Usage Policies

General comments

Below you will find a short list of policies regarding the use of the Unix Lab equipment. Most importantly, users of this equipment are bound by policies set forth by Westminster College (link provided below) as well as state and federal laws regarding the use of the Internet. In addition, a few "local" policies exist to ensure the integrity of the Unix Lab systems. You will find that these policies are reasonably liberal in hopes of encouraging innovative usage of the Lab.

Statement of intent

The intent of the Unix Lab is to foster the unhindered development of computing-related skills and to encourage the advancement of science and scientific computing. In addition the Lab provides a Unix-like alternative to the Windows 9x computing environment offered in other campus labs. As such the lab is committed to support productivity needs of users who are committed to the Linux environment.

Policies

1. In addition to our local policies, users of this site must adhere to the Westminster College Computer Use Policies.
2. Users must insure the privacy of their password by:
   • choosing passwords which are difficult to guess (contain 8 characters including a mix of symbols, digits and upper and lower case letters),
   • changing passwords frequently (every month is probably reasonable),
   • not giving passwords to others, and
   • whenever possible using the Secure Shell to connect the the Unix Lab machines. Assistance installing ssh can be obtained by contacting the lab administrators.
3. Accountability for misuse or exploitation of Unix Lab equipment is assigned to the user of the account from which the infraction originated.
4. The Unix Lab is not intended to act as a software distribution site.
   • Any software distribution which constitutes a copyright infringement or is otherwise not allowed by law is forbidden.
   • Distributing other (legal) software is allowed only if you were directly involved in the development of the software (such as having created it yourself or produced a "port" of the software to a platform for which it was previously unavailable).
   • Any software distribution which represents a strain on our disk or network resources will be discontinued.
5. Actions which violate system or network integrity or the privacy of any users are not allowed. Examples of such actions include but are not limited to:
   • attempting to exploit system vulnerabilites (successful or not) in order to gain unauthorized access to the system,
   • network traffic monitoring (i.e. "packet sniffing", and
   • accessing files belonging to another user when such files have been made private.
6. Actions which constitute an attack on or significant probe of other computers or networks are not allowed. Examples of such actions include but are not limited to:
   • sequential or random probes of services provided by machines,
   • sequential or random probes of name server databases, and
   • sequential or random probes of of machine types or operating systems.
7. The equipment in the Unix Lab lab should not be turned off, reset or rebooted under any circumstances. If a machine becomes unresponsive, inform the lab administrator.

Violation of any of the above policies or College policies is grounds for the revocation of lab use priviledges and referal to the university judicial board.

OBTAINING AN ACCOUNT AND ACCOUNT EXPIRATION

1. Individual user accounts for the Unix Lab linux machines can be requested by any current Westminster student, faculty, or staff. Accounts in support of research or teaching activities may be requested by outside individuals who are directly linked with Westminster faculty.
2. Instructors may request accounts for all students in a class by e-mailing a class list to admin@cs.westminster.edu An account card with userid, password and other login information will be generated for each new account.
3. Questions, comments, or concerns regarding user accounts should be addressed to accounts@cs.westminster.edu.
4. Accounts which are not used for an extended period will be removed unless prior arrangements have been made. You must Log into the account in order for us to record account activity.

Web publishing

The Unix Lab provides users with the capability of publishing web pages. Users that choose to publish pages on the Unix Lab system are expected to use this resource responsibly and for academic or course-related purposes only.

Users may request to have CGI scripting enabled for their account. The lab administrators reserve the right to deny or revoke CGI scripting privledges. Use of this facility is encouraged but careful attention must be paid to maintanance of the privacy of users and the server integrity.

Existing software and software installation

Requests for the installtion of new software should be sent to admin@cs.westminster.edu. Because of the volume and variety of software installed on these systems it is impossible for the Lab administrators to maintain all of the installed packages. In some cases you may be asked to configure and administrate a software package which you have asked to have installed.

Backup Policies

1. Keep backup copies in your home filesystem in case you accidentally destroy an important file.
2. Copy important files to floppy disk.
3. Use ftp to copy important files to another system.

If you loose an important file we can try to recover it for you from our backups but we make no promises. E-mail requests for file restores to admin@cs.westminster.edu The bottom line: we will do our best to perserve data, but if you have something important you wish to protect it is ultimately your responsibility to have a backup.

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Mathematics/Computer Science Department
Westminster College
New Wilmington, PA 16172-0001
webmaster@aslan.cs.westminster.edu