Library items tagged: technical guide

SmoothWall and IPCop For some time, projects have been running to establish dedicated appliances based upon Linux, such as firewalls and web caches. These projects provide a pre-configured tool specific to one task which is easy to implement and configure.

Universities or colleges consisting of multiple campuses, each with a LAN, traditionally connect geographically diverse ‘islands’ by means of private leased lines. If the connected site is small and consumes little bandwidth, the costs of such WAN links do not necessarily represent value for money. Many organisations also wish to offer their staff the facility to connect to their central network remotely, either from their houses or when travelling on business.

As stated, the following sections describe a number of tools and techniques that can be used to reduce the risk of misuse of the network. They are presented here in the context of providing network access for guests, though many of them can also be used for local users. None of the tools can make misuse impossible: each section describes which risks can be reduced by a particular tool and which risks may remain or be increased.

The purposes of an educational organisation may often require it to receive guests from other organisations, both from within the education community and outside. Researchers, teachers, students and conference delegates may all come to the organisation from elsewhere and wish, or need, to use the host organisation’s network facilities. Where guests come to the host organisation for purposes connected with its publicly funded or educational remit, Janet Policies allow the host organisation to provide them with access to Janet should it choose to do so.