Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 15:03:27 -0500 (EST) From: Steve Hovey <shovey@buffnet.net> To: "Daniel R. Brownstone" <drbrowns@ls.wustl.edu> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD & Windows Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.95.980326150315.2543B-100000@buffnet11.buffnet.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980326132659.18811F-100000@ls.wustl.edu>
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I wonder if there is a version of NIS for NT. On Thu, 26 Mar 1998, Daniel R. Brownstone wrote: > > This is going to be a bit long, but I hope someone out there will be able > to help. > > I'm a student at WashU (wustl) law. Because I majored in comp sci in > undergrad, I somehow ended up getting this part time job here of being the > "Unix Administrator." Whatever. It basically means I've learned FreeBSD > on the fly while trying to go to law school. But now it's all in danger. > > Here's how our systems work around here. We have 2 PC labs in the > building, with a total of about 50 workstations. (They're mostly Pentium > 200s.) They run Windows 95. We need windows because students use the > PCs to do word processing, mostly. All of these PCs are on both our > Microsoft Windows network, and the Novel Network. As far as I can tell, > the only purpose for the Novel network is that the two huge HP printers > in the lab are on the same network. As I said, whatever. The faculty > also have Win95 on the PCs in their offices, and they do a lot more with > novel. (they have GroupWise for their e-mail, etc.). > > Every student has an e-mail account on the FreeBSD box. Which means that > to check their mail, they either dial in from home, or else they sit down > at one of the PCs in our lab, and telnet in to the server from Win95. The > lab PCs are not password protected, and anyone in the world can use them > as long as they're sitting in front of one. Obviously, to telnet in to > the FreeBSD machine, you need a login and password. > > It has come to pass in recent months that many of the other schools at the > University have implemented restrictive policies concerning their own > computer systems. The law school is the only school left on campus where > someone can walk in off the street, sit down at a terminal, and work away. > More importantly, they can print without restriction. We spend hundreds > of thousands of dollars every year on printing paper and supplies, and > while a lot of it is legit, a lot of it is also people printing out ESPN > web pages. So, what the administration wants to do is to restrict > printing, preferably to law students with accounts ONLY. In addition, > they want to put a print quota on each student, and if a student exceeds > that quota, they will have to pay. > > The way they want to do this is to switch all of the lab computers to > Windows NT, so everyone will have to sit down and log in. Because they > have absolutely no faith in the competence of any of us students, they are > adamant that everyone should have only one user id and one password. > Their solution: get rid of FreeBSD and find some other mail solution. > They invision Student sitting down at NT, and logging in. Then he has to > telnet to FreeBSD and log in again. But if he changes his FreeBSD > password, his NT password won't change, and he'll get really confused > because he'll never know which password to use where, and all of our PC > Support resources will be used up in resetting people's passwords. The > only solution, the Administration has determined, is to find a way to > seamlessly integrate the password files that NT uses with the one that > FreeBSD uses. Failing that, FreeBSD goes and we all switch to Win NT > and/or Novel. Apparently there's somethin called NDS which is going to > make everything nice and easy for us. > > As you can tell, I completely disagree with all of this -- but hey, I > graduate in a year. In the mean time, though, I would like to come up > with a solutiuon that will keep the FreeBSD box -- I think that having it > as a mail and web server for the students is a great idea, everything is > free, we benefit enormously, and we have great support on it.... switching > to Microsoft, I think, would be a nightmare. > > So does anyone have ANY ideas?????? I'm desperate here. > > Thanks, > > Danny > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > Daniel R. Brownstone drbrowns@ls.wustl.edu > Wash. U. School of Law '99 ICQ #191058 > *** THIS E-MAIL IS PROPRIETARY *** > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > ------------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Hovey Chief Engineer BuffNET More Than Just a Connection! ------------------------------------------------------------------ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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