July 12th, 2002 by Dana Roode
NACS has offered dial-in access to UCInet for Faculty, Staff and Students for many years. In 1999, the service was substantially upgraded in response to recommendations from the Faculty Senate Computer Policy Committee, and the “Lifeline Modem Service” was born.
The Lifeline service is offered at no cost, but it comes with noteworthy restrictions, and does not substitute for a commercial Internet Service Provider such as ZOTnet (http://www.zotnet.net/). For more information on current Lifeline Modem Pool policies, refer to
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/modems/lifeline-modem-policy.html.
Recently, the modem pool firmware was upgraded both to comply with vendor requirements for support, and to improve reliability. With the support of the NACS Faculty Advisory Committee, and following a review of modem pool capacity and usage, Prime Time Usage was expanded from 7 hours to 10 hours a week.
More information on the modem pool is available from
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/communication/modems/
July 12th, 2002 by Dana Roode
The Communications Project Unit (CPU) is a newly formed group within NACS. Its mission is to focus on campus network and telecommunications infrastructure projects. NACS-CPU has already implemented several process improvements, implemented a new streamlined blanket order process, and reduced the projects backlog.
NACS-CPU works with many other groups and departments in the course of overseeing a project to completion. In particular, NACS Network Operations handles much of the actual installation and testing of new network equipment.
NACS-CPU is currently managing the College of Medicine Network “Edge” Upgrade Project, several large building projects, and many smaller communications projects.
Diane Dunn, Manager of Communications Projects, plans and manages all UCI campus network and telecommunications infrastructure projects. Diane’s goal is to ensure that projects are well planned and well managed, completed on-time and within budget, and meet client expectations.
Todd Strand, Infrastructure Engineer, designs and estimates the costs for network and telecommunications infrastructure projects. He provides designs, plans, specifications, and detailed cost estimates during the planning stages of a project. Todd is a Registered Communications Distribution Designer, a LAN Specialist, and an Outside Plant Specialist (OSP).
Bruce Cotsonas, Project Coordinator, coordinates the communications with end users during long-term projects. He stays informed about short-range and long-range plans that could require communications infrastructure. Bruce is the NACS representative to the Campus Planning and Environment Committee and to the Planning Coordination Meeting
July 12th, 2002 by Dana Roode
Did you ever wonder who monitors all those items of capital equipment for the campus? Equipment Management must inventory all 37,907 items in the campus inventory, representing almost $300 million in campus assets, at least once every two years.
Technology is available to facilitate the inventory process in the form of portable, hand-held, laser-barcode scanners. The handheld scanner selected for use at UCI is manufactured by Symbol Technologies (www.symbol.com) and runs the Palm operating system. The scanner displays the equipment item’s property number, description, serial number, and location of record. It is also possible to perform edits on the spot.
NACS staff programmed the application that runs on the Palm O/S and developed a custom interface which synchronizes scanner records and AdCom databases. Adcom made some parallel changes in their systems to accommodate the new application.
After the inventory process is completed, the data is uploaded to the AdCom server. The database is updated and documents campus compliance with State and Federal accounting requirements. Use of the handheld scanner in limited settings has already shown its potential to greatly cut down the time and manpower needed to inventory capital equipment. Departments who would like to use the new system should contact Helen Chang, hmchang@uci.edu, x46111