Workstation configuration

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Network configuration

You should get a static IP from the system administrator. Your hostname will be the name of a famous scientist and the domain is ulb.ac.be. Other relevant addresses are:

Description IP address

Gateway

164.15.10.254

DNS1

164.15.59.200

You might also need to add the following data, althoug many systems set it automatically:

Description Value

Network

164.15.10.0

Netmask

255.255.255.0

Broadcast

164.15.10.255


Wi-Fi network configuration

All IRIDIA lab is covered by a wireless network. To join it you should get the password from the system administrator. Relevant configuration data are:

Description Value
Network name dorigoextreme
Radio mode 802.11b/g Compatible
Channel 1
Wireless Security Mode 128bit WEP
DNS Server 164.15.59.200
Distributed IPs 10.0.2.2-200

Firewall configuration

Since the computers are available through direct connections from internet you should protect your machine with a firewall. Linux provides an integrated mechanism for accepting or rejecting incoming packets.

If you want to setup a good firewall quickly, you may use the following link : Firewall script generator


How to generate the firewall script ?


Usually, the interface to internet is eth0. You can check your available interfaces by typing (as root) :

# ifconfig -a

Most of the time, you wish to have an access to the computer, but you still want it to be secure. The best is to disable any inbound service except SSH. The SSH connections are encrypted so that you can safely access to the computer even if someone is tcpdumping your connection.

For the moment, I don't know how to use the Fireparse format. If you know about it just use it. Otherwise you'll have to take a look at the logs (/var/log/syslog) to monitor the possible network problems or attacks.

Now that you have all the necessary informations, you can generate the firewall script. Name this script iptables, give it execution rights (chmod u+x iptables) and put it under the directory /etc/init.d/.

Be aware that the script loads some iptables modules in your kernel. If you have recompiled your kernel then you should ensure that the necessary modules are present. If you have statically linked the code to the kernel then you should remove the modprobe commands in the firewall's script.

Now simply add a symbolic link in the runlevel 2 to this script by typing (as root) :

# ln -s /etc/rc2.d/S12iptables /etc/init.d/iptables


You should adapt the number 12 to your needs. The firewall must be run as early as possible. For example if telnet services are run before it, an attack is still possible. Be careful about this.

If you want to understand more deeply iptables, you can check the following URLs :

Iptables official website

Iptables tutorial and explanations

Setting up a firewall using iptables (in french)


Printer configuration

Name URL Model Location

Gutenberg

gutenberg.ulb.ac.be

HP4100

Office C.5.106A

Meucci

meucci.ulb.ac.be

Ricoh Aficio 1027

Office C.5.106A

EPSON_Stylus_Photo_1290

tinbergen.ulb.ac.be

EPSON Stylus Photo 1290

Office C.5.102A

Linux Install

  1. Install CUPS (Debian: apt-get install cup-sys).
  2. Run cups daemon
  3. Point printer at localhost:631
  4. Click on Printers tab. Click the button 'Add printer'

Use following configuration options

  • Location and description: Ping Pong Room - Meucci OR Gutenberg
  • Device: LPD/LPR Host or Printer
  • Device URL: lpd://gutenberg.ulb.ac.be:515/lp OR lpd://meucci.ulb.ac.be:515/lp
  • Model/Driver: Raw Queue

Windows XP Install

  1. Goto Printers->Add New Printer
  2. Select Network Printer
  3. Enter URL http://gutenberg.ulb.ac.be OR http://meucci.ulb.ac.be



The IRIDIA and the ULB network

The IRIDIA system administrator can create an account on the local subnet for you, however, if you want to have access to some of the computer services of the university, you'll need an account on the university network as well. Ask the secretary for the forms and the process.


Mail configuration

Assuming that you have an account on both the local and the university network the mail settings are as follows:

Service URL

SMTP

smtp.ulb.ac.be

Iridia POP

iridia.ulb.ac.be

Iridia IMAP

iridia.ulb.ac.be

ULB POP

pop.ulb.ac.be

ULB IMAP

pop.ulb.ac.be

The SMTP server does not require authentication. The POP and IMAP services of ULB accept unsecure connections (no SSL). The POP and IMAP servers of Iridia require secure connections (with SSL).

There are also web interfaces available to read the email if you can not connect to the above servers via POP or IMAP:

SERVER URL

ULB

https://wwwdev.ulb.ac.be/webmail2/webmail.php

IRIDIA

https://iridia.ulb.ac.be/squirrelmail/


See also

Software HOWTOs


For Apple computer owners

In order to help people in IRIDIA who own or use Apple computers staying updated for what concerne security issues with their systems I suggest to subscribe to the following mailing list:

Security-announce -- product security notifications and announcements from Apple


Mac OS X Software for doing research

Here you can find a list of softwares that you might want to check out:

  • LaTeX

TexShop - graphical front-end for teTeX under Mac OS X Free, GPL

BibDesk - graphical BibTeX-bibliography manager Free, BSD-license

LaTeXiT - small utility to quickly typeset LaTeX equation obtaining PDF images Free


  • Statistical analysis

R.app - Cocoa-based GUI for Mac OS X that was introduced in R 2.0 Free, GPL


  • Secure Shell

Fugu - Mac OS X SFTP, SCP and SSH Frontend Free, BSD-license

SSH Tunnel Manager - front-end for the ssh command when used to open tunnels between two hosts Free


  • Subversion

Subversion Client with SSL and JavaHL Bindings - Binary Package Free


Setting up OS X as a Scientific Programming Environment

Great little article in setting up a scientific programming environment on OS X


Performance Optimization on Mac OS X

WWDC 2004 - Optimization Tutorial