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May 19, 2006 > News > IT summmer upgrades to speed up network

IT summmer upgrades to speed up network

By Beko Binder | Thresher Editorial Staff

When students return to campus in August, they will have faster, safer, more reliable Internet and network connections, more e-mail and storage space and access to a new customizable Web site.

Information Technology’s summer upgrades will cost $22 million, Director of Networking, Telecommunications and Operations William Deigaard (Wiess ‘92) said. Deigaard said e-mail and storage upgrades will accompany the network hardware replacement this summer.

“The network [upgrade] is composed of three things,” Deigaard said. “New copper wiring within the buildings and [fiber optic cable] between the buildings, new electronics and renovating the closets where the electronics live.”

As part of the upgrades, every network port on campus will be replaced with ports that support data transfer rates of up to 1,000 megabits per second, Deigaard said. The new ports will allow access to on-campus resources — such as personal storage space, campus Web sites and Language Resource Center streaming video — up to 100 times faster.

Students will also be able to access the Internet at speeds 40 to 50 times faster than they could before and will have faster connection speeds to research networks at other academic institutions, Deigaard said.

Deigaard said the new wiring will increase the network’s reliability by adding redundancy to the network connections.

“In your room you’ll still have a single connection to the network,” Deigaard said. “But that thing that you’re attached to — all the way through the campus network core and all the way to Rice servers — will have more than one path that it can take.”

Systems, Architecture and Infrastructure Director Barry Ribbeck said the hardware changes are necessary to provide a reliable, modern network.

“[Our current network] is like a one-lane dirt road on the information superhighway,” Ribbeck said. “We can’t provide consistency across the institution to provide the level of networking capabilities and reliability that are required.”

Network Security

This summer, IT will begin using a program called Clean Access to protect the network from computers that pose security risks.

“Its goal is to make sure that all of the machines that are on our community network are able to defend themselves,” Information Security Officer Marc Scarborough said. “It can do a basic scan to make sure that a system is running a virus scan or is up to date on patches, [and] if not, it can help them get those resources.”

When network users first open their Internet browser, Clean Access will scan the computer for malicious software or vulnerabilities. Machines that pass the scan will be allowed to access the Rice network and parts of the Internet, while those that fail will be blocked. Blocked users will be directed to Web sites where they can download fixes for their problem.

IT has not yet determined how often they will check computers on the Rice network. Scarborough said computers will be scanned often enough to keep users safe but not every time they log on.

Scarborough said computers will only be immediately blocked if there are major security problems. Otherwise, users will be advised to download patches in a given timeframe.

Web Portal

Enterprise Applications Director Andrea Martin (Jones ‘79) said the purpose of the Web portal is to provide access to many Web utilities on one page, such as ESTHER and Webmail. Martin said the portal is flexible and allows students to rearrange and replace information on their pages.

In addition to Rice resources, students can view syndicated headlines, known as RSS feeds, from outside Web sites.

“Students can tailor this to whatever they want,” Martin said. “You can add your own channel. You can change your own templates. You can do just about anything with it… There’s an announcement channel that you can’t get rid of, but just about everything else you can.”

IT ran a Web portal pilot at Martel College in the spring. Feedback from participants will help determine what will be available when the portal is released in the fall.

So far, suggestions have included access to ESTHER and Webmail that does not require users to sign on again, as well as a connection to Facebook. Martin said although the portal is not yet ready for everyone to use, students can test it and give feedback over the summer.

The portal can be accessed at my.rice.edu.

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