Hi folks, after reading a couple of threads in Chit Chat (and here), talking about NCSU-related IT stuff, I thought it might be helpful to have a thread where general NCSU computing-related questions can be answered. This isn't anything official, just me trying to help answer some things that people want to know about.

Ask away.

8/26/2008 9:39:53 PM

do you like working in the hillsborough building????

8/26/2008 9:50:16 PM

do I like working at NCSU? yes.

is the Hillsborough Bldg a nice building to work in? no.

8/26/2008 9:52:02 PM

that building just has to be a shithole

8/26/2008 10:08:58 PM

back to the topic

8/26/2008 10:14:32 PM

is it possible to work out a deal to share some T3 lovin?

i live close enough to run a cable .

also, what model UPS's does ncsu use in their server rooms?

8/26/2008 10:15:29 PM

in the nelson computer lab, when the application window thing comes up, why doesnt firefox work(use to not even have an icon for it)...also, why do some labs have the up to date version of IE and others dont

8/26/2008 10:16:25 PM

Does NCSU have an smtp server to login into to send mail from off campus? So far I can't find one. As it turns out the roadrunnner smtp server is not compatible with Outlook 2007 either. I ended up creating a gmail account to send my NCSU email through, but then Outlook users get a note in the message user@gmail sent on the behalf of user@ncsu.edu

8/26/2008 10:26:23 PM

does anyone still talk about the #1 in the world mp3 topsite that used to be run from Winston 409 back in 2002-2003 - named MWM?

or the fbi raid back in nov. 2003 in wood hall?

any rumors still float around?

8/26/2008 10:29:15 PM

my friend downloads torrents. can you catch him?

8/26/2008 10:32:19 PM

Why does my webmail spam filter continue to forward emails from my professors to my spam mail address, even after I make rules specifically for those professors, directing the filter to KEEP THE DAMN EMAILS AND NOT SEND THEM SOMEWHERE ELSE?

8/26/2008 10:37:51 PM

^^^^^^ best i can do for ya is Nomad WiFi. and there are a number of different UPS's being used in the various data centers, as well as in telecom closets and other locations. we have the usual small-sized things for racks and so forth, and we also have some huge ones to power machines in the event of catastrophic utility power loss (until a generator can be brought online and normalized).

^^^^^ can't answer that about Nelson, except that the COM folks sometimes prefer to keep applications one or two versions behind. the last time i talked to anyone about that, it's because of funding and instructor preferences. as far as different labs having different versions of IE, can you be more specific?

^^^^ yes, smtp.ncsu.edu can be used with authentication. use your Unity ID and password, and set auth to STARTTLS (some clients call it SSL). still port 25.

^^^ nope.

^^ ask the MPAA, they're the ones that do the catching.

^ can you send me a PM with some details? it sounds like your filters need some tweaking.


[Edited on August 26, 2008 at 10:46 PM. Reason : .]

8/26/2008 10:44:10 PM

Quote :

"does anyone still talk about the #1 in the world mp3 topsite that used to be run from Winston 409 back in 2002-2003 - named MWM? or the fbi raid back in nov. 2003 in wood hall? any rumors still float around? "

TVX + BNC/LAN + OmarBadu/IRC = wtfbusted. I thought those were in bragaw though, wood had pos 10mbit.

8/27/2008 1:15:22 AM

8/27/2008 2:05:12 AM

what os do you use for all the servers?

8/27/2008 10:15:36 AM

Quote :

"TVX + BNC/LAN + OmarBadu/IRC = wtfbusted. I thought those were in bragaw though, wood had pos 10mbit."

woops - you are right - wood hall was ~2001

the TVX bust in nov 2003 was in bragaw - 3rd or 4th floor (memory is failing)

i didn't go down (as well as the other ncsu siteop that's a twwer) but 2 TWWers did - i'm glad my name was kept out of it

8/27/2008 10:17:23 AM

TVX for the win!

and holla at MWM - #1 mp3 site in world that we helped scare the shit out of the guy hosting it to remove it

8/27/2008 10:19:29 AM

i can't remember that guy's name that ran it - something Jones - maybe mjones or bjones - he was working in winston at the time next to the server room - that was a funny summer day

8/27/2008 10:22:21 AM

Quote :

"what os do you use for all the servers?"

some Solaris 8, some Redhat RHEL3-RHEL5

8/27/2008 10:44:32 AM

Neither of you dudes happen to be in charge of the Oracle databases, do you?

8/27/2008 10:48:26 AM

Thank god no

8/27/2008 10:53:01 AM

Nope.

8/27/2008 11:16:28 AM

^^^ Looking to sell something, lol, I had the same thought....

8/27/2008 11:20:06 AM

No, I'm trying to figure out how the hell to connect to them

8/27/2008 11:26:04 AM

you need oracle client installed and add the entry for the oracle server in tnsnames.ora file

8/27/2008 11:38:23 AM

Quote :

"woops - you are right - wood hall was ~2001"

yea i was gonna say, I was in Wood in 2003 and I didnt remember that at all heh.

8/27/2008 12:12:57 PM

back to the topic

8/27/2008 12:18:19 PM

Quote :

"that building just has to be a shithole"

this is true it's quite musky

i used to work for OIT back when it was ITD (last year, haha)

8/27/2008 12:45:19 PM

I don't even remember how the fuck you and bous cornered me that day once my not so subtle asterisks (T**) were decoded, but I was freaking out thinking that I was going to get my buddy scene banned.

8/27/2008 12:50:00 PM

Is there a bandwidth limit for upload/download from the NCSU personal webpages?

8/27/2008 2:26:52 PM

did that Alan guy start this worthless thread?

sounds like something he would do

8/27/2008 3:05:28 PM

^^ nope, there aren't any bandwidth limits for things like that.

^ nope, I'm not Alan, and worthless is one man's opinion.

8/27/2008 3:54:30 PM

Quote :

"what os do you use for all the servers?"

8/27/2008 3:55:04 PM

^ lilbirdey actually answered that one pretty well, but Solaris 8 for some things, and various iterations of RHEL (3-5) for others. plus Windows Server 2000, 2003 for others, and some running various versions of Novell NetWare. and several machines running mac os x server.

8/27/2008 3:57:23 PM

I can has root passwords?

Is NCSU email every going to evolve past 1996 storage standards? I'd really like to have more space.

8/27/2008 4:36:11 PM

^ nope, you may not has root passwords. as far as e-mail goes, what are you looking for?

8/27/2008 4:43:38 PM

Quote :

"lilbirdey actually answered that one pretty well, but Solaris 8 for some things, and various iterations of RHEL (3-5) for others. plus Windows Server 2000, 2003 for others, and some running various versions of Novell NetWare. and several machines running mac os x server."

i didnt see that sorry

i think that GT gives us 1 GB of email space with Zimbra but there are only about 2/3 the users

8/27/2008 4:46:23 PM

^ Mainly more storage. It seems silly that I have to use third party email providers just so email isn't a hindrance to research productivity. Passing scientific documents and data between research collaborators is just asking for a full email box with the current NCSU email system. We live in a world where 10+ MB files are common. NCSU email should either adapt to that reality or contract out email service to Yahoo! or Google.

8/27/2008 4:49:17 PM

I doubt they will ever use the google email thing.

Can you reinstate my email addy...

8/27/2008 5:24:09 PM

Quote :

"It seems silly that I have to use third party email providers just so email isn't a hindrance to research productivity."

i agree

Quote :

"NCSU email should either adapt to that reality or contract out email service to Yahoo! or Google."

they actually looked at this (google apps) while reevaluating the email system but decided against it

8/27/2008 5:25:33 PM

^^^, ^^ and ^ actually, i don't think that google mail was an alternative that's ever been definitively ruled out. there are a number of concerns about both federal and state law (NCSU's legal department is relatively more exacting about what it will approve than most of our university peers), but the fact that other institutions are doing it makes it easier to consider.

all of that said, e-mail is something that is getting a LOT of internal discussion at the university these days, in terms of what's going to run the mail system AND how it's to be implemented. a lot of things relating to e-mail and calendaring are being re-examined.

the concerns about mail space and e-mail attachments are things that are heard loud and clear.

^^ what about your e-mail address?

[Edited on August 27, 2008 at 5:36 PM. Reason : missed one]

8/27/2008 5:36:09 PM

Quote :

"It seems silly that I have to use third party email providers just so email isn't a hindrance to research productivity. Passing scientific documents and data between research collaborators is just asking for a full email box with the current NCSU email system."

For serious. It's absurd that in 2008 we still only get a few hundred megabytes of storage space. I'm not just talking about email either. The total between email, AFS and Novell is only 350 megabytes. That would be tolerable in 1998, but not now. Are there any plans to update this soon? I'm constantly at 75-95% capacity in my email and AFS.

On a related note, if we can't get more space, can we at least allot it more sensibly? Why am I forced to keep a minimum of 100 MB in my Windows space? I haven't used Windows in 5 years at this university, and I'm currently only using 5 MB of the storage space there (and I don't even know what that is)! This means there are 95 of the 350 MB I'm alloted that I don't use but can't allot somewhere else. Are these problems going to be addressed anytime soon?

[Edited on August 27, 2008 at 5:41 PM. Reason : cuz]

8/27/2008 5:40:40 PM

^ storage is also one of those things that's been a continual discussion. i can't speak to reasons why more space isn't allocated to individual accounts.

to answer your questions about Novell space... the 100 MB of space allocated to Novell is because of your Windows profile and application settings (everything that ends up on M:\). there are several widely used suites of applications (namely Adobe CS3 and Autodesk products) that do not play well in a computer lab setting, and use up absurd amounts of storage space. the 100 MB minimum in your Novell space is basically to help insure that you don't see applications crashing without reason.

8/27/2008 5:53:06 PM

Quote :

"as far as different labs having different versions of IE, can you be more specific?"

the version of ie that does have tabs versus the version of ie that doesnt have tabs

8/27/2008 6:24:11 PM

Quote :

"all of that said, e-mail is something that is getting a LOT of internal discussion at the university these days, in terms of what's going to run the mail system AND how it's to be implemented. a lot of things relating to e-mail and calendaring are being re-examined."

God those are really fun meetings to hear about.

8/27/2008 6:41:39 PM

^^ sorry, i should have been more clear. which labs are you referring to that do not have IE7?

^ no kidding. i try to avoid them if i can help it.

8/27/2008 7:04:58 PM

transfer everything to google.

8/27/2008 8:23:13 PM

When is NCSU going to switch to Exchange email? Microsoft will host it for students for free.

8/27/2008 8:43:33 PM

Why would they switch to Exchange mail?

So people can be stuck using Outlook?

8/27/2008 8:46:56 PM

Why the hell wouldn't they? It sure beats the shit out of webmail

8/27/2008 8:48:47 PM