The Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) continues to be a major initiative both for ASET and the overall Penn State Information Technology infrastructure. During 1999, many ASET services were converted to DCE as the primary method for authenticating a user. In the coming year, we hope to make those services easier for the end user to integrate into his/her computing environment. A large focus of the DCE conversion is on the Distributed File System (DFS).

The Distributed Filesystem (DFS) is one of the applications of the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE). DFS makes use of DCE authentication to control access to security services to protect and control access to data. Your Penn State Access Account userid and password will grant you access to a variety of Penn State services, including your Penn State Access Account Storage Space (PASS).

PASS can be accessed via:

• a local DCE/DFS client..
• the PASS Gateway
• the Penn State Portal's built-in file transfer tool, the PASS Explorer.
• a secure file transfer client.

More information about secure file transfer options is available at the FTP Alternatives Web site.

The DCE/DFS client for Windows NT can be downloaded at https://www.work.psu.edu/access/dce/.

This filesystem is currently used to serve the public UNIX labs, licensed software, several Web sites, such as the Penn State World Campus and Penn State Harrisburg and various Penn State Access services.