IT services
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Introduction

All the research, teaching and ATA staff of the Physics Department and of the Research Institutions (Enti di Ricerca) operating within the department, the research, teaching and ATA staff of other academic structures operating within the department, post-docs, PhD students, holders of research grants, graduating students, visiting professors and other guests, may use the IT services offered by the Physics Department by requesting service activation as described in the following.

The request must be performed by filling the relevant web forms, as better specified in the following sections.

Available services:
  • MAIL: institutional mailbox
  • SSH: external interactive access via SSH gateway
  • WIRELESS/PROXY: access to wireless network (includes access to network printers and Internet) and web proxy
  • WIRED: access to wired network (includes access to network printers and Internet)
  • VPN: external access to wired network via private virtual network

Institutional mailbox (MAIL service)

To activate an institutional mailbox (with an associated email address like name.surname@dsf.unica.it), with authenticated access (username/password) via POP and IMAP protocols, via web interface (SquirrelMail) and via command line (mutt), unregistered users must fill the registration and request web form.

Registered users which have not yet requested service activation, but with active SSH or PROXY/WIRELESS services, must instead fill the request web form.
No new credentials will be generated in the latter case.

Registered users with an active institutional mailbox, who should need a new additional mailbox, must fill the request web form.
New credentials will be generated for the additional mailbox.

Credentials (if any) will be sent via email soon after service activation.

NOTICE: MAIL service is not available to graduating students.
NOTICE: MAIL service activation includes SSH, PROXY, WIRELESS service activation (if not already active), as described below.

External access via SSH (SSH service)

To gain authenticated access (username/password) to the department SSH gateways, for interactive login from external networks (SSH protocols), unregistered users must fill the registration and request web form.

Registered users which have not yet requested service activation, but with active SSH or PROXY/WIRELESS services, must instead fill the request web form.
No new credentials will be generated in the latter case.

Registered users with an active account, who should need a new additional account, must fill the request web form.
New credentials will be generated for the additional service.

Credentials (if any) will be sent via email soon after service activation.

NOTICE: SSH service activation includes PROXY/WIRELESS service activation (if not already active), as described below.

Access to wireless network and web proxy (WIRELESS and PROXY services)

To connect laptops and other mobile devices to the wireless network of the Physics Deprtment, with authenticated access (username/password) via web portal, unregistered users must fill the registration and request web form.

Registered users with an active account, who should need a new additional account, must fill the request web form.
New credentials will be generated for the additional service.

Credentials will be sent via email soon after service activation.

NOTICE: WIRELESS service activation includes PROXY service activation, i.e. authenticated (username/password) access to Internet via the web proxy of the Physics Department (HTTP and HTTPS protocols).
The web proxy can be used also from external networks (e.g. at home), and provides access to on-line journals or other services subscribed by the University of Cagliari.
NOTICE: access to the wireless network includes access to the department network printers.

Access to wired network (WIRED service)

To connect desktops and laptops (hosts) to the wired network of the department, unregistered users must fill the registration and request web form.

Registered users must instead fill the request web form.

Wired network access will be enabled via DHCP protocol soon after service activation, hosts must be configured to automatically obtain IP address and netmask, gateway address and name servers.

NOTICE: the physical (ethernet) address of the wired network adapter must be specified. To identify it, please refer to your operating system documentation. Please notice that external USB/thunderbolt to ethernet adapters have their own ethernet address.
NOTICE: access to the wired network includes access to the department network printers.

External access to wired network (VPN service)

To gain authenticated access to the wired network of the Physics Department from external networks (e.g. at home), via X.509 certificate authentication and OpenVPN software, fill the request web form.

The VPN service may be used for remote desktop connections, data transfers, direct SSH connection to the internal network.

To use the service, the software package OpenVPN must be installed on the machine that starts the connection (client):
  • Linux: install the package suitable for your distribution (e.g. Debian 9 Stretch apt-get install openvpn)
  • Windows 7 and higher: install the latest version of OpenVPN on the official web site, or version 2.4.6 (as of 2018-04-24) on the department web site.
  • MacOS X 10.7.5 and higher: install the latest version of Tunnelblick on the official web site, or version 3.7.6a (as of 2018-06-26) on the department web site.

OpenVPN/Tunnelblick configuration files will be sent via email soon after service activation.

NOTICE: no additional software package is needed on the internal machines.
NOTICE: registered users only.