Re: Packet blocking between ftoomsh and outside UTS.

Jeremy Fitzhardinge (jeremy@nospam.sour.sw.oz.au)
Wed, 17 May 1995 19:44:46 +1000 (EST)

I'd told myself I wasn't going to do this, but...

Allow me to summarise the current state:

1. Progsoc is a society designed to promote programming and a deeper
understanding of computers and related technology.
2. Ftoomsh is a machine owned and operated by the society to aid
in this goal. In addition, it is connected to the Internet, which
is one of the more important "related technologies".
3. There have been a number of Progsoc members who have been "bad",
either through deliberate malice or by miseducation.

The (proposed?) action taken to "solve" the problem is to disconnect Ftoomsh from
the Internet.

This is not only clearly against the charter of Progsoc, but just plain stupid.

Progsoc is not a bureau computing service; it isn't committed to providing computing
services to all and sundry for any purpose. However, it *is* committed to providing
members with anything they need do they can teach themselves about computing.
Since Progsoc is closely affiliated with SOCS, in general it should *not*
cover the same territory as the school syllabus; certainly not the compulsary
core things, or at least not in the same way.

This means Progsoc should provide:
1. A machine
2. A network connection
3. Education and guidance.

1 and 2 have been Progsoc's biggest successes. TFM, while profitable for
Progsoc, and therefore useful for getting 1&2 together, hasn't (in my view)
been particularly useful in furthering the society's chartered goals.
Other organised attempts at educating people have been of limited success.

Also, the sale of TFM has encourage people to join progsoc without them
even realising. This is OK, until they hear it means they're entitled
to an account on a machine, which they apply for and get. At no point
do they find out what Progsoc is for or about.

If progsoc is under pressure from its ISP's (SOCS and ITD), then it has to
fight as hard as possible to maintain its current state and grow. This is
up to the executive, and particularly the president. When the society
this was the *only* role for the executive; it was a body designed to
satisfy Union requirement and to act as an ambassador to the Union and
other univeristy bodies.

Dennis Clark bubbles:
> > > On Wed, 17 May 1995, Dennis Clark wrote:
> > > > As some of you may have already discovered, with the exception of mail
> > > > all IP packets (both incoming and outgoing) between ftoomsh and sites
> > > > outside the University are being blocked. This has been done by ITD on
> > > > the request of the ProgSoc Executive. Currently the duration of this
> > > > blocking is indefinite.

*Your* role, as president, is to solve the problem in a way which furthers
Progsocs's goals. This does not. It merely makes the symptoms go away
while actively avoiding having to educate the users, Progsoc's members.

Not only that, it is a solution based in some very cloudy thinking.
It not only assumes that all Progsoc's members are Students (which
is not the case), but that they are students who are on campus
(which is very often not the case). It is equivalent to shutting
the machine down.

> Have you read the current Acceptable Usage Policy? If you haven't
> noticed it is quite loosely worded and highly subject to interpretation.
> For example the AUP item most relevant to these activities of concern
> says "Be considerate to other users of the system: do not harrass or
> impede other users". It doesn't say *ANYTHING* about harassing users of
> _OTHER_ systems.

Well, how about that! The users don't know proper etiquite; probably
don't even know how to use a fish fork. Better take all their
cutlery away.

> In fact the only clear no-no I've found in the whole
> policy is the act of illicitly obtaining root access on ftoomsh.

Which is clearly an error; it should certainly be allowed, so long as it's
done in an ethical way.

> Telnet allows
> non-members to obtain access to ftoomsh accounts.

It allows members to gain access to their own accounts; where will it end?!

> FTP and HTTP allows
> users to store and distribute pirated software. IRC is being singled
> out because its abuse is much more visible to other users (particularly
> outside the University) than other services.

But wait! They could email warez! Hang on, we've just found people
reading uuencoded .zip files down the phone! Better delete uuencode!

These problems cannot be solved by technical means. You have a
problem with people. As awful as it may sound, you may have
to deal with people rather than just controlling their machine.

> ...out of control... serious problem ...
> ...proper controls ...
> ...regain some control ...
> ...the right policies and procedures.

Might I suggest you resign and allow someone with a more appropriate
approach to the situation to take your place?

J