U. to create faster modem pool for Internet users

Internet surfers are flooding the University's modem lines with a rising wave of calls. And this summer, in order to meet the students' continually growing demand, Data Communications and Computing Services will establish a faster modem pool with a higher ratio of modems to users, according to Dan Updegrove, executive director of DCCS. DCCS will augment the current set of 300 modems with 100 new modems and phone lines, he added. Approximately 60 of these will be set aside for a new modem pool which will run at 28,800 bits per second -- double the speed at which the regular modem pool now runs. The number of modems ultimately assigned to each pool will depend on how many people sign up for the faster service -- which will cost $200 per year. The slower pool will still be available to students and faculty at no charge, Updegrove said. The new modems will be connected at 14,400 bps but will all be switched to a 28,800 bps setting over the summer. Faster modems will gradually take the place of all the 14,400 bps modems in the regular pool, according to George McKenna, director of Network Operations and Engineering. This switch will also reduce the amount of air-conditioning needed to keep the modems from over heating. The new modems are one-fourth the size of the old modems, require less power and therefore generate less heat, he added. Updegrove said DCCS has added 60 modems each semester for the last four semesters. Despite this, students wishing to connect to PennNet often have to wait while their modems redial five or six times. Approximately 900 people dial PennNet each hour, and a modem becomes free every 4 or 5 seconds, according to Updegrove. The addition of this modem pool is just one of the changes DCCS is making to facilitate Internet access for the University community. In September, Dubois House, Hill House, Mayer Hall, Stouffer Triangle and Van Pelt House will be wired for ResNet, allowing more students to access PennNet using an ethernet card, bypassing the modem pools altogether. Updegrove urged students who will live in ResNet buildings next year to buy and use an Ethernet card. Students who need help obtaining or installing Ethernet software -- which is available at no extra charge -- should call the PennNet Help desk. "I used to use a modem, but then I put away childish things," said Engineering junior Meng Weng Wong, an Internet expert, adding that the slowest ethernet card is 350 times faster than the fastest modem. DCCS is also in the preliminary stages of discussion with Wade and Comcast Cable companies, which may one day provide the equivalent of Ethernet access, via television networks, to students and faculty off-campus. In the future, University students may also have wireless access to the Internet. Receivers at high altitudes --such as the tops of buildings -- would relay signals between the Internet and personal computers.

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