New and Improved!

ACS makes its own renovations

Patrick McGarvey/YH These new G3 Macintoshes aren't the only thing ACS has intorduced this year.

In case you haven't noticed, there are some big changes this fall at Yale. Every one may have marveled at the new Swing Space, a renovated Linsly-Chittenden hall, or the Old Campus facelift, but some of the biggest changes are a bit harder to notice. That's because these makeovers are largely below ground, at the computer clusters in the basements of Connecticut Hall, CCL, and the residential colleges.

Marginal changes in Yale's computer environment are normal. Every fall Academic Computing Services (ACS) offers updated software for room connections and upgrades equipment in computer clusters. This year ACS has gone a step further, making several major changes that will have a serious impact on student use of computers at Yale. These include changes in printing, security measures, cluster machines, and classroom support.

No more Vendacards

Printing, by far, is the most dramatic change. "We have wanted to change our printing system for years...people didn't like how printing worked before," ACS director Philip Long noted. Under the old system, students paid for printing by purchasing Vendacards. Users placed Vendacards in card readers located next to cluster printers. The card readers would then deduct 10 cents per printed page from the card.

The Vendacard system caused many hassles for students and ACS staff. Vendacard dispensers did not give change, leaving students without small bills reluctant to buy new cards. According to Long, "Many of our CAs were frequently asked to make change for students." In addition, although all cluster printers required the cards to print, they were only available for purchase in a few clusters such as the ones in CCL and Connecticut Hall. Vendacard equipment were prone to breakdowns, leaving students who did not buy cards without access to a cluster printer.

Tami Whalen/YH The new NetID-activated printing system at work.

This year, ACS has taken cash out of the equation with a new system called Uniprint. Under this system, every student now has a printing account that can be accessed by a PrintID and password, which are identical to students' NetID and NetID password. Students first enter their NetID and password at the cluster print monitor. The cost for printing is then deducted from the money in the student's printing account. ACS has credited $1 to each student's account so students can try out the new system. Students can go to the Printing account management web page to add more printing money, which is then bursar billed. Students can also add money to their accounts with cash or check at 175 Whitney Avenue or at the Microcomputer Services Center (MCSC) at the Yale Bookstore. According to Long, "the system is more reliable, ultimately we hope, more efficient."

Hackers and pranksters, Beware!

New security measures also greeted students at the cluster computers. Under a new procedure introduced this fall, all students using cluster PCs running Windows NT must log in to the machine using their NetID and password. Previously, there was no login procedure for any cluster computer.

Long cited several reasons for the policy change. Cluster computers have long been sources of anonymous or falsely-attributed emails sent by pranksters harassing students and others on the Internet. Although Long cautioned that this procedure would not eliminate the problem of forged emails, he believed that the new procedure will make a difference. The new system also encrypts all passwords and inforamtion sent out from the cluster machines, a step that will eliminate the risk of hackers intercepting passwords or important data. For the time being, authentication is only required on the NT machines, noted Ed Kairiss, ACS's Director of Instructional Computing. Cluster Macintoshes still do not require login.

Security is not the only reason for the new procedure. According to Long, "Our goal is to identify students at clusters. People should be able to know who sent you email. We can better provide personal services if we know who you are."

One example of the new "personal services" uses a new technology called Samba. Students logged on to NT machines can now access their Pantheon directories in a Windows environment. This procedure will make it convenient for students with web pages on the Pantheon, eliminating the need to use File Transfer Protocol(FTP). Using Samba, students can upload Web pages onto the Pantheon simply by dragging and dropping. Long also envisions access to other personalized features, using a single network login.

First reactions

With shopping period still in progress, many students have yet to encounter the new cluster changes. ACS has also kept publicity of the changes fairly low key, with announcements found only on the Web and in the clusters themselves.

According to some residential college CAs, there has yet to be much of a response to the new changes. "It's too early to tell what the response is going to be," said CA Colin McClendon, TC '99. CA Brian Burnovski, PC '00, who was overseeing the CCL cluster, reported "no big problems."

COURTESY ACS Confused cluster users recieved a little note of help from ACS.

A quirk in the new NT login procedure, though, caused confusion for some students. Since Pantheon NetIDs are UNIX based, there were some incompatibilities with Microsoft's NT. To fix the problem, students wishing to use NT machines must synchronize their NetID password on ACS's new password Web page. Since unsynchronized passwords cannot be used to login to NT machines, students must use one of the Macintosh computers in order to access the password page. Also, in order to synchronize, a student's password must be at least eight characters.

Several students were annoyed by the new procedure. David Dong, TD '00, had a seven-character password, and so had to change it to an eight-letter password so it could be synchronized. Dong complained, "I just wanted to check my email, [and] suddenly I end up having to come up with a new password on the spot. What a pain!"

"A friend of mine tried to explain to me why they were doing it. I don't know. I just find it inconvenient to change my password all of the time," said Corinne Chow, JE '00, another student annoyed by the synchronization process.

The verdict on the new printing system, though, is still not in. Since the onslaught of papers and take home midterms are still weeks away, few students have needed to use cluster printers. However, many greeted news of the Vendacard's demise with enthusiasm. "That's awesome, using those cards was a pain," Nick Stucky, TC '00, remarked, "that's a great improvement."

ACS's major improvements are united by the fact that a NetID is required to access the new services. Both the new login procedure and the new printing system make the NetID more like Yale's physical ID cards, which now give access to food, laundary, a charge account, and all electronic gates, in addition to being a general ID. Philip Long notes that the NetID had an evolution similar to the ID card - as the years progressed, more services became available through the Net ID. For now, Philip Long looks back on how much the NetID has changed, and isperhaps thinking of more services that may soon be accessible by the NetID.

"The NetID was introduced six years ago. Then it only provided access to the Pantheon. Today its uses include access to grades, financial aid statements, bursar statements, and printing," said Long.

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