, which they can log in to from any networked computer with the NetWare client installed. NetWare users exist within logical contexts, so that a faculty member whose username was, for example, "jdanger" would probably have to use ".jdanger.faculty.loyola" to log in from someone else's workstation. All faculty and administration users, and most or all staff users, have space reserved for them on two network drives, designated G: and H:. Users are encouraged to use this space to store files they (G:) or others (H:) may need access to from multiple workstations. A connection to a user's personal G: drive space is made whenever s/he logs in to NetWare; all users can see the folders on H:. The machine which holds G: drive files is the same as serves files to www.evergreen.loyola.edu, the faculty web site.  Lab computers and shared workstations typically have a generic username describing their use or location (such as "kh157-23"), and more often than not are either in the labs context ("*.labs.loyola") or a context named after their particular department (few such contexts exist). The password to log in as a public lab computer is the empty string, but these and other common usernames are often unable to log in from any machine other than their own (as determined by that machine's IP and network adapter [MAC] addresses). In addition, most lab accounts--indeed, most accounts, period--are restricted to one login at a time. This number can easily be increased upon request.  It is a little-known fact that students do indeed each have their own unique NetWare username (same as their e-mail username). These exist in a context (.<gemstone>.students.loyola) determined by the student's year of entry into the College: 1995 = diamond, 1996 = emerald, 1997 = pearl, 1998 = ruby, 1999 = topaz. By default, none of these accounts are allowed to log in to NetWare; their very existence is more or less a formality for the sake of IS databases or something. It is possible, though, to activate a student account, should  circumstances require it. Non-privileged users are able to browse the NetWare database, though it is not a widely-publicized fact, and would most likely be "fixed" if IS thought anyone was actually doing it. The Z: (public) drive on NetWare-connected PCs is used solely or primarily for NetWare programs (such as the Applications Launcher, "z:\nal.exe"). The program "z:\nwadmn95.exe" (or "z:\nwadmn3x.exe"), the NetWare Administrator, can be run by any user, granting them a limited degree of read-only access to the database of users, printers, contexts, etc. Searching this database is the best way to find out about specific accounts or machines on Loyola's network--you might find something, or someone, out there that will surprise you.Administrative accounts will almost all be in the *.is.loyola context.  The names of these change from time to time, and old ones are (very) occasionally forgotten but not deleted, so searching the database for them is a good idea even if you think you're familiar with the NetWare structure. IS accounts usually have their H: drive mapped to a network folder full of installation programs for a lot of worthwhile software, like Norton AntiVirus 5, and the full contents of the setup CDs for all three versions of Windows 95. Loyola's other campuses are linked to the Evergreen campus by a WAN. The main servers reside on Evergreen.               

++( Switches and Routers )++               

They're made by Bay Networks. Most of them are named after trees. Once               upon a time, they didn't have passwords. Now they do. You could really have done some serious damage back when they were open like that.              

++( Printers )++               

Most printers on campus are Hewlett-Packard LaserJets. The oldest are  Series II; the newest are up to series 5, or, in some cases, 4000. Some DeskJets are around as local printers, but most are LaserJets, and most of the LaserJets are networked, to allow multiple users to print to them. This is interesting, because in order for a user's computer to be able to communicate with a printer over the network, that printer must have a  network address, right? Right indeed. Newer HP printers come with a slot for an ethernet card.  Older ones can be connected to the network using a JetDirect box, a little white or gray thing that HP supplies. And every printer or JetDirect box has a hardware (MAC) address on the network. And... even though NetWare handles the communication between computers and printers, many printers will still have TCP/IP enabled. Getting newer models-- specifically, any with an LCD--to give up their network configuration information is a piece of cake: just flip through the menu items until you find something like "Print Self Test" or "Print Configuration", and select that. The printer should print out a test page listing virtually all the information it knows about itself.  Once you have a network address, of course, it's time to portscan the machine. Typically, LaserJet 4 and 5 printers will be listening on ports 21, 23, and 515. I'm not sure whether or not there's a service running on  port 21; it seems to forcibly close a connection as soon as it's established--it may respond only to requests from certain network addresses. Port 515 looks like it's running a line printer daemon, so if  you know how to issue commands to an HP printer, you could possibly do something with it. If you don't, your connection may be terminated at the first invalid command, or you may get weird prompts. Port 23, on the other hand, is running a bona fide telnet daemon. 

 
             ~>

             telnet 144.126.xxx.xxx 
             Trying 144.126.xxx.xxx... 
             Connected to 144.126.xxx.xxx. 
             Escape character is '^]'. 

             Please type [Return] two times, to initialize telnet configuration 
             For HELP type "?" 
             > 
             > 
             > ? 

             ===JetDirect Telnet Configuration=== 

             Configured Parameters 
             IP Address : 144.126.xxx.xxx 
             MAC Address : 08:00:09:e1:6d:e1 
             Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0 
             Default Gateway : 144.126.xxx.yyy 
             Syslog Server : 0.0.0.0 
             Idle Timeout : 120 Seconds 
             Set Cmnty Name : 
             Passwd : disabled 
             Port[1] Banner page: enabled 

             To Change/Configure Parameters Enter: 
             Parameter-name: value <Carriage Return> 
             Parameter-name Type of value 
             ip: IP-address in dotted notation 
             subnet-mask: address in dotted notation 
             default-gw: address in dotted notation 
             syslog-svr: address in dotted notation 
             idle-timeout: seconds in integers 
             set-cmnty-name: alpha-numeric string (32 chars max) 
             banner: 0 to disable, 1 to enable 
             type passwd to change passwd 

             Type "?" for HELP Or "quit" to save-and-exit 
             Or type "exit" to exit without saving configuration parameter entries 
             > 

++( E-mail )++ 

All students and employees of the college are entitled to an e-mail address. Usually these are set up in batches at the beginning of the school year, sometimes they have to be set up specially. An individual's username is usually the first initial of their first name followed by their last name, with numbers tacked on to the end in the event of a collision. Naming schemes used in the past have included using only the last name, or three initials. The domain part of the e-mail address is 'loyola.edu', but as mentioned above, this really isn't one particular computer. Mail resides on separate servers according to who the user is: there's a server for each class year, and one for faculty & staff. The system that handles e-mail for the majority of Loyola's campus is Novell GroupWise 5.2. Presumably GroupWise was chosen because administering it along with NetWare is a simple task, but on the whole, it's a pretty bad choice for an e-mail system. Once upon a time, though, students would get accounts on a VAX, so even GW looks like an improvement. Nowadays the VAX (vax.loyola.edu) is an aging dinosaur. Few people still have accounts on it, few of those accounts actually work correctly, and almost nobody gets new accounts. For a while it was the campus' primary DNS, but that didn't last long. There are three main ways to access GroupWise. The first and easiest is to log in through the web at http://www.loyola.edu/groupwise/. This is the most commonly accessible means of checking one's mail, but also probably the least safe. Pages containing e-mail may be stored in the browser's cache, and can sometimes be retrieved either by hitting the "back" button or by looking through the "Temporary Internet Files" folder (or its equivalent). Not everyone actually logs themselves out of their accounts when they're done, and those who do don't always close the browser window. So occasionally you may come across a computer in a lab or somewhere that's left a user's account wide open. The second way, which is safer, but trickier to set up on a multi-user computer, is to configure a generic e-mail client like Eudora to use the server appropriate to one's class. The third way, which is just as tricky as the second, but offers more functionality, is to download and install the GroupWise client software from Novell's web page. This software can interact with 144.126.1.16:1677 to not only send and retrieve e-mail, but also configure rules and such for the account--for example, to forward new items to a preferred e-mail address. GroupWise client software is available for Windows, Macintosh,and UNIX platforms. I don't recommend using the Windows version, however, as the installation and uninstallation processes have an unfortunate tendency to damage the Windows registry. Generic postmaster addresses, such as PM_Alpha and PM_Evergreen, can be used to distribute an e-mail to all users on campus, or all users in a certain group (one class, all faculty, etc.). Usually this service is used to disseminate important (depending on your perspective) information about current events on campus, but this October, some users demonstrated its true potential by getting into a debate about the rights of homosexuals by responding to PM_Alpha using the "Reply To All" option. I suppose this was more a question of operator error, though, since the mail really should have been sent via BCC. Users upset by the lack of functionality and futility in attempting to use GroupWise may be able to get a UNIX account on a campus machine. I'm told, though I don't have empirical evidence, that some or all of the GroupWise mailservers will reject SMTP connections from sites not in Loyola's subnet. This is supposedly a security measure implemented after someone from off-campus used the servers to spam a whole lot of people. I think most of them were on AOL. Personally, I don't see the problem. 

++( Web Space )++ 

All faculty, staff, and administration with NetWare accounts can publish pages to the web by creating a folder called "www" in their G: drive space and copying files to it. The disk space limit imposed on this is, I presume, the same as is imposed on the contents of the G: drive, if there is one. The URL for these directories is http://www.evergreen.loyola.edu/~<username> . Students have 10 megabytes set aside for them on www.studentpersonalpages.loyola.edu/ (an alias for studweb01.loyola.edu; tack on /~<username> to get the student's URL). This account is created automatically (automatic from a bureaucratic standpoint, anyway) along with the student's NetWare account. Whether it's part of the NetWare account or just set up at the same time, I don't know. Logging in to studweb01 can only be done via FTP, and the password is not the same as that for the student's GroupWise account, which is also not, at least not as far as I know, the same as the password for the student's NetWare account, if it's active. In fact, the studweb01 password is set, by default, to the last seven digits of the student's College ID number, and can not be changed via an FTP session. 

++( Passwords and Security )++ 

The most important thing anyone can know about passwords on Loyola's campus is that about a quarter of them are "loyola". No one can think of a more obvious word to choose, but apparently a lot of people can't think of any other words, either. "Loyola" is also used generically when IS has to reset a user's password and doesn't know a better choice. However, if they are known, the last seven digits of the user's ID number are used. In any case, users are encouraged to change these passwords as soon as possible, though how many actually do is anyone's guess. In general, people in the College community who don't work for IS tend to have a fairly relaxed attitude about technology and security, until they get screwed over by it. Users who need passwords of any kind reset can call the Technology Help Desk. NetWare and GroupWise passwords can usually be reset immediately or fairly quickly, other kinds of passwords may require a wait of a day or more while the appropriate administrators are contacted. Passwords set by the administration tend to be alphanumeric combinations having something to do with a particular department or with the school. They're not exactly easily guessed, but it wouldn't surprise you to find out what they were. The physical security of campus technology is an interesting issue. For the most part, everything is behind a locked door or in a place that you'd have to go through a human being to get to. Access to computer labs is granted only by swiping a card key (unless someone's propped the door open). The computers are all tied (physically tied) with phone line that runs to Campus Police (among other places) and sounds an alarm when its connection is broken. Freeing these computers from the wires without the correct tool and without tripping the alarm is possible, though a semi-delicate procedure and one likely to attract attention. Campus Police, though rarely inclined to get excited about anything, are fairly responsive to these alarms. They are not as responsive to the alarms tripped by leaving cardkeyed doors propped open after hours, probably because they assume (and rightly so) that it's only students tired of coming back from the vending machines and trying to swipe their card key with no free hands. 

++( The AT&T OneCard System )++ 

Student/employee ID cards use AT&T's CampusWide technology. Each card has a barcode and a magnetic strip which contains, among other things, the cardholder's college ID number. These cards are used by networked card readers to retrieve the student's personal information for such purposes as allowing them access to protected rooms or subtracting the price of a purchase from their debit or meal plan accounts. Card readers that grant access to restricted rooms are installed by the doors to those rooms. They operate by releasing a powerful magnet on the side of the door that opens when an authorized card is swiped. It appears that there is no general way to grant a certain "class" of cards access to an area; instead, cards must be individually activated. Card readers that can subtract money from the student's Evergreen (debit) account are installed in laundry rooms, in the campus bookstore, on photocopiers, on vending machines, in Classroom Technology, and in all Dining Services establishments. Where the readers are operated by a human, they're tied to a special cash register. It's possible to make a special request to have such a register set up in a temporary location for a particular day or event, but you have to have a really good reason. It's been hypothesized that each card reader has its own IP address. They certainly have to be networked somehow in order to retreive the holder's account information. What is interesting, in a Big Brotherly sort of way, about the card system is that every transaction--that is, every successful (and possibly unsuccesful) reading of a card by a reader is immediately displayed on at least one terminal in at least one administrative office on campus. I believe the student/employee's ID number, the location (or a unique identifier) of the reader, the type of transaction, and the time and date are among the data recorded. I can only assume that these reports are also kept in log files somewhere, though where or for how long I couldn't guess. 

++( ID Numbers )++ 

Student and employee ID numbers are usually six digits long these days, but that's only because the number of IDs assigned by now has been somewhere in the hundred thousands. Generally, IS assumes that ID numbers will fit into a seven-digit field, which kind of creates a nifty little Y2K-esque problem. As mentioned above, passwords of all sorts are typically set by default to the "last" seven digits of the individual's ID number. ID numbers are also the user's login to Privare, a system the school has implemented to allow people to retrieve their personal academic information through the web. The Privare system most likely gets its information by polling the RS6000, the machine on which all academic data such as grades and course info are stored. A four-digit PIN, specific to Privare, is also required to log in. There are three paths to choose at Privare's front page--Faculty, Student, and World--but Faculty is under construction and World is just some generic information about the system. Students may use Privare to look up things like their course registration information, their grades, their financial records with the school, or resources for signing up for graduate courses, or to change their PIN. Students who forget their PIN can contact Administrative Systems Development to have it reset. The new PIN will either be delivered to Classroom Technology in KH153 in a sealed envelope to be picked up by the student upon showing his/her ID card, or mailed to the student's permanent address (according to the school's files). It is probable that every student who applies to Loyola is assigned an ID number, regardless of where they actually end up going to school. What happens with all those dead ID numbers, and whether it's possible to use them for anything, is anybody's guess. Finding one would be the difficult part. Learning the ID numbers of current Loyola students or faculty members, however, is somewhat easier. The easiest way to procure an ID number is usually to look at the ID card of the person in question. There are other ways, however. Some departments will have a reason to need access to them, which means that anyone who works for those departments should be able to get a look at them, perhaps after some amount of social engineering. IS is certainly one of these departments. There have also been programs where students have been allowed to donate portions of their meal plan money to charitable causes; in these cases other students have had to collect the donors' name, ID number, and signature to verify the legitimacy of the donation. 

++( The ROLM Phone System )++ 

The telephone system on campus is a digital affair distributed by ROLM, formerly owned by IBM, currently owned by Siemens. You can't use a modem on it, unless you get an analog-to-digital converter, which has been done before. Some analog phone jacks do exist on campus, but only where they were/are specifically required. Loyola College owns the exchange 410-617-xxxx. This is a PBX, but I don't know anything about any administrative extensions (or about PBXs, when it comes to that). On-campus phones can call other on-campus phones simply by dialing their four-digit extension, and they can call off-campus by dialing a 9 first. Local phone calls are free; long distance is provided by a company called Student Telephone Services. The College's main information extension is 2000. 3000 transfers you to Domino's Pizza, who will accept student meal plan money. 4000 transfers you to Crazy Mario's, an Italian place on Falls Road (which actually sells pretty good food). Extensions 6110, 6220, and 6330 get you into the voicemail system. 6110 and 6220 are for certain dorms, 6330 is for commuter students, who have three- or five-digit voicemail numbers (and almost never check them). You can dial into these extensions from off-campus as well. To leave a voicemail for a commuter student, dial 7112 from on campus, or 410-617-2600 from off campus. Once you're in the voicemail system, navigation through its labyrinthine menus is controlled by a vaguely-enforced key-binding-like concept: 1 = record, 2 = skip, 3 = listen, 4 = save, 6 = delete, 7 = reverse, 9 = forward, * = stop, 0 = help, # = enter. The system will assist you with these choices if you forget what they are. Dialing 0 on campus during normal working hours will connect you to a real-life campus operator, who can look up extensions for you and transfer your call. There are two phone numbers for remote access to the College's computer system. 410-433-8010 (up to 9600 baud) and 410-617-5154 (up to 28800 baud) will get you a menu that will allow you to log in to the VAX, justice, assorted virtue machines, and some other machines that may or may not still exist. I'm told that the first of those two numbers is actually faster. Back in the day, before ethernet was wired in every dorm, students could pick up a data kit from the Tech. Help Desk (then still acting in a double capacity as Classroom Tech.) which consisted of a serial cable, a ROLM-manufactured power adapter, a flat cable that resembled an RJ-45 cable, a three-prong-to-two-prong grounding plug, and a disk copy of the terminal program Kermit, that would allow them to use their ROLM phone and computer to call this system. Unfortunately, only a certain number of users could be logged on at one time, so students frequently found themselves waiting in a long queue to get in. The campus telephone directory, printed once a year before the start of the fall semester, lists not only students' on-campus address and phone number, but the same information for their home. Faculty and staff only have their on-campus info listed. 

++( Campus Television )++ 

TCI Communications provides the campus with cable TV. There's at least one cable jack in every dorm room, and students can use it for free. Cable boxes and wires can be borrowed for the school year from Classroom Technology. 

++( UNIX and Like Operating Systems )++ 

Once upon a time, all Loyola College students and employees would get logins to a VAX minicomputer, which was, at the time, "loyola.edu". Chiefly these were used as e-mail accounts, but they also had basic telnet, ftp, etc. capabilities. In recent years, the VAX has been moved away from any sort of active duty. Its name is now vax.loyola.edu, and it runs OpenVMS 6.2. Accounts on it are still given out now and then, but only on request from people who can justify their reason for wanting one. E-mail services are now handled by GroupWise, which is a mixed blessing at best. Those serious computer users who still prefer to have accounts on a command-line system have two main options available to them. The first is to request an account on justice, which is a Pentium II or something running Debian Linux 2.0. The existence of justice is not widely publicized, probably since it couldn't handle too many users. The second option is to declare a major or minor in Computer Science. CS students are given accounts on two separate systems, one a series of SunOS boxes named after Christian virtues, the other a series of Debian Linux boxes named (mostly) after Peanuts characters. Data is stored on two main boxes for both systems, which makes the individual workstations worth a lot less if the main ones are unreachable. (Some of those workstations are CS faculty members' personal machines.) Students can generally not log in to the main boxes, but can log in to the workstations either from the consoles (in Donnelly Science) or remotely. However, due to several hack attempts (some successful), these machines have had plenty of access restrictions placed on them. Neither they nor justice will accept logins from machines not in 144.126.*.* except via SSH. (The VAX does not appear to share this restriction.) Accounts on justice and the peanuts machines can publish to the web by putting files in their ~/public_html directories; the pages will appear at http://justice.loyola.edu/~<username> and http://www.cs.loyola.edu/~<username>, respectively. They can also receive e-mail for <username>@{justice,cs}.loyola.edu . Accounts on the virtue machines can send mail, but cannot receive it, or publish web pages. IS maintains some boxes running one flavor or another of UNIX--I know of at least one that runs HP-UX--but in general does not appear to be enthusiastic about the OS, and does not provide support for it. Various faculty members, usually in Mathematics or some science, have had reasons, usually research-related, to run UNIX as well; to my knowledge they all run Debian Linux. Support for these machines is provided on an informal basis by the sysadmin of the peanuts/virtue systems. IS provides the network jack, and that's about all. 

++( Assorted Items )++ 

A few things worth mentioning that don't fit in anywhere else: Students have a disturbing propensity to install AOL Instant Messenger in the labs, and in some cases, to save their passwords on the local machines. Interesting feature in AIM: if you log on from machine X while already logged on from machine Y, Y's connection is terminated. I got into a little battle one time when I managed to access someone's account while they were already signed on at another location. We kept kicking each other offline every five seconds. Good clean fun. Of course, if the user's password isn't saved, you can always try to guess it ("loyola" might work), and have it e-mailed to them just to scare them if you give up. The server chat.loyola.edu runs WebBoard software. Anyone who knows the name of the board they're looking for can open its page (http://chat.loyola.edu/~<board_name> ) and post a message to it. I know for certain that "y2k" and "is" are valid board names, and that others exist. There's also a login page at /~admin . IS has a feedback form on the web. I couldn't begin to tell you whether or not anyone actually reads anything submitted to it. Thanks go to Raster for providing some of the network information for this article, and to Funtax for being a patient editor. I won't put a disclaimer in here, but I will say something on the subject of ethical uses of this information. I've spent a lot of time writing this article, and it wasn't to help two-bit "hackers" abuse the school's systems and harass users. My hope is that the information provided herein will serve as a general picture of how technology has been implemented at Loyola, and how it might (or perhaps should) be implemented at other schools. If you intend to attack the College's network in some way, you're not only an asshole, you're also making life harder for the kids at the school who are trying to understand this stuff themselves. Though over 6000 words long, this article is still, somehow, incomplete. Any revisions or additions I can think of will run in next month's newsletter. If you can provide any additional information on the topic of campus technology, whether at Loyola or elsewhere, or have questions about the contents of this article, please e-mail it to me at the address below. We'll run that next month too. 

++( Reference )++

• Search Loyola's Website
• The Information Services Guide to the Loyola Galaxy
• Information Services Quick Reference Sheets
• Current Status of IS-maintained systems

evil_deceiver mcoffey@justice.loyola.edu