Answers from Computer Services

COMPUTER SESSION How does our internet compare to that of the U of A, U of C, and RDC for bandwidth, security, and dependability? What is our cost per student for delivery of internet and, again compared to the above institutions, how much data is streamed per student per month?

I do not have easy access to the details of other Alberta Institution's figures, so unless I am asked to pursue those further by my boss (and I doubt that it is much value comparing us to U of A or U of C) I will instead share with you some stats from our sister SDA colleges and Universities. For the 8 SDA Higher Ed. institutions that I have data on, the average bandwidth per user is 0.17 MBps/student with WAU being the highest with 0.48 MBps/student and LSU being the lowest at 0.04 MBps/student while CaUC is currently at 0.06 MBps/student. So we are near the bottom of the pack for bandwidth per user. The average cost/student is $42.01, while CaUC pays $66.67. We have the highest cost per MBps, being about double what the next highest is. In the last month, on our wireless network alone, there was 5.28 TB of data transferred, making an average of about 7.5 GB per student per month.

What recommendations does our computer services make for improving campus technology, and what additional resources do the feel to be necessary?

By 'Campus Technology' I am going to assume that wireless is what is referred to, since this is what most students use on a daily basis. Wireless technology is always evolving, and is subject to many environmental factors. CaUC was one of the first post secondary institutions in Alberta to offer wireless coverage, and also one of the first to upgrade to the current 802.11n technology. One thing that we continue to struggle with is the problems inherent with most wireless deployments, things like interference, coverage and density. From a recent survey of 56 North American universities, 85.7% say that they are experiencing similar types of issues, so we are not alone. The most common problems were too many clients per access point (64.6%), Rogue wireless devices (things like wireless printers, wireless phones, student wireless access points) (58.3%), and high signal attenuation (45.8%). 84.6% plan to address these problems by placing more access points while 73.1% plan to relocate existing access points.

We have been increasing the number of access points each year, and will requesting budget again this next year to provide for increased density in student residences. Study is being given to extending the campus wireless network to all dorm annexes. Students can assist by not deploying things like wireless printers and rogue wireless networks, which are against policy. We have attempted to work with the deans to identify students with complaints, but have not had much

success with being able to connect and follow up with individual students. Ee have found that either interference or outdated drivers are the cause of the majority of problems. We would definitely encourage any student experiencing problems to contact our office, and be available for our staff to follow up and investigate the issue. We definitely have a need for more staffing to allow for more availability for this, but we have had staff spend several evenings in the dorms to connect with students having problems and to do monitoring of network resources.

In the opinion of those who work at computer services, are they receiving adequate resources to do their work? How do they justify their answer?

Based on what has been requested for us to accomplish, we have definite need for increased staffing and training in the areas of network security and operations and server support. The information that I have easily accessible form a 2009 Educause survey shows that the average Liberal Arts institution on North America of our size would have 8.5 personnel in its IT department. We have 6.

1. Why is it so slow? The server should have the capability to facilitate the number of computers that actually use the internet here. Also, the server/computer services staff should be able to split/assign different computers to different wireless ports in order to use the network more efficiently.

Internet bandwidth has been increased annually. Our network is much more complex than just one 'server'. There are many devices that all work in harmony (or we try to get them to) to provide Internet access. We are currently negotiating and planning to join Cybera and participate in their peering program where all traffic to Google, YouTube, Facebook and the majority of other large bandwidth uses is sent directly through the Alberta Supernet and not through our commodity ISP. This will help in reducing cost and increasing speed. In order for this to occur, we have had to replace some of our older equipment to be able to take advantage of the higher speeds coming. We have now retired our BLOXX proxy and 2 Cicso routers have been replaced with newer units. We still have contract issues with our ISP we are trying to work through to make this increase happen as soon as we can. We have also reviewed settings and rules on existing equipment and have made changes that we believe have made some recent improvements. Our wireless equipment does dynamically make adjustment based on usage and steers clients toward the best access point at the time of connection.

2. Why does it constantly kick people off? I personally have had to sign back onto the network between three and 20 times a day.

When we first retired the BLOXX proxy there was a period of adjustment to the new procedures and for us to adjust parameters appropriately Currently, if a connection is idle for 3 hours, then re-authentication will be required. If this is still an issue, please contact our office to provide details.

3. Why does it drop so much? There are long periods of time where it just doesn't work, no matter how many times you try to access the login page. These are not advertised cut off times for servicing by computer services, these are random, but frequent times where the internet just stops working, sometimes for five minutes, sometimes for several hours.

It is very difficult to respond to people who say 'I have a problem', but then do not follow up with our office, or allow us to contact them to resolve the issue.

Please follow up with our office if you experience problems, don't just assume that everyone is having the same problem. With the exception of an afternoon 2 weeks ago, we are not aware of any general service disruptions since Christmas.

Please inform us when these things are observed and we will investigate.

4. Why are there so many blocks on the network? I can understand torrent websites being blocked, because torrenting takes up a lot of bandwidth, especially when there are a lot of people doing it at the same time. However, many of the sites are blocked for P2P, "weapons", "games", or other such purposes. We are college students, almost all legal adults, and should have the maturity and discretion to decide for ourselves what we should and should not be viewing. Also, more often than not, these blocks are blocking websites that are actually not what they are labelled by the blocking service, thus inhibiting us from being able to do what we need to be doing.

The Computer Services committee has set what categories we are doing web content filtering on. Please work with your the SA and your student representative to bring theses issues to the Computer Services Committee for discussion if desired. For sites that you find that are being incorrectly blocked, contact our office with the details and we will attempt to adjust accordingly.