Mark's Random Projects
BOL Authenitcation
To use the public access ports (currently available in the Powell reading
rooms), you must have a BOL account, and you must have software to
- Obtain an IP address.
- Authenticate with the authentication servers.
Once done, you have access to the backbone. It is my understanding that the
BOL administrators provide the client software for WinNT and Mac clients. If
you want to use any other platform, you have to do it yourself. Here are
some hints.
DHCP is used to obtain an IP address. I have sucessfully used
Yoichi Hariguchi's dhcp client (dhcpcd version 0.5) under Linux.
Authentication is accomplished through a custom protocol. I have
written some Java classes which understand the required protocol.
These classes could be used to write a Java application that establishes
and maintians authentication with BOL. Such an application does not
exist ... yet. It is possible that I will someday get around to doing
this ...