Linux@WURFAQ

Frequently Asked Questions regarding the use of Linux and Unix at WUR

This page is not aimed at generic Linux questions, but at facilities and shortcomings of services at WUR regarding Unix users.

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Q: Does WUR provide E-mail forwarding?

Yes, but it is not easy to get the facility. Somebody invented that WUR would better function if no employee was allowed to have email forwarding. So using the often-down-exchange servers is compulsory. But the forwarding can be set by local ICT people, and they tend to facilitate their people as best as possible, so that is how you can get a forwarder.

Q: Does WUR provide POP or IMAP?

Yes, but only over SSL encryption, and only from within the university (unless your are on the public VLAN or use a VPN - see the section at LinuxWurSettings). IMAPS kan be used from imap.wur.nl

Q: Are there workarounds for Outlook?

Any email client dat speaks IMAPS will work. For example 'sylpheed' does support IMAPS, and it supports LDAP addressbooks, so you can use ldap.wau.nl for your addresses. You can also read addresses from the active directory, using any of the new DNS servers as LDAP server. See LinuxWurSettings.

Yes, but so far I have only found a script which can fetch E-mails from the web pages. It is not perfect though, because it puts the E-mail in a MIME attachment and mangles the subject / from headers.

Two more possibilities:

• Outlook Web Access: http://webmail.wur.nl
• If you want the same look and feel as Outlook, try installing Evolution from Novell (see http://www.novell.com/products/evolution/). You can connect this client to the MS Exchange Server from WUR, and have access to the emails, calendar, contacts, ... (Check if Evolution is included in your favourite linux distribution; this makes installation even easier.)

Q: Ever seen HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error(exception)

That is Microsoft Exchange playing up its web interface. Or the Exchange server itself is having an error. Or it has to be rebooted. etc. etc. happens far too often. Distinctly not cool.

Q: Does WUR provide smtp?

Yes, it appears so, at smtp.wur.nl (smtp authentication + TLS) and net1.wur.nl and net2.wur.nl for regular smtp (this could be closed for some hosts, ask your network administrator)

Q: Does Linux support Banyan Vines printing / disk sharing?

No - there was one attempt in the early nineties to provide drivers, but it fizzled out because no one (in his right mind) still runs Banyan. The latest news is that WUR is tranferring these services to W2K - which will allow for SAMBA access to these services.

Also, as a work around you can print postscript files through the BIC server web interface, see LinuxWurSettings.

Q: Can Linux read from the department server?

It can read from the new servers, install smbclient or smbmount and you should be able to read/write files to the server. See LinuxWurSettings.

Also, as a work around you can access the file server through the BIC server web interface, see LinuxWurSettings.

Q: can I work with Linux while my collegues use Windows?

Yes that is usually no problem. OpenOffice can read and write word/excel files, as can most other office applications for Linux. You can use email via webmail or via a email client. You can also write on the same network drives. And you have much more software to choose from!

Q: Why does Mozilla not work with ...

See Browser issues

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