School of Engineering >> IT Services

School IT Help Line

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SeeSup@ed

phone 505636

Using IT Helpline

School Helpdesk
For Collection/Drop Off and for New Users
10:00/12:00
14:00/16:00
(not Wed pm)

SEE IT Rules - Security Issues and Regulations
Change SEE Password - Password Change Page
Change EASE Password - Password Change Page
Network Services - "the network is the computer" - Network Connections, mail, web, printing, etc
Client Support - The machine on your desk
Applications - Applications and software for research and teaching
Teaching Facilities - Information for Undergraduates and MScs
Research Facilities - Information for Research Postgraduates and RAs
User Accounts - Accounts, Passwords, access to Services
Purchases - Purchasing Hardware, Software and Services
How To? - Common Unix Q & A's
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Glossary - A few specific terms used in SEE IT.
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SEE Network Security Model

The School's network is divided into different security zones. Each zone contains machines with different levels of preceived risk. These risk levels are determined by how secure each machine is, and the likelyhood of exposure to network security compromises by both internal and external sources.

Low Risk Zone

Machines which run our managed desktops Machination or LCFG are considered as low risk. Because they are fully managed by the SEE IT Team, we are able to implement good security practices which ensures they are as safe and secure as possible at all times. These practices include:

User runs with the least amount of system privileges necessary to get their work done, but not enough for viruses and trojans to install themsevles and stay resident in the system.
Operating system security patches kept up to date.
Application security patches kept up to date.
Virus Scan signatures kept up to date.
Sensible firewall rules are in place.
No unecessary network services are running.

These practices allow us to be reasonably confident that they are adequately protected against possible compromise and allow these machines a greater level of network access.

While you may follow similar practices on your own non-managed machine, as it is not part of our managed infrastructure and its security level cannot be verified or maintained by the SEE IT Team, it will not be placed in the low risk zone.

High Risk Zone

Any machine in the School which does not meet the criteria for inclusion in the low or medium risk zone, is placed in the high risk zone and is subject to the following network access:

Access to School and University services

Full access to all University and School network services

SSH and X-Windows/X-application access

With the exception of the CLX cluster, access to any of these services is through SSH gateways. You must first connect using an SSH client to the machine sshgate.see.ed.ac.uk (Linux) or sungate.see.ed.ac.uk (Sun/Solaris). From here you can SSH to any other managed service machine in the School - these include the VLX, Solaris, and LCFG machine pools.

X-applications started on any of these machines will be tunneled back through the gateway machines and displayed on your desktop, assuming you have a suitable X server running.

You can also run full X Desktop remote sessions on the TLC VLX pool of machines by using the NX service.

Access to network services outside the University

Only web access is granted - all other network traffic is blocked. If you wish to use any other external service you will need to connect to the University VPN service (not the SEE VPN). This will effectively place your machine outside the SEE network and you will need to use the remote access methods to access School resources while connected.

The School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JL
School IT Team Tel: 0131 650 5636 Fax: 0131 650 6554 Email: SeeSup@ed.ac.uk
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Last modified Thursday, 19-Feb-2009 16:52:10 GMT