Information Management Newsletter for Block 3, 2005 |
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| The Information Management Newsletter is a periodic publication during the academic year to keep the community informed about developments in information technology on campus.
We will announce publication of a new issue via divisional listservs and campus digests. If you aren't subscribed to one of these lists and would like to receive an e-mail notifying you when a new issue is published, please send your request to mbrenceaustin@coloradocollege.edu Related Links |
In this Issue:
Welcome Wei-Hsin Fu, the New GIS Technical DirectorWei-Hsin Fu is our new Technical Director for Geographic Information Systems (GIS). She has a bachelor's degree in public health from Taipei Medical College, and master's degrees in wildlife conservation and geographic information science from the University of Minnesota.
Increased Email Size LimitsYou may remember that on September 30th, we had a half-day system outage to install more storage space onto our network. After some time for testing, configuration, and setup, we are pleased to announce that we have greatly increased email size limits and network storage space - see the chart below for the details: H: drives I: drives
It's budget planning time again. In response to feedback from the campus community, Information Technology has revisited our standard computers and will be offering a larger variety of PCs and Macs for purchase. Available for purchase and deployment will be our standard minitower and desktop systems that will be priced between $875-800 and a high-end model priced at $1100. The standard laptop will be priced from $1280 and the high-end model priced between $1498 -1601. We will also be offering a variety of Macs including the standard eMac for $1018, the high-end iMac for $1318, the standard laptop iBook for $1382 and the high-end laptop PowerBook for $2038. Be on the lookout for an IT consultant to be discussing your technology needs for the 2006-2007 budget year!
Dear CC Modem Pool Users / CC Community, We are writing to let you know that the time is drawing near to retire the Colorado College modem pool. The hardware is about 8 years old and has not been supported by the manufacturer since December 2003. As we experience more and more problems and outages with this outdated technology, it is increasingly difficult to troubleshoot and repair. We are hopeful that the modem pool will continue to operate through the 2005-06 academic year, at which point we will officially retire it on the day after commencement (May 23, 2006); however, if there is a massive failure before that date, the CC modem pool will cease to exist even sooner. There are many alternatives for you to consider, from 56K dial-up connections (like the CC modem pool) to the faster high-speed solutions of DSL and cable modems. You can find some dial-up Internet Service Providers (ISPs) at no cost (these are subsidized by advertising). Currently high-speed or broadband ISPs cost anywhere from $9.95 per month to $49.95 per month. Commercial ISPs will often offer concomitant services, such as technical support, 5-10 individual email addresses for you and your family, Web and file storage, etc. Much depends on where you live, what is available in your neighborhood, and your personal budget for the ISP you might prefer. Happily, you can still access Colorado College resources from home (or as you travel). For example, with most high-speed Internet solutions, you can install virtual private networking (VPN) software to enable a secure connection back to CC for email and file access. Please see the Help Desk website on “Connecting from Off-Campus” for more information on how to download and configure VPN software: http://www.helpdesk.coloradocollege.edu/resnet/connectfromoffcampus.htm . Also, Tutt Library has worked with its many database providers to enable remote access to essential research tools (e.g., Lexis-Nexis, EBSCO, etc.). Please see the library website on “Off-Campus Access to Databases” for more information: http://www.coloradocollege.edu/library/Reference/alpharemote.html . We are happy to help you plan accordingly and advise you in finding a suitable replacement for your home networking needs. To get started in finding an alternate ISP, we refer you to “The List of ISPs:” http://www.thelist.com/ . Many campus users have bundled ISP service with their phone company (e.g., Qwest DSL) or with their cable TV company (e.g., Adelphia cable modem service); not only are such broadband services faster, but they do not tie up your telephone line and it is possible to create a “home network” so that more than one computer can be simultaneously connected to the Internet. As always, please let us know if you have any questions or if there's anything more we may do for you. Thank you, The Information Technology Policy Board and ad hoc Library Committee A technical postscript: For those of you who may be interested in such details, we wanted to let you know that the CC modem pool consists of a server with 48 modem ports running at a maximum speed of 56Kbps. Only 41 of the modem ports actually work now, and we can no longer get spare parts to replace the dead ports. Based on some recent monitoring, no more than 12-30 people tend to be connected to the modem pool at any given time, so we no longer saturate this resource. When the first modem pool was installed at CC, it was primarily created to serve the small buildings on campus that were not directly wired by Ethernet. A nice by-product was that, for campus colleagues within the (719) area code, free dial-up ISP service was offered. Now that the entire campus is served by both wired and wireless connectivity, and now that dial-up modem speeds are so slow and antiquated, it is time to retire this labor-intensive and outdated service. For more information:
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