CEN Update News for the Connecticut Education Network Community

March 2004 Titanic to be visited CEN Deployment Volume 1, Issue 1 live through CEN Phase IV Kicks Off

In June, world-renowned On January, 19, 2004 the State of researcher Dr. Robert Connecticut Department of Information Ballard will return to the Technology was approved for year 6 Inside this Issue Titanic 19 years after he federal universal service funds (USF), first discovered it. Live kicking off Phase IV of the CEN video from the expedition deployment. This phase will expand the Dr. Robert Ballard brings visit to produced and presented by CEN leased-fiber backbone from 1 Titanic back to land through CEN Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Hartford north through Enfield and west Exploration's Immersion Project will be from Milford to Stamford. Other sites in ERATE approval kicks-off fed in real time over the Connecticut Litchfield County, Tolland County, and 1 Phase IV CEN Deployment Education Network and Internet2 to New London County will also be added. institutions throughout the United States. Partnership with University of The deployment adds services to an Connecticut introduces Advanced additional 200,000+ K12 students at 102 2 Services Support on CEN A Powerful Example of CEN The CEN is a critical component in the sites and also will connect 10 new higher Immersion Project's effort to bring education campuses. That will increase Network Security Vulnerabilities 2 expeditions to the public in real time. the total students served from the present Through a satellite uplink on a ship 42+% to over 80% of Connecticut’s floating over the wreck, live video can be public school students. Filtering, Caching Update 3 sent to the shore, then across the CEN to This year’s application will yield a over the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for 50% reimbursement across all the entities Preparing for a CEN Connection Exploration where the video is involved in the application. That almost 3 reprocessed and sent back to the public doubles the buying power of the State’s Internet for access around the world. CEN Part of International Next investment and allows the CEN to

3 Generation Research Network continue the extension of optically based School sites that are directly attached to connections to each school district. the CEN or Internet2 can receive the Higher Education ISP Program broadcast-quality live high-definition 4 expands The anticipated network growth that feeds directly from the underwater begins with these funds keeps the CEN Remote Operated Vehicles (ROV's). This deployment on track for completion in 4 Library Deployment Update capability, which is not available on the 2005. Assuming continued legislative public Internet takes advantage of the funding support, we anticipate CEN's IP multicast infrastructure to make completion of not only these K12 and Connecticut Education Network high fidelity and wide bandwidth feeds higher education sites, but also all Dept. of Information Technology available throughout the CEN Network. eligible principal public libraries during 101 East River Drive the 2004 and 2005 calendar years. East Hartford, CT 06108 For more information on the Titanic 860-622-2991 expedition and how to access its online On February 3rd, CEN filed a year 7 resources, please visit http://www.ife.org application for the funding year that .

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Expansion (cont’d from page 1) network. The intention is to have this University of team spend approximately 50% of its begins July 1st, 2004. This application Connecticut adds time assisting in network support, while includes activation and installation of 50% of its time will be dedicated to additional connections to every Advanced Services outreach to CEN participants to help remaining school district and library in them envision and implement new Connecticut. The CEN team has already Support to CEN services on the CEN. Specifically, the received initial application review agreement allows UConn to provide the queries from the USF administrators and In July, 2003, the Department of following CEN services: we remain hopeful this application will Information Technology and the be approved as early as June, 2004. University of Connecticut signed a o Provide high-level engineering and Memorandum of Understanding to create design talent to continue the CEN Estimated timelines will soon be a joint Connecticut Education Network roll-out, introduce new advanced available on the CEN web site at Advanced Services Center, or CEN-ASC. services to CEN participants, and www.ct.gov/cen provide high-level consulting on The CEN-ASC will hire a small team of demand to K12, library and higher technical individuals to support emerging education institutions connected to technologies, higher education services, CEN. and continued deployment of the CEN o Sponsor access to the National Internet2 Abilene backbone to bring Network Security Requires Constant Vigilance world-class international access to Don’t take it personally! high speed networking to all CEN

Today’s hacker community has become adept at exploiting known system and connected K12 and library locations, software vulnerabilities. They indiscriminately scan the Internet for vulnerable and optionally to all Connecticut hosts to exploit. institutions of higher education.

The Sans Institute and the FBI compiled a list of the most commonly exploited o Provides access to Internet2 related system vulnerabilities. This is intended to be a guide to addressing the most consortium purchasing programs for critical and potentially damaging problems for those organizations lacking the Internet services for higher education resources of a technically advanced security administration team. sites and provide primary access to the CEN itself for K12 and Library Top Vulnerabilities to Windows Systems sites • W1 Internet Information Services (IIS) • W2 Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) -- Remote Data Services o Promote the State’s participation in • W3 Microsoft SQL Server regional and national next generation • W4 NETBIOS -- Unprotected Windows Networking Shares networking efforts, including joint • W5 Anonymous Logon -- Null Sessions formation of the North East • W6 LAN Manager Authentication -- Weak LM Hashing Research and Education Network • W7 General Windows Authentication -- Accounts with No Passwords or Weak Passwords (NEREN) organization with New • W8 Internet Explorer York, Rhode Island and • W9 Remote Registry Access Massachusetts. • W10 Windows Scripting Host Robert Vietzke, a UConn employee who Concentrating your efforts on protecting your networks and systems against has previously led the CEN network these top vulnerabilities will give you a good start to keeping your network architecture and deployment at DOIT has available when you need it most. increased his CEN responsibilities to full time and serves as this group’s Director. SANS recommendations for protecting your network assets can be found at: http://www.sans.org/top20/oct02.php#index . For assistance from the CEN- In November, 2003 Robin Brown joined ASC team on security issues, please call Robin Brown at 860-622-2991. the team as a Senior Network Security Analyst. Doug Gregory also moved in to

2 ...... NEWSLETTER Advanced Services (Cont’d from Page 2) a permanent Network Technician position. One outstanding position search Preparing for your CEN Part of Next for a CCIE level network engineer is still CEN Connection being reviewed. Generation Internet2 Many factors affect the timing of a CEN Through the sponsorship of When fully underway, this team can installation once a site has been Connecticut’s two Carnegie designated provide a level of support, consulting and scheduled for a deployment wave. Items research institutions, Yale University insight that many CEN participants ranging from the quality and age of the and the University of Connecticut, the cannot afford individually on their own. telephone poles surrounding a site, Connecticut Education Network now CEN users are encouraged to think through environmental issues inside a connects to the Internet2 Abilene Network. Internet2 is a collaborative creatively about how they will use this building can impact installation and incur new resource. The CEN-ASC team can effort by over 210 U.S. universities to unanticipated costs. develop advanced Internet technology be engaged for “free consulting”, for and applications vital to the research security training, for network design or Sites anticipating a connection can and education missions of higher for technical support of advanced prepare by reviewing the following: education and K12. The CEN’s physical applications. Please call the CEN team with questions. connection to Internet2 is provided through the University of Connecticut The CEN Advanced Services team can o For CEN optical connections, verify CEN-ASC partnership. be reached at the Department of that a path exists from the telephone Information Technology at 860-622- poles or underground telephone The decision by the Internet2 2991. conduits near your building to your community to extend access to Abilene and to engage innovators from all server facility. In many cases sites sectors of education in the development N2H2 Filtering News do not have spare underground and deployment of advanced network conduits in to a building, but an services and applications, evolved The CEN N2H2 Sentient filtering system aerial path can be identified. In other through conversations among various and cache engines have recently been cases, site electricians are able to Internet2-related councils and groups upgraded to accommodate the significant prepare a path in advance of the and discussions among Internet2 growth CEN has seen in K12 and Library CEN installation on a schedule that members.

connections over the last 12 months. Two is more convenient to school Examples of resources now available on schedules. redundant cache engines are now inline CEN and Internet2 include the high to handle over 310 Mbps of filtered web- fidelity Health Sciences Career Series, Install a dedicated power outlet, on traffic throughput. Additionally, a backup o the Lewis and Clark Expedition tools, a N2H2 server is being configured to emergency power if available, at the world tour language exchange program, assure continued high availability of the site where the CEN connection will American Sign Language video-based filtering system be located. CEN recommends a learning objects. These and many other dedicated 1200 watt UPS and a feed learning tools can be found at The CEN team is also working to expand from an emergency generator to http://k20.internet2.edu .

redundancy in the caching and filtering assure network availability. Connecticut’s CEN network is one of complex as the network grows. In only a small handful of state networks summer, 2004, the filtering system will o Clear rack space or wall-board space to terminate the fiber cable and truly capable of delivering Internet2 be divided into several sub-groups, to capabilities to every school district and mount the CEN equipment. For allow greater fault protection for this campus in the State. Whereas almost critically important piece of many K12 optical installations, the CEN every state except Connecticut has connections. requires 10 rack-units or 17.5 inches network bottlenecks between their of empty space in an equipment Internet2 connections and each school N2H2 has recently released software that rack. In some instances, the CEN’s district, CEN’s optical architecture includes a reporting feature that would vendor is also required by regulatory actually extends research-university grade networking all the way to each allow CEN to email regular reports to policy to locate equipment on wall- school district. filtering administrators. The CEN team is board where the traditional telephone

presently testing this reporting feature demarcation point is, even if this and will announce its availability once a location is not near the district’s For more information on Internet2, call production upgrade is scheduled. network equipment. the CEN ASC team at 860-622-2991...... 3 January 2004 . Preparing for a Connection (cont’d) ISP Program for . o Understand your inside and outside Higher Ed expands Library network routing topology. If you Deployment have a firewall, the CEN conversion Over the past six months, a growing should be fairly straight forward. If number of institutions and programs Schedule for ‘04 your site does not have a firewall, or beyond K12 have begun to use CEN as if the router that services your their primary or backup Internet service CEN currently provides remote sites is also the router that connection. Three of the four public connectivity to a small number of connects you to the Internet, call the colleges, three private colleges, an libraries originally connected to the Connecticut Library Network CEN team as early as possible to Aquarium and a digital library all use begin discussions on how CEN will through a partnership of the CEN to attach to the commercial Internet, connect to existing infrastructure. Connecticut State Library and the or the non-commercial Internet2. Connecticut State University. st Create an updated list of Internet CEN’s 1 priority for library o Through bulk-purchasing agreements domain name (DNS) entries used for connections, using funds from the with higher education institutions across Year 6 Erate application, is to servers at your site. The list should the country, CEN is able to offer access include IP addresses, DNS names. It upgrade connections to those to commercial providers through this sites. is also important to know where the program at between 50% and 80% less actual records are hosted and who than individual institutions might pay on The CEN team is also working with has designated authority with the their own. the State Library and the Library DNS registrar to re-point those Service Centers to develop a records. CEN has added staff, through the CEN- model for connecting to the ASC partnership with UConn to support remaining libraries in the State. CEN Budget Update the additional needs of the program and CEN has applied for USF support the requisite 7x24 support of the ISP to connect each Library Service The Governor’s proposed budget peering services. Center and the principal public includes a $5,000,000 appropriation for library in each town to the CEN. the CEN in fiscal year 2005. In a At present, Internet service from Qwest continuum of budgets, this is the Communications and Internet2 are Libraries interested in determining anticipated level of funding required to available. CEN anticipates making a scheduling for their location should complete the CEN deployment in 2005. visit the CEN website’s “Network second commodity Internet provider Deployment” section at While this is good news, it remains available during July, 2004 in http://www.ct.gov/cen . troubling that the package of anticipation of the fall 2004 academic administrative bonding for fiscal year year. 2004 where CEN’s funding was planned never was passed by the legislature. Along with CEN, certain projects at higher education institutions also remain unfunded. The CEN is encouraged by indications that the State intends to remedy these deficiencies, but remains watchful that additional action is still required for this $5,000,000 funding gap CEN 7x24 SUPPORT MAIN NUMBER in FY’04 before moving into FY’05. DOIT HELPDESK 860-622-2300 CEN will continue to require annual appropriations to support both the Connecticut Education Network Support Staff ongoing network construction, and also Robin Brown, Senior Security Analyst 860-622-2139 operating costs for Internet access, Sheri Devaux, CEN Filtering and DNS Administrator 860-622-2455 equipment maintenance and staffing. Doug Gregory, Network Technician 860-622-2998 Your support is appreciated in conveying the Christine Northrup, CEN Filtering and DNS Administrator 860-622-2512 program’s importance and its relationship to Julie Scribner, Enterprise Network Support 860-622-2573 local budget savings to the legislature. Peter Polanski, Enterprise Network Support 860-622-2573 Rob Vietzke, Network Architect & Director of CEN ASC 860-622-2238 John Vittner, Co-program Manager 860-622-2241 4 ......