======================== SSCC News, December, 1995 ======================== This is the SSCC News. This monthly electronic newsletter will keep you informed about recent changes on the SSCC computer networks. We hope this information will help improve communication between the SSCC computing staff and all of you computer users out there. Inside this issue... Enhanced Version of VMS Mail Now Available for Testing Networking Changes Planned for December - DOWNTIMES Town Meeting on PC Computing and Support New UNIX Tempdisk for Temporary Storage WiscWorld 2.5 for Windows Now Available from Consulting New SSCC Publications SAS 6.10 on DEC UNIX ------------------------------------------------------ Enhanced Version of VMS Mail Now Available for Testing ------------------------------------------------------ We have installed an enhanced version of VMS mail which we would like you to try. This version, sometimes called PMDF mail, has an interface identical to the "old" VMS mail and also has several additional features including: - mail header filter utilities so the header portion of your mail messages are not so long (YES!). To invoke SSCC's customized filter, enter the following command from the VMS $ prompt while in your home directory: $ SETMAIL You only need to issue this command once and it will create a file called pmdf_mail_headers.opt - utilities for sending and receiving binary files (refer to SSCC Pub. 1-3, "VMS Mail and Networks") - mail queueing if addressee is unavailable. Mail will be queued until it can be delivered (usually up to 3 days). - a database for creating publically available distribution lists. See CONSULTANT if you would like to set one up. - will accept standard internet formatted addresses: it will accept name@node.edu instead of requiring the IN%"name@node.edu" syntax. Note that for backward compatibility, it will still accept the IN% form. NOTE: It is best not to use decnet formatted addresses, i.e. eunice::swald. But, this is true regardless of which mailer you use. To use this enhanced version, just type EMAIL at the VMS $ prompt. Be sure you try this program out because we plan to make this the default version next semester. --------------------------------------------------- Networking Changes Planned for December - DOWNTIMES --------------------------------------------------- As you may know, the network in the Social Science building is in the process of being upgraded. This upgrade will greatly increase the speed and bandwidth of the network. To perform the upgrade, various parts of the network need to be down to swap out the current equipment and install new equipment. The plan is to have each floor down for a short amount of time. The entire network may have to be down for some time between Christmas and New Year's. No schedule can be posted until certain equipment arrives and we have an opportunity to to test it out to determine installation time. We will post a schedule as soon as possible. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Town Meeting on PC Computing/Support and Building Network Upgrades ------------------------------------------------------------------ ATTENTION: ALL CURRENT/FUTURE PC USERS NEED TO ATTEND TOWN MEETING TOPIC: PC COMPUTING/SUPPORT AND BUILDING NETWORK UPGRADES WHEN: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1996, NOON-1:00 P.M. WHERE: SEWELL ROOM, 8417 SOCIAL SCIENCE In the town meeting last September, Tom Flory, SSCC Director, discussed the anticipated evolution of the SSCC computers. This includes plans to both improve service and reduce administrative overhead by drastically reducing the number of host (VMS and UNIX) computers we have, replacing many older machines with one or a few much more powerful ones, and establishing a robust Microsoft Windows Network. The last town meeting's discussions concentrated on VMS and UNIX. This meeting will concentrate on the PC network that is now up and running. We will give a live demonstration and outline the level of support the SSCC staff plans to provide for PCs connected to this network as well as PCs with ethernet connections to VMS or UNIX, and stand-alone PCs. We would also like to get your input on which software you would like to see installed on the network. We are currently evaluating the PerfectOffice Professional suite of Windows application software, EUDORA Mail, STATA, and SPSS. We will also use this town meeting to update everyone on the status of the improvements to our network which have been made possible through the NFS Instrumentation Grant that was awarded the SSCC. Most of the planning is done and new equipment is already arriving and being implemented. There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and questions. --------------------------------------- New UNIX Tempdisk for Temporary Storage --------------------------------------- On SSCC Unix systems, a new file system now exists for storing files temporarily. The file system is called /users/tempdisk and it is available from all Unix systems for all Unix users. Many users who have needed a place to store large files temporarily have been using the /tmp directories. This is not appropriate as /tmp is truly temporary space primarily used by programs like SAS, SPSS, and STATA. Users storing data in /tmp has created problems for other users trying to run these programs. To prevent this problem from occurring, we have created this new temp disk for storing data for short periods of time. EFFECTIVE 1/1/96, /TMP ON ALL UNIX SYSTEMS WILL BE CLEANED DAILY OF FILES MORE THAN TWO DAYS OLD. To use this new temporary space, change to the /users/tempdisk directory, make a directory for yourself, change the permissions so that only you can read and write to the directory, change to that directory, and place files there: % cd /users/tempdisk % mkdir your_user_name % chmod 700 your_user_name % cd your_user_name [ then, edit files, move files, or do whatever you want to do ] A few warnings: 1. This is temporary space! Every day, empty directories and files that have not been modified for 10 days will be deleted automatically. If you need additional space for special longer term projects, contact CONSULTANT because we have disks for this purpose. 2. Anyone can create a file in this location. Anyone can remove a file from this location. Even your files! The only way to prevent this is to create your own directory and change the permissions (the chmod command above). 3. This space is limited. Only about 972 megabytes is available. Please compress files and otherwise keep the area free of unneeded material so that others may use this space. As with any other file system, if disk space gets low, people may be requested to compress or remove files. 4. And now the good news: this space will be backed up nightly. For members of the IRP, remember that disk /users/d31 is also available as a scratch disk. Contact Dan Ross (DROSS) or J. Dixon (DIXON) for information on how to gain access to this space, and for backup and deletion policies. ------------------------------------------------------- WiscWorld 2.5 for Windows Now Available from Consulting ------------------------------------------------------- DoIT released version 2.5 of WiscWorld for Windows earlier this week. Version 2.5 includes the following new software: an internet browser called Netscape, a news reader called WinVN, the commercial release of EUDORA mail, and ARCHIE for searching file archives. Updated versions of software distributed with the last release of WiscWorld are also included. For example, the terminal emulator (TELNET or EWAN) works much better with VMS than it did in version 2.0 or 2.1. Copies are available for distribution from DoIT for $6.00 including documentation. SSCC consulting also has copies of the diskettes for loan and a limited number of copies of the documentation. If you would like SSCC staff to install the new version in your on-campus office, please send mail to CONSULTANT. -------------------- New SSCC Publications -------------------- The following new or majorly revised publications are available for SSCC users: VMS Mail and Networks (SSCC Pub. 1-3) How to Reformat the Header Lines and Message Body in the UNIX MH Mailer (#39) How to Preview PostScript Files on X Terminals with GhostScript (#40) How to Preview PostScript Files on X Terminals with GhostView (#41) SSCC publications are available in the racks in the public terminal room, Sci. 2470 or from Consultant. Copies are also stored on-line in SSCGOPHER. -------------------- SAS 6.10 on DEC UNIX -------------------- We announced the availability of SAS 6.10 on NORMAN, WINGRA, and ELAINE (DEC UNIX machines) in the October issue of SSCC NEWS. Since that time, we have reconfigured the /tmp space on these machines so SAS should run more efficiently now. /tmp has the least amount of space on ELAINE so it is best to avoid that machine for large jobs. Hopefully, we will be able to provide a larger /tmp space for ELAINE in the future. As allows, please report any problems to CONSULTANT.