Your Computer is Entering the Twilight Zone

When you return to campus this Fall, and open your web browser you may find yourself looking at a web page with skull and crossbones. Do not be alarmed! Your machine has entered the Twilight Zone.  What, you may ask, is the Twilight Zone? Read on to find out.

The Trinity Network plays an every increasing role in instruction and campus life.  This increasing reliance on the network has required continual upgrades to its infrastructure and procedures to protect the network from viruses.  This is particularly a problem in September when hundreds of students bring computers which were infected while at home and are now connecting to the Trinity network.  Many of you may recall last September when infected computers brought the network to a crawl. 

The Twilight Zone, developed by the Networks and Systems group in the LITC, may be thought of as a prison for computers determined to be “vulnerable”. If your computer behaves itself, you will be oblivious to the existence of the Twilight Zone network. However, if your computer misbehaves or becomes a hazard to other users, you will make your acquaintance with the Twilight Zone. How does the Twilight Zone work?

The first time you bring your computer and plug into the network in your dorm room or office you will be required to register it.  During the registration process your computer will be assigned an IP address which uniquely identifies it on the Trinity network, as well as on the Internet.  During this registration process your machine will be scanned for vulnerabilities which could pose a threat to other users.  If none are found, you will be granted network access. If, however, your computer is deemed unfit for the network, it will be placed in the Twilight Zone until the problem can be rectified. Computers which pose a threat to the network include those which do not have the latest patches installed or are not running up-to-date anti-virus software.

Your may also be placed in the Twilight Zone if you violate Trinity’s Regulations for the use of Computing, Communications and Video Systems (http://www.trincoll.edu/RaetherCtr/ComputingCenter/Students), such as by deliberately disrupting the network or by distributing music in violation of copyright. If your computer is in the Twilight Zone, then when you attempt to load web pages you will generally get the “Welcome to the Twilight Zone” page instead.  While in the Twilight Zone, you will have FTP and HTTP access to a very limited number of Internet sites.  These include the sites for vendors such as Microsoft, Apple, McAfee, Symantec and other un-entertaining destinations, where you can download the appropriate updates to get yourself out of the Twilight Zone. E-mail, Telnet and most other services will be blocked.  This Twilight Zone welcome page will provide links to these sites as well as contact information for the Computing Center Help Desk.  Once your computer has been fixed, you can place a request for it to be returned to the regular network.

When a computer is confined to the Twilight Zone, the network jack it is connected to is converted into a Twilight Zone jack. Other computers plugged into that port will also be in the Twilight Zone.  In the event that a machine confined to the Twilight Zone is transferred to another jack, that jack will be converted to a Twilight Zone jack.  When a computer is ready to return to the regular network, the jacks which were converted into Twilight Zone jacks are converted back into regular network jacks.

The goal of the Twilight Zone is to identify and safely isolate sick computers and get them repaired and back in service as quickly as possible.  A properly updated computer helps the ITC maintain a reliable and robust network environment, which is a zone we all prefer to be in.

Trishan De Lanerolle {a member of the class of 2004, is currently working on the Twilight Zone team.}

 August 2004