Network services software is made available in one of two ways. Those using departmental LANs where applications are departmentally managed or those using departmental dial-in facilities are normally served directly by their department; usually only the technical or management staff from these departments seeks central support. Everyone else gets their network services software individually. UTORdist is meant to make it easier to distribute new and updated software to individuals.
Starting in September 1995 we will only make the following software available via floppies:
* Macintosh MacTCP, MacPPP, Netscape 1.1, stuffit expander, & sound machine (new)
* Windows Novell LWP (TCP/IP & PPP), Netscape 1.1 & naplayer (new)
* MS-DOS PC-Pine & PPP (existing)
* Macintosh Kermit (existing)
* MS-DOS Procomm (existing)
Those obtaining the last three of the above will not be offered any additional software. Those obtaining one of the first two of the above, will be able to contact the UTORdist Web site in order to get additional software.
To authenticate access to the UTORdist Web server, only those coming from a University of Toronto IP address will be permitted in. This will be implemented by only permitting those IP addresses registered with the domain name server, and whose host name is in the domain *.utoronto.ca or *.toronto.edu. In the future, when a University-wide authentication service is available it may be used instead.
The UTORdist Web site will ask the individual to select software for the Macintosh or Windows. It will then offer a menu of packages. For Windows, for the start of fall 1995 we will offer:
* ECSmail 2.4 (existing)
* Netscape 1.1 & naplayer, FTP, tn3270, telnet,
and Novell LWP (TCP/IP
stack with PPP) (existing)
If we decide to go with Simeon, for this fall it will be offered as another choice in addition to ECSMail. We would like to give the user more control over what they download with more variety of packages. For example, Netscape will certainly be in a separate package by itself, so that those who start with Netscape don't immediately end up downloading a second one. These particular packages were chosen because they currently exist on floppy and it took no time to upload them to UTORdist. In the future, we will re-examine the choice of packages.
For the Macintosh, all packages are being written specifically for UTORdist. The choices are:
* MacTCP 2.6, MacPPP 2.0.1
* Eudora 1.4.1
* Netscape 1.1, Stuffit Expander 3.5.1, Sound Machine 2.1
* NCSA Telnet 2.6
* Brown tn3270 2.4a4
Next to each package choice menu item there will be the choice of "read documentation" and "get software".
It was decided a member of the Information Common familiar with a particular software package will write the documentation which users will see when they click on the "read documentation" button for that package; this documentation is written using HTML but requires knowing nothing more than that paragraphs are separated by a <P>.
The menu listing the package choices will list the size of the corresponding file which will be downloaded. Text at the bottom of the menu will mention that about 3 times the listed size is required on the hard disk to successfully install a package.
Technically, when "read documentation" is selected for a package a document (or linked documents) will be presented describing what the particular package includes, and the steps to install it.
Technically, when a "get software" is selected for a Windows bundle a ZIP file will be automatically transferred to the individual's hard disk. (ZIP is a common compression file format.) After the file has arrived to the hard disk, the individual will have to set Netscape aside and "RUN" the ZIP file, which will cause it to extract a series of files. One of these files must now be "RUN" to start an install process. For Macintosh bundles the process is similiar, but bundles are sent in Stuffit format. (Stuffit is a common compression file format for the Macintosh.)
We will deploy methods for the network operational center (NOC) to provide notification of outages and changes in network based services. A procedure will have to be put in place to allow University service providers to provide the information to the NOC, and guidelines for appropriate content should be made available.