History of intranet

1997 September 2

Installation of a hyperlinked access-controlled message board facility. Any user can create an interactive message board and control access to posting, reading and pruning.

1997 September 1

Installation of improved naming services integrating DCE user and group information into the Solaris operating system with improved fallback to other DCE security servers.
1997 August 25-28

Summer Web Institutes and Mentoring (SWIM) session on Java development. Participating faculty are given Intranet accounts for developing Java applets. The Intranet is the only Java development platform on campus available to all users.
1997 August 19

Number of Intranet users reaches 400.
1997 August 18-21

Summer Web Institutes and Mentoring (SWIM) sessions on CGI development. Participating faculty are given Intranet accounts for developing CGIs. Due to its CGI security design, the Intranet is the only CGI development platform on campus available to all users.
1997 August 18

The Intranet Users' Guide is completed, providing a comprehensive description of all Intranet services and a reference for users who need information on how to use the services.
1997 August 14

Installation of linklint, an efficient URL cross reference and link checking program. A hypertext interface is developed and deployed to facilitate ease of use by users not familiar with the Unix shell.
1997 August 13

First release of DCE integration software for the Solaris Common Desktop Environment (CDE). Integrated CDE logins are necessary for the planned integration of the Intranet environment into the Computer Science Department Sparc Laboratory in early September.
1997 August 5

The core DCE servers, the community server and the Intranet hub are physically moved from the Intranet Laboratory 98-C5-5 to the IIT Machine Room 98-B1-205. This will provide better cooling, security, uninterrupted power supply and operator availability for backups. It marks the beginning of the end for the Intranet Lab... I'll miss it.
1997 August 3

Installation of analog, a comprehensive HTTP log analyzer. Statistics on Intranet HTTP usage will be compiled and published regularly.
1997 July 31

First release of DCE integration software for Secure Shell (ssh) services. The Secure Shell Protocol allows packet-level encryption between second-tier Intranet servers and third-tier clients, and extends packet privacy to all other protocols through secure tunneling.
1997 July 16

Dr. Craig Rich gives an invited talk, "Employing DCE in the University," to the Southern California DCE Users Group at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim. An online demonstration of Intranet services, including SMB file sharing, is given as part of the presentation.
1997 July 14

Presentation of the Intranet at Sun Microsystems in El Segundo by the Intranet Development Team.
1997 July 9-22

Summer Web Institutes and Mentoring (SWIM) sessions on Web development. Participating faculty are given Intranet accounts and use integrated Apple and SMB file sharing to facilitate direct desktop-to-Web publishing.
1997 June 24

A Sun Ultra I Model 140 is acquired and configured to run Solaris Unix v2.5 and Transarc DCE v1.1 client software. It is named edtech.intranet.csupomona.edu and is installed in the Educational Multimedia Lab 98-C4-26. This represents the first second-tier machine providing Intranet services in a local lab or building. We look forward to seeing many more of its kind.
1997 June 22

First release of File-Lockf, a distributed file locking mechanism which prevents shared file corruption by distinct DFS clients seeking simultaneous access.
1997 June 19

A Sun Ultra 1 Model 140 is acquired and configured to run Solaris Unix v2.5 and Transarc DCE v1.1 server software. It is named bone.intranet.csupomona.edu, becomes a security and CDS replica and houses a number of filesets.
1997 May 2

First release of DCE integration software for POP services based on qpopper developed by Qualcomm (which also makes the POP client Eudora).
1997 April 25

First release of DFS-Perl, a Perl module allowing direct calls to the DFS API for acquiring quota information.
1997 April 25

First release of the aclmod command, which allows command-line modifications to ACLs using syntactic extensions to the well-known chmod command.
1997 April 14

The DEC 3000 named mux.intranet.csupomona.edu is decommissioned, eliminating our use of Digital Unix in the DCE cell.
1997 April 10

Faculty are invited to attend the Internet Lunch Group meeting, obtain an Intranet account to help us Beta test the environment, and to hear a status report on the development status.
1997 April 9

Migration of departmental webs in the College of Science--Biological Sciences, Computer Science, Geology, Mathematics and Physics--from the College of Science Sparc Laboratory (taken offline for security reasons) to DFS.
1997 April 3

Beta testing of the Intranet environment officially begins. Intranet accounts are given to two classes, GED 511 and CS 380, as well as a number of faculty and staff. Approximately 140 accounts exist.
1997 March 21

First release of DCE integration software for FTP services based on wu-ftpd developed at Washington University in St. Louis.
1997 March 21

First public release of DCE integration software for Apple file services based on netatalk developed at the University of Michigan. Apple file services are switched to netatalk and the Columbia AppleTalk Protocol (CAP), which had been in use since August 1996, is decommissioned.
1997 March 19

A Sun Ultra 1 Model 140 is acquired and is configured to run Solaris Unix v2.5 and Transarc DCE v1.1 client software. It becomes the Intranet server for the intranet subnet and the entire community. It performs so well that a decision is made to stop using Digital Unix and Digital DCE (which was relatively buggy anyway). Two of the old DEC 3000s are decommissioned.
1997 March 13

First public release of DCE integration software for the Solaris naming service switch, nss_dce v0.5. This software allows Solaris-based applications and servers to acquire user and group name information transparently through its native mechanism.
1997 March 11

First public release of DCE integration software for the HTTP server, mod_auth_dce v0.9.
1997 March 5

Presentation of the Intranet at the CSU Chancellor's Office of Corporate Information Systems by the Intranet Development Team and representatives from Transarc Corporation.
1997 March 4, 5

Craig Rich and Paul Henson attend Decorum '97, the annual conference on the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) and Distributed File System (DFS) sponsored by Transarc Corporation and the Open Software Foundation (OSF). An agreement was reached with the DFS manager at Transarc to supply us with the API needed to make direct calls to operations on DFS.
1997 February 28

Reconfigured the Kiosk server--a Sun Sparc 20--to run Solaris Unix v2.5 and Transarc DCE 1.1 server software and renamed it diamond.intranet.csupomona.edu; it becomes a replica Security and CDS server, and contains part of the DFS filesets.
1997 February 19

A team from Instructional Technology and Academic Computing (ITAC) responsible for redesigning the open computing laboratories on CLA building fifth floor (98-C5-*) specifies an Intranet second-tier machine as the primary server. The lab will be rebuilt during Summer 1997.
1997 February 7

A group of seven from Cal Poly Pomona--Ed Hohmann, Alan Felzer, Elhami Ibrahim, Craig Rich, Irene Callaci, Paul Henson and John Ringloff--visit the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) to present our DCE developments and to study their DCE cell and gather information about employing DFS in a production environment.
1997 January 31

Reconfigured the DEC 3000 named brick.intranet.csupomona.edu to run Digital Unix v4.0 and Digital DCE v2.0 client software, moving it from the Alpha cell to the Beta cell; it becomes the Intranet server for the intranet subnet and the entire community. This marks the demise of the Alpha DCE cell named dce.csupomona.edu.
1997 January 27

The Academic Senate passes a resolution endorsing the Cal Poly Pomona Intranet as the primary centrally-provided computing services for Cal Poly Pomona students, faculty and staff.
1997 January 23

Presentation of the Intranet to the President's cabinet. The cabinet requested budget proposals for completing implementation of the Beta platform and for constructing a production platform.
1997 January 7

Presentation of the Intranet to President Suzuki and Tom West, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Information Resources and Technology (IRT) in the California State University.
1997 January 2

Reconfigured the Music building Pathworks server--a DEC 3000--to run Digital Unix v4.0 and Digital DCE 2.0 client software, joining the Beta cell; it becomes the Intranet server for the mux subnet.
1996 December 13

A group of four from Cal Poly Pomona--Lev Gonick, Alan Felzer, Craig Rich and Irene Callaci--visit Stanford University to study their DCE cell and gather information about security threats and scaling up to production use.
1996 November 15

Completed implementation of the DFS browser, allowing users to manage Access Control Lists (ACLs) through a Web-based graphical interface.
1996 October 29

Publication of the Implementation Plan, Software Components, and Budget. These documents outline a plan for expanding the prototype platform to accommodate beta testing by at least 200 users during Winter and Spring 1997.
1996 October 22,29,

November 5,12,19,26 -- Intranet Technical Sessions. Computing specialists from CRC, ITAC, Student Affairs and Engineering meet to discuss the technical Intranet design and air out potential concerns about its use on a large scale.
1996 October 21

Conversion of Intranet CGIs to make direct calls to the DCE Registry from Perl scripts. Earlier prototypes invoked a command interpreter to make the requests and parsed the command output to determine result status. The use of the DCE-Perl API makes Intranet CGI requests more efficient.
1996 October 17

Completion of the mail configuration. Users' mail will be kept in their personal directory in DFS, and POP and SMTP servers will be installed on every building server, which will be accessed using the IP name mail.csupomona.edu. This design distributes the mail transfer and delivery work across the building servers.
1996 October 10

- Presentation of the Intranet at the biweekly Internet Lunch Group. The meeting was attended by a few dozen faculty, and witnessed a critical discussion of the computing infrastructure.
1996 September 26

Presentation of the Intranet at the monthly Techgroup Meeting. The Techgroup consists of about thirty staff computing specialists throughout the university.
1996 September 25

- Reconfigured two DEC 3000s named wood.intranet.csupomona.edu and straw.intranet.csupomona.edu to run Digital Unix v4.0 and Digital DCE 2.0 client software, moving them from the Alpha cell to the Beta cell; wood becomes the SMTP server and handles incoming Intranet mail and straw becomes the Intranet server for the intranet subnet.
1996 September 23

Installation and configuration of steel.intranet.csupomona.edu on a Sun Sparc 20, our first machine running Solaris Unix v2.5. Transarc DCE v1.1 was installed with DCE and DFS core servers, establishing the Beta DCE cell named intranet.csupomona.edu.
1996 September 17

Presentation of the Intranet at the second annual Technology in Learning and Teaching (TILT) Conference.
1996 August 13

Demonstration of prototype Intranet Services to Dr. Ed Hohmann, Dr. Don Bell, Dr. Lev Gonick and Hamid Etesamnia. A decision was made to migrate DFS to Sun Sparcs running Solaris Unix v2.5 and Transarc DCE v1.1, which supports fluid physical file migration, distributed file backup, and flexible access control lists, features not currently supported by Digital DFS.
1996 August 7

Prototype versions of CGIs providing Web access and control of DCE security services. These provide a Web interface for managing user accounts and groups.
1996 August 1

Integration of DCE authentication into the Columbia Appletalk Protocol (CAP). This allows directories in the Distributed File System (DFS) to be mounted on any Macintosh using an Intranet account, including user, group, and executable application directories.
1996 July 25

Installation of SQLnet client on Digital Unix enables remote SQL queries to the university's Oracle database. Examples include the On-Line Schedule of Classes.
1996 July 22

Completed integration of DCE authentication into Apache HTTP server. This allows Web access to all files and execution of all Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts to be restricted to selected Intranet users or groups.
1996 June 14

Installed the operating system--Digital Unix v3.2--on three DEC 3000 workstations. Installed the DCE Security Service, Directory Service, and Distributed File System--Digital DCE v1.3--on brick.intranet.csupomona.edu, establishing the Alpha DCE cell named dce.csupomona.edu.
1996 May 10

Paul Henson, who received his B.S. in Computer Science from Cal Poly Pomona in 1995, joins the Computing Resource Center to work full-time on the Intranet as Unix systems administrator and CGI developer.
1996 April 12

The Intranet Lab is established in the CLA building, room 98-C5-5. The lab contains 3 DEC Alpha workstations running Digital Unix, a Sun SPARC IPC workstation, and office space for the Unix systems administrator.
1996 April 10

The Computing Resource Advisory Committee presents its Recommendations to the Academic Senate, endorsing the Intranet Requirements Analysis and Recommendations.
1996 April 4

Dr. Ed Hohmann and Dr. Donald Bell of Academic Affairs approve the Intranet based on the Requirements Analysis and Recommendations and the Implementation Plan. Academic Affairs names Dr. Craig A. Rich, Professor of Computer Science, as Director, and agrees to hire a full-time Unix system administrator.
1996 March 18 -- Requirements Analysis and Recommendations presented to President Suzuki and the Cabinet.
1996 March 8

Dr. Craig A. Rich presents preliminary Requirements Analysis and Recommendations to the Internet Lunch Group. This meeting witnessed a candid and productive discussion of computing infrastructure services among faculty and administrators present, and concluded with an informal consensus to build a prototype of the software infrastructure needed to implement the recommendations.
1995 November 15

Computing Resource Advisory Committee of the Academic Senate is formed. Its mission is to collect faculty input on the computing environment, act as a liaison to the Computing Resource Center, and report to the Senate its recommendations and assessment of the computing environment.