noticeboard.ru.ac.za

2010/10/19 - Guest Access To Restricted Resources
Certain software and services at the University are restricted to Rhodes staff, and are not usually made available to students, guests, retirees and visitors.

Unfortunately, due to a mistake in our configurations, these restrictions have not been correctly enforced for some time. As a result, certain guest users of our network will have been able to access resources they're not actually eligible to use. Perhaps the most noticeable of these are our VPN service and the software available from software.ru.ac.za.

The configuration error has now been rectified, and these restrictions are now being correctly enforced. As a result, some people may loose access to resources they've become accustomed to using. Whilst this is regrettable, the status quo is now correct.

This change will affect all guest users of the University's network, including staff at the Albany Museum, National English Literary Museum (NELM), Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE), the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) and any person who's completed a guest access application form. The restrictions were previously applied inconsistently, with some members of the aforementioned organisations able to access resources others were not able to.
It appears that some of the affected people were making use of the VPN service to access the Library's resources. It is therefore worth highlighting that a substantial proportion of these resources can be accessed without making use of a VPN -- the Library has its own facilities for off-campus access that depend solely on whether one is a registered borrower at the Library. More information on this can be obtained from the Library's web site.
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