Tom Wallis' UNIX System Rules

General Account Information

  1. All student accounts assigned are for currently-enrolled WSU students only.
  2. If you graduate or are not taking any classes, your account may be revoked at any time. If you need EMAIL or WWW access, and are in this situation, there are several Internet Service Providers in Wichita that can meet your needs.
  3. The main purpose of your account is for Computer Science classwork. Personal use of your UNIX account is acceptable, if not excessive AND if it does not violate the other system rules below.

Letter grade drop on Assignment Rules.

  1. You (the student) should make every effort to clean up processes running on the system after you are done using them. I will report offenders to the instructor and a possible letter grade drop for the assignment may occur. Processes left behind that are not class related are grounds for immediate account termination.

  2. Fork bombs are not allowed, and if I see a pattern of fork bombs on your part, I will report my findings to the instructor and a letter grade drop for the assignment may occur.

  3. Repeated Occurrences of the above rules may result in a more severe penalty.
I will keep in mind that errors are expected, but repeated problems will be reported.

Actions or conditions that will make you lose your Account.

These violations will cause you to lose your account on the UNIX system.

  1. Running IRC in any shape or form. (This includes bots.).
  2. Leaving behind processes that are not class related. See the above rules for class related processes left behind.
  3. Having anyone except yourself in your .rhosts file (including "open" .rhosts files).
  4. Using a SLIP/PPP Emulator. (This includes programs such as TIA, Twinsock and others.)
  5. Harassing or annoying someone with unwanted electronic messages of any form.
  6. Playing loud, rude or unwanted sounds on the anyone's Xterminal or LINUX machine. Remember that the labs are a shared environment where people are trying to work.
  7. Excessive game playing on the Xterminals or LINUX machines, especially when others want to use the terminals. Also, game playing via modem is banned.
  8. Electronic chain letters are not allowed, and may be illegal under Federal law. Anyone sending these chain letters will have their account deleted.
  9. Unsolicited Bulk Emailing, AKA Spam. This type of email activity is not allowed and if it occurs, you will lose your account.
  10. Downloading or installing illegal or pirated software on your account.
Note that any student is free to choose an Internet Service Provider and dial into WSU using the provider. This is NOT against the CS Dept UNIX rules.

Severe Penalty Rules.

The following activities are violations of academic honesty and can be punished by:
  1. A grade of F in the class.
  2. Dismissal from the class.
  3. Dismissal from the major.
  4. other punishments.

These violations include but are not limited to:
  1. Giving your password to anyone else without your instructor's prior approval.
  2. Using someone else's username and password without your instructor's prior approval.
  3. Creating a world writable mode on files or directories without your instructor's prior approval.
  4. Attempting to get the password of any other user (on-campus or not).
  5. Posting inappropriate material to the Internet using your WSU account.
  6. Sending WSU files (like /etc/passwd) to someone else without the permission of your instructor or myself.
  7. Saving files or information in a place besides your own home directory or a subdirectory thereof.
  8. Applying weak permissions to your files to allow other system users to access your files (especially homeworks, assignments, projects, etc.). Remember, it is your responsibility to secure your coursework so others cannot gain access to it.
  9. Any system-cracking activity.
Any other attempt to breach WSU computer system security will be dealt with as above.

Good information about many of these topics can be found in the UNIX Short Guide by Thomas Wallis available in the WSU Bookstore.

Page maintained by wallis@cs.wichita.edu

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