The viability of a massive CF intranet

[Lethbridge U]

I'm doing a presentation in one of my management classes on the topic of intranets and I came across this article which discussed the launch of the largest intranet in the world (the US army) Apparently every soldier, vetran, and brass alike can have their own email and possibly a website. There is also huge amounts of information that a soldier can access any where in the world. What do you think the viability is of the CF have a similar intranet. I just think it's a great idea.
check out the link:  www.wired.com/news/technology/0%2C1282%2C48183%2C00.html

 

[Inch]

Good idea, that's why we've had it for years. It's called the Defence Wide Area Network (DWAN for short), there's also the Defense Information Network (DIN). I think they're one in the same, it just depends on who you're talking to and what they call it. Every CF member, including civilians has access to the DWAN email and DWAN sites. Most units have their own little part of the DWAN where you can find unit information.  It's a protected network, not secret or top secret, but a whole lot more secure than the Internet.

Cheers

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Baseline is a huge pain in the ass though -everytime I log in (like, once a week as a reservist), I go through 50 startup screens and downloads, and as often as not the damn computer shuts itself off and restarts to enable some stupid download or another. 

I believe this is so that everyone has the same software configurations but my question is - is that really necessary?

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Good idea, that's why we've had it for years. It's called the Defence Wide Area Network (DWAN for short), there's also the Defense Information Network (DIN). I think they're one in the same, it just depends on who you're talking to and what they call it. Every CF member, including civilians has access to the DWAN email and DWAN sites. Most units have their own little part of the DWAN where you can find unit information.   It's a protected network, not secret or top secret, but a whole lot more secure than the Internet.

Cheers

Only downside is trying access military email from home - is there a way to do it?  So far everyone tells me no.  That is the only advantage of having stuff off the DIN as well, such as unofficial company/battery/squadron websites.

 

[Inch]

The updates are mostly for virus protection, we've been told to log off everyday and relogin in the morning to make sure all required updates get installed.

To my knowledge, there's no way to get your email from home.

Cheers

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

Its outlook express so there may be away.  I'm not aware of one though.

 

[Gayson]

I havent used this service before, if it is outlook express it could be possible to log in from home.

Next time you use it with outlook go into the mail properties and get the POP3 and SMTP server's.  Also you will need to know the login name and password that outlook has been using to get your email.

When you get back home enter these bits of info into whatever email software you use and is should work, that is unless the intranet is specifically set to not allow people to access it from outside unless through a specific connection (i.e preset ip addresses).

 

[Inch]

It's not Outlook express, it's just Outlook, and if you can't get intranet sites from home, you can't get DWAN email either.

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

Sorry my bad.  Could have sworn it was outlook express.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

No, it makes sense for security reasons that we can't do it at home.  It's too bad, because most of my mail is related to the regimental website - ie public information.  I have my personal email address as the contact info for our unofficial regimental website - would look more professional to have my military email addie there, but checking it once a week or every two weeks would be even more unprofessional, so I guess I'll go with what I got.

If they do upgrade the system someday, maybe they can offer more security options, and allow internet access to emails specifically encoded as not Protected by the sender.

 

[291er]

There is one way I believe, it's called a DEBBS acct or something.  They only grant them in special cases I think.....but they are web accessible.

 

[AmmoTech90]

You can get dail up DWAN/DIN access but you need a good reason, ie posted outside of Canada, or in Canada in a place that does not have an IT section that can administer a server for your area.

Could you set up rules in Outlook that all incoming mail is forwarded to your account at home?

As far as a home DND mail system there is DEBBS and IMS Visualmail, I think they work off the same system but DEBBS was introduced for the NCR then IMS rolled out for everyone else (not sure on that).  Visualmail is a web-based email you can access pretty much anywhere but it is a seperate address from your Outlook mail so you can't view that mailbox at home.

 

[Inch]

We had Air Force wide IT briefings that stated specifically that your DWAN mail should not be forwarded to your home address for security reasons. I don't remember why exactly, I do remember we were told not to do it.

Cheers

 

[Michael Dorosh]

We had Air Force wide IT briefings that stated specifically that your DWAN mail should not be forwarded to your home address for security reasons. I don't remember why exactly, I do remember we were told not to do it.

Cheers

It makes sense.  If someone pulls my name off the DND email list by accident and sends sensitive stuff thinking it is going to someone else, it shouldn't be going to a civvie email account.  Maybe not a big deal in my case, but how many "WO M Smith" are there, eh....I've sent stuff to the "wrong" Captain Alden before, for example.

 

[pbi]

I'm not much of a techno-geek, but here's  couple of observations:

-As a Res CBG, with key appts being Class A, we regularly fwd e-mails to home adresses, and receive communications from same. Security is not usually an issue in routine comms, but if it is we can use voice line; and

-due to our vast geographic dispersion(Prnce Albert SK to Thunder Bay ON), we have issued several key appts with the equivalent of Ethernet cards that will let them log in from home and read e-mail. The only problem with it is the slowness, which can be excruciating.

As for the "great new US idea"-I agree with Inch: we're well on in that area and have been for years. Actually, considering our size, we do pretty well in the CIS field: certainly no other country of comparable size comes close, as far as I know. Cheers.

 

[ggranatstein]

Actually, there is a commonly used way to get your army email at home. It is technically open to anyone, BUT, it is usually only given to officers and very senior NCOs.

It is called a DVPNI account and you need a military laptop or computer to get on. So... if you have access to a laptop, you can check your email at home. Unfortunately, it's only dial-up speed but they are working on a secure broadband way for people to get access. It should be out in the next 20 years.  

The OSSI at your unit should be able to get you the proper form to fill out to get such an account, if I am not mistaken.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Actually, there is a commonly used way to get your army email at home. It is technically open to anyone, BUT, it is usually only given to officers and very senior NCOs.

It is called a DVPNI account and you need a military laptop or computer to get on. So... if you have access to a laptop, you can check your email at home. Unfortunately, it's only dial-up speed but they are working on a secure broadband way for people to get access. It should be out in the next 20 years. 

The OSSI at your unit should be able to get you the proper form to fill out to get such an account, if I am not mistaken.

LOL

I guess I'm set, just as soon as the Army starts issuing laptops to corporals, then. 

 

[Goober]

For those of you who like to see things in a tangible form, here is a rudimentary (very rudimentray) drawing I've done of the military intranet with relation to the Internet.

http://users.eastlink.ca/~joeperry/din.jpg

Note: VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and its a way to securely access intranets, as there can be strong encryption protocols in place protecting the data from network sniffers.

 

[jfladeroute]

Actually, there is a commonly used way to get your army email at home. It is technically open to anyone, BUT, it is usually only given to officers and very senior NCOs.
It is called a DVPNI account and you need a military laptop or computer to get on.

There's actually a far easier way, that could be implemented overnight for anyone.

Outlook can be set to forward copies of your email - technically, this could be set to forward to any valid email account, but DND has chosen to block forwarding to outside addresses. When I questioned why this was the case, I got the standard runarounds:

- it's a security risk (although they could not specify why that would be the case);
- it could spread viruses (although in order to do that our email servers would already be infected, so the risk would be entirely for the home system, not DND);
and the final reason - because we said so.  ;D

I've used the workaround that I forward my email to someone else in my workplace who then manually forwards it to my home account. Frankly, the choice to block the ability to have this automated is just plain silly. Remove the artifical restriction, and anyone could access their email at home; no need for VPN, laptops or any additional expense.

 

[AmmoTech90]

I find it really odd that you can send and receive email to and from outside address from Outlook manually, but you can't set it up a rule to do it.

Oh well, should expect that, found out that if I wanted a USB powered cup warmer it would have to go through sigs because its attached to a PC...