NYU WEB

NYU Intranet:
Opening a New Window on NYU

David Ackerman

For years we've heard that computers are going to make life easier and eliminate paper, when in fact paper has piled up and we all feel like we're working harder than ever. Finally, a number of forces have converged to make these promises seem a bit more likely to be realized.

What are these forces?

The principal force is the World-Wide Web. Inexpensive desktop computers, a ubiquitous network, and multimedia technology have all combined to make the Web both accessible and easy to use. Interest and acceptance have been phenomenal; within a couple of years, millions of people with little previous network experience have gotten involved.

At the same time, people have gained enough sophistication to see that computer programs can and should work together. Moreover, they don't want to have to worry about what kind of computer they have and you have, nor about where the information is stored or where the service is provided. In other words, they want platform independence and full interoperability.

The Web Browser as Front End

Fortunately, the Web provides one answer. Since the protocols behind the Web (and of course, the Internet) were designed to operate across networks and on all platforms, much of the groundwork has been laid.

In many cases, the Web browser has been adopted as a new standard interface, a universal client (that is, a program used from your computer to access information and services on other, usually larger, computers).

At the start, the Web browser was used simply for getting information. The simplest way to get information is through Web pages, where the information is formatted specifically for the Web using HTML (hypertext markup language); at the next level, the Web protocols incorporate FTP and Gopher protocols, so files can be gotten from servers configured for those methods. But there's more; by now, the real power of the browser is becoming evident: it can serve as the front end to an endless array of applications, some old, some new. You can send mail from within a Web browser, and you can fill out forms, and enter data in databases, and search databases -- the list goes on, and will go on even further.

Thus, these forces are producing a type of organization-wide network that more and more is being called an Intranet.

What is an Intranet?

Broadly, it's a network within a business or organization -- specifically, it's one using the Internet protocol named TCP/IP for transmission. Hence Intranet, the internal Internet. This network is the necessary foundation on which an Intranet application can be built: typically electronic transactions that let a Web browser do the work of dealing with the application in the background.

Why NYU Intranet?

Like other sizable organizations, NYU has many existing applications and legacy databases. It also has a wealth of people who have become skilled at using parts of it and need to use others. NYU Intranet -- a Web front end running over NYU-NET -- makes these applications, and dozens of new ones, work together. Now, sitting at your computer, you can use your Web browser to transact business electronically throughout the university. In coming months and years, the number of applications and transactions will multiply.

What are these transactions and applications at NYU? Once upon a time, to start the semester, a student first waited in line at the Registrar to enroll for classes, at the Bursar to pay, at the ID Center, at the ACF, at the Book Center -- and then had to go to Career Services for a job. Soon, NYU-Intranet may open a new window on the University. One day, through a Web browser or its successor, a student should be able to register for classes, apply for financial aid, open an NYU-Internet account, find out what books are required for that semester's classes (and even buy them), and then find a job to pay for it all. Some of these applications are already in place. Instead of waiting in line, the student goes online.

Electronic access to services provides powerful and inexpensive alternatives to traditional means. For example, it will be much easier for ACF to give out 12,000 new Internet accounts using an electronic online form, rather than a face-to-face encounter with our Accounts Office (or, for students, at the computer labs). Moreover, it's far easier for the user to get this account by completing this form online rather than going across campus, waiting in line, and filling out an application on paper.

Faculty and staff will also find NYU-Intranet of service. Purchasing has made some forms available online, and Personnel hosts a series of informative pages. The Book Centers allow professors to order their textbooks and course packets using an online form (see "Pick Your Books and Build Your Course Packs Online through NYU Book Centers"), and other offices are putting their administrative manuals up on the Web. Some other applications, such as automated registration for NYU-Internet accounts, will soon be working. Others, such as Albert (see "Introducing Albert") are at an earlier stage of development. Our Intranet services will grow and change with new technologies and new services.

Enhanced Communications

Intranets are not only for accessing relatively stable information in databases, or for providing services electronically. From the start, the Internet has been used for communication. E-mail already is a powerful communication tool; programs such as Eudora make it easy. Our new Intranet services will allow richer communication: the NYU community will be able to monitor rapidly changing information -- for instance, checking the status of a particular purchase request. And we hope soon to offer the next generation of tools for mailing lists, discussion groups, and the like.

Security

What about security? As you begin to use these Intranet applications, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that the information you provide over the network is safe and secure. With some businesses, this has to do with monetary or credit card information (and this may be true for some NYU functions in the future as well). But other sensitive and private information is just as deserving of protection.

Enter the Web commerce server -- a program that runs on the Web host to serve secure files to you. For example, our Netscape Enterprise Server uses a digital key and 128-bit encryption to scramble information as it travels over the network (for more on encryption, see Tim O'Connor's articles in the Spring 1996 issue of Connect). Someone using a secure service only needs to open a URL beginning with https instead of http. You can tell that the encryption is in force by looking in the lower left corner of your Netscape browser. Normally, you will see a broken key, indicating a non-secure server. When you have successfully transferred information to or from a secure server, the key is "glued" together on your screen, and is displayed as a solid icon. (With Internet Explorer, you see a padlock for a secure page.) The beauty of all this security and encryption is that it all happens behind the scenes; all you see is that little key on your browser.

Academic Computing currently holds several digital certificates, which allow us to operate secure servers. These certificates are issued by a company called Verisign, only after an extremely rigorous process designed to safeguard anyone forging NYU's identity in cyberspace.

Another critical aspect to security is identifying the person requesting a particular service. For example, when you log into your NYU-Internet account, you give your username and password. Your password is compared to one you have previously set, thus verifying, or "authenticating," your identity.

On NYU Intranet, your username will be called a NetID, and your password will be called a pass-phrase (to emphasize that it should not be a single word, which is less secure). Not only will they be used to access an e-mail account, but they also will be used for network authentication. The difference is that your NetID and pass-phrase may be used for all types of services on the network -- not just the ones for which you have set up a specific account.

Coming This Year from ACF

One new Intranet service to become available this academic year will allow new students to activate their NYU-Internet accounts by using an online form. The students will access a Web page and type in their NetID, which will be printed on their new NYU Card. The page will then direct the student to validate their identity, by requesting private information. Again, this will be encrypted as it travels over the network, so users need not fear giving information such as their student ID number. The user will then input a secret pass-phrase and the new NYU-Internet account will be activated. Universal access to the network -- when each member of the NYU community has a NetID -- will allow NYU to provide many other services. Using methods similar to those outlined above, students could request inclusion in a new student e-mail address directory; offices and departments can apply for network services; and students can apply for residence-hall Ethernet connection, and can check and update their student information.

If these plans work out as intended, universal NetIDs and Intranet services just may end up making life easier for the NYU community. [ C ]

David Ackerman is ACF Assistant Director for Distributed Computing and Information Services.
david.ackerman@nyu.edu

Posted 23 September 1996. Page last reviewed 14 March 2007.