DRAFT

FACULTY SENATE UNIVERSITY COMPUTER & ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF February 13, 1996

Approved:  

 
Present: E. Anderson, D. Blanchard, S. Brewer, D. Chesley, S. Cook, E.
Cutting, D. Damery, J. Dubach, G. Fisher (Chair), E. Hurn, T. Jackson, J.
Kunkel, K. Lou, C. Lyman, B. MacDougall, B. McCandless, R. Sailer, N. Sims,
M. Wingertsman.
 

1. We approved the minutes of the December 18, 1996 meeting with corrections.

2.  Administrative Redesign

G.  Fisher announced that he will schedule an additional Committee meeting
at which M. Williams will discuss the ARD project status.

3.  PC Hardware Support pricing and support

D.  Lyman reported that the PCHS prices are based on current market prices,
not on cost (which helps customers when prices are falling).  PCHS charges
$25/hour for labor, the same rate charged since PCHS opened.

4.  Uninterrupted Universal Access

This agenda item began with a discussion of the difficulties that on-campus
and off-campus users were having when connecting to OIT through the various
modem pools.  

C.  Lyman reported that OIT was now distributing disks with Trumpet
Windsock (Windows 3.1 UMAccess accounts) that would force a disconnect when
the Trumpet window is closed, and included a 15-minute idle-time disconnect
setting.

D.  Blanchard passed out charts showing that long idle connections were not
a significant drain on the off-campus modem pool, but that approximately
10% of the on-campus connections showed long idle times.  He reported that
OIT runs a test-dial routine daily to clear "stuck" modems, and that he had
identified and fixed two problems in the pool.

He reported that the present ratio of on-campus TAU's to lines was 10:1,
which is a very favorable ratio compared to most dial-up services (e.g. AOL
is 30:1).

The Committee voted to recommend that OIT institute a one-hour idle time
disconnect on all modem pools on a trial basis.  D. Blanchard will report
on the effect of this ppolicy at the next meeting.

The Committee decided to table the discussion of a special modem pool for
short-duration connections until the effect of the one-hour limit could be
ascertained.

5.  OIT Computer Use Fee

D.  Chesley reported that the Administration was still very interested in
centralizing the OIT fee, but that centralization would not be considered
until the FY '99 budget year.

Respectfully Submitted,
Duncan Chesley