#define quoting(Nathan Gelbard)
// The problem: I can log in just fine using yp, and so can a number
// of other people. But, some cant! We thought it was password length,
// but shortening the passwords didnt help (changed passwd on peanuts,
// not using yppasswd - is that it? the slackware 1.2.13 dist
// didnt have yppasswd).
// 
// The first user to bring this up is using # 700something. His

Is this uid dependent ?  I mean, do ALL users above #700something
show this behaviour ?

// username shows up on a ypcat passwd, and I can finger him
// at deepthought (which gets redirected to the yp server, peanuts).

What do you mean with "redirected" ?  GNU Finger ?  What does the
local original finger say ?

// Also, a lot of people groan when I say 'yp/nis and nfs.' Why is this?
// Is there an alternative?

It's completely bogus from the security point of view, but on most local
networks this is not the main concern since there are other sources of
problems, like NFS and packet sniffing.

Alternatives: NIS+, static manual configuration and static configuration
centralized with main redistributed across machines (with rdist for example).

					Jonny

--
Joao Carlos Mendes Luis			jonny@gta.ufrj.br
+55 21 290-4698				jonny@coppe.ufrj.br
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro	UFRJ/COPPE/CISI
PGP fingerprint: 29 C0 50 B9 B6 3E 58 F2  83 5F E3 26 BF 0F EA 67