Most users who depend on dial-up access to campus resources have been plagued with busy signals for quite a while, and so those same users will be pleased to know that immediate relief is on the way! Network Support Services will be adding 48 new modems to its highest-speed modem pool, bringing the total number of modems in the 56 kbps pool up to 96, along side the present 96 modems in the 33.6 kbps pool.
Provided as a supplement to on-campus network access, these new dial-up modems will allow students, faculty, and staff to call into the campus network to exchange electronic mail, access course materials, or explore the Internet at-large for important academic or professional information whenever they are off-campus.
While NSS also anticipates a certain level of recreational and personal use to be done over these new dial-in lines, the group also realizes that there are some people who abuse the utility by staying connected nearly around the clock, monopolizing the resource and thereby making busy signals more likely for other people attempting to dial-in. This has a cascading effect in that when people finally do get connected, they tend to stay on longer "just in case," because they know it will be difficult to get on again later if the need arose.
The new modems being added to the 56 kbps pool attack the problem from the supply-side. At least in the short term, busy signals will be less likely so many people will be less likely to park on a line "just in case." However, something must be done on the demand-side as well. People need to make intelligent decisions about how they use the resource.
Therefore, in the interest of discouraging people from camping on modem lines at the exclusion of others, a new charge-back plan for dial-up usage will take effect as soon as the necessary software is developed. NSS is still in the process of working out the fine points, but the new plan will include a generous allocation of free connect time, and then a per-hour charge for any dial-up time exceeding the allocation.
Please watch future issues of The Kiosk, as well as ACS What's New items on-line for future announcements, when we will describe the plan in detail prior to its implementation.
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