GETTING WIRED TO COST LESS AT UAF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 22, 1996

Fairbanks, Alaska - Opportunities for campus residents to zoom onto the Infobahn were boosted into overdrive thanks in part to the efforts of students Cory Papenfuss and Andy Holt.

Papenfuss, a junior electrical engineering major, and Holt, a senior in business administration, worked with the Chancellor's Steering Committee on the UAF Enrollment Experience this fall to look at ways to reduce ethernet access fees on campus.

The duo came up with a solution that cuts the price of student ethernet access in half. Campus residents are hot-wired into the idea of lower fees, according to Residence Hall Association (RHA) president Erik Girvan.

"During polling conducted in our committees we received positive feedback from students who really appreciate the service," Girvan said. "Most student users said they'd concede to paying the national average price because the Internet services were important to them, but the lowered fee really brings an added fairness to the whole deal."

Girvan said that it's too soon to predict what impact access fees might have on future enrollment, but he believed students may remain in residence halls longer because of the direct connection.

RHA networked with student government representatives on the fee change. In a resolution sponsored by freshman senator Chris Nyland, the ASUAF senate urged residence life officials to change ethernet student access fees. The

Oct. 8 resolution said a reduction in the activation price could attract more students to the network and provide students with a vast knowledge that could prove beneficial to their studies. Residence life officials agreed.

Direct connections to the Internet in university residence halls are quickly becoming a national standard, said Tim Stickel, associate director of residence life. Connecting all UAF rooms was not always economically feasible, however.

"Three semesters ago ethernet connections for students in residence halls were outrageously expensive," Stickel said. New technology developments and lower prices to activate connections in rooms since then will allow students to compete globally for a much lesser price, he said.

According to enrollment experience steering committee chairperson Dana Thomas, the ethernet connection fee change was a result of students like Papenfuss and Holt, as well as ASUAF and RHA members, taking the initiative.

"Their willingness to work for a chance benefits all students," he said.

The semester connection fee will drop from $100 to $50 beginning in January. Students who paid $100 for the fall semester will have service extended for the spring semester at no additional cost.

The next step is up to computing and utilities staff, who will figure out the logistics of the change. UAF Telephone Utilities wired individual rooms for ethernet connections three years ago when they added phone lines to residence halls, communications engineer Larry McNerney said.

Utilities employees now have to install equipment into each residence hall that will patch all rooms into the server, instead of individually patching a room each time a student requests a connection.

"In the current system we have about 200 ports on the servers, but we'll have to use patch cords to cross-connect 1,600 to 2,000 students for hot Ethernet connections. Each student will have his own port," McNerney said.

The Division of Computing and Communications is concurrently working on separating ports into subnets, which are a way of segmenting users on a local computing network.

Although it will take some coordination, students like Bartlett Hall resident Tim Hinchee think that the effort will be worthwhile.

Hinchee, a sophomore, uses the Internet daily. He dials into the Aurora system to check his electronic mail, sometimes waiting for an hour to get connected. Hinchee also pays $15 to $25 a month to maintain an account on CompuServe, a national Internet provider.

As an assistant in the Student Activities Office, Hinchee uses SAO's direct ethernet connection to the University of Alaska computing backbone to research issues.

He said that both CompuServe and SAO's ethernet connection are more convenient than a library because virtual reality is open 24 hours. "It really saves me copying and the info is more up to date," he added.

Although CompuServe may be considered more user-friendly by some users, Hinchee said that the biggest problem with the system is getting bumped off every time someone calls his phone line.

With a cheaper price for direct ethernet connection from residence rooms, students like Hinchee will be able to afford the service and won't have to worry about getting knocked off-line.

While university employees are patchworking each residence hall room for ethernet access, students should also prepare their personal hardware for use. Newer computer models have ethernet "cards," the hardware that allows digital communication between a computer and the computing system, either already installed or they have been prepped for them.

Ethernet cards cost $40 to $99 depending on computer type, said Robert Cave, a computer specialist at the UAF Technology Center. Cards are available for purchase at most computer stores in Fairbanks, but students receive an additional educational discount by purchasing them at the Tech Center.

CONTACT: Dana Thomas, Chancellor's Assistant on Enrollment and Educational Assessment, (907) 474-6990 or Jillian Swope, University Relations, (907) 474-7778.

JCS/11-22-96/97-032