About X.500 Directory Services at UT Houston

Directory Home

FAQ

Eudora Access

Tips and Tricks

Complex Searches

Vital Stats
  1. Why bring up this new directory? 
  2. How do I access and search the information 
  3. What information is kept in the directory? 
  4. How is the information is organized (why do I appear under organization X?) 
  5. How does the directory service work? 
  6. What to do if you find errors 
  7. What is X.500? What is LDAP? 

Why bring up this new directory?

  • Better/more access to directory, more powerful searching 
  • more kinds of data 
  • more uses 
  • standards based 
  • DIR Recommendation 

How do I access and search the information

Web 
Good general-purpose access at http://www.uth.tmc.edu/uth_databases/white_pages/ 
Finger (Ctrl-U in Eudora) 
Access through the finger protocol is available in Eudora. To configure Eudora 2.2, select the Tools menu and click Options. Click on the Hosts item icon and enter the name x500.uth.tmc.edu in the Finger: window. Click OK, then use Tools|Ph (Ctrl+U) and enter the name you want to search for in the Command: window. You can cut and paste the address into a New message window. 
Windows/Unix/Mac standalone clients 
A variety of clients are available for all platforms. These are covered in the X.500 and LDAP Software page.  You must set the directory host to ldap.uth.tmc.edu, the search root to "o=The University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center,st=Texas,c=US", and the port to 389 (default).

What information is kept in the directory?

From Personnel System (BPPS), Graduate Medical Education Data System (GMEDS) and Student Information System (SIS)

Full name 
Firstname Middle Initial Lastname for Faculty/Staff, Firstname Middlename Lastname for students 
Title 
Job Title, as in the Classified Staff Summary Job Descriptions, or degree program name 
Organizational status 
Employee Type, or school standing 
Telephone number 
Phone numbers are in the international format "+1 713 792 4869" 
Postal address 
standard U.S. Mail address format 
Email address 
An electronic mail address in Internet-style syntax about 45% of total (49% of staff, 40% of students, GMEDS currently in upgrade) 
Room number 
The room number of a person's office, eg. G.100, for Faculty and Staff 
Personal title 
Ms, Dr., Prof., etc 

How is the information is organized (why do I appear under organization X?)

  • Faculty and Staff by Area 
    • Academic Support 
    • Administrative Support 
    • Dental Branch 
    • Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 
    • Harris County Psychiatric Center 
    • Houston Recovery Center 
    • Institute of Molecular Medicine 
    • Institutional Support 
    • Medical School 
    • Medical School House Staff (GMEDS) 
    • School of Allied Health Sciences 
    • School of Nursing 
    • School of Public Health 
    • Student Support 
  • Students by Schools 
    • Dental School 
    • Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences 
    • Medical School 
    • Other Classifications 
    • School of Allied Health Sciences 
    • School of Nursing 
    • School of Public Health 

How does the directory service work?

A special-purpose collection of software holds the directory information and executes searches and retrievals, and requests information from other organization's X.500 directories on behalf of the user. Complete technical details are available on the Directory Services System page. 

What to do if you find errors

The information in the directory is based on publicly available information. Students should request a Change of Address form from the Registrar's Office in UCT 2250. Faculty and staff should have the person responsible for payroll in their department correct it in BPPS on the R01T screen. 

What is X.500? What is LDAP?

Standards-Based Directory Services 
As X.500 can be used to build a standards-based directory, applications which require directory information (e-mail, automated resources locators, special-purpose directory tools) can access a planet's worth of information in a uniform manner, no matter where they are based or currently running. 
Powerful Searching Capabilities 
X.500 provides powerful searching facilities that allow users to construct arbitrarily complex queries. 
Single Global Namespace 
Much like the DNS, X.500 provides a single homogeneous namespace to users. The X.500 namespace is more flexible and expandable than the DNS. 
Structured Information Framework 
X.500 defines the information framework used in the Directory, allowing local extensions. 

With these features alone, X.500 is being used today to provide the backbone of a global White Pages service. There is almost 3 years of operational experience with X.500, and it is being used widely in Europe and Australia in addition to North America. 

LDAP 
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a protocol for accessing online directory services. LDAP has been chosen as Internet standard for directory services by a consortium of 40 companies, including AT&T, Banyan, Computer Associates, Control Data Systems, Inc., Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM, Innosoft, Lotus, Lycos, Netscape, Novell, Inc., FTP Software, Silicon Graphics, Inc., SunSoft, Inc., University of Michigan and Yahoo! Inc. 
DSA Manager / <info@x500.uth.tmc.edu> / Last Change: Feb 5, 1997