Difference between revisions of "Workstation configuration"

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* Secure Shell
 
* Secure Shell
 
[http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/ MacFUSE: a FUSE-Compliant File System Implementation Mechanism for Mac OS X]
 
[http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/ MacFUSE: a FUSE-Compliant File System Implementation Mechanism for Mac OS X]
  +
Free, BSD-licence
  +
  +
[http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/ sshFS: a GUI for MacFUSE]
 
Free, BSD-licence
 
Free, BSD-licence
   

Revision as of 13:24, 11 May 2007

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

At IRIDIA lab there are three wireless networks. To join any of them 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 10
Wireless Security Mode 128bit WEP
DNS Server 164.15.59.200
Distributed IPs 10.0.2.2-200


Description Value
Network name sbot
Radio mode 802.11b/g Compatible
Channel 6
Wireless Security Mode 128bit WEP
DNS Server 164.15.59.200
Distributed IPs IPs are provided through DHCP from iridia.ulb.ac.be


Description Value
Network name raphael
Radio mode 802.11b/g Compatible
Channel 13
Wireless Security Mode WPA
DNS Server 164.15.59.200
Distributed IPs 192.168.0.100-199

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

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


Mac OS X Install

  1. Download the drivers for Ricoh Aficio 1027 PS printer here


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 Mac OS X users

In order to help Mac OS X users staying updated for what concerne security issues with their systems we 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 & BibTeX

MacTeX.dmg package - Easy-to-Install Package, which contains a complete and up to date TeX system from Gerben Weirda's gwTeX redistribution Free

TexShop - graphical front-end for TeX Free, GPL

Textmate - editor (and much more) for Mac OS X Commercial

TeXniscope - DVI/PDF previewer for MacOSX (synchronization with external editors (e.g. Emacs) both for DVI/PDF files) Free, sources available

BibDesk - graphical BibTeX-bibliography manager for mac OS 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

MacFUSE: a FUSE-Compliant File System Implementation Mechanism for Mac OS X Free, BSD-licence

sshFS: a GUI for MacFUSE Free, BSD-licence

MacFusion: a GUI for MacFUSE Free, APSL-licence

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


  • Version Control System

Subversion Client with SSL and JavaHL Bindings - Binary Package Free (QuickTime movie with introduction to Subversion)

Subversion GUI Free, GPL


  • System utilities

BSP - customize the Spotlight search results with your own categories Creative Commons, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5

Unison - cross platform file synchronization software - Binary Package Free, GPL

Setting up OS X as a Scientific Programming Environment

A few tips for Linux switchers

Project management on Mac OS X

Merlin 2 Commercial (Review of the program by MacResearch.org)


Performance Optimization on Mac OS X

WWDC 2004 - Optimization Tutorial

WWDC 2005 - Performance Analysis of Your Memory Code