A computer program providing a secure method for operating other computers over a network will be the topic of a lecture at the next meeting of the Ames Area Free UNIX Group on Information Technology (AAFUGIT).

The meeting will be Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Room 1420 of Molecular Biology.

Tracy Di Marco White, systems analyst for the ISU Computation Center, will be speaking about Secure Shell (SSH), a program that allows people to log onto computers over a network in a secure method.

“SSH allows you to connect to remote computers while your password and data are encrypted,” Di Marco White said. “It gives you the ability to authenticate and encrypt your data while you’re online with other computers.”

The program provides users a with a secure way of networking a group of computers and sharing files and information with other users.

In addition to the lecture, the AAFUGIT meeting will feature an open question-and-answer session, a regular part of all the group’s meetings.

Mike Dorman, junior in computer engineering and AAFUGIT secretary, said the group meets regularly to discuss UNIX and UNIX-based operating systems.

“UNIX is a formal definition of the way an operating system works,” he said. “There are many different types of it. Some of the more popular kinds are Linux and BSD. Each type of UNIX-based programming is a different kind of operating system.”

Di Marco White said UNIX and systems similar to it have certain advantages over other types of operating systems.

“UNIX tends to be fairly stable,” she said. “That makes it better for certain types of services.”

She also said it is easier to add new components to a UNIX program than with other operating systems and that UNIX and UNIX-based systems offer more security than other types.

Dorman noted Project Vincent, a program used by many ISU students and faculty to access university e-mail accounts, is an example of a system that uses UNIX-based programming.

AAFUGIT meets once a month to have its regular question-and-answer session, and Dorman said the group has been growing steadily since its inception in 1998.

“We have about 25 or 30 due-paying members, and we get anywhere from 40 to 60 people at our meetings depending on the interest in the subject we’re talking about,” he said. “We’ll be signing up new members soon, and we expect to have a lot of people join the group when that happens.”