[84] in Resnet-Forum
Re: Why?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Albert Lunde)
Tue Nov 30 20:51:11 1993
To: resnet-forum@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1993 19:16:13 -0600 (CST)
In-Reply-To: <219E58E31CD@PlanOfc.duke.edu> from "Melissa J. Mills" at Nov 30, 93 07:43:27 pm
Reply-To: Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu (Albert Lunde)
From: Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu (Albert Lunde)
Speaking of the situation at Northwestern University (but not trying
to speak "officially"), I can offer several motivations for networking
the dorms.
- We are networking our whole campus with fiber this fall. We will
connect buildings that have appropriate LANs immediately and put
a junction box or some such in the basements of other buildings.
Expanding our LAN networks in unwired buildings (including dorms)
is a logical next step.
- I think it was recommended by some campus committee studying
Undergraduate Education (or one of those things committees study).
- We want to offer universal e-mail and Internet services.
We are strongly promoting a micro-client based approach to
Internet services (e-mail, anon ftp, gopher and news). This
works best with direct network links (though we do offer
SLIP.)
- It is hoped that networking the dorms will take load off
our public labs and our SLIP modem pool. Fewer on-campus
SLIP users will mean better access for off-campus users.
- "Future directions" like ISDN or IP over cable TV sound
nice but they are not something we can plan this year
to do next year.
In this connection though, you should plan wiring for future
expansion -- run excess capacity and/or run conduit instead
of directly burying cable. This is a "mistake" we made last
time NU wired the campus -- we dug it up for the phone
system before fiber optic was widely available and buried
the cable in the ground. The inability to snake thru new stuff
has been a drawback in the current expansion. On the other
hand, they ran a second set of twisted pairs to every wall jack
which has been a help in appletalk and 10-baseT wiring.
--
Albert Lunde | Academic Computing | These may or may not be
Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu | and Network Services | my opinions, but they
| Consulting & Education | certainly aren't official.
