Subject: Interop Event FAQ

From: "Jim Whitehead" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 17:05:36 -0700

Here is a list of questions about next week's upcoming WebDAV
Interoperability Testing Event, being held M-W, 9/9-9/11, in Jack's Lounge,
Baskin Engineering Building, UC Santa Cruz.

* What are the hours of the interoperability testing event?

9AM-6:30PM each day (M-W). Network equipment setup will start at 8AM each
day -- feel free to come early and help set up.

* What are the hours of the interim working group meeting?

Sept 9, 10: 3PM-6PM, Sept. 11: 9AM-12noon.  This will take place
concurrently with the interoperability testing event, so that
interoperability issues can be identified, resolved, and perhaps even tested
on-the-spot.

* How should I pay the $225 fee for the interop event?

Please bring a check to the event, payable to "UC Regents". You will be
given a receipt at the event. The fee is per-organization (not per-person).
Unfortunately, UCSC is not set up to handle credit card payments. Not that
people attending only the interim WG meeting do not need to pay the fee.

* How do I park my car?

Please park in the parking structure located across the street from the
Baskin Engineering building. You should be receiving, by snail mail, a
parking pass and a map to the parking structure and Baskin Engineering
buildings. You'll need a new parking pass each day -- you can pick up the
remaining parking passes at the event. If you accidentally forget your pass,
please park in the structure, then come to the event, pick up a pass, and
then put it on your car.

* Who is coming to the event?

We're expecting about 35 people, from the following companies and projects
(in no particular order):

Adobe (client and server side I believe), Microsoft (Windows CE, Sharepoint,
Exchange), Oracle, Merant, Xythos, Software AG, Alias|Wavefront, kCura,
NetApp. Greg Stein/Apache mod_dav will be present, as will several students
from UCSC, representing the Catacomb server and Cadaver client. An improved
version of Litmus will also be used at the event.

* Is the interoperability event held in a secure location?

Not especially. The room for the event is not lockable, and is a relatively
public area within the Baskin Engineering building. Classes are *not*
currently in session (UCSC is on the quarter system) and hence there are
relatively few people in the building, however. Additionally, there are many
people present during the event itself, and food is being brought directly
to the room of the event. Still, especially if you're bringing a laptop, you
may want to bring a cable for securing the laptop to a desk. On the other
hand, theft is uncommon in Baskin Engineering in general, and there were no
problems at last year's event.

* What kind of network is available for the event?

We'll be setting Jack's Lounge up as a small computer lab, with 10-Base-T
cables attached to network hubs. Once you have connected your computer to
our network, you will be on UCSC's network, which is *not* behind a
firewall.

* Should I install the latest security patches for my OS before I come?

Absolutely. Automated intrusion scripts are constantly scanning our network
for vulnerable machines, and last year it took less than an hour for a
participating machine to be compromised. This is a considerably more
hazardous environment than what is typically encountered behind a firewall.

* Will we have fixed or dynamic IP addresses?

To aid interpretation of network traffic traces, each machine will be
assigned a static IP address. This allows identification of each participant
based solely on their IP.

* Will my cell phone work at the event?

Possibly. Coverage is very spotty on campus -- many phones do not receive
sufficient signal. We will have several land line phones available for
calling out.

* What food is being provided at the event?

There will be coffee and muffins available in the mornings, and lunch will
be served all three days as well. All meals include a vegetarian option.
Soda, water and snacks will also be available in the afternoon. You're on
your own for dinner.

* Will a printer be available?

Yes, a laser printer will be available for making printouts of protocol
traces, source code, etc.

* Will there be any test equipment provided at the event, such as a packet
sniffer?

Sadly, no. We recommend using existing tools, such as:

tcpdump - http://www.tcpdump.org/
Berkeley Packet Filter -
http://www.gsp.com/cgi-bin/man.cgi?section=4&topic=bpf
http://www-nrg.ee.lbl.gov/

For Windows, HTTPTracer looks like it might be useful (haven't used it
myself, costs only $25)
http://www.concentric.net/~Sstmail/index.html

EffeTech's HTTP Sniffer might also be handy as well (haven't used it myself)
http://www.effetech.com/

These tools can take some fiddling before you feel comfortable with their
results, so get some experience with them before coming to the event.

* How will testing pairs be established?

At the start of the event we'll go around the room and have everyone
introduce themselves, and explain which implementations they're testing.
After this, we expect individuals to proactively set up testing pairs --
it's too chaotic to manage this centrally.

We do ask that people attending the event adopt the goal of trying to
interoperate with all of the other clients/servers at the event. We're
trying to achieve broad interoperability, and this implies broad testing.

More questions? Please contact Jim Whitehead <[email-masked]>

- Jim

---

From: Jim Luther <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 10:29:41 -0700

> version of Litmus will also be used at the event.

Engineers from Apple Computer will be attending (Mac OS X file system 
client, iDisk server, and XServe).

> * Will there be any test equipment provided at the event, such as a 

I'm planning to bring an extra PowerBook with Etherpeek installed. In 
addition, my development/test system will have tcpdump and tcpflow 
installed.

Jim Luther
Apple Computer, Inc.