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Network Cabling Training

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NACS hosted a half-day of hands-on training on communications cable installation on Thursday, March 31st. The class participants included fifteen UCI staff.

Gary Price, RCDD, of Nelson & Associates provided the Outside Plant electrical protection training. Wayne Brushett of Beach Wire and Cable, Inc., arranged for instructors from Superior Essex Communications LP.

The focus of the class was Outside Plant Copper Splicing and Outside Plant Fiber Optic Cable. Outside Plant cabling is installed in conduits below the ground which connects all of the buildings together and comprises the “backbone” of UCInet, the campus network.

Service Request Form Now Online

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NACS’s service request form (SRF) is now available on line. It is intended as a replacement for the current paper-based form. To use the new form, please visit:

http://www.nacs.uci.edu/service-request

Use the form to request new service or modify any of the telecommunication or network services offered by NACS. These services include, but are not limited to, telephone, voice mail, network, cellular service, and 800Mhz radio. You can track the status of a service request at:

http://www.nacs.uci.edu/tools/srf/

For more information on the services offered, please refer to the following:

http://www.nacs.uci.edu/telephone/
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/network/

The online form has several advantages over the paper version. Customers will see that it is easier to complete the online form than to print, fill out, and fax the paper form. NACS can streamline requests that are submitted electronically, and better track fulfillment.

NACS will continue to accept the paper service request form at least through June 30, 2005. Please direct questions or comments to NACS Telecommunications Customer Service at (949) 824-5123, or by email at NACS-TCS@uci.edu.

UC Cable Infrastructure Forum

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One of the ways NACS works behind the scenes to improve the quality of the technology infrastructure at UCI is to foster intercampus communication and cooperation.

NACS’s Todd Strand conceived of the idea of bringing together the Cable Infrastructure Engineers from all of the UC campuses (including UC Merced). He started these discussions via email and this later lead to several telephone conference calls. Eventually, the “UC Layer One” discussion group decided to meet together, in person.

The first UC Cable Engineering Forum was held at UC Davis in October. Todd spoke at the conference about “firestopping” methodology (the methods used to seal cable and conduit penetrations in buildings in a fire-safe way that meets fire codes.) Other presentations discussed seismic planning, disaster recovery, and inventory control.

Those interested can review Todd’s and the other presentations at http://www.engineeringlayerone.com/index.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

Network Engineering

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NACS Network Engineering plans, implements, maintains, and supports the UCI campus voice and data network infrastructure.

This includes the fiber optic data backbone, copper telephone cable, Ericsson telephone system, building routers, and repeaters/hubs.

They also maintain UCI’s off-campus network connection to the Internet, and UCI’s off-campus phone connection via SBC (formerly Pacific Bell) and long distance service providers.

The group includes:

  • Clyde Higashida (Network Engineer)
  • Jon Iliescu (Junior Network Engineer)
  • John Schaefer (Telephone System Network Administrator)
  • Michael Scott (Senior Network Engineer)

It is managed by Brian Buckler, Assistant Director of Network Operations.