Networking / Unix / Linux [NUL] Society

seanos

Hello All,

I would like to announce that over past couple months - I drew up letter to be sent to Computer Services, in relation to a *Nix type society.

I finally heard word back today - and for once I cannot bitch about computer serivces, and I say Fair dues & thank you.

I was told by Head of Comp Services :

1) He firstly has to talk with Linux/Unix technician [currently doing exams], and find out details, but has it pre-approved.

2) They will give us a computer on the network [he mensioned P 800, 256MB RAM & Large Hard Disk]

Now, I know I don't come bearing an abundance of information, however I see this as a big step, considering previous tries have been futile, and there was some sort of networking society set up last year as part of 4th yr project I believe, and computers weren't allowed on network.
I got a good responce, and the head of computer services seemed receptive to these ideas.

[on a side note : Carlow IT now has a new Head of Department - who shall be taking over next month, and is from Limerick IT - Ruaidhri [unsure of his surname]. Lecturers seems very enthusiastic in regards to him taking over - as it's someone from the outside, so hopefully some major changes shall take place - never know, this may even be a good thing for this brimming society - which hopefully will be viewed on par with UCD, Trinity, Maynooth, Cork, Limerick, and all the other universities Networking/Unix societies]

To continue...

What We Hope to Provide :

Shell Accounts
FTP
?Email?
?Forums?
Web Site
IRC Server
Web Space

Shell Accounts:
Each person will get a shell account, which will be accessable by SSH [secure].
This will be accessable from home/outside the college, as well as internally.

FTP:
Each person will be able to upload/download files from the server, and will have a quota [set amount of space] available to them - more than you G: Drive I assure you.
Quota will depend on specification of machine we get.

Email:
This is a service I am thinking about - I was told today by head of computer services this is a no, for security reasons. I'm not all too sure how this poses as a security risk, however, I will ask him his opinions, and try get a work around.

Forums:
I am considering putting Forums up - so that we have our own way of communicating between members, it can be used for technical support, ideas/suggestions, announcements etc etc...

Web Site:
There will of course be a web site, these and the forums shall be the main form of communication with members, and website with others also who wish to gain information.

IRC Server:
I'm planning to run an IRC server off the machine, linking us to the other NetSoc's of Ireland [well the main ones at least - Trinity, UCD, etc]. I know Trinity Admin, and Head of UCD's Netsoc, so plan to be working with the other societies, and gain membership to Intersocs url]http://www.intersocs.com[/url

Web Space:
Each user will have their own amount of webspace, so they can practice JSP, or whatever other scripting languages they would like to practice.


Taking a look at other NetSoc's illustrates what we would like to become - especially UCD's NetSoc which I believe is what we would be very lucky to achieve even half of what they have. url]http://www.netsoc.ucd.ie/[/url

Giving talks on technical issues.
A wide range of services.
Communication with other NetSocs
Many *nix distributions available for members.

These are just some of things we hope to achieve.
Obviously, all this won't happen for a while, but this is exactly how UCD's Netsoc was started, given one low-end machine as a server, and they put the work in.

Next year, if this society was a success, i.e. there is interest, people join, and we manage to accomplish even half of our goals, I will apply for a Sun Server and then hopefully get a nice server off them - as they have provided many servers to other Network societies around Ireland.

I shall post here with any new information I get ... this society will hopefully be setup for next year in full, yes we will be taking people this year, but a lot of above will not be available till next college year.

seanos

No update from college as of yet - sadly.
Expecting word next week.

I'm starting to set some things up now in preparation, so as little time as possible can be spent waiting for services to be setup.

Currently I'm working on the Forums - I have put forums up on a server of mine, and currently configuring, and testing.
They seem to be configured, and working, and have a few test users to check reliability etc - as I've never set anything like this up before.

I shall be posting more regular updates, and more information on this upcomming society on these forums, and when we get a server from the college, the forums will be ported over to that server, so the configuring done here will not be put to waste.

I encourage any of you interested in this society, or wish to help/join to register in NetSoc forums, or even people who'd like to voice their opinions on different issues and keep up to date on how we are doing.

The link is : http://www.spunge.org/~scorpio/phpBB2/index.php
It is a slowish server [free one which provides all services I need], but best I can do, without paying.

Looking forward to seeing people there!

Regards.