Hi everybody,

Here's another issue of CISN that emerges after a dynamic interval of praparation. In this issue, we will continue to share with our readers the hottest issues and up-to-date news about information technologies, as well as giving information about the current campus-wide services of METU Computer Center, frequently asked questions, the know-how and the experiences we have gained in our professions.

Please visit the following link if you'd like to see the content of CISN in Turkish;

http://cisn.odtu.edu.tr

The statistics of the last four issues of CISN reveal that the number of accesses in the July 2001 issue is 640, in October 2001 issue the number of accesses is 1333, in February 2002 issue the number is 1432 and in July 2001 issue the number is 1985. We think that the deeper integration of Internet and mobile technologies into our lives and evolution of an "information society" manifests itself evidently in the wider aduience we are gaining in every issue which, we must admit, is a source of a great pleasure and genuine motivation for us.

Beginning from the year 2003, we are planning to publish CISN thrimonthly, namely in April, August and December. Please feel free to convey us your suggestions about any kind of IT subject you would like to see in the next issues, via CISN's e-mail address cisn@metu.edu.tr.

Many thanks to the following Computer Center staff whose perpetual contribution to CISN are sincerely and gratefully acknowledged; graphical designer Yasemin Saatçioğlu-Oran; statistician Ulaş Sunata; translator Deniz Yönter and CC User Support Group Administrator Cengiz Acartürk.

The following Computer Center staff has provided the following articles in this issue;

Sinem Cezayirlioğlu (Administrative Support Group member); effective organisation and management of information and communication technologies purchases...

Selçuk Han Aydın (PC Rooms/Administrative Units Technical Support Coordinator, User Support Group member); comparison of Slackware, RedHat, Mandrake Linux releases...

Gökhan Eryol (Network Group member); VLANs -virtual local area networks-, definitions of VLANs, their implementations...

Ahmet Öztürk (Technical Support Group System Administrator); developement tools for free software and a sample software project...

Bahar Şengün (Administrative Applications Group member); some useful hints about naming database components...

İbrahim Çalışır (Virus and Network Security Administrator, User Support Group member); basic security settings for computers operating with Windows 2000 / XP software...

We'd like to thank all the people who has contributed to this issue. Enjoy CISN and please remember that your ideas and suggestions will guide us in the next issues...

Ömer GÖZÜ