Reading the Course Newsgroup

As I said in class, you should make it a point of reading and contributing to the course newsgroup regularly. Questions or comments about what we have talked about in class, questions or comments you may have about any assignments or labs, comments about things you may have come across outside class that are related to prog. lang. topics, etc. are all appropriate. (Obviously, you should not post anything that could be construed as academic misconduct or otherwise inappropriate. If you are not sure, please check with me.)

A message from someone in the class:
In setting up Mozilla Thunderbird on the Mac, I had to make a security exception for the CSE certificate since it is self signed.

To do this, go under Settings, then Advanced, then Certificates and click on "View Certificates." Then, click on "Add Exception ..." and point the URL to https://news.cse.ohio-state.edu:563. Accept the certificate, ignoring the warnings, and you should be good to go as far as connecting to the news server.

Here are three approaches to setting up the newsgroup settings from home.

1. Set the correct settings:
   Server: news.cse.ohio-state.edu
   Port: 563
   Encryption: SSL

2. A surefire and secure way:
   Download SSH from the OSU site licensed software page (or you can use PUTTY which is open source):
       http://osusls.osu.edu/upgrades/stg2wnx.html#anchorshel
   Download Xwin32 from the same page:
       http://osusls.osu.edu/upgrades/stg2wnx.html#anchorxwin
   Open SSH (or PUTTY) and configure it to connect to
       stdsun.cse.ohio-state.edu
   should be set automatically to port 22
   

   Ensure that X-Forwarding is enabled (it is an option you may have to look for under settings or configuration)
        connect to stdsun.cse....
   

   Once you have a command line working, open Xwin32 (won't display much on the screen after the splashscreen), then open a newsgroup manager (e.g. Thunderbird) in the command prompt (e.g. type "thunderbird") it may be slow at first, but a window will open on your desktop with (thunderbird) in it, and you can configure your news account from there. If a window does not pop up separately, you may need to set Xwin32 to multiple window mode.

3. If you still manage to get lost or confused, send an e-mail to help@cse.ohio-state.edu and they can aid you along the way.

Another note (from a different student) about reading newsgroups from home:
When setting up the newsgroups from home, SSL must be enabled and using port 563 (the default port). When prompted for a username/password, a user should enter their UNIX username/password. So really the only difference between accessing the newsgroups from STDSUN and from home is checking the SSL option and making sure that changes the port to 563.

If you use any of these directions or find some other approach that works, please email me. / Neelam.