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Home Access / Modem Plans

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Currently, there are no plans to purchase additional modems or replace existing UCI modems with faster ones. NACS and others have examined these options, but no funding has been identified for modem improvements, and there are other considerations including a rapidly changing home-access market.

In 1995, NACS implemented a number of changes to deal with the frequent busy signals users were encountering on the campus modem pool at that time. These changes were largely successful and got the campus through the 1995/1996 school year. However, each year brings additional network activity, and the congestion has once again been an issue during 1996/1997.

NACS believes that increased use of commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is the best way to meet UCI’s current and future remote access needs. However, NACS will explore the availability of resources to support centrally-funded modem service for UCI faculty, staff and students, whether through on-campus modem pools or ISPs.

NACS will pursue more favorable arrangements with ISPs that the “buying power” of the combined UCI community might allow. NACS will continue to work on resolving network access restriction issues from ISPs. UCI-restricted USENET Newsgroups are now available from ISPs, and a gateway is in the works for restricted Web areas.

NACS looks to commercial providers for the largest piece of the home access solution as ISPs can more effectively provide remote access than can NACS, and with greater functionality. They already offer local phone numbers that provide network access from a variety of local and national locations. Cable TV companies are now offering high-speed access from several southern California locations.

More information about the current remote access situation and plans can be found in the web – seehttp://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/home-access.html. Additionally, a new LISTSERV mailing list “HOME-ACCESS@UCI.EDU” has been created for future modem, ISP and home access announcements. To add yourself to this list, send a message to LISTSERV@UCI.EDU with “subscribe home-access YOURNAME” in the message body.

824-9000 Modem Sessions To Be Limited to 2 Hours

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As a temporary measure to relieve congestion, the maximum amount of time allowed for any one session on UCI’s 824-9000 modem pool is being reduced to 2 hours. Shorter dial-up sessions will give more people a chance at this scarce free resource. NACS is studying several long-term remote access solutions including more favorable arrangements with commercial Internet Service Providers.

Lighting Every Pillow In UCI Residence Halls

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What would you think if someone said they were going to light your pillow? Well, if you live in the New Middle Earth (NME) residence halls you might know that this means you and your roommate will have access to your own high speed network connection to UCInet and the Internet in your room. Network access will be made available to NME residents beginning with the Spring 1997 quarter. A total of 481 rooms and 900 active network connections will be provided.

NACS has partnered with UCI Housing in a commitment to “light every pillow” at UCI by providing ethernet network connections to the residents of UCI Housing. The entire NME complex was recently re-cabled with high speed data grade category 5 cable and new network equipment is currently being installed. The new connections will be 10MB ethernet which is several hundred times faster than the 28.8K modems NME residents are currently using. The higher speed is practically a requirement for residents to fully participate in UCI’s Educational Electronic Environment and utilize services available on the World Wide Web.

Currently network access is available in the Arroyo Vista complex and should be available in the Palo Verde complex before Christmas. Future plans are to “Light Every Pillow” in all the residential housing complexes — planning is currently underway to bring data connections to Lower Middle Earth, Mesa Court, and Campus Village. It is hoped that significant progress can be made in these complexes by Fall of `97.

If you have any questions about the Light Every Pillow project, contact Brian Buckler, NACS ECS Operations Manager, by e-mail at bbuckler@uci.edu, or Rob Ameele, Associate Director of Housing, at rameele@uci.edu.

Alternatives for Modem Users

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ALTERNATIVES FOR MODEM USERS

As a member of the UCI community, you have unlimited use of NACS'”free” modem pool. However, for many people, sharing 300 modems that serve a community of approximately 20,000 faculty, staff, and students is inconvenient and, at times, frustrating. The free modem pool is designed as a default service to ensure that everyone at UCI has at least some remote access. There are alternatives to this basic service.

Dedicated Modem Service

NACS offers “Dedicated Dial-up Modem Services” to faculty, work-groups, and departments. These services provide dedicated modems and unlimited connection time to UCInet and the Internet. The cost is $45 a month plus a one-time, $90 set-up charge (waived now through June 1997 – see below).

$45 a month is relatively expensive for a single user, but if shared by several individuals, the cost becomes comparable to the least expensive Internet Service Providers. For example, a department or group with 45 people might share a bank of 10 modems — the resulting monthly cost is only $10 per person. A small group of 4 people can share one modem at a cost of $11.25 per individual per month.

More information about Dedicated Modems can be found at: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/dedicated.dial-up.html

To order this service, please call NACS Electronic Communication Services at extension 5123 or send an e-mail message to NACS@UCI.EDU with “Request for Dedicated Modem Service” in the subject line. To help departments ease current modem access issues, NACS will waive the $90 setup fee now through June 1997 for dedicated modem commitments of at least 6 months.

Internet Service Providers

A second remote access alternative is using an Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as Netcom, Pacific Bell or a variety of others. Information concerning ISPs can be found at: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/support/antaccess/isp.html

A disadvantage of using ISPs is that certain services (such as Britannica On-Line) are not available due to access being restricted to users from the uci.edu network domain.

NACS welcomes your comments and suggestions concerning remote access to UCInet; you may direct them to ourNACS@UCI.EDU address or to any NACS manager.