University Times

Pitt computer network users soon will have the option of paying a monthly fee to subscribe to an Internet service provider (ISP) for improved remote network access.

Provost James V. Maher told Senate Council Monday that a preferred partnership contract had been signed this week with Stargate, a local ISP company.

For a monthly fee of $16.95 — more than 20 percent under the standard customer subscription rate — users can purchase unlimited PittNet access within Stargate's local service region, which includes western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and portions of Maryland and West Virginia; 150 hours of local-number access per month nationally outside that region (or 800-number access in areas where Stargate lacks local-number access); e-mail accounts and space for personal web pages.

Using authorized passwords subscribers also will be able to access Pitt databases that are restricted for security purposes.

International remote access and high-speed, large bandwidth digital subscriber line (DSL) services will be offered at additional monthly charges.

"As far as I can tell, there is not another organization in the world that has an agreement in place for such a comprehensive set of services," Maher said. He described Stargate as "a very resourceful, flexible, entrepreneurial company [that] bent over backward to give us all the services we were looking for.

"This adjunct to our already available network access is part of a carefully thought-out strategy to make sure that our technology resources meet the needs of the campus community," the provost said. "The Stargate option will offer guaranteed accessibility at all times for those users whose educational or research activities require heavy Internet usage."

The agreement options extend to Pitt's four regional campuses.

According to Jon Rosenson, director of strategic initiatives at Stargate, "The University is paying for two things: discounted dial-up direct connection to the Internet through Stargate, and a virtual private network (VPN), customized to Pitt's needs. The VPN provides subscribers with access to PittNet, including restricted databases, from remote sites."

Under the agreement, Stargate and Pitt will work together to implement a private, high-volume security connection between the University and the ISP to determine access eligibility to the VPN.

Maher said, "Users will be able to access Pitt's resources, from their Stargate account, including restricted services that until now could only be accessed through the University's modem pool."

Stargate has about 100,000 subscribers, including separate deals with Duquesne and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Rosenson said. "My feeling, and it's just a guess, is that we would have about 2,000 Pitt subscribers by the end of the calendar year. Many faculty, we know, definitely want the faster, more dependable service."

The digital subscriber line, which allows users to be on the Internet and still use the phone line and operates at much faster speeds and with greater bandwidth capacity, is a popular option among Stargate subscribers, he said. DSL also can sustain multiply users at one site. It is a point-to-point service, however, and cannot be accessed from other, off-site modems.

The monthly fee for DSL service is $39.95, which is not discounted. There also is a start-up installation fee.

Pitt users will subscribe to the Stargate options on a month to month basis, Rosenson said.

The University will be able to calculate the number of times Stargate subscribers access the VPN for PittNet and related services, but not the number of times users go directly to the Internet, which is protected under privacy law, Rosenson said.

The contract went into effect Feb. 5. "I consider the contract to be permanent," Maher said. "As with any contract, we can expect to have periodic discussions of issues as they arise. And it will take a couple weeks to get the literature with the options out in the mail, but we're talking weeks not months."

According to Jinx Walton, director of Computing Services and Systems Development (CSSD), the University is subsidizing the agreement with Stargate, but she declined to say how much Pitt is paying. Pitt is not required to supply a minimum number of subscribers, Maher said, although Pitt's fee will increase as subscribers increase.

Subscribers will need a dial-up modem (not a cable company modem) to use the service. Walton said modems can be purchased through Pitt's e-store for $50-$100.

Pitt users still have remote access available through the University's 800-modem pool.

Walton said that the protracted negotiations to reach an agreement with an ISP worked to the University's advantage. "The original offer did not include the DSL option, and access time was going to be limited to 100 hours a month for everybody."

She said that contractually Stargate is committed to 99.9 percent access without busy signals, and the ISP must increase its number of maintained modems and bandwidth capacity to ensure that success rate. "We also will be able to verify the PittNet connectivity success rate here under the contract terms. We're not going to just take their word for it," she said.

Susan Sereika, co-chair of the Senate's computer usage committee, said she was very happy that an agreement has been reached. "Our committee is thrilled. While we didn't really have much input into the negotiations, we were asked very early on to suggest what users in the University community's needs were, and I think this deal covers most or all our suggestions. I do have some concerns for some of our students on the branch campuses, if they are out of the local [access] area, but with 150 hours [a month] of access, and with the ability to continue to use the 800 modem pool already there, I think they'll be okay."

Michael Spring, associate professor of information science and telecommunications, said that the virtual private network agreement was critical. "The VPN is wonderful to have negotiated. Virtually extending the Pitt modem pool through Stargate will help with routing mail through the system, accessing the library database, extending on-line registration services and CourseInfo and other services. There had to be a lot of technical negotiations to make that work."

Spring questioned whether Stargate will be able to maintain connectivity success during peak hours and avoid the delays that have plagued Pitt in the recent past. "Also, modem connectivity is one thing. But will there be delays when the Internet is heavily congested? You can have the connection, but not the through-put." q In related computer updates, Maher reported to Senate Council that:

* Since December, Pitt had increased its network bandwidth capacity by a factor of 2.5. "We had 50 megabytes per second of available capacity, we now have 125. We are monitoring usage closely, but at the moment we're not experiencing any of the blockages that were occurring in the fall."

* CourseInfo, which Maher acknowledged had significant problems throughout the fall, has been improved, the provost said. CourseInfo is an integrated software package that allows faculty to use web pages for instruction.

"We discovered we're the world's biggest user of CourseInfo and the program is not as scalable as the designer had thought it would be," Maher said.

"As a result, the company has brought out an expanded version, Blackboard 5, which should be much more scalable."

Maher said the new CourseInfo program currently is being tested and would be installed and ready for use by fall term 2001.

Additionally, Pitt made a number of changes to the CourseInfo system's configuration. There were increases in server capacity and the number of potential concurrent users and an upgrade of database indexes, Maher said. "There have been no failures in the system since these changes were made in December."

* There have been none of the system crashes that characterized the fall months, Maher said.

* External network access has been improved. "We've gone from having one call in a 100 get through the modem access to having 98 of a 100 get through," with the increase in bandwidth and the replacement and upgrade of outmoded modems.

Walton said that better connectivity has led to increased volume, as well. "We were averaging about 11,000 remote connections [through the modem pool] weekly during the fall months. In January the average went up to about 19,000," she said.

"There's still one more important step in this area," Maher said. "We've found that a lot of the problems we were having were coming from the external phone company vendor providing network service to the modem pool having its system jam up. We now have an RFP (request for proposals) out for replacing or else renegotiating with that vendor, and by May 1 we'll have that improved service available."

Maher declined to name the vendor.

He added, "We can count on going into the next fiscal year confident not only that we will have caught up on the problems we had going on this fall, but we will have completed the first year of the three-year roll-out of our technology plan."

–Peter Hart