NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/comp/mail/misc/2505

Internet Message Format | 1992-07-29 | 3.3 KB

Xref: sparky comp.mail.misc:2505 gnu.misc.discuss:2572 comp.unix.admin:4364
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,gnu.misc.discuss,comp.unix.admin
Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!torn!cunews!nrcnet0!bnrgate!bmers145!bmerh598!larryg
From: [e-mail] (Larry Greenfield)
Subject: Re: Query:  better finger server?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: BNR Ottawa, Fibre Systems Development
References:  <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 15:51:44 GMT
Lines: 59


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Rich
Braun) writes:
|> We have just added an email gateway to our site, which effectively
|> increases the potential number of Internet email users by a factor of
|> twenty or so.
|>
|> The trouble is, of course, most of these users don't have logins on
|> the system advertised as 'kronos.com' on Internet.  If someone out in
|> the World at Large tries to use finger to learn someone's email
|> address here, they're probably out of luck.  The standard finger server
|> provided by the O/S vendor (in this case, IBM) does not provide info
|> unless the user has a login.  And it'd be crazy for us to hand out
|> accounts to all our employees on our Internet gateway system:  the
|> system would be wide-open to password crackers.
|>
|> Ages ago, I used a TOPS-20 program called "watson" for this purpose.
|> What's out there nowadays?  In order for our users to update their own
|> info, they'd have to have some sort of platform-independent interface
|> (probably email) into the database.
|>
|> -rich

Rich,

We had a similar problem not long ago at the University of Western
Ontario. Our solution was to modify the finger daemon slightly so it
would generate a query to an X.500 Directory Service we built, and
return the appropriate information. The project was quite a bit of
work, but the end results were very good. The Directory allowed us to
query users on more than just userids. Soundex matches, addresses,
titles, and other criteria can be easily used. In addition the X.500
Directory service is independent of userids, so you can have
information about users without accounts (if it suits you). One
drawback however, is that the Directory service is *another* data
resource that must be updated in parallel to your existing ones.

The X.500 implementation package we used supplied a number of
interfaces into the Directory, suitable for administrative and general
use. They ranged in complexity from simple command line interfaces to
full blown wimp (Window, Icon, Mouse, Pointer) X-window interfaces.

If you are interested in having a look, try:

  finger [e-mail]

Our inspiration was another Directory service running at umich.edu.
Tim Howes is the resident expert there.

Cheers,

 +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+
 |  Larry Greenfield           |                                    |
 |  Member of Scientific Staff | Phone:  [phone]             |
 |  FiberWorld R&D             | E-mail: Larry.Greenfield@.bnr.ca   |
 |  Bell-Northern Research     |                   larryg@.bnr.ca   |
 |  Ottawa Canada              |                                    |
 +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+