Minutes of the South East Regional JANET User Group

Present:

Apologies for absence:

1. IP version 6

   A presentation by Rob Evans (ULCC) .

   IP version 6 specification was agreed back in 1994. Stricter allocation of IP version 4 addresses has slowed adoption of the new protocol. The largest interest currently is from 3G mobile vendors. Features include mandatory support for IPsec to allow authentication and encryption of packets plus addressing auto configuration without the need for a DHCP server.

   Unlike 32 bit IP4 addresses, IP6 uses 128 bit addresses. Written as hexadecimal groups of 16 bits they look like; 2001:630:0:5:a00:20ff:fe77:e773 . Leading 0's can be omitted. The first two groups (2001:630) represent the address range allocated to JANET. Each site regardless of size receives a /48 CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing notation) address range with a typical subnet being a /64 address range. e.g. 2001:630:0:5: . The lower 64 bits can be based on the devices MAC address, manual configuration or random number generation ("Privacy address").

   Support for IPv6 is available currently on Solaris8 upwards, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Windows XP. Most network vendors support it (12.2T IOS for most Ciscos. JunOS 5.1 for Junipers). Things that are still to come are OSPF and inter-domain multicast.

   The current topology of the inter-network consists of islands IPv6 connected through IPv4 tunnels. Large projects include Euro6IX for ISPs and 6BONE for European research and education networks. Asia and Europe lead the US in the deployment of IPv6.

   JANET has been connected to 6BONE since 1997. The official JANET pilot service was launched at the last Networkshop in Nottingham. JANET is heavily involved with the 6NET project which is still mostly experimental. Feel free to join the pilot service if you are interested. More details are available at;

   http://www.ipv6.ja.net/

   The slides for this presentation are available at;

   http://www.ipv6.ja.net/0210-serjug/

   Note that EXIM and Sendmail work over IPv6. Security is an issue as tunnels bypass Firewalls. Native Firewall support is still in its early stages. Note also that the LENSE pilot is progressing well.

2. Minutes from the last meeting.

   The minutes for the 15th May 2002 meeting were accepted as correct.

   Please note that if you have corrections to the minutes then you can mail the Secretary before the next meeting to make the changes; m.chemij@bton.ac.uk

3. Matters arising.

4. National User Group Report.

   Report.

   There are presently over 4000 lists on JISCmail.

   There is a request for UKERNA Newsletter articles from the FE sector.

   The preferred model for network charging was based on institutional size. It may now be based on institutional income.

   The UKERNA SLA for 2002/3 was signed on 31st July.

   The nation caching service terminates on 31st December 2002. A replacement service is being discussed.

   DNS maintenance and the need to reverse resolve correctly the services at institutions was mentioned.

   The South West and Wales regional group split is being trialed

   Security Policy was updated to state that each user should be authenticated before using the JANET network.

   Concern was expressed about poor attendance at some regional user groups.

   It was felt that the JISC paper on Wireless Networks did not adequately address security issues.

   Feedback.

   It was felt that the minutes were a bit slow in being made available.

   The group would like to send their appreciation for the way the switch over to new network providers was done at such short notice.

   It was felt that the TechLearn/Techwatch work could do with being publicised more. http://www.techlearn.ac.uk/

5. UKERNA Report.

   Reports for April-June and July-September 2002

   Most colleges are now connected to JANET.

   The JANET core is now at 10Gbps.

   SWERN and Cambridge Networks have been affected by outages.

   The GEANT to Telecity link is now running at 2.5Gbps.

   Sprint, Level3 and Wandton provide the links to the Global Internet.

   CERNet link has been upgraded to 2Mbps.

   21 Netsight systems are now in place with just one still remaining to be installed.

   The Manchester NTP system clock source has been replaced.

   The JANET Mailer Shield service was released in April (aimed at small sites). It tags SPAM for individual sites to filter.

   The X.400 gateway service closed in July.

   The Usenet News cache service continues with further field trials.

   The Video Technology Advisory Service (VTAS) provides unbiased technical information for JANET connected organisations. The web site is, http://www.video.ja.net/evaluation/

   The Welsh Video Network (WVN) service is to launch on 16th October 2002. It includes a H.323 Gatekeeper gateway per site.

   UKERNA is trialing ADSL to connect off-campus learning centres to JANET. 23 such centres have been connected. This trial will last approximately 6 months.

   The IP Videoconferencing pilot may become a server by the end of 2002.

6. AOB.

   Possible topics for next speaker;

   GRID network.

   Security - technical issues.

   ADSL service.

   Videoconferencing over IP.

7. Date of next meeting.

   Wednesday 29th January 2003 at 14:15. Possibly meeting at the University of London Computer Centre (ULCC) on Guilford Street near Russell Square tube station. http://www.ulcc.ac.uk/about/index.htm
   The following meeting is currently scheduled for Monday 12th May 2003.

MC

22 Jan 2003