An anonymous user of MiamiLINK, the Miami University Libraries'
Information Network, recently asked:
> How are we going to be able to call into Sherlock via modem when the
> computing center only has 30 ports and the administration is giving all
> students (16,000) coputer accounts?
 
     The short term answer is that MCIS will be increasing its modem
pool again this fall, as we've been doing regularly in the past.
Unfortunately, the reality is that our supply can probably never meet
the demand for dial-in access to the campus network.
 
     One long term solution is addressed in the Miami University Data and
Video Network Plan:  the University intends to eventually network *all*
academic buildings and *all* residence halls.  On-campus connectivity to
MiamiLINK / Sherlock and other resources will then be possible *primarily*
through TCP/IP connections.
 
     As for off-campus connectivity, it is widely hoped that the City of
Oxford's cable infrastructure rebuild (to be completed within approximately
two years of next summer's franchise renewal) will make Internet access in
each cable-subscribing home in Oxford an option, introducing the possibility
that students living off-campus and staff and faculty could connect to
MiamiLINK / Sherlock and other Miami resources using their Miami accounts
from home via TCP/IP connections.
 
     There are a lot of big IFs in that last paragraph, but the City and
the University are beginning to explore the feasibility of some of those
options.
 
--
 
                           John B Harlan
        Campus Wide Information Systems (CWIS) Coordinator
                    Miami University (Ohio USA)
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