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Voice and Data Services

UCI Ranked “Most Wireless”

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A recent survey ranks UCI #14 among universities responding to a recently completed survey on wireless networking.

Intel’s “Most Unwired College Campuses” survey ranks the top 100 schools for wireless computing access. The survey reveals a growing number of schools across the country where students have the freedom to wirelessly access the Internet on notebook PCs — without a traditional wired connection — and stay connected and informed whether they’re in the dorm room, library or outdoors at the campus quad.

While Intel’s focus was on students, NACS has made wireless networking a priority in recognition of its value to both the research and instructional roles of the university.

New Telephone Features

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NACS would like to make you aware of new feature enhancements now available on the campus telephone system. “Name Display” displays your name to called party. “Number Log” stores caller information for missed calls. “Personal Number” allows you to have multiple call diversion points.

Name Display

With this feature, your name, department name, or your unit’s function will be displayed along with your extension number when you call a campus extension that is equipped with a multi-line telephone set. The “name” can be up to 26 characters including spaces.

Number log

This feature logs the last 16 unanswered calls. The 17th unanswered call will over-write the oldest call. The log will contain the phone number and the date and time the call was received. A function key LED will flash when numbers are in the log. The logged calls can be scrolled through by pressing a standard pre-programmed button to advance to the next entry. The telephone number of the calling party can be dialed by pressing a standard pre-programmed button.

Personal Number

This feature provides up to five different call-diversion lists or profiles, each consisting of up to 10 destination numbers. When someone calls a telephone that has a Personal Number profile enabled, the profile selected determines which numbers will be called and in what order. For example, one profile might try your office phone, and if no answer, your home phone, then your cell phone, and if still no answer it could go to your voice mail. The profiles must be programmed for your telephone line by our technicians. You can then chose from among your profiles using your telephone key pad.Please contact NACS Telecommunications Customer Service at (949) 824-5123 for further information or visit our Web site at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/telephone/bc11.html

Off-Campus Network Access

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Many faculty and staff have a need to access UCInet and other network resources from off campus, in particular, scholarly resources licensed by the UCI Libraries and available only to systems which are part of UCInet.

NACS has developed and supports three different ways of connecting to UCInet from off campus:

  1. the lifeline modem pool
  2. the proxy server
  3. the virtual private network (VPN) device.

Modem Pool
The first such service deployed was the “lifeline modem pool.” This is, as the name implies, the resource of last resort. Bandwidth (data throughput) is limited, compared to cable modem or DSL, and there are limits on the amount of time you are allowed to use the service. The advantage is that it can be used from any telephone line in the world (if you are willing to accept long-distance charges).

Proxy Server
The proxy server is a collaborative effort between NACS and the UCI Libraries. Users of the proxy server make web requests as if from on campus, regardless of how they connect to the Internet. However, this service is sometimes slow depending on the number of users simultaneously working through it.

VPN
An alternative to using the proxy server is to use the NACS Virtual Private Network, or “VPN”.

The advantage that the VPN has over the proxy server is that it opens up ALL network resources that require a UCI network address, while the proxy server only addresses Web-based applications. It may also be faster. Finally, the VPN offers a secure connection to campus from outside, commercial, and wireless networks, which are inherently insecure.

It is expected that proxy server and lifeline modem pool users will migrate to the VPN as the preferred way of connecting with campus services which are restricted to UCI address space.

Because the proxy server requires manually encoding each site which is restricted to UCI affiliates, it is difficult to maintain, and it is intended that this service be phased out over the next year.

For more information, please consult the following web pages.

Lifeline modem pool: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/network/modem/
NACS Proxy Server: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/network/proxy/
NACS VPN Information: http://www.nacs.uci.edu/security/vpn.html

Alternative to Proxy Service

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UCI faculty, staff, and students have access to a number of restricted online resources — most notably those licensed by the UCI libraries — such as Scifinder Scholar.

Because these resources are licensed specifically to members of the UCI community, however, access to them is normally limited to systems on the UCI network.

Users, however, sometimes need legitimate access to these resources from off-campus as well. NACS currently offers two services that enable such off-campus access. The proxy service was created a number of years ago, and has been jointly maintained with the UCI libraries. More recently, NACS introduced the Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, offering additional functionality and improved performance.

Using the VPN is easy. Just download the appropriate client from the web address listed below, enter your UCInetID and password, and you are on your way. With the VPN in place, your laptop or home computer is treated as though it were right here at UCI, with all the privileges and access that implies.

Because the VPN is so powerful, flexible, and easy to use, the proxy service will be phased out in favor of the VPN over the coming year. NACS continues to monitor the performance of both services, and has recently performed an upgrade on the proxy server hardware to allow it keep up with the demand as we help users transition to the VPN.

For more information, please consult the following web pages.

Expanded Phone Capacity for EH&S

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The Environmental Health & Safety building was running out of copper cable pairs that provide the building with telephone service. This limited the ability to add more telephone lines to the building. Todd Strand, NACS Infrastructure Engineer, re-designed the outside plant cable infrastructure in this area to solve the problem. The design and implementation was complicated and required careful timing and coordination.

To implement Todd’s solution, Facilities Management electricians trenched, installed cable, and created a new cable vault in front of the 66 KV Electrical substation. Then a cable installation contractor spliced the cables to reroute telephone services and to provide the additional required capacity to EH&S. All of this work was performed in a way that minimized telephone service outages.