Contents:

1) Training Input
2) High Speed Internet Options in the CU area
3) Communications Engineering adds new members
4) DOS attacks
5) Changes to Commodity Internet
6) HP Switch Information
7) Status Page Update
8) Networking Basics Class
9) CCSO evaluating the role of ePO in campus security
10) Indiana DNS Server Change reminder

1. Training Input

With the combination of NAS and the CCSO OpCenter, we have greatly increased our resources and ability to present classes and various training that you may be interested in. Specifically, we would like to hear your thoughts on topics and issues to be discussed. Your feedback and suggestions on training that will help you in your day to day job are important to us. Please send your suggestions and ideas for training to us at admin-help@uiuc.edu.

2. High Speed Internet Options in the CU area

Despite scheduling problems because of company buy-outs, Insight/AT&T is currently the best bang for the buck when it comes to high speed internet access. They are currently the only provider of cable-modem internet access here in Champaign-Urbana.

http://www.prairieinet.net/content/products/home/default.asp PrairieInet- Offers dedicated 128k wireless for $39.95 per month and 256k for $64.95 per month. Both plans include start up fees of $99.95 to $149.95. Account comes with 2 email accounts and the 256k plan allows additional pc's for a fee. This is a great service for those of you who live in outlying areas not serviced by the other providers.

http://www.cu-online.com/services.htm AdvanceNet- Offers 64K Advancenet- ISDN dialup for $30 a month and 128K ISDN dialup for $60 a month. Includes 1 email address. Start up fees for both programs are $75.

http://www.net66.com/isdn.html Net66- Offers 64K ISDN dialup for $39.90 a month and $39.90 per month for 128K ISDN dialup. Start up fees are $19.95. You are limited to 400 and 200 hours respectively. Dedicated lines are $112.50 a month for 64K and $217.50 per month with a $250 start up fee for either.

http://www.shout.net/ Shouting Ground- Offers 64K ISDN dialup for $25 per month or 128K ISDN for $50 per month. You are required to purchase your own ISDN router and you are limited to 75 hours per month. Additional hours are $1 per. Dedicated 64k ISDN is $40 a month and 128K ISDN is $75 with 300 hours each.

http://www.soltec.net/residential/pricing/ Soltec- Offers Dialup ISDN for $15 installation fee and $25 a month for 64K, $35 a month for 128K connections. Also offering ADSL in some parts of Champaign with prices ranging from $50 a month to $140 a month depending on package. Speeds of 768k DL and 128K upstream are available.

http://www.insight-com.com/net/index.html AT&T-Offers high speed internet cable access through AT&T and Excite. Currently undergoing changes, but dedicated cable broadband access runs around $45 a month for unlimited time.

http://www.ameritech.com/DSL_new/content/0,5289,3,00.html SBC Ameritech- Offers SpeedPath 768, a DSL service that boasts speeds up to 768k download and 128k upload. Pricing starts at $49.95 per month and includes 5 email addresses and 1 dynamic IP.

3. Communications Engineering adds new members

Chuck Hayes, who started in August, will be working with Aaron Brown's Network Maintenance Group. He completed his undergraduate education in May with a degree in Computer Science. As a student, he worked for the group that supports the CS Department's network and central computers.

Tammy Goetze - Tammy joined the Network Design group in July. She has an Electrical Engineering degree with experience in designing aircraft modifications.

Richard Wood - Richard joined the Network Design group this month. Richard comes from Motorola as a Senior Networking Engineer with 6 years of networking and Information Technologies experience.

David Ellis just joined our Plant Engineering group as another draftsman. He'll be working on campus building AutoCAD drawings detailing voice and data network infrastructure.

Please join us in welcoming these new personnel to the Communications Engineering team.

4. Update on recent Denial of Service attacks on Campus

The week of 16 September UIUC came under attack from numerous machines propagating a new virus, called "W32/Nimda worm" or the "Concept Virus (CV) v.5.". The worm was propagated through email arriving in MIME format. McAfee regularly updates the description of this worm at: http://vil.nai.com/villib/dispvirus.asp?virus_k=99209 with new information and varient descriptions. MS IIS will benefit from the lockdown patch at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/locktool.asp. Also a scanner and security updater is available from MS at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/mpsa/start.asp

To help insure that your machines are up to date we encourage you to download the lastest antivirus software updates. They are available on UIArchive at: ftp://uiarchive.uiuc.edu/licensed/vir.

If you are a Mac user, Virex Version 7.0 for Mac OS X version 10.0.3 or later was released earlier this month, and, although not targetting Nimda as Mac's were not affected, is now available from the full download menu https://www-s.uiuc.edu/sitelic/drsol. Both the software and manual are in gzip (.gz) format. Release notes can be found http://www.uiuc.edu/sitelic/sitedoc/nai/virex7.html.

5. Changes to Commodity Internet

We added the Illinois Century Network (ICN) as a third ISP the second week of August. The ICN is the state agency that provides internet access for most state agencies. Verio and McLeod are our other two ISPs. Adding a third ISP should slightly improve the quality of our connectivity and make us less sensitive to problems on the internet.

6. HP Switch Information

New code from HP improves multicast capabilities by allowing a multi-vlan switch to do IGMP snooping without assigning IP addresses to every VLAN on the switch. The latest version of HP software that has been tested by NDO is version c.0909. In all versions of the software afer 803, the "candidate" feature is turned on by default. This feature is designed to allow one to manage multiple switches through a single IP address. The "candidate" setting has been the source of problems here at UIUC and it is recommended that this feature be turned off.

7. STATUS updated

The CCSO Status page now has a link for subscribing to status emails. The link can be found at: http://status.uiuc.edu/. Just click on "subscribe" and you'll be notified via email for any status updates to the page. This is a great way to ensure that you have the most up to date information regarding campus-wide networks and connectivity.

8. Networking Basics Class on 10/24 in 3251 DCL

The first NAS training session for Fall 2001 will cover Networking Basics. The class will be held in room 3251 DCL, on Wednesday, October 24, from 1:30pm to 4pm. We encourage all of the newer net admins to attend as well as those who would like a refresher course. In addition, this will be a great opportunity to meet some of the new NAS staff and briefly discuss some of the changes in our group and how we can better serve you.

9. CCSO evaluating the role of ePO in campus security

A number of units have inquired about McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) for monitoring of anti-virus software and deployment of updates. This software is included in the CCSO campus McAfee virus detection license and available for download at: https://www-s.uiuc.edu/sitelic/dist. CCSO is currently unable to provide technical support for this application but is considering how ePolicy Orchestrator might fit into a campus virus detection and security strategy.

10. Indiana DNS Server address change

As announced last August, Indiana University is discontinuing dns service from the address 129.79.1.1, which for many years has been our off-campus backup server. The new address for this service is 129.79.5.100. This is a final reminder to update your hosts and dhcp servers.