Access to ifile.inf.ed.ac.uk restricted
Access to the ifile.inf.ed.ac.uk service has been restricted to the University (and therefor also the Informatics) networks.
Previously you could directly access ifile.inf.ed.ac.uk from anywhere, but now if you are at home, for example, you will first need to connect to the University or Informatics VPN service to make your device look like it is within the University network.
We have had to do this because the software that provides the ifile service is no longer maintained, and relies on an out of date web framework. With the increasing concern about the vulnerability of old, out of date software, which are often used as attack routes by hackers, this restriction will remove the ability for the bad guys on the outside to keep picking and prodding away trying to gain access.
Admittedly this restriction somewhat reduces the usefulness of the ifile service. If we do find a current, maintained equivalent software package, then we can look at upgrading ifile and removing this restriction.
Remember that if you have an ssh access to an Informatics machine, you could use scp/sftp to access the AFS file system.
Neil
Services Unit
