FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Compsoc has put together some quickstart guides for some of the most common tasks you will find yourself trying to do.

• How do I login?
• How do I use my storage space?
• How do I change my password?
• How do I unsubscribe from the mailing-lists?
• How do I login from the Information Technology Building?
• How do I transfer files from the Information Technology Building?
• How do I get a MySQL account and how do I access it?
• How do I change my username?
• How do I run CGI or Perl scripts?
• Where is my CGI bin?
• Is there a POP/IMAP server on the server where I can pull my mail down from?
• How do I use Vim?
• How do I use Mutt?
• How do I view HTTP streams in VideoLAN?

Check out our guide to Logging In.

See how to transfer files.

Simply use the passwd command.

All you have to do is login and Manage your Mailing-List Subscriptions. Alternatively you can go directly to the Compsoc Mailman pages and use the interface there.

As IP forwarding is not enabled on the IT gateway, you will need to login to vega.it.nuigalway.ie first, and then onto frink.

The process is the same as How do I login?, except in PuTTY specify the host name as 'vega.it.nuigalway.ie'. Before you click 'Open', first you need to use this SSH connection to create a tunnel to frink by selecting 'Tunnels' from the left hand menu and create a new local tunnel as follows:

Then click 'Add' and the tunnel will be added to the list. Then click 'Open' to create the SSH connection to Vega, with the attached SSH tunnel, through the Vega connection, to frink.

Then simply open another PuTTY window, specify the login host as 'localhost' and the port as '3022'. You should now log directly into frink.

As outlined above, create a tunnel through vega then just use WinSCP/Filezilla to login to the local endpoint of the tunnel as follows:

Simply email 'admin at compsoc dot nuigalway dot ie' with your username and one will be setup for you. All members registered since October 2004 have a MySQL account automatically.

You can access it as follows:

Username changes are not a simple modification. A members mail spool, database, mailing-list subscriptions etc. all have to be modified seperately. Contact 'admin at compsoc dot nuigalway dot ie' if a username change is necessary.

CGI scripts on frink are executed as the UID of the owner. This means that they will work with permissions u+x. So running 'chmod 700 <FILENAME>' will work.

The perl interpreter is located at '/usr/bin/perl' and is symlinked at '/usr/local/bin/perl'. To find the location of anything in the PATH just use the which command.

An example test.pl script is given below:

Your cgi-bin directory is located in your public_html. Files in your cgi-bin are accessible at:
http://www.compsoc.nuigalway.ie/~USERNAME/cgi-bin

UserDir's on frink are set in Apache as +ExecCGI by default meaning that you can actually place CGI scripts in places other than your cgi-bin (i.e. anywhere in your public_html) and they should work fine.

POP/IMAP aren't running on the server as they are insecure and transfer your password and email in plaintext across the internet.

We do however run POP3 over SSL, and IMAP over SSL, which is a secure and encrypted version of the POP/IMAP protocols.

POP3 over SSL runs on port 995. IMAP over SSL runs on port 993. You need to point your mail client at 'compsoc.nuigalway.ie' on these ports, depending on which one you want to use. Your username and password are the name as those you use to login.

Almost all modern email clients (Thunderbird, Evolution, Outlook etc.) have support for it.

Note that Compsoc signs its own certs as getting a cert signed by a signing authority is expensive and unnecessary for a student society. This may cause your email client to prompt you to accept the cert.

For an interactive guide to the extremely powerful Vim editor simply use the 'vimtutor' command:

Check out our full guide to Mutt and sample Mutt config file to get you started with this amazing email client!

Once you have downloaded and installed the VLC player, simply go 'File -> Open Network Stream'. In the new window, paste the URL of the stream into the 'HTTP/FTP/MMS' box, as shown below, then click 'OK' to open the stream:

If you use a HTTP proxy (e.g. in the IT Building), you can specify it in VLC.

Go to 'Settings -> Preferences', expand the 'Modules' tree menu and then expand the 'access2' module. Highlight 'access_http' and specify the proxy. In the case of the IT Building, it's 'http://cache.it.nuigalway.ie:3128'.