Network Services Team

                         Meeting Minutes
                             3/15/95

|  NEXT Minutes  |  PREVIOUS Minutes  |  NST HomePage |

Attending:  Bob, Brenda, Carm, Dave, Garnet, Justin


1. Old Business:

   - Shiva LANRover problems/update.  Justin and Bob are still struggling to
     get the LanRovers running reliably.  They were at it until 7:30pm last
     night tracking down AppleTalk network problems which may be part of the
     LanRovers' problems.  Shiva Tech Support has been unable to find anything
     wrong with our LanRovers or the way we have them configured.

   - Library CD-ROM server.  No change in status.

   - Key systems (telephones).  All counted, sorted and stored in Knowles!
     Brenda will send the inventory list to Bill Fisher for "disposal".

   - 2400 baud modems.  Even though there has been a complaint with about
     the modems to the VAX, it is not clear whether it is the 2400 baud or
     9600 baud modems.  Carm checked all of them and they seem to work.  Carm
     suggested we publish all of the modem #'s so that our customers can dial
     directly into a modem when they experience problems with other numbers.

   - News feed to Plattsburgh.  SUNY Plattsburgh has obtained a feed from
     Buffalo.

   - TCP/IP Optimization.  Bob has not met with anyone yet on this.  Dave
     suggested that we (Bob, Justin, Dave) meet next week to identify any
     work that will need to be done while students are on Spring break.

   - Summer projects.  Carm reported that Res Life may want a movie channel
     for the fall.  If so, we will need to set that up over the summer.

   - Lapsing Funds requests.  Carm suggest purchasing equipment to install
     another TV channel.  If the move channel is approved, we may want to
     consider purchasing additional VCRs and an infra-red controller.  He
     will talk to Res Life about "partnering" on the project and having
     them cover some of these costs.

   - Brenda's report on cellular phones.  Brenda reviewed her report on the
     status of cellular technology in our are.  Tri-County will be establishing
     a local cell in Potsdam by October of this year and we may want to consider
     the use of cellular phones at that time to handle network service problems
     around campus (the signal will be able to be picked up within buildings).

   - Brenda's report on pagers.  We can purchase pagers from Tri-County
     Communications for $99 ea.  They will cost $10/month each.  We currently
     have 3 and will need 3 more to cover the entire team.  Brenda will prepare
     a purchase requisition for this purchase and we will need to discuss
     our procedures/process for using the pagers before purchasing them.


2. New Business:

   - Anixter Site Survey.  Doug has reported that Anixter would be interested
     in conducting an on-site survey of our cabling needs for wiring student
     residences.  There was some concern expressed over Anixter's follow-through
     on promises they make.  Carm will talk to Doug about exactly what they
     would do for us in a site survey.

     Carm and Garnet pointed out that we need to be clear what questions need to
     be answered when vendors are on-site doing their survey.  Otherwise, they
     will need to have someone else on the team accompany the vendor to answer
     and ask questions.

   - Carm and Garnet will be using our movie-channel technology to present
     the SUNY Trustee's meeting on 3/14 over channel 22 every hour.  (NOTE:
     They have it working!  When the 1/2-hour meeting finishes, the
     InfoChannel is broadcast until the top of the hour.  Then the Trustee's
     meeting is presented again.)


3. What's Important to accomplish by next week?

   - Work on the LANRovers with Shiva.  (Bob/Justin)

   - Establish Network Services Hotline (x2884)  (Bob/Justin/Brenda)

   - Meet on TCP/IP hosts/services (Bob/Justin/Dave)

   - Lapsing funds request THIS WEEK! (Team)


4. Continuation of discussion on alerting campus of problems with network
   services:

   (NOTE:  We need to document our work here in a form that others in the
            department can refer to when there are network problems.
            Suggestions?)

   - Discussed the telephone # (x2884) Brenda has established for us to post the
     status of our campus network services and possible work-around solutions.
     Brenda will work on this and we will try to implement this for our users
     as soon as possible.  We'll need to continually improve this as we get
     feedback from others.  We should call it ourselves frequently so we know
     what information we are presenting to the campus through this service.


   - We did not get a chance to discuss and define Justin role when coordinating
     our response to network service problems, nor did we discuss Brenda's role
     as our network services "information clearinghouse".  We will do this at
     our next team meeting.


   Great job this week team (in spite of our LanRover black cloud)!


6. Next meeting Weds, 3/22 @ 8:00am