1. Develop policies for appropriate use of dial-up services.

2. Within funding limitations, increase the number of local and metro dial-up lines to accommodate increased usage.

3. Upgrade the dial-up communications equipment to achieve higher baud rates, improved error-handling, and increased remote management capability.

4. Add dial-up services that enable the utilization of microcomputer network applications.

5. Enhance our wide-area network link through UTD.

6. Evaluate alternative funding schemes.

1. There are 72 free local lines and 32 free Metro lines available. In addition, a Premium Remote Access Subscription Service was initiated in November 1995 with 96 local lines, 48 Dallas lines, and 48 Fort Worth lines. The subscription service guarantees a maximum of 7:1 user:line ratio, meaning that it can accommodate 672 Denton, 336 Dallas, and 336 Fort Worth lines. In the spring semester there were 370 Denton, 80 Dallas, and 31 Fort Worth subscribers.

2. Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) support was established on both the free and premium services as of November 1995. PPP enables users to use graphical Internet access applications such as NetScape.

3. All lines on the free service support at least 14,400 baud communications. All lines on the premium services support 28,800 baud communications. The equipment used for the premium services also positions the University to provide ISDN.

4. The Library set up Citrix WinView access to its CD-ROM resources.

5. The Computing Center has an active project to provide FTP access to campus NetWare file servers using PPP.

6. The Library is evaluating Citrix WinFrame which supports TCP/IP. This would allow use of the PPP lines in accessing the Library's CD-ROM system.

7. The Computing Center is in the process of rolling out remote access to the GroupWise system. Novell has an announced intention of providing access to GroupWise via a PPP client. This is expected in three to six months.

8. The Computing Center is exploring alternatives to its THEnet connection, which appears to be a major bottleneck for Internet traffic.

1. The availability of PPP on free dialups has diminished the demand for the premium service and has put a severe strain on Computing Center Support Services and Data Communications staff resources. There has been a major increase in support demands without a cocommitant revenue stream being generated.

2. Full access to NetWare file server applications would require deployment of remote control software. Extensive application compatibility testing is required multi-user server-based remote control programs such as Citrix WinFrame. All remote control programs cause an additional level of complexity in supporting remote client machines (i.e., the personal machines used off-campus by faculty, staff, and students) which are not in any way standardized as to hardware and software.

The Communications Program Group considered four options for restructuring the University's free and premium remote access services:

1. Drop remote access as a service provided by UNT and require faculty, staff, and students to sign up with a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). This will not eliminate support demands, however, particularly for accessing UNT computing resources, i.e., academic hosts, GroupWise PPP access, the Library CD-ROM system, remote control of desktops, and NetWare file servers. Support of these services will be further complicated by the diversity of commercial service providers.

2. Drop the premium remote access service. Users wanting better access than the free service provides would uses commercial ISPs. The same problems cited above would still apply.

3. Drop PPP support from the free service and reduce the number of lines to the historic level of 48 local lines and 16 Metro lines.

4. Drop the free service and use the operating expense savings to subsidize the premium service, thus reducing the price of the premium service.

The Communications Program Group recommends option 4 as the best means of meeting the long-term needs of the University.

Additional recommendations:

1. Explore demand for ISDN services in Denton, Dallas, and Fort Worth.

2. Emphasize access to Library CD-ROM and data on NetWare servers.

3. Explore alternatives to get higher throughput on the University's Internet connection.

4. Reduce Dallas and Fort Worth premium access lines to 168 each.

5. Develop a more flexible pricing model for premium access.

4. Provide departmental file server management, lab management, and local user support.

5. Provide central referral, backup support, and user training services.

6. Provide central file server, data communications, and microcomputer support services.

Within the constraints of available resources, all action items are proceeding.

1. There are major deficiencies in staffing of distributed computing support which negatively impact the ability of support staff to provide needed user support. An Ad Hoc Committee on Distributed Computing Support is currently developing recommendations to address these deficiencies as well as to improve leveraging of existing resources.

2. The Computing Center Support Services area has been overwhelmed with the support demands of Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) applications support. This has adversely impacted its ability to provide support in other areas such as microcomputer applications and general problem tracking/dispatching. Recently distribution of PPP software was outsourced from Support Services to the UNT Bookstore to alleviate some of the traffic in the Support Services area. There is also a significant need for a problem/work request tracking system to coordinate the activities of the various central and distributed computing support areas. The Ad Hoc Committee on Distributed Computing Support has identified this as a priority for the coming year.

3. The Data Communications team has also been severely stressed by the demand for remote access support.

4. With increasing demands of jobs across campus, the ability of faculty and staff to take time away from other job activities for computer training has been significantly diminished. A Computer Training Issues Team set up through Human Resources has developed recommendations for improving training efforts.

5. Current salary levels have a frustration to retaining technical staff. The people the University develops to support its needs are highly marketable. Salaries paid in industry outrun those paid by UNT for comparable by 50%.

6. The University is moving to a 7x24 institution. Classroom instruction in the evenings and on weekends is becoming more common. Adequate support requires that staffing levels be adjusted accordingly.

1. The University should identify/develop and implement a problem tracking system that can support central and distributed support area needs.

2. A new salary survey should be performed for distributed computing support staff.

3. There should be a standard, common reference source to provide information on how to access various computing resources.

4. Older generation technology such as Sytek equipment and PCNet and 10Broad24 networking should be phased out where possible.

1. Provide user accounts to students as needed.

2. Upgrade host systems (if necessary) to accommodate increased number of student user accounts.

3. Develop project plan for implementation of Novell GroupWise in a primarily centrally-support configuration.

4. Establish directory services to enable users of supported mail systems to find e-mail addresses of other users.

5. Develop and conduct user training.

6. Migrate selected colleges and departments to Novell GroupWise as a pilot project.

7. Evaluate success of pilot project. Determine next appropriate steps.

8. Ensure that faculty and staff needing access to e-mail have access to hardware that will run Novell GroupWise.

9. Migrate faculty/staff e-mail systems from WordPerfect Office 3.1 and Pegasus Mail to Novell GroupWise.

1. The student mail system currently has over 10,000 accounts in it. UNT faculty, staff, and students have the ability to set up their own accounts through a variety of online interfaces.

2. The general purpose UNIX system supporting student mail has been significantly expanded and enhanced this fiscal year.

3. A Novell GroupWise system architecture has been developed with Novell's assistance. A domain/post office architecture was developed, along with a network architecture to optimize performance of the system. The system design is based on central management of post offices, but distributed management of users. In other words, the Computing Center is responsible for system maintenance tasks such as backing up post offices and running utilities to maintain the performance characteristics and integrity of the system, but distributed support staff can add and delete user accounts. The system is built on NetWare 4.1, thus facilitating user maintenance activities.

4. The pilot project was completed in March 1996. It included the Computing Center, School of Library and Information Sciences, College of Education, College of Music, College of Business Administration, and Administration Building.

5. A plan for further deployment of GroupWise is currently being developed.

1. The most significant issue in deployment of NetWare 4.1 (on which the UNT implementation of GroupWise 4.1 is based) is upgrading user desktops. Depending upon the level of standardization of desktop configurations in an area, this can be a time-intensive task. It is of particular concern in large areas such as the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Community Services.

2. It is difficult to coordinate project planning in a decentralized management model. Much information is required about a distributed area's server and desktop configurations to make reasonable estimates of the time it will take to migrate them to NetWare 4.1 and GroupWise. Academic areas (and areas which directly support them such as the Library) want to carry out their upgrades in the gaps between sessions. This is difficult to accommodate as there are a limited number of such gaps and they are relatively small windows of opportunity.

3. The integrity of directory services are difficult to maintain as users are migrated from one mail system to another.

4. There is not a comprehensive directory service for campus e-mail systems. The system which exists merges directory information from various systems. One result of this approach is that many people are identified as having a multiplicity of mail addresses.

GroupWise XTD should ship in the 1996-97 fiscal year.

1. A system should be established which allows faculty, staff, and students to identify one Internet and one campus e-mail system and address. These addresses would then be propagated to the directory services for the respective mail systems, as well as other systems with messaging features (such as the planned library overdue notification system).

2. A system should be established which provides for assignment of a single ongoing electronic mail ID for all students.

3. A mechanism and guidelines for mass distribution of electronic mail should be established.

1. Reserve funds for maintenance and expansion of campus networks.

2. Charge the appropriate budget authority with the annual allocation of these funds to project requests.

3. Evaluate the need for high bandwidth applications; if needed, make proposals to accommodate them.

4. Complete the wiring of remaining buildings identified by the IRC.

1. No separate budget has been established, although the Computing Center's HEAF budget has been increased.

2. A special allocation of funds was requested for extending fiber to several additional buildings.

3. Bandwidth demands have so far been met by deployment of Ethernet switches and use of FDDI and 100BaseT on the campus backbone and to shared servers. As yet no applications demanding 100 Mb/sec. speeds to the desktop have emerged.

4. The Internal Building Networking Project has been completed. All buildings on the original list have been wired excluding Kendall Hall, which is slated for removal from service or major remodelling. In addition, wiring was carried out in Edwards Hall, Chestnut Hall, and the Music Annex. Funding has also been allocated to wire the Coliseum, Matthews Annex, and Highland Hall.

1. Change priority to LOW.

1. Ensure reliability of the SAA Gateway.

2. Notify all faculty and staff that SAA Gateway will be the only means of accessing the administrative mainframe after September 1995.

3. Conduct SAA Gateway training.

4. Remote cluster controllers from service in September 1995.

5. Encourage departments to surplus 3270 equipment.

6. Eliminate use of 3270 equipment outside of the Computing Center, except where no suitable alternatives exist.

1. The SAA gateway has been reliable.

2. The only cluster controllers and 3270 devices still under maintenance are deployed where no suitable alternative exists.

3. Large quantities of 3270 equipment has been surplused.

4. The Computing Center maintenance budget for 3270 equipment has been reduced by approximately $40,000.

1. The current SAA gateway has no 32-bit client support (i.e, no clients for Windows 95 or Windows NT).

2. Novell sold the client portion of their product line to Attachmate. Attachmate's 32-bit clients which support NetWare for SAA are expensive.

1. Change priority to HIGH.

2. The Computing Center should evaluate TCP/IP options for access from microcomputers to the administrative mainframe and make a recommendation to the IRC at its August meeting. This would have the additional benefit of enabling access to the administrative mainframe from standard remote access facilities. Issues to be considered include Internet firewall requirements and printing to networked laser printers.

This strategy has not been pursued.

1. Lack of manpower resources to develop business model and contacts.

2. Plethora of Internet service providers.

Delete this strategy unless significant need is demonstrated, a business model is developed, and staffing is identified.