New versions of network switch firmware often bring additional facilities along with bug-fixes.  We have recently been evaluating some security and robustness enhancements, with a view to rolling them out across the Informatics network.  In particular: DHCP protection, which will prevent rogue machines purporting to be DHCP servers on the self-managed subnets.  We occasionally see […]

The question has been raised recently of how best to back Mac computers in use within the School. Macs running a reasonably modern version of MacOS come with Time Machine which allows the Mac owner to easily back up and restore from an external disk and we would suggest that this should be the first […]

Keen observers of University affairs will already be aware that the University has recently changed its supplier of MFDs (a MFD (Multi Function Device) is what used to be called, in simpler times, a photocopier with a number of additional functions such as printing, scanning and faxing). As a result, Canon and OCE photocopiers in […]

The Mac is not immune to viruses, Trojans, backdoors, adware, spyware and other unwanted applications. In reality, the Mac OS, its included applications, and third-party applications have and will continue to have security issues that can allow some form of attack. Anti-virus programs don’t just provide protection against known viruses; they also include anti-phishing, anti-adware, […]

Many of the Institute and commodity servers have local partitions that are sometimes used to store data. These partitions are usually called /disk/data or /disk/scratch. In total, there is more than 7Tb of data on such disks! These locations are primarily intended for temporary data or data that can easily be regenerated. We are, however, […]

For some time now, we have been thinking about the form the Informatics Web presence should take in the future. From this, an Informatics web strategy has evolved, the highlights of which I’d like to cover in this post. The strategy itself can be found here. The main points of the strategy are: The majority […]

For many years, the School of Informatics has provided Windows and MacOS users with access to its file and printing resources via Samba. Since the introduction of the OpenAFS file system and the CUPS printing system, there have been better methods available for accessing these resources. Given this, the intention has always been to withdraw […]

As most of you will be aware, access to the School’s AFS file system requires that the user be in possession of a valid Kerberos ticket. Most of the time, this is handled behind the scenes and doesn’t cause any problems. Default Kerberos ticket is only valid for 18 hours though and this can cause […]

In a previous post we mentioned that noise levels in the self-managed server room (i.e. B.Z14) of the Informatics Forum were higher than we might like. And users of that room can’t have failed to notice that it’s also been much hotter and stuffier than anyone might like … We’re pleased to say that alterations have […]

As a result of a 2009 EU directive, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”) have been amended such that visitors to web sites must now give their prior consent to the placing of cookies.  The way in which this is to be done is not specified by the regulations; the ICO’s […]