LDAP is a protocol for searching for email addresses and checking the passwords of people with a Unix ID. The College runs three LDAP servers:
- nds1.williams.edu is the Novell NetWare server that has a lot of information about you, and that can check your password;
- nds2.williams.edu is nds1's twin;
- ldap.williams.edu is used solely for searching email addresses.
Contents
Auto-completing email addresses
Many email clients let you configure an LDAP server to act as your address book. This means you can search for someone's email address directly in your mail client, without having to use WSO Facebook. Here are the settings you'll need:
Server: ldap.williams.edu
Search Base: ou=People,o=williams
Port: 389
Use SSL: No
If you're writing a program and want to use the LDAP server to retrieve a person's first name, last name, and email address you'll want to use the search base "uid=$USER,o=williams,ou=people" (where $USERNAME is a person's Unix ID), and retrive the attributes "sn" (last name), "givenName" (first name), and "mail" (email address).
Authenticating with LDAP
Here are settings for checking the passwords of different types of users. Ideally, you can authenticate more than one type, but that will depend what kind of support your software has. Of course, if you are a true badass, you shouldn't be afraid to write your own extension to handle multiple LDAP settings. In all cases, you need to somehow substitute $USER with the name of the user that's logging in.
Williams Students
Server: nds2.williams.edu (or nds1.williams.edu) Bind domain: cn=$USER,ou=student,o=williams SSL: no
WSO accounts
These include some students and some alumni.
Server: wanda Bind domain: uid=$USER,cn=users,dc=ursula,dc=local SSL: yes
Williams Faculty
Server: nds2.williams.edu Bind domain: cn=$USER,ou=faculty,o=williams SSL: no
Williams Staff
Server: nds2.williams.edu Bind domain: cn=$USER,ou=staff,o=williams SSL: no
Williams Alumni
Server: alumni.williams.edu Bind domain: uid=$USER,ou=alumni,o=williams SSL: no(?)
Info from LDAP
In addition to the servers above, you can query ldap2.williams.edu for general directory info. (No SSL)