Network Access

Security and Privacy Policies

Computer and network use at the Department of Genome Sciences is regulated by numerous policies and laws. Policies are defined by all levels of governance, from the University of Washington School of Medicine to the federal government. Below you will find links to these guidelines, policies, and laws. If you have any doubt your system or conduct is in compliance with the below regulations, contact GS-ITS for clarification.

UW Medicine Compliance Office
UW Medicine IT Services: Information Security Program
UWTECH: Knowing the Rules
UWTECH: Computing Security Guide

All systems connected to any university network must have strong passwords, supported and updated software, a properly configured firewall, and virus protection software.

Department Systems

Famliarize yourself with the material covered in the Security and Privacy Policies section before connecting your computer to any University of Washington network. Department-owned systems are afforded a greater level of access if desired. All department owned systems must be inventoried regardless of their level of connectivity.

Ethernet
Registering your system with GS-ITS enables it to have full access to departmental resources. Preconfigured perimeter firewall rulesets are available for workstations, servers, and instruments. Inbound access from the Internet is available for systems using the server ruleset. If your system is not registered, contact GS-ITS.

Personal Systems

Famliarize yourself with the material covered in the Security and Privacy Policies section before connecting your computer to any University of Washington network. Personal systems are restricted to the limited access networks described below.

Wireless
The Foege Building has full wireless coverage. With a UW NetID, you can get full access to the Internet and access to a limited number of departmental resources. If you'd like more information about this service, check the UWTECH wireless site.

Limited Ethernet
You can plug into any Ethernet port in the Genome Sciences wing of the Foege Building and get full access to the Internet as as well as access to a limited number of departmental resources. If you'd like more information about this service, contact GS-ITS or check the UWTECH p172 page.

Remote Access

SSH
You can access almost any computing resource remotely via SSH or SSH tunneling. GS-ITS maintains two Internet accessible SSH gateways. If you have a GSDS account, use nexus2.gs.washington.edu otherwise use nexus1.gs.washington.edu. Below you will find SSH tunneling how-tos. If you need additional assistance, contact GS-ITS.
SSH Tunneling on Linux and Mac OS X
SSH Tunneling on Windows

FTP
If you need to exchange non-sensitive data with someone outside of the department, our anonymous-only FTP service may be a good fit. FTP is not a secure protocol and unencrypted information that one would not want publicly available should never be transported by FTP.

You can connect to the Department's FTP server via:

Hostname: ftp.gs.washington.edu
Username: anonymous
Password: <leave blank>

Basic usage instructions for uploading or downloading files will be displayed after connecting. Files will be deleted after 10 days. If you have problems connecting from a Windows machine, please consider trying an FTP client like FileZilla that supports PASV mode. PASV mode clients are more likely to work from hosts connecting through routers and firewalls. Contact GS-ITS for details and help.