-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Adrian Midgley
Sent: 24 November 1998 17:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: NHS Net SMTP problems are being worked on
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I will cheerfully accept a notebook (my own is getting a bit
scuffed and new ones are faster) but you have missed the point.
At home we have three machines on the network, (when the medical
student is home and the laptop, Z88 and Pilot are not)
Now, would you argue that GPs must have _two_ networks at home,
each independently connected, one to NHS Net and another to an
ordinary ISP, and that no floppies must be in common? I think
not.
So, one of the security expenses of the NHS Net for GPs is
providing ordinary ISP for legitimate users of their equipment at
home.
Perhaps you would say that the use of a GPs PC at home by a
member of the family to turn out a few pages of typed essay could
be made so clearly unacceptable, so horrifically punishable, that
it would not happen? No. Examine the problem, consider whose
needs are served by restricting GPs to the secure ISP services of
the new NHS Net, and the actual cost of adding a few children and
a spouse (who is highly likely on the practice payroll anyway and
therefore in the NHS family) to the connection, and provide it
with a smile rather than having it taken or the security
compromised in all the way s we are told (and are getting close
to being convinced) are worth avoiding and need NHS net to avoid.
There was a phrase about kine and grain...
--- OffRoad 1.9r registered to Adrian Midgley
Attended a meeting yesterday with 15 local GPs who are about to
get on the NHS net. The demonstration was better than I had
imagined and using IE 4 the transition between NHS Net and the
internet appeared seamless - perhaps worryingly so!
A laptop was used to connect to the NHS Net and the password was
entered in two halves. The first half from memory, the second
from a credit card sized gizmo which receives a newly transmitted
password each minute.
Impressed the hell out of me!
Is not this seemingly adequate security in conjunction with a
laptop a good solution? I would think that the number of GPs with
networks at home is limited (... to a very select few <g>)
Laurie Slater
[log in to unmask]
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