Information Technology News Archive

1996 - 2017

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Campus Support

Vendor Technical Briefings at UCI

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NACS has recently sponsored several technical briefings by vendors who offer products and services intended for the educational community. NACS consulted campus support staff to narrow down which vendors and products were of interest, and then invited vendors to make campus presentations. The vendors were:

Nokia Display Products, who provided an overview and demonstration of Nokia monitors. Nokia is making a deliberate effort to increase its presence in the educational market by offering quality products at educational discounts.

Intel, who presented Video Conferencing products and outlined the “Intel CPU Roadmap,” Intel’s strategy for its family of processors.

Microsoft, who presented a technical overview of the new version of Windows NT about to be released (version 5.0 Beta 2) and described the strategic direction of Microsoft NT.

For detailed information about these presentations, please see NACS’ Computer Support Coordinator page:

http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/csc

Suggestions about future vendor briefings are welcome, please contact Jan Vescera of NACS’ Indirect Support Team,JVescera@UCI.EDU.

Reviewing Academic Computing Support

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The UCI Academic Computing Support Review Committee has been formed to collect information andperspectives concerning support of academic computing at UCI. The committee will look at both local(departmental and school) and central support of faculty, student, and academic department computingactivities. It will also make initial recommendations on improving UCI’s support situation.

The creation of the committee represents a first step in reviewing the critical issue of technical support atUCI. The information gathered, as well as the initial recommendations made, will be available for campus comment and follow-up study.

“Computing support” includes end-user (faculty, student, staff) assistance, as well as behind-the-scenes network, server and application maintenance and development. Examples of end-user assistance are: system and software installation/setup, hardware/ software problem resolution, “how-to” advice on common software, instructional computing assistance, and consulting on a variety of topics.

The committee membership is a mix of faculty, assistant deans, and computer support managers. Members are: Peter Breen (College of Medicine), Candy Garretson (Humanities), Gregg Goldman (Graduate School of Management), Craig Martens (Physical Sciences), Jim Murry (College of Medicine), Leslie Pearlman (Biological Sciences), Thomas Saine (Humanities), Alan Terricciano (School of the Arts), Jan Vescera (NACS), and Ted Wright (Research and Graduate Studies/ Social Sciences). Input to the committee may be provided to any of its members, or to Committee Chair Dana Roode (DRoode@UCI.EDU, 824-5173).

Computing and Communication Service Upgrades and Enhancements, 1995/1996

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This issue of NACS-News summarizes some of the improvements in Network and Computing services NACS has made during the 1995/1996 academic year. The demand for communications and computing access continues to grow at a fast pace. NACS is tracking the increasing demand and is making critical improvements as resources allow.

UCI Network Backbone

In September 1995, NACS pulled and spliced a significant amount of new fiber-optic cable around the campus to expand UCI’s network backbone. At the same time, the backbone was reconfigured into five switched Ethernet subnets, cabled in a star configuration. These changes not only accommodate current growth in campus electronic communication demand, but also increase UCI’s flexibility in responding to demands anticipated in the next five years and beyond. (See the Web document http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/backbone-1995 for detailed information).

Modems

NACS increased the number of modems in the campus modem pool from 220 to 300 in September, 1995 as a part of our Dial-up Remote Access Plan. To improve modem performance including file transfer speed and character echoing, two additional terminal servers were added to those servicing the modem pools in April 1996. Terminal servers are specialized computers with communications electronics that connect the modems to UCI’s backbone network. Further performance improvements resulted from balancing the 308 modems and incoming calls among all five modem terminal servers.

As previously announced, NACS has stabilized the free modem pool at approximately 300 modems at 14.4 kilobytes per second. See the Web document http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/Modem_Action_Summary.html for detailed information about 1995 modem changes. Enhanced modem services are now available through commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs); for more information, see the Web document http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication under “Internet Service Providers”.

Network Services

UCI’s network is not all wires and data communications equipment, it also includes dedicated computers that service network requests such as hostname to address correlation, mail transfer, and user authentication. In September NACS upgraded the “cpl2” network server to new hardware with over ten times the performance of the old. In March of this year we added an additional Mail Transport Agent (MTA) system which is used to post mail sent via LISTSERV mailing lists. Earlier in 1995 we upgraded the campus USENET News server (news.service.uci.edu). These changes collectively reduce the time required for electronic mail delivery, network computer name lookups, USENET newsgroup access, user authentication and campus directory database access.

EA – Student Educational Access Service

Accounts on our EA (Educational Access) student computing servers have grown from about 3,000 just a few years ago to over 14,000 this year. To accommodate that growth, NACS added a fourth system to the cluster in the Fall of 1995, effectively increasing capacity by about a third. Further configuration enhancements were made in January when two systems were added to handle high-volume “operating system” tasks such as mail transfer and user authentication. We also increased overall EA disk storage space several times to accommodate the additional users and large electronic mail storage need.

Over the summer of 1995 we changed the way students receive their UCInetID network identifiers and EA computer accounts. Students no longer have to visit NACS labs during the day to get their IDs and get started, they can go to any location with computers connected to the campus network. Further, they now use the same ID and password for modem use and logging into the EA systems. This ID is also available to each student as an electronic mail address of the form ID@UCI.EDU.

E4E – Faculty and Staff Electronic Access Service

NACS’ E4E service provides electronic mail and other services for over 3,000 faculty and staff. To meet increased demand there, the E4E server was upgraded in January to a new SPARCserver 5 system, which has approximately three times the computing capacity of the previous system.

NACS Instructional Labs

This past year, we have made several improvements to our Instructional Computing labs and more are planned for the summer. Our classroom Macintosh lab in Engineering and Computing Trailer (ECT) 120 has a new server and has been reconfigured to greatly reduce the amount of time required for programs to load. New user requested software, including ClarisWorks, is now available as well. In the ECT 123 Pentium Classroom lab, we have increased memory and updated software. We plan to move our PC labs to a Windows-NT environment over the summer which will improve system reliability and provide a current software platform for campus use.

UNIX File Backups

NACS has provided a file backup service for campus UNIX computer systems for a number of years. This service frees research groups and departments from having to maintain their own file save schedules and tape archives. In late 1995, this service was migrated from a homegrown solution to a commercial file save product, greatly increasing the efficiency of running saves. This change allows us to keep up with increasing demands for saves without increasing fees and will allow us to offer additional save services in the future for MS-Window and Macintosh computers.

 

 

Your Feedback is Important

What did you think of the first three issues of NACS-News? What topics would you like us to cover in the future? Please e-mail comments and suggestions to our NACS@UCI.EDU address — include “nacs-news” in your subject line to facilitate processing.

NACS’ “Response Center” Help Desk

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Welcome to the second issue of NACS-News, the Network & Academic Computing Services electronic newsletter. Below we describe our help desk, which serves as a central starting point in NACS for obtaining information and service. You may utilize the Help Desk by visiting Engineering Gateway E2130, calling (949) 824-6116, or by sending electronic mail to the address NACS@UCI.EDU.

The Help Desk is also known as the NACS Response Center and is a part of NACS’ Core Services group. It is located in Engineering Gateway E2130 and is open 8 AM to 5 PM daily except during weekends and holidays. In addition to providing computing assistance and information, software kits including the Macintosh and Windows Anteater Access Kits (MAAT and WAAT) are sold here along with print cards and a few other supplies. Two Apple digital cameras are available as well for loans up to a day in length to those needing illustrations for reports and Web pages. E2130 is also the place to come to resolve any issues with UCInetID’s and passwords.

In-Lab Consulting

Student consultants are available in NACS’ Engineering Gateway E1140 Computing Lab to assist those using NACS lab facilities. They provide help activating and using UCInetID’s, and help using electronic mail, information retrieval tools and other software. The consultants also facilitate access to high-quality monochrome and color printing and flat-bed document and image scanners.

Student consultants are available daily between 8 AM and 8 PM except weekends, holidays and when school is not in session. All UCI students, regardless of major or class enrollment, may use NACS lab facilities and consulting assistance for educational purposes.

NACS@UCI.EDU E-mail

The NACS@UCI.EDU electronic mail address provides an additional way to ask questions, report problems, and provide feedback to NACS. The address is staffed by a combination of student and career computing support staff with assistance from area specialists throughout NACS. Our goal is to provide an initial response to inquiries within one business day of receipt. Electronic mail is an excellent way to make non-urgent inquiries, especially those that require specialized or in-depth expertise.

What the Help Desk Does Not Do

The Help Desk does not generally assist with hardware and software purchases, issues requiring on-site visits or other longer-term matters. Our help with installation and configuration issues for home computer systems is limited to phone-support as time allows and to those following standards we communicate (the UCI Macintosh Anteater Access Kit based on MacSLIP, the UCI Windows Anteater Access Kit based on Trumpet Winsock). On-site PC and Mac support needs are best provided by local departmental staff.

Recent Improvements

We have recently gone to a “receptionist / dispatch” scheme at our help desk to make it easier to reach us, ensure that urgent matters are handled without delay, and improve overall service quality. Callers and visitors now interact with one or two trained receptionist-dispatchers who determine the most effective way to respond to their needs. We have also implemented a call tracking system to enable us to respond to requests in a timely manner and ensure each receives appropriate attention. The system tracks outstanding problems and will provide key information concerning help desk trends to accommodate continuing service refinement.

Supported Software and Services

Support for the following areas of expertise is offered by front-line Help Desk staff. Included is campus standard software, software of widespread use, and items of critical importance to the computing mission of UCI and NACS:

  • Operating environments: Microsoft Windows 3.1 (Windows 95 and NT support coming), Macintosh, basic UNIX
  • Network Applications: Telnet, FTP, Web browsers (Netscape, Lynx), Electronic mail (Eudora, Pine)
  • Other Network services: UCInetID network authentication, campus directory database, modem use with WAAT and MAAT packages, access to campus-wide information services, LISTSERV mailing lists
  • Productivity Applications: Microsoft Word and Excel
  • NACS Services: “EA” Student computing, “E4E” Faculty and Staff electronic mail, Orion UNIX service, Convex research computing service, NACS instructional labs

The Help Desk also provides limited access to specialized assistance in other software as expertise and staff time allow. Please direct your questions about other software to us via electronic mail to NACS@UCI.EDU.