Digital Divas: November 9, 2005


The information contained in this article is only valid at the time of publication and will not be updated. Please search the Resnet site if you have questions.

Dear Digital Diva, I heard that the Barnard server only accepts secure protocols now, how does that affect me?

Basically, it means that since the switch to secure protocols-only, every time you connect to the Barnard server, for email or file transfers, you need to use secure protocols. This means that if you use an email client to download your email via POP or IMAP, you will need to change its security settings.

There are detailed instructions on how to re-configure your email client on the Resnet website.

Alternatively, if you check your email through Pine, you will need to be sure that you use a secure shell client, and not telnet. If you use Windows, you can download SSH Secure Shell on eBear or PuTTY from the AcIS website. Mac users can access Pine via the OS X application Terminal, which is already installed on your computer.

For file transfer, all connections must now use sftp instead of ftp, so we recommend using SSH Secure Shell or WinSCP for Windows users and Fugu for Mac users. There are detailed instructions on how to use these programs on the Secure Email page of the Resnet website.

You might ask why someone would use sftp for on the Barnard server at all -- you may not know this, but Barnard offers free web hosting to all of its students. The Barnard Eclipse server holds not only your email, but also any files that you choose share on the World Wide Web.

To set up your personal website, log into the Barnard Eclipse server using one of the secure shell clients suggested above, and type "web.setup" at the command prompt. A folder called "public_html" is created, and has the correct permissions so that any file you put into it will be available at your own address, http://eclipse.barnard.columbia.edu/~BarnardUsername

For more information on setting up your own Barnard website, visit the Academic Technologies page on personal websites.

If you do set up a website on Eclipse, just remember that you still have a disk-usage quota of 90MB, so delete old emails and check that you aren't over quota on eBear.