The NIH Directory and E-Mail Forwarding
Service
Table of Contents
User Information in the Directory
Accessing the Directory
Directory Lookups
Completing Your Directory Entry
Email Forwarding & Advertising Your
E-mail Address
Acknowledgements
Appendices
How the Directory Matches Names
If You Have More Than One Email Address
What To Do If You're Not Listed in The Directory, Or...
NIH Directory FAQ
The NIH Directory and E-mail Forwarding Service allows
you to lookup e-mail addresses and other information about people who use
computers at NIH. And you can easily change the information in your own
directory entry. The Directory Service can be accessed by using your choice of e-mail, web browsers or "ph"
client software.
One of the more frustrating aspects of sending e-mail to colleagues and
friends around the world is the problem of e-mail address discovery. Knowing
that someone is capable of receiving e-mail is of no use unless you know his or
her e-mail address. To solve this problem, many organizations have implemented
electronic directory services to provide e-mail addresses and other
information.
CIT provides a directory and e-mail forwarding service for anyone who uses a
computer at the National Institutes of Health. The Directory Service was
implemented using the CSO Nameserver software developed at the University of
Illinois. In addition to its directory query and e-mail forwarding
capabilities, the software offers flexibility in terms of adding new categories
of information, and allows individuals to update their own directory
information.
There are thousands of computers throughout NIH, and many different ways to
express an e-mail address. In addition to being a central repository for e-mail
addresses, the NIH Directory Service alleviates some of the confusion by
providing an e-mail forwarding service. Ideally this means that whenever you
send a message to someone at NIH, the form of the address will always be the
same. This guide gives an overview of the NIH Directory and E-mail Forwarding
Service and how it can be used to locate the e-mail addresses and other
information about NIH computer users.
User Information in the Directory
Each entry in the NIH Directory Service can have any of the
information listed in Figure 1 . How much appears in a
user's initial entry will depend on what information the user's system or
e-mail administrator submitted on behalf of the user. Once a user's entry has
been placed in the directory, he or she may fill in missing information or
otherwise modify the contents. For details on how each of the fields should be
filled in, see the section "Completing Your Directory
Entry" .
_______________________________________________________
·
Full name
·
NIH unique identity
The unique id (also called "alias")
allows mail to unambiguously identify
a user at NIH. It consists of 2
letters, a number, and a final letter.
·
E-mail forwarding address The address to
which a user wants mail sent or forwarded.
·
Nickname
Other names by which the user is known.
·
Office telephone number
·
Address
·
ICD (Institute, Center or Division)
·
Office fax telephone number
·
Position title
·
Pager telephone number
·
"Verified by user" field
The date and time at which the owner of this entry has
last verified its contents.
·
Password
Used only when changing entry interactively.
This field is not displayed.
·
Miscellaneous
Figure 1
________________________________________________________
Accessing the Directory
The Directory Service can be accessed by using any of
several different programs. The most popular ways of accessing the Directory
are:
- Web browsers, such as
Netscape and Internet Explorer
- Eudora, an e-mail program
popular at the NIH
- Ph, a client program which
"talks" directly to the Directory server
- E-mail. Even if you don't
have any of the programs above, you can still access the Directory by
E-mail.
Most of the programs above are available for PCs running
Windows or NT, Macintosh computers and UNIX computers (including Helix and ALW
workstations).
Directory Lookups
This section briefly describes each method of accessing the
Directory Service. Note that the details may vary from platform to platform due
to differences in e-mail systems and client implementations on each computer
type.
Web Browsers
The Directory is accessible from the World Wide Web. Web
browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer can be pointed to URL http://directory.nih.gov.
From this web page you can query the Directory or make a
change to your Directory entry. A query can be a full name, a last name, or
some combination using wildcards.
For example, for a user named Marie Antoinette, any of the following queries
will match (also see "How the Directory Service
Matches Names"):
Marie Antoinette
Antoinette
Mar* Antoinette
(will match both "Marie" and "Mary")
Mar* Anto*
(queries such as "Marie" or "M* A*" would work, but
probably return more matches than would be useful)
E-mail
If you don't have access to a browser, you can also query
the Directory by e-mail. In this case, put the query in the Subject line, and
send it to the address lookup@nih.gov.
Return mail from the Directory Service will contain the
results of the lookup (see "Results of a Lookup ").
Eudora
Eudora, available for Macs and PCs, is a popular mail program at NIH, and uses
the POP and IMAP protocol to read mail delivered to a POP server. In addition
to its primary purpose as an e-mail program, Eudora also provides a built-in
interface to directory services. The way you access and configure Eudora for
directory services depends on which version of Eudora you are using.
To make queries in Eudora version 3, choose the Ph item found in the Special
menu. For Eudora version 4, choose the "Directory Service"
item in the "Tools" menu. Queries are made in the same way as
described above for web browsers.
To configure Eudora version 3 for the NIH Directory Service, set the ph
server address to ph.nih.gov
in the Configuration item under the Special menu. To configure
version 4, see the CSO configuration instructions in http://helix.nih.gov/docs/online/email/e4imap_config.html
Other E-mail Programs
Microsoft Exchange
People who use the NIH Exchange system for their E-mail have access to a Global
Address List (GAL). This listing is updated every day from information included
in the Directory. Because the GAL is not itself the NIH E-mail Directory,
changes to the Directory are not reflected immediately in the GAL.
Netscape Messenger and Microsoft Outlook Express
The e-mail portion of Netscape's version 4 web browser and Outlook Express,
which is the e-mail portion of Internet Explorer, have and interface to
directory services using the LDAP protocol. Although the NIH E-mail Directory
does not itself use LDAP, a copy of it is available via LDAP. This copy is
updated every evening, therefore changes to the Directory are not reflected
immediately.
To configure Messenger and Outlook Express for the NIH Directory, see the
LDAP configuration instructions in http://helix.nih.gov/docs/online/email/messenger.imap.config.html
and http://helix.nih.gov/docs/online/email/outlook_express.imap.config.html
respectively.
Ph Clients
Another alternative for accessing the Directory is to run a
client program called "Ph". This is a standalone application which
can be used to query and make changes to the Directory. Ph is available for
Macs and UNIX hosts, including the NIH Helix System. Users may prefer to use Ph
for any of several reasons: (1) Ph will allow complex queries which use
wildcards and are based on criteria other than names, (2) you can point to
other directory servers besides the NIH server, and (3) you can make changes to
your Directory Service entry by "logging in" to the server (see below ).
The Ph client for UNIX uses a command-line interface, and
therefore can be relatively difficult to use, but in the case of a simple
query, it is straightforward:
ph sullivan
The Ph program contains on-line help, and on UNIX systems
typing "man ph"
at the shell prompt will display the on-line manual.
The Ph client for Macs is very simple to use and provides an
excellent interface to allow users to edit their directory entries. To configure
Mac Ph for the NIH Directory Service, set the Ph server address to ph.nih.gov in
the query window.
The Results of a Lookup
The Directory Service will return entries for each user
matching your query either interactively or by e-mail. For example:
name: Marie Antoinette
nickname: Queen
phone: (301) 555-1212
address: Versailles Building
ICD: OD
fax: (301) 555-1214
title: Her Royal Highness
verified_by_user: 14 Jul 1994 11:26:18
miscel: Happy Bastille Day!
email to: ma7d@nih.gov
(marie@palace.od.nih.gov)
There is a minimum of four pieces of information that will
be returned for each entry that matches your query: the user's full name, his
or her NIH unique id, his or her forwarding e-mail address, and the verified_by_user
field.
The email to field shows the user's NIH unique
identifier which may be used to address Internet mail, in this case ma7d@nih.gov.
Shown in parentheses is the forwarding address, which is the actual destination
for the mail.
The verified_by_user field indicates the last time the entry's owner
has verified its contents. A time stamp in the field means that the user
actively reads mail at the indicated forwarding address. A value of
"no" means that while the forwarding address is a valid e-mail
address, there is no guarantee that it is the address at which the user
actively reads mail. Unanswered mail sent to a user with a verified_by_user value
of "no" should be followed up by other means (perhaps by a phone
call). The verified_by_user field is set to the date and time at which
the Directory Service receives a valid change form from the user (see "Changing Directory Information "). It is an
indication that the user explicitly reviewed and/or submitted the information
in his or her directory entry.
Changing Directory Information
An important feature of the NIH Directory Service is that
users may edit the information in their own directory entries. This can be
accomplished in one of three ways.
Web Browser
The simplest way to change your entry is by using a web-based change form.
Connect to the NIH Directory page at http://directory.nih.gov
and click on "change". Because it attempts to make a secure
web connection to the Directory server, your browser will probably warn you
with a dialog box. (In some cases, your browser might not recognize the
Verisign-issued "certificate" that the server presents. In this case,
you should "walk" the browser through a series of dialog boxes that
will result in it "trusting" the Directory server. You should only
need to do this once.) Once your browser has made the secure connection, a
form will be displayed which requires you to fill in your alias (NIH Unique ID)
and your Directory password.
If you don't know either your password or alias, you can send a blank piece
of e-mail to getpass@nih.gov. This can be
done most simply by clicking on that e-mail address on the form (provided
that your browser has been correctly configured with your e-mail address!).
You will be sent your alias and your current password in a return message. (The
Directory Service uses e-mail addresses validated on your behalf by your e-mail
administrators to verify that directory changes are truly coming from you.
Therefore, the service will only return alias/password information to you when
the From line address in your e-mail message is one that the Directory Service
"knows" about (see "What To Do If
You're Not Listed in the Directory, Or...")).
E-mail
Sending e-mail to the Directory Service, in a way similar to querying the
directory as discussed above, is the simplest way to change your directory
entry. This method has the advantage that, like querying by mail, it can be
done by any computer connected to the NIHnet.
To edit your directory entry by e-mail, first send mail to:
change@nih.gov
for users whose mail systems have direct connections to the
Internet.
Neither a subject nor a message is required in the mail you
send. This empty mail message is your request for a change form. You will then
receive return mail from the Directory Service that will include the contents
of your directory entry as the body of the reply mail message. Use your mail
program to reply to this mail, including the contents of the mail
message (most mail programs will allow this as a single operation). Then edit
the contents of the mail message to reflect your changes, and send it. Figure 2 shows an edited change form message ready to mail
back to the service.
_______________________________________________________________________
To:
phCHANGE@nih.gov
In-reply-to: phCHANGE@nih.gov's message...
Subject: Re: NIH Directory Change Form
--text follows this line--
> Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 15:38:47 -0400
> From: phCHANGE@nih.gov
>
> --- NIH Directory Change Form ---
> --- Steven Fellini (sf6d@nih.gov) ---379917
>
> email: steve@helix.nih.gov
> password:
> proxy:
> nickname: Steve sfellini
> phone: (301) 496-4823
> address: Bldg. 12B, Rm. 2N207
> ICD: CIT
> fax: (301) 480-6245
> title: Computer Specialist
> pager:
> localmail:
> miscel:
>
> --- end NIH Directory Change Form ---
Figure
2
_______________________________________________________________________
The Directory Service will then apply the changes to your
entry and reply one last time with the contents of your new entry as
verification (if the e-mail forwarding address was changed, the verification is
sent to both old and new forwarding addresses). Also, when the Directory
Service receives a change form, the verified_by_user field for that
user's entry is set to the date and time it was processed.
As in the case with mail sent to getpass@nih.gov above, the Directory will
only accept change form requests from you if it "recognizes" your
return e-mail address as one that an administrator has registered to the
Directory on your behalf.
Ph Clients
To change information in your NIH Directory Service entry using the Ph client
program, you will need a password to access the service. To set an initial
password, use the e-mail interface described above to obtain a change form and
fill in the password field in your reply (note that the password field
will appear to be blank when you get the acknowledgment back from the Directory
Service). You can then use this password when you log into the server using Ph.
If you forget your password, simply send in another change form with a new
password to the Directory Service.
As mentioned previously, the Macintosh version of Ph is considerably easier
to use than the versions for the PC or UNIX. Most users will find the web or
e-mail interface to be the simplest way of editing a directory entry.
Completing Your Directory Entry
You may change any of the fields listed below:
email: E-mail forwarding address (64 character
maximum). Mail sent to you at the Internet address nih.gov will
be automatically forwarded to this address by the Directory Service. The
forwarding address is in Internet addressing format. Changes to your e-mail
address should be made with care, since no validity checking is done on the
form of the address (at this time). If the address is incorrect, mail sent to
you via the Directory Service will bounce. Remember that the forwarding address
must be an Internet address; if you are not sure how to construct this address,
you should consult your network or e-mail administrator!
nickname: Additional names, separated by spaces (60 chars max). Use
this field to list other names by which you want to be known. For instance, if
you are listed in the directory as William Tell, you may want to enter Bill
as a nickname. Lookups to the Directory Service will then match Bill Tell and
mail sent to Bill_Tell@nih.govwill
be properly forwarded (providing that it is unique; see "Choosing
a "well-known" e-mail address").
Please not that nicknames MUST be listed in your entry WITHOUT the
"@nih.gov" extension as the system automatically adds that part. In
addition, you needn't list any of the components of your name field
in your nickname field. That is, user William Tell shouldn't list any of
the following in his nickname field: William Tell William_Tell William-Tell .
phone: Office telephone number (40 chars max)
address: Building/Room or complete mailing address (80 chars max)
ICD: Institute, Center or Division (64 chars max). Some of the ICDs
use the Directory as a basis for creating a mailing list of the ICD's employees.
To ensure your being properly selected, use the ICD initials somewhere in the
ICD field (e.g., NCI, NIAAA).
fax: Office fax telephone number (40 chars max)
title: Position title (64 chars max)
pager : Pager telephone number (20 chars max)
password: Password (16 chars max). You should set your password using
the web interface only. Setting it via the e-mail change form is insecure.
Also, if you received your password by sending mail to getpass@nih.gov,
you should be sure to change your password.
miscel: Anything you want here (320 chars max).
E-mail Forwarding & Advertising Your E-mail Address
The e-mail forwarding feature of the NIH Directory and
E-mail Forwarding Service is used when mail is sent to the Internet
address nih.gov .
Each user in the NIH directory has an entry for an e-mail address, to which the
Directory Service will forward mail when mail is received for the user at nih.gov.
The email field should be the address at which the
user prefers to read mail. As an example, a scientist named Josephine User who
reads mail on a PC using Exchange may advertise her Internet e-mail address
as Josephine_User@nih.gov
on her business cards, and in correspondence with other researchers. Her
forwarding address in the NIH Directory Service might be UserJ@dea.nci.nih.gov
The forwarding service insures that mail sent from the Internet to Josephine_User@nih.gov
will arrive on her PC. A few months later, Josephine trades in her PC for a Mac
running Eudora, and changes her NIH directory email field to juser@box-j.nih.gov.
Now mail addressed to Josephine_User@nih.gov
will be forwarded to the box-j.nih.gov address. The important point is that
her "well-known" address has remained the same.
Choosing a "well known" e-mail
address
Each user who is entered into the Directory Service receives
an identifier or alias that is guaranteed to be unique at NIH. Therefore, the safest
address to advertise is one that includes the NIH unique id, for example, ju22d@nih.gov.
However, the forwarder will also attempt to deliver mail on a best effort
basis, using a full or partial name rather than the unique id. As long as
that full or partial name remains unique at NIH, the mail will be delivered
successfully. This also applies to any nicknames that may be listed
in a user's NIH Directory entry.
For example, if you have a name that is not particularly common, say
Cuthbert Twillie, it is probably safe to advertise Cuthbert_Twillie@nih.gov
as your address. Should a second Cuthbert Twillie arrive at NIH, then the
address will no longer be unique, and the Directory Service will bounce the
mail back to the sender with a message explaining that it was not unique and
return a list of the matching user entries. The sender can then decide on the
correct user and readdress the mail using the user's NIH unique id.
For users with more common names such as Bill Jones, however, it is probably
safest to use the NIH unique id. Note that no guarantee can be made that a name or nickname
which is unique today will always remain unique as the NIH Directory
changes on a continual basis. E-mail names (as opposed to
unique ids) are not reserved for a user on a first-come first-served
basis: if user Bill Jones advertises Bill_Jones@nih.gov as his address
because it happens to be unique today, but next month another Bill Jones
arrives at NIH, the name will no longer be unique, and mail sent to him will
begin to bounce.
Acknowledgments
The software used to implement the all-important server
(CSO), and the Ph client, was written at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign by Steve Dorner and colleagues. The NIH Directory, its e-mail
interface and supporting software were designed and constructed by the Helix
Systems Staff (HPSCS/DCSS), CIT.
Appendices
How the Directory Service Matches Names
The two cases in which the Directory Service tries to find a
matching name are user lookups and e-mail forwarding. The rules
are slightly different in each case. For user lookups, the service uses
two pieces of directory information: (1) the name field, and (2) the nickname
field. A query containing any of the words in those two fields can result in a
match. For example, with the following directory entry:
email: ctwillie@helix.nih.gov
alias: ct24d
name: Cuthbert J Twillie
nickname: Bert
matches will result for the following queries:
Cuthbert J Twillie
Cuthbert Twillie
Bert Twillie
Cuthbert
Bert
Twillie
Bert Cuthbert
The order of words in the query doesn't matter, so that
"Twillie Bert"
or "Twillie
Cuthbert" will also match. Wildcard matches of the abovewill
also result in a directory match. Multiple matches on user lookups results
in multiple entries being returned.
For e-mail forwarding, the Directory Service first
looks for an exact match of the address with the alias field (that is,
the NIH unique ID). If it finds a match (the system guarantees there can be
only one), then mail is forwarded to that user. For example, mail to ct24t@nih.gov will
be forwarded to ctwillie@helix.nih.gov.
If the service cannot find an exact match against an alias, it will look for
any of the matches above. If there is a match against a single directory entry,
mail will be forwarded to that user. Multiple matches on e-mail forwarding
results in the mail being returned to the sender with a list of the matches.
If You Have More Than One E-mail Address
Information about users is initially entered into the NIH
directory by e-mail administrators on their users' behalf. When a user has
accounts on more than one e-mail system at NIH, e-mail addresses and other
information about that user will be sent to the Directory Service
administrators multiple times. It is the responsibility of the Directory
Service administrators to detect multiple instances of the same user and ensure
that only a single entry is placed in the directory. They also choose an
initial e-mail forwarding address from those submitted. In many cases, the
e-mail address selected will not, in fact, be the preferred forwarding address
for the user.
As an example, suppose Josephine User has accounts on a PC
on her Exchange-based LAN, an account on the NIH Helix, and a WYLBUR account.
Therefore there are 3 valid e-mail addresses for her:
UserJ@dea.nci.nih.gov
josephine@helix.nih.gov
jsu@cu.nih.gov
However if Josephine only reads mail on her PC, and if josephine@helix.nih.gov
was chosen as the initial forwarding address for her entry, some mail might be
sent to that system and never be read.
The solution is for Josephine to send in a change form with
a new forwarding address of UserJ@dea.nci.nih.gov. Users therefore are an
important factor in maintaining the accuracy of the directory.
What To Do If You're Not Listed in The Directory, Or...
(...if the Directory Service won't return a Change form to
you).
Entries are submitted to the Directory Service by NIH e-mail administrators.
If you are not listed in the Directory Service, it probably means that e-mail
addresses for your LAN have not been submitted. In this case you should contact
your e-mail administrator and ask him or her to get in touch with the Directory
Service administrators by sending mail to phadmin@nih.gov.
Some users may have an entry in the Directory Service, but when they mail in
a request for a change form, the service will return an error with a message
similar to:
ERROR Unable to find match in directory for addressee
'steve@pop.nih.gov'
This means that while you had at least one e-mail address
submitted for you by an administrator, the mail address from which you are
requesting a change form has not been submitted. In this case, you
should contact your e-mail administrators as above, but in the meantime you can
send mail to the service from the machine whose address is listed for you in
the Directory Service! Once you change your forwarding address to the machine
of your choice, the Directory Service will accept subsequent change form
requests from that address.
NIH Directory FAQ
A document providing
answers to frequently asked questions regarding the NIH Directory can be
accessed at http://helix.nih.gov/docs/online/ph_faq.html
Printed documentation is available to registered users
through the Technical Assistance and Support Center (TASC), Building 12A, Room
1017. Users can order documentation by issuing the pubware command and
following instructions.
Last Updated
July 9, 2001 (mp)