If you are absent from the institute, in the past you usually used a Telnet or FTP connection to holmes1.cpfs.mpg.de over the Internet to read e-mail, transfer files and the like. You identify yourself to the server by supplying your username and your password. If you have never used these protocols until now, you probably can forget about the rest of this text.
As you may already know, submitting cleartext-passwords over the Internet has become a severe security risk: You never know whether the packet containing the password just submitted to establish, e.g., a Telnet session is filtered by someone else or not. Once somebody has your password, he has control over your account, and you’re in danger of losing data, or your account may be abused by the penetrator for perhaps more worthwhile (for him) attacks on other computing systems.
Therefore, the last two protocols accessible over the Internet which use a cleartext authorization have been discontinued by the end of November 2000. These are those supplying the Telnet and FTP connections to holmes1.cpfs.mpg.de. Since September 2017, Telnet and FTP are no longer available for internal connections as well. “Internal connections” also include the dialin-connections via our remote access server. Furthermore, Telnet and FTP are still working for connections FROM our network TO the Internet. (You sometimes use FTP for example to download files via your WWW browser.)
As a replacement for Telnet and FTP, the Secure Shell (SSH) suite of protocols must be used. SSH provides the same functionality as Telnet and FTP, and much more. The corresponding clients for Windows are available from the IT service. Mac OS X has a built-in client. Please ask the IT service for help on installing the software.
Please use the server holmes1.cpfs.mpg.de for connecting via SSH.