ummmm

http://hellard.su.ic.ac.uk/

mmmm that works then?

anyway, it wasn't hackery that made us choose Dave as a potential target, umm i mean server name. We simply worked back from the present day, deciding that common.su was an affront to the union. newton was taken, and that left hellard as the next in line.

However hacks will note that the server has not changed names. In an attempt to appease the techno-gods that write this webpage in their quest for an "SSL Certificate" (whatever that is) the webserver now has a split personality, existing both as allsop.su.ic.ac.uk and hellard.su.ic.ac.uk. That's irrelevant to most people, but i just thought i'd point out that we haven't got rid of allsop, we have merely shifted him sideways.

I'm curious what kind of sad hack reads this page on boxing day (or any time during the holidays) so if you feel like stepping out of the closet then post your name and comment below.

If you'd worked the other way, you could have got heeps.su.ic.ac.uk ;-)

Eric Allsop was a Mechanical Engineering student.

*returns to sarcophagus*

Don't bash Dave, he was great. Some fun in the union for a change!!

I know that it's only three volunteers who are trying to fix the server, and I'm sure they, like all of us, have other things to do, but is there any chance it will come back up any time soon? It was just about 3 weeks ago now that it went down. Even if some parts are not working, it would be nice if some basic functionality could be brought back on line. There are many societies that need to get access to their web pages so they can start to prepare things for next term, and that's not very far away now.

I agree. No other serious union in the UK allows 'keen amateurs' to run their web sites, which are both shop windows and key sources of information. As good as our web editors are, we need to move to a more professional IT support system in the Union.

"Professional"? What like, the oh-so-great people who developed the LEQ system?

The sort of IT morons who ICU could actually afford to employ would be infinitely inferior to "amateur" volunteers from DoC (and occasionally from EEE).

Listen, Sam (and the others) has been working hard on getting the server up and running. The problem has not been the efforts of him (or the other web editors). The problem is the amount of bureaucracy that CCS/ICT are making them go through. (The usual requirements have been made more rigorous because of the fact that the server has been hacked.) It was a week or so, before Sam was even allowed to touch the server as ICT were investigating the security breach!!!

So, the bottom line is that the server IS working. You can access it in College using the hellard url, but ICT are not redirecting www.su, and it is still firewalled off from the rest of the world.

Given the holidays, its diffcult for the web editors to actually sort out ICT on this.

I believe the web editors felt it wouldn't be a problem for the server to be down over the festive period - as it was assumed most people wouldn't be sad enough to do anything.

If it is a *real* problem, all the backups are on www.cgcu.net. We could (temporarily) host the ICU pages on it. Incidentally, www.cgcu.net is a case in point. I got a temporary server up and running in one evening. This isn't because I am somehow "better" than the ICU Web editors. Simply, because I didn't have the ICT bureaucracy holding me up. Incidentally, I would have been prepared to wait for the ICU web server to be up, had it not been the fact that a mail shot had just gone out to 6000 companies asking them to look at the Internship Centre web site!!!

Further to the above...

(1) the hellard URL works on the IC network provided you are not using the ICT proxy server (which is outside the firewall, for some reason...) The DoC proxy server is fine.

(2) the ICU web server has been running ALL holiday - just firewalled off by ICT.

mmmm

that explains why i thought the web service was down from home, i wonder why ICT are blocking it....

ho hum, more coursework, then i'll have another look.

To quote Mustafa Arif -

"I believe the web editors felt it wouldn't be a problem for the server to be down over the festive period - as it was assumed most people wouldn't be sad enough to do anything."

Unfortunately the holidays also tend to be a period when people have spare time in which to overhaul society sites. And it may be a bit harsh calling us sad for caring about societies we're members of.

It's good to know that there are backups of the sites (something which hadn't really been made clear).

Also there are other society's whose sites are important. It's fortunate that cgcu.net were using an an address that they could point to somewhere else. But other's were not so lucky.

*Any* update on when full access will be regained would be really useful.

Oh - and I do appreciate the work the volunteer web-editors are doing, thanks guys.

I think Mustafa's comments are fair. We don't have a long holiday, and while some people might want to update stuff on C&S pages, who is going to read it?

Finally I thank the ICU web people for what they do - it is not their fault that certain people at IC won't allow general access to the ICU server. I am sure that it will be up and running in resonable time - just be patient!!

>*Any* update on when full access will be regained would be really useful.

From inside college you can access it now as hellard.su.ic.ac.uk

From outside college you will be able to access it in a few days when they've processed my Form (C1) to allow it past the firewall.

The www.su and associated URL's will be reappearing as soon as the Domain Transfer happens, I haven't got a reply from the relevant ICT bod yet, so I don't know when this will be... But I hope it is soon.

Sam

oooo the website has returned

and I never realised that the RSMU website had been updated. <shock>

With all the fuss over naming the machine "newton", surely we could follow the time-honoured Guildsheet tradition and just call it "mutant"!

Plus Dave Hellard was a nice guy, as many 4th years can testify.