Exeter On-Line

Fall 1999 Issue                         A Publication of Information Technology  

Summer Technology Work
by Shelley Nason

Each summer, especially in the time period following Summer School and prior to the start of the Fall Term, while the fewest number of users are on campus, Telecommunications takes on many tasks to upgrade the network. This summer has followed suit and it has been as hectic as ever.

Rather than produce a litany of projects we are undertaking, we are noting some of the changes that have impacted you this term:

1. Web Express mail is now set up to automatically send you copies of email that you send out.
2. The Word Processing department now has a networked color printer that the community can use. See another article in this newsletter for details.
3. Academic file structure changes and quotas are being implemented with the start of Fall Term.
4. Major work has been done on the infrastructure to reduce "network traffic jams."
5. Due to our ability to install upgrades and patches to NT computers remotely, you may notice that your computer now turns itself on early in the morning.
6. Our Macintosh users should experience a faster log in time and will notice that their home directories mount and open up on the desktop with out having to access them through Chooser.
7. Large group (six or greater) telephone conference calling is available through a third party vendor.
8. Dan Heffernan has joined our staff, coming to us from the Bookstore Annex.
9. Further development of the Intranet.

Some of the projects we are currently working on during Fall Term which will be rolled out as they are available:

1. Our top priority for Fall Term is to bring our Y2K project to completion.
2. Day student capability to access their Academy resources from their home ISP.
3. Increased network security that will allow Administrative Faculty to access their administrative resources from dorm faculty studies.

Support Desk and Word Processing
Department Interaction
by Shelley Nason & Donna Archambault

Many callers into the Support Desk have recently heard either Donna Archambault or Kathy Pottle answer the phone and may have wondered if they called the right number. Other members of our community are aware that the Support Desk and Word Processing closed their offices August 5 and held a joint meeting. If you have this awareness then it is probably not a huge surprise that we are exploring how we can work best to serve our community.

Since the creation of the Telecommunications department during the 1995-96 school year, the department has formed collaborative partnerships with interfacing departments such as Facilities, MIS and the Library. During this same time period Telecommunications and Word Processing have had on-going discussions regarding how the two departments interface. We recognized that members of both departments provided information technology support and training to the user community. We both provide similar services or pick up tasks where the other has left off. In an effort to decrease duplication and increase efficiency, the two departments have pursued merging. We feel we can better coordinate services together than separately, and ultimately, the user community will benefit through our services delivered in a comprehensive and coordinated fashion. Our intent is not to eliminate any services currently provided by either of the departments.

During our day retreat, the Support Desk staff, Word Processing staff, and Judye Gingras met with a consultant to further evaluate the merits of working as one. We discussed the services we provide, identified our customers, and the skills needed to provide these services. In summarizing our meeting, we determined the core purpose of combining these staff is to provide information management (voice and data) support, which in turn, allows for our community to maximize their use of technology resulting in working more effectively and efficiently. The primary means of providing this service is through communication. The Support Desk/Word Processing staff acts as the liaison and advocate for the user community to the technical staff. Support staff need interpersonal skills, a level of technical competence or proficiency, and the understanding of our institution's business practices to provide their services.

Support Desk and Word Processing plan to create an organizational structure as well as plan to review and perhaps change processes in which services are currently delivered. Also, sometime during the 1999/00 school year, Word Processing, Telecommunications and MIS plan to explore ways in which we could work together better to create and deliver technology to the community in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.

From the Desk of Susan Keeble

What did you do during your summer vacation? Twenty-four Phillips Exeter Academy teachers spent one week of their vacation learning to create web pages. Funded through the Technology Incentive Grant program, the workshop was led by Vi Richter and Mark Bodnar from Telecommunications, Lori Ott from the Computer Science Department, and Brent Norris, a consultant from Iconcepts in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The teachers learned to navigate the PEA network file system, to write basic HTML code, and to use Dreamweaver software, the new academy standard for web page development. The fruits of their labor will be unveiled throughout the fall in department, individual instructor, team and student activity web pages. Hopefully, the workshop will be repeated soon for a limited number of administrative staff members, and at a later date for other interested faculty members.

During the summer, Mark Bodnar redesigned the academy intranet, creating a uniform structure for departments that will ease the use of the network for students and faculty. Harkness.exeter.edu, the Harkness server, will serve as the entry point for faculty web pages developed for use within the Exeter community. In addition to the department web pages, the Harkness server will also feature a faculty web page, student resources and links to web pages for student organizations.

Lori Ott, a part-time instructor in Computer Science, will be also be working in a new position this year, providing training for our new students on the network, and supporting web page development for the instructors trained this summer in the workshop. Working with instructors in the Health Department, Lori will assist new preps and lowers to transition to working in a networked environment. Lori will also be scheduling the new uppers and seniors for similar training. Later in the fall, Lori will be available to assist other instructors who wish to utilize the intranet and the internet in their classes. You may contact Lori in the Computer Science Department at extension 3788 or through email at lott@exeter.edu.

Five years ago, the Technology Steering Committee outlined a five year plan for the creation of a network at Phillips Exeter Academy. With the basic infrastructure now in place, the emphasis for year five is the development of the intranet. Beginning with the work completed this summer, the year should be an exciting time for the Academy, one that will be beneficial to the entire community.

MediaOne Road Runner Service

MediaOne is now offering high speed internet service through their cable TV lines. It is called Road Runner. This is available on the PEA campus but there are some issues our community needs to be aware of:

• Telecommunications is still responsible for the physical wiring in PEA residences, houses and dormitories. If you need additional coaxial cable run for this service it will be at your expense and you will still need to call Telecommunications at x3693 to schedule our cabling vendor to provide you a quote for the additional wiring.
• If MediaOne comes out to your residence and needs access to the areas that store the equipment without calling Telecommunications in advance then they may have to come back at another time to finish your request. Telecommunications can provide MediaOne access inside buildings and Facilities provides MediaOne access through the manholes if necessary.
• If the faculty member is connecting to the Exeter network via a modem (whether from on-campus or from off-campus) it is not possible to maintain this connection plus the MediaOne connection. The MediaOne configuration is incompatible with our network and there is the potential for security problems if we could provide concurrent access.

What's New in Voice:
Academy Changes Long Distance Carrier
by Tracey Lulek

During the past year ACC Telecom (our long distance provider) merged with AT&T. Our current service is a division of AT&T called AT&T ACUS. The network serves college and university systems. We have also evaluated switching PEA administrative long distance phone calls to the retail AT&T long distance telephone network and maintaining the student service on the AT&T ACUS division. This would mean that calls from the administrative buildings would use different lines when placing long distance telephone calls. The change would not impact internal or local calls.

We plan to make the technical change mid to late November, with November 19 as the tentatively scheduled cutover date. Although we would not anticipate losing telephone service for any period of time, there would be intermittent interruptions while this work is going on.

Users will be updated of the changes or additional AT&T services prior to or at the time of the conversion. Please look for more information, as details become available.

Centralized Color Printing/Copying

During the summer of 1999 a networked Xerox color printer/copier was installed in Word Processing for the community's use. The cost per page is $.55. Local copy centers charge anywhere between $1.00 and $1.50 per page. Contact the Word Processing department (extension 3430) for additional information on how to use this service.

Academic Directory File Structure Changes

By the end of the 98/99 school year, our Academic file server, Harkness, had approximately a quarter of a million files, utilizing 80 gigs of space. Many of these files are duplicated and are saved in several places. Others were created by students, saved to the shared area and have not been accessed for several years. It appeared that there was some clean up and organization that could be done to make room for this year's work.

During the same time period Telecommunications was upgrading the network backup system to include automated space quota management. One of the department's goal is to automate as many tasks as possible to reduce the manual work our network administrators need to do. In automating this one feature, it became critical to restructure and standardize file management in a way that would allow faculty to manage their files and their student files saved to shared department directories.

A memo was placed in every faculty member's mailbox prior to the start of school describing the new structure. The new structure allows for each faculty member to manage his or her own folder within the department folder. In the future, each faculty member will be able to determine who gets what type of permissions into these folders. Telecommunications will offer training on setting permissions and security of these areas.

Microsoft Y2K Link

You may find the following website of interest if you are researching how to prepare your personally owned computer for Y2K: http://computingcentral.msn.com/guide/year2000/msy2k/introducing/y2khome.asp

Email Addressing

Those of you who use more than one email client (such as Maildrop, Messenger, Messenger Express) may notice that your email address may appear differently depending on the client. Sometimes it may appear as username@exeter.edu and others as username@peapo.exeter.edu. When asked for your email address, please use the "username@exeter.edu" format to ensure proper delivery.

Mapping Drives

In the past, before our network automatically provided mapped drives to department shared folders, Harkness or Chorus servers, and Home directories, Telecommunications may have requested you "map a network drive" (establish a link to a networked storage location), which you would later be able to relocate within the My Computer icon. However, since these drives are now automatically "mapped" when you login, it is no longer necessary or prudent to manually map them. If you notice you are not getting appropriate connections in My Computer, please call the Support Desk. A technician will assist you in removing the previously mapped connections and in establishing automatic, correct mappings. A technician may still instruct users to map a drive manually as a temporary workaround, but we request that they not check the "reconnect at login" box to avoid potential future problems.

Fall Training

Telecommunications coordinates training on Academy standard software. This fall training was available in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel at the introductory, intermediate and advanced levels. Also offered are Netscape Communicator Messenger Email, both at the introductory and intermediate levels, and Microsoft Power Point. For descriptions and dates, contact Vi Richter at extension 3693 or visit the new training page at: help.exeter.edu/training