[FAQ]Frequently Asked Questions



FAQ 1: My connection to some servers through PuTTY does not work anymore (I cannot connect to merlin.fit.vutbr.cz), but I can access the faculty website

It is likely the DNS records for your IP are not correct. Try to check your IP address at http://www.hcidata.info/host2ip.cgi or http://cqcounter.com/whois/.

The issue must be fixed by the ISP. More details regarding how and why direct and reverse records should be set can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_DNS_lookup

Of course, a direct record must exist as well and the reverse and direct records must match.

If you recognize no problem mentioned above, continue with Guideline for solving problems

FAQ 2: Horde/IMP - I would like to change my e-mail password, but I don't know how

Access to email.fit.vutbr.cz requires your Unix password stored at the relevant student Unix server (eva or fest for students of the FEEC or kazi for employees of the FIT). Use SSH to log in to that server; to log in from a Windows computer, use PuTTY or similar software - more information is available in the Computer Centre guides iSafe logging in. Change the password by using the passwd command - see http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/CVT/net/ucty.php.en

On servers (eva etc.), this password change will take effect immediately but in WIS and Linux, it will take effect within an hour. As soon as you use the new password to log into WIS, you can also set it for Active Directory:

Students: Účty a hesla (Accounts and passwords) -> Setting password for Microsoft Active Directory

Employees: Provoz, nástěnky - (Operation, notice boards...) -> Setting password in the MS Active Directory

The change will take effect immediately for the Active Directory.

Please note! Write down your new password and keep it somewhere safe. If you forget your new password, you will have to skip to the next answer:

FAQ 3: I changed my password, but I forgot it

If you forget your password, follow the instructions at: http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/CVT/net/problem.php - a password can be changed administratively only upon request of the account's owner, therefore it is necessary to provide a proof of identity, preferably using your student identity card.

FAQ 4: Is there any way to determine the amount of free space in a given mailbox? I want to prevent a situation where I learn that my mailbox is full from other people informing me that attachments cannot be delivered to my mailbox. I tried the Display Quota Thunderbird add-on, but IMAP probably does not send information on the allocated quota.

The size of inboxes is not limited. However, the size is checked periodically, and the owner of overly big mailbox is informed to limit its size. In order to limit the size of a mailbox, it is not sufficient to simply delete the messages, it is also necessary to perform the folder maintenance, which physically removes deleted message from the mailbox. Your case, however, deals with the maximum size of a message. That is, indeed, limited. In general, it holds that it is not suitable to use e-mail to send messages larger than 1 MB. If you want to send larger attachment, the web interface allows you to leave it on the server and attach only a link to the e-mail.

FAQ 5: I deleted all received e-mails by mistake. I want to ask if it is possible to restore them. Thank you

Most clients delete messages by moving them into the recycle bin (trash). If the bin has already been emptied or if you set it to automatically discard all files, the e-mails can only be restored from a backup. You can find what can be restored and how to do it at /CVT/net/backups.php.

FAQ 6: I receive no e-mails. I have had this problem since the beginning, but I need it solved only now.

(How to change mail forwarding?) It is likely your mail is being forwarded. You may have set up forwarding of your mail in the .forward file (not recommended). Solution: delete the file.

Forwarding through procmail (.procmailrc) can be set from the web interface at https://email.fit.vutbr.cz.

Simple recipes can be defined manually according to the following guides: /CVT/net/procmail.php. We recommend you to use one of the examples in the article and test the result!

Please note: if you the use web interface to set forwarding, you cannot change the .procmailrc file manually. If there is a manually created .procmailrc file, the web interface will not allow you to save the configuration and you will have to delete the .procmailrc file manually.

Second option: if you use the web interface, the e-mails are listed in pages (25 by default) and sorted from the oldest. That means that new messages are on the last page. You have to simply switch to sort by date from the newest and your new e-mails will be visible right after you log in.

FAQ 7: I keep receiving an e-mail saying that my inbox is too large. I already deleted everything, but I keep receiving the message.

Size of the mailbox is a file size-related information, that is no mistake. Most mail clients delete messages by marking them as deleted but will leave them in the mailbox until you instruct them otherwise. It is likely that your deleted messages have not been removed. If your mail software cannot remove them or you do not know how to instruct it to do so, you can remove them at: https://email.fit.vutbr.cz (Clean up deleted files item located under the list of messages).

You do not have to erase the messages, you can simply move them to other folders.

FAQ 8: How can I access mail and data after completion of my studies?

Access to the academic computer network is only provided to active students and employees of BUT. After you complete your studies, you lose access rights. Your student account is automatically blocked within 24 hours of the completion of your studies being recorded in the central information system.

Holiday-period after the State examination is the only exception; in this case, there is a time period for enrolment into further studies and cleaning up after successful completion of studies.

That means that you must copy your data in time. The mail can be forwarded (preferably through the web interface); you will keep receiving mail forwarded in this manner for about 90 days of the completion of your studies.

Temporary unblocking of the account is not possible (the automatic system will quickly block it again).

FAQ 9: How can I obtain Microsoft software for students from the Dream Spark programme (formerly MSDN Academic Alliance)?

Microsoft software from the Dream Spark programme (formerly MSDN AA) is available to students of the FIT through the e-academy; for more information see the Wiki including some FAQs. Note this information may not be available in English.

FAQ 10: IMAP4 - no messages in the INBOX folder

Hello, I recently installed the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client. I completed the installation and logged in my e-mail through email.fit.vutbr.cz, but the INBOX folder still reports that there are no messages in the folder even though I know that is not true.

If you use the POP3 protocol from a computer, the messages will be moved to a local folder on said computer (even though some clients allow read messages to be left on the server). If you want to read your mail from several different places, you need to always use the IMAP protocol.

What can be done if it already happened?

Create another account in the same software, this time using the IMAP protocol, copy the contents of local mailboxes (especially the inbox) to some folder on the IMAP server and subsequently delete the POP3 account.

FAQ 11: Web - my student website does not work

Each time you log in to the eva server, a brief instruction is shown; here is the summary:
  • Create a WWW directory: mkdir ~/WWW in the home directory
  • set permissions: chmod -R o=rX,g= ~/WWW (i.e. a permission to read and execute for everyone but prohibited writing and no group permissions)
  • set permissions for home directory as follows: chmod o=x ~
  • the WWW directory must contain a valid index.html or index.php file. HTML files must be readable "for everyone" - chmod o+r. PHP scripts are executed under your identity; therefore, they must be readable for owner (usually the default setting).
  • to check the permissions - example: 
     eva ~> chmod -R o=rX,g= WWW
     eva ~> ls -ld WWW
     drwx---r-x  2 xtest99  vti-fekt  512 21 oct 16:10 WWW
     eva ~> ls -l WWW
     total 0
     -rw-r-----  1 xtest99  vti-fekt  0 21 oct 16:17 index.php
     eva ~> chmod o+r WWW/index.php
     eva ~> ls -l WWW
     total 0
     rw-r--r--  1 xtest99  vti-fekt  0 21 oct 16:17 index.php

If your account has been blocked, the WWW directory was renamed to WWW.lock. After unblocking the account, you must manually rename the directory back: 

 mv WWW.lock WWW
and set permissions as described above. In addition, permissions are automatically repaired every night so if you do not get it right today, it should work tomorrow. And vice versa - if it is found that you do not have a valid index file, access to the WWW directory will be blocked.

FAQ 12: Web - websites are in some strange code

If you want to use other coding than the implicit ISO-8859-2 in HTML files of PHP scripts, then:
  • for HTML files, create a file WWW/.htaccess containing:
    DefaultCharset XYZ
    where XYZ is for example windows-1250, etc. Do not forget to set read permission of the file for web server (chmod o+r WWW/.htaccess). If you change the file after displaying the page in a browser, the change may not take any effect due to caching. Either force hard refresh (Shift + Reload) or try using touch on the html file.
  • for PHP scripts, you must explicitly generate a header using: 
    header("Content-Type: text/html; windows-1250");
    or modify the automatically generated implicit ISO-8859-2header: 
    ini_set("default_charset", "windows-1250");
    Both must be before the first script output.

Please note! .htaccess is checked along the entire path so it definitely should not exist outside the WWW directory branch

FAQ 13: Web - I want a more up-to-date PHP version than 5.3

PHP 5.3.29 is implicit due to compatibility concerns (see google php magic quotes and SQL injection). If you are sure you understand the issue of SQL injection, know the prepared SQL commands or mysqli_escape_string() and want to use a more up-to-date version of PHP which, however, does not protect you against this issue, all you have to do is rename the PHP scripts from .php extension to .php56 (.php70, .php71 or .php72). If you do not want to rename all the files, create a file named .htaccess in the root of the WWW directory with the following contents: 
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php56 .php
The file must be readable by anyone but must not be writable. (For PHP 7.0, 7.,1 or 7.2, you can use the name php70, php71, php72 etc. instead of php56).

FAQ 14: Horde/IMP - If I attempt to send an e-mail, it displays a message that I did not mark any contact as own. I do not know what to do; I really cannot send messages.

Menu Contacts -> View - the Contacts Directory login@stud.fit.vutbr.cz should appear. There must be a contact with your Name and Surname. If there is no such contact, create it through New Contact; then click on it so that its details appear and on a blue bar with your name select the Select as Own Contact option.

FAQ 15: Horde/IMP - The Sent folder has not been created. This is the server report: Cannot create mailbox name with 8-bit octet

Rename the sent mail folder; the IMAP server either does not support folder names with diacritical marks or there is some issue with the name. It appears to be caused by a misplaced initiative on the part of Slovak localisation - Czech version uses the name "Sent" (i.e. it was not translated).

You can change it in the Options -> Personal Information menu (the lowermost item).

FAQ 16: When I log in to Windows, I have a temporary profile, if I log out, everything is deleted

If your roaming user profile does not copy over to the workstation successfully, the system will use a temporary profile; it is usually stored in c:\users\TEMP.

Potential causes:

  • There is a file that cannot be copied in the profile - e.g. something blocked by an antivirus (almost every keygen contains something malicious).
  • The profile is too large - this can easily happen during work with virtual machines, also check the folder with downloaded files. Do not save larger files to your desktop but rather on the network drive P:
When it already happened: Open the saved profile and use the right mouse button to verify its size or perform an antivirus scan. A profile can usually be found here: \\fik\profiles$\login-name.V2 (or .V6 in Windows 10).

A profile that was successfully copied to the computer is placed in %USERPROFILE%.

FAQ 17: While logging in via CAS, I end up with a "browser looping problem" error

This is a typical situation if your ISP uses CG NAT and the logging in the CAS is performed from a different IP address than subsequent access to the server.

Down in the CAS form, there is the IP address from which you log in.

There is an IP address in the lower left quadrant of the www.fit.vutbr.cz website.

There is an IP address also in the header on the video server.

If these addresses differ and they are IPv4, you experience exactly this problem.

It can be solved by using VPN FIT - guides can be found at the Computer Centre website - http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/CVT/vpn.php. Or by using VPN BUT, a guide can be found at http://wifigw.cis.vutbr.cz/vpn/win10/ but take into consideration that while using VPN BUT, all the traffic from your computer goes through the VPN which is unnecessary for your purposes.

Recently (autumn 2017) the issue arose from some change at Netbox ISP. UPC and O2 do not suffer from this issue. If you are a Netbox customer and have a suitable router, you can try enabling IPv6 support, see n6.netbox.cz.

FAQ 18: Did not find what you were looking for?

Try to read the guides at: http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/CVT/net/index.php and only then ask. Point your questions to persons with relevant competences - see Help in solving issues; never use addresses like info@, studinfo@, etc. for these purposes.

The students of the FEEC can use these guides while taking into account that they have different servers and different computer laboratories - their guides can be found at: http://www.feec.vutbr.cz/OSIS/net/ and may be different.

Keep in mind that you are obliged to use the university e-mail address to communicate with the university, except for cases when you address an issue that prevents you from accessing the university e-mail (but in this case, it is usually required to visit the university in person anyway).

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