Network Services Team (NST)

Meeting Minutes 4/26/95

Contents:

• Old Business
• New Business
• What's Important to accomplish by next week?
• Discussion on our roles for network problems
• AGENDA for next meeting

Present:  Garnet Barrigar, Brenda Bennett, David Brouwer, Carmen Casolara, 
           Bob Jewett, Justin Sipher



1. Next meeting    Monday 5/1 @ 3:00pm 


2. Old Business:

   - Shiva LANRover problems/update. Bob and Justin talked to Al Walker @
     Shiva and he will be sending
     2 copies of the latest LanRover software (3.5) to us to try.  If that
     solves the problem, we will purchase the software ($99/ea).
     
   - Library CD-ROM server update.  Dave talked w/ Keith Compeau and Keith
     does not want to upgrade the CD-ROM server until he has solve some
     problems (?) that he is having with the Library Novell network.

   - NetNews filter report.  Dave sent Bob the list of news groups being
     filtered.  After some discussion we decided to remove the filters after
     the students leave and observe the impact that has on our bandwidth
     (will it impair network performance?) and storage (will we have to
     set shorter expire times?).  Russ will be needed to help accomplish
     this since he set up the filters originally.  This will be a summer
     project (Dave).


   - Student access to Unix server room #108 key.  Carm and Garnet reported
     that Bill Jaeger has turned in all his keys and Eric has turned in his
     #108 key.

   - Network Services WWW page.  Nothing new here.  However, Bob asked
     all team members to be sure to carefully review Team meeting minutes,
     since they are published only on our internal WWW server.
     

   - Network ADD request from Juliana Degone, Mental Health (Van Housen).  
     Her network request form hasn't been returned and no one has heard from
     her. 

   - Lapsing funds.  Discussed NST requests.  We will be funding the following
     items and travel:

Sun workstation. (Dave)
Training/workshops

AT&T Equipment seminar (Karen/Brenda) 5/3/95
    in Syracuse
SUNY Training Center Networking Update (Bob) 5/2-5/3
    in Syracuse
Anixter seminar in Syracuse (Carm, Garnet, Dave) 5/9
    in Syracuse
Network Group Troubleshooting Workshop (Justin/Carm) 6/22 -23
    in New Jersey


   - Dates we expect to finish our summer projects:  TABLED until next mtg.
          Phones checked to ensure that they are in working order for students
            returning in the fall. (Brenda, Carm)
          Brenda's student phone service setup for the fall. (Brenda)
          Unix host problems/setup.  Bob suggested that we clean up our
            usercodes as well.  (Dave)
          WWW development and data communication updates on personal computers
            throughout the campus. (Justin)
          Establishing a more streamlined SLIP/PPP install process (Dave, 
            Justin)
          Wiring the "dorms" (Team)



3. New Business:

   - WWW server strategy.  Justin presented his strategy for our WWW servers.
     He suggests that we use one of the new WWW servers we will be getting
     to provide secure, on-campus access only.  This would be used for our
     internal WWW server (www.dctm.potsdam), Institutional Research's WWW
     server and others as well.  The other two WWW servers would be used
     to provide a balanced load for public access (on- and off-campus).

   - Skyline 1.1.  Carm/Garnet/Justin will download ver1.1 and test it this
     week.

   - Email server strategy from ISD Director's meeting.  Bob presented an
     agreement that was reached among the ISD Directors--that is, to move
     our email service to a single platform client/server strategy.  We 
     currently support VMS mail and SMTP (Unix) mail servers.  The transition
     to an entirely C/S, Unix-based email system will need to be taken
     carefully since some VMS users only have access to terminals, and because
     we have yet to establish a viable email solution (IMAP) for all remote 
     users.  We will try to implement the IMAP protocol on our Unix server so
     that we can test IMAP-capable clients over the summer.  We hope to have
     this service available for the Fall '95 semester.


   - Important goals for 95-96 TABLED until next mtg.

        * Email servers (IMAP testing) --see notes on ISD Director's meeting



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

     - 


5.  Continuation of discussion on our roles for network problems and how/when to 
     alert campus of problems with network services:

    We renewed our discussion of how/when to alert campus of problems with
    network services.  Given the feedback Bob got about campus expectations
    presented last week, the team discussed several options for dealing with
    this issue.

    OPTION A.
    If we become aware of network problems by calls left on the Network
    Hotline and/or calls to Public Safety we could do one of the following:

    1.  A team member is responsible for monitoring the Network HOTLINE
        (x2884) for messages that are left (x4905) for an entire week
        (evenings, weekend, any holidays during that week).

    2.  Brenda takes responsibility for monitoring the HOTLINE.

    OPTION B.
    We make an extra effort to monitor all network services by dialing into
    the data network (or stopping by the campus and checking it); take calls
    from Public Safety, or other campus offices, when problems are found with
    the data, voice or video services we support.

    We agreed that we will leave our beepers on at all times, but only carry
    them with us while on-campus.

    We will review these options in our next meeting.  We still need to 
    discuss:

     - backup role for Justin's role as coordinator for network service 
         problems
     - Brenda's role as information clearinghouse and her backup.
     - how to program (record messages) for the HOTLINE (x2884)

6.  AGENDA for next meeting (5/1):

     - backup strategies while team members are attending workshops/seminars

             5/2 - Bob
             5/3 - Brenda/Karen/Bob
             5/9 - Dave/Carm/Garnet
       5/11-5/12 - Bob/Justin
       6/22-6/23 - Carm/Justin