before attempting
an ssh connection.The BII Corporate Services are run from servers located in the BII DataCenter. The following services are available to all BII staff and students. Unless otherwise specified, all services can be accessed from both within and outside the BII office premises. The goal of the IT systems team is to bring the services we offer in the office, in your homes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
| Service | Description | Remarks |
| DNS (Domain Name Service) | Configure your Operating System to use one or more of the following : 123.136.68.141, 123.136.68.142 , 123.136.68.137 and 123.136.68.140 | Users may only query private hosts / IP addresses from within the BII network. |
| POP (Post Office Protocol) | Configure your Email client to use pop.bii.a-star.edu.sg over SSL on port 995. | The POP protocol sends passwords over clear text. Users are required to use it over SSL. |
| IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) | Configure your Email client to use imap.bii.a-star.edu.sg on port 143. We also provide IMAP over SSL running on port 993. | Like POP, IMAP sends passwords in clear text. Users are strongly encouraged to use it over SSL. |
| SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) | Configure your Email client to use smtp.bii.a-star.edu.sg. Users within the BII network are allowed to relay to any destination. Users connecting from outside the BII network must configure their Email clients to use SMTP authentication. | The SMTP authentication methods available are LOGIN and PLAIN. Please use your BII username and password when prompted. Our smtp service also runs on port 2525, in case the network you're on blocks port 25. |
| WebMail | Point your web browser to https://webmail.bii.a-star.edu.sg.. Users are required to use HTTP over SSL. WebMail actually operates using an underlying IMAP layer. Users who read mail using webmail can still POP/IMAP it later. | Access via HTTPS is required. |
| Homepages | Users may setup their own homepages in their $HOME/public_html directory by creating a file index.html. Your homepage may be accessed at http://web.bii.a-star.edu.sg/~username. | Users may enforce access or username/password authentication to their webpages by using .htaccess. Only static HTML pages are allowed, no CGI, PHP or SHTML is supported or permitted. |
| HTTP Proxy | Users may configure their web browser to use iproxy.bii.a-star.edu.sg on port 8080. This may improve your web surfing experience. | Alternative proxy is at sotong.private.bii |
| LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) | Users may configure their addressbooks to use ldap.bii.a-star.edu.sg on port 389 for directory services. Please use the base DN "dc=bii,dc=a-star,dc=edu,dc=sg". | Users outside the BII network must provide their username as a bind DN and supply their password in order to access LDAP. An example of such a bind DN is "cn=joe,ou=people,dc=bii,dc=a-star,dc=edu,dc=sg". |
| NTP (Network Time Protocol) | Users may synchronize their system clock against ntp.bii.a-star.edu.sg, which is in turn synchronized against public stratum 1 and 2 time servers. | There are no restrictions on this service. |
| SSH (Secure Shell) Remote Login | All users may SSH to ssh.bii.a-star.edu.sg for remote access of their Email, file access, access other machines or to use various unix tools available. | There are no restrictions on this service, except outside BII. Users
may also use SSH port forwarding as well as X11 forwarding. A "knock door"
system has been implemented for ssh-ing from home or overseas. This
means that users must telnet to port before attempting
an ssh connection. |
| Andrew File System (AFS) | Users may mount AFS as a networked drive on their PC. This is done by configuring your AFS client to the AFS cell "bii.a-star.edu.sg". Please contact systems team for assistance. | There are no restrictions on this service. Unix users are required to to mount AFS on /afs - Windows users are encouraged to mount AFS as Z: |