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SSCC News, January, 1996
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This is the SCC News. This monthly electronic newsletter will keep you
informed about recent changes on the SSCC computer networks. We hope
this information will help improve communication between the SSCC
computing staff and all of you computer users out there.
Inside this issue...
Town Meeting on PC Computing and Support
Reduced Operator Hours
SSCC Training Sessions - Spring Semester 1996
Network Upgrade Status
SSCC MicroVax Retired
DoIT Dial-In Pool Diversifying
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Town Meeting on PC Computing/Support and Building Network Upgrades
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ATTENTION: ALL CURRENT/FUTURE SSCC PC USERS NEED TO ATTEND TOWN MEETING
TOPIC: SSCC PC COMPUTING/SUPPORT AND BUILDING NETWORK UPGRADES
WHEN: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1996, NOON-1:00 P.M.
WHERE: 4308 SOCIAL SCIENCE
In the town meeting last September, Tom Flory, SSCC Director, discussed
the anticipated evolution of the SSCC computers. This includes plans to
both improve service and reduce administrative overhead by drastically
reducing the number of host (VMS and UNIX) computers we have, replacing
many older machines with one or a few much more powerful ones, and
establishing a robust Microsoft Windows Network. The last town meeting's
discussions concentrated on VMS and UNIX. This meeting will concentrate on the
PC network that is now up and running. We will give a live demonstration and
outline the level of support the SSCC staff plans to provide for PCs connected
to this network as well as PCs with ethernet connections to VMS or UNIX, and
stand-alone PCs. We would also like to get your input on which software you
would like to see installed on the network.
We will also use this town meeting to update everyone on the status of
the improvements to our network which have been made possible through the NFS
Instrumentation Grant that was awarded the SSCC. Most of the planning
is done and new equipment is already arriving and being implemented.
There will be plenty of opportunity for discussion and questions.
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Reduced Operator Hours
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Effective the beginning of Spring Semester, January 22, 1996, operator hours
will be reduced by 18 hours per week. We have been monitoring tape mount
requests over the last four months and have found that there are hardly any
mount requests during evenings and weekends. Besides tape mounts, the only
other major duty of operators during evenings and weekends is to collect
and shelve computer room print out. And, now that we have two self-serve
printers with 24-hour access, it is no longer cost effective to use student
hourly time in this manner.
During the week, operator hours will be from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., closing
two hours earlier than before. Weekend operator hours will be from 10:00 a.m.
to 2:00 p.m. (They were 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. before.) These additional 18
hours/week of student hourly time will be reallocated to assisting with the
increasing number of network related tasks associated with the improvements
being made to the network.
Remember, that there are still printers in the Public Terminal Room and the
I/O Room that are available to you 24-hours/day. Below is a list of their
queue names:
usersingle The laser printer in the Public Terminal Room (Soc.
Sci. 2470). This queue is for printing ASCII (plain
text) files on one side of the paper only.
usersingle_ps The laser printer in the Public Terminal Room (Soc.
Sci. 2470). This queue is for printing PostScript files
on one side of the paper only.
userdouble The laser printer in the Public Terminal Room (Soc.
Sci. 2470). This queue is for printing ASCII (plain
text) files on both sides of the paper.
userdouble_ps The laser printer in the Public Terminal Room (Soc.
Sci. 2470). This queue is for printing PostScript files
on both sides of the paper.
iosingle The laser printer in the I/O Room (Soc. Sci. 4411A).
This queue is for printing ASCII (plain
text) files on one side of the paper only.
iosingle_ps The laser printer in the I/O Room (Soc. Sci. 4411A).
This queue is for printing PostScript files
on one side of the paper only.
iodouble The laser printer in the I/O Room (Soc. Sci. 4411A).
This queue is for printing ASCII (plain
text) files on both sides of the paper.
iodouble_ps The laser printer in the I/O Room (Soc. Sci. 4411A).
This queue is for printing PostScript files
on both sides of the paper.
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SSCC Training Sessions - Spring Semester 1996
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Course descriptions can be found in SSCGOPHER.
Note: SSCC training sessions require preregistration. If less than five people
preregister for a course one week prior to its start date, the class may
be canceled. To preregister for a class, send mail to SSCCLASS indicating
which class(es) you plan to attend. You will be reminded about your pre-
registration through e-mail a day or two before the class begins.
If no training session is offered for a topic you are interested in, please
send mail to SSCCLASS requesting a session. We will schedule a session
if a minimum of five people request training on a topic.
Date Time Topic Room Instruct.
---- ---- ----- ---- ---------
1/25 2:30-3:45 UNIX Basics I: Commands and Command Syntax 4308 Rodriguez
1/30 2:30-3:45 UNIX Basics II: Files and Directories 4308 Rodriguez
2/1 2:30-3:45 UNIX Basics III: Running Jobs 4308 Rodriguez
2/5 3:30-4:30 VMS Basics I: Commands, Files 2470 Hayes
2/6 2:30-3:45 UNIX Basics IV: Filters 4308 Rodriguez
2/7 3:30-4:30 VMS Basics II: Text Editing with EVE 2470 Pan
2/8 2:30-3:45 UNIX Basics V: Configuring the Shell 4308 Rodriguez
2/12 3:30-4:30 VMS Basics III: Running Batch Jobs 2470 Hayes
2/13 2:30-3:45 The Internet: FTP, TELNET, GOPHERS 4308 Sandor
2/14 1:00-2:00 Text Editing with EMACS 2470 McDermott
2/15,2/20 2:30-3:45 WWW & its browsers (Netscape, Lynx,etc..) 4308 Brand
2/16 1:00-2:30 Intro to PINE: A Menu Driven Mailer 2470 Wald
2/20 1:00-2:00 WiscWorld (inc. FTP) for Windows from Home 3432 Arnold
2/20,2/22 9:00-10 Intro to STATA 2470 McDermott
2/27 1:00-2:00 Windows for Workgroups Network Fundamentals 3432 Flory
2/29-4/4 2:30-3:45 Intro to SAS* 4308 Winsboro
3/5 1:00-2:00 Intro to EUDORA Mail 3432 Ross
3/5 3:00-5:00 Intro to SPSS 2470 Hayes
3/22 1:00-2:00 Converting to VMS's PMDF Mail 3432 Wald
3/29 1:30-3:00 Extracting Data Interactively w/ BADGER 2470 Fassnacht
4/9 2:30-3:45 Explor. Data Analysis in SAS: PROC INSIGHT 4308 McDermott
4/11-4/23 2:30-3:45 SAS Programming Techniques & Efficiencies* 4308 McDermott
4/25,4/30 2:30-3:45 Concatenating and Merging in SAS 4308 Winsboro
5/2 2:30-3:45 Table Lookup Techniques in SAS 4308 McDermott
Note: Classes scheduled in Soc. Sci. 4308 meet concurrently with Sociology 365.
Anyone is welcome to attend but you still need to preregister so that we
have enough handouts.
*Lectures are Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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Network Upgrade Status
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Over the holiday break, the building network was upgraded. There were two
major parts to this network upgrade:
to install a high speed FDDI backbone network between
all of the network closets and computer room
to connect all of the computers in the building on to
the same network separated by smart devices that
segment or direct traffic efficiently
Computers on each floor are sharing their Ethernet with at most 12 other
computers. Before the upgrade, several floors were sharing the same Ethernet.
Because fewer computers are sharing the same Ethernet now, the effective
traffic on each Ethernet can move faster, i.e. there is less tableion for
the same cabling.
The upgrade also means that traffic traveling through the building (from your
office to the computer room for example) is now on a high speed highway.
If you move your office, you don't have to worry about getting a new "network
punch" or IP address. There are no more "Unix or VMS subnets"; all IP
addresses (144.92.188, 189, 190 and 191) are on the same network and will work
from any office.
There is, of course, much left to do on the network. But this is a big step
in improving the network. Thanks for your patience during this transition.
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SSCC MicroVax Retired
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SSCC has finally been removed from the VMS cluster as was promised more
than a year ago. Jobs submitted to SSCCBATCH now run on SSCB. This saves
us maintenance and hardware charges and also grief since SSCC was the least
stable machine in the cluster. With the retirement of SSCC, we have
reduced the VMS cluster from 28 nodes to 7 in a little over a year. This
downsizing is part of the 5-year plan to both improve service and reduce
administrative overhead by replacing many older machines with fewer much more
powerful ones, and establishing a robust PC Local Area Network (LAN) around
the Windows NT Server operating system running on a DEC alpha server.
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DoIT Dial-In Pool Diversifying
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DoIT now has three modem pools. One for "general-use" 14.4 bps users, one for
people with a 28.8 bps modem, and a new one for "express" users.
The new express pool limits access to 10 minutes and any session that exceeds
this limit will be terminated. Since 75% of customers access the current
modem pool for under 10 minutes, this pool should decrease demand on the
"general use" pool. Please set your dial script for the number/pool best
suited for your use.
# of Phone
Purpose Speed Modems Numbers
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General 14.4 480 5-4321
General 28.8 144 5-4328
Express 14.4 48 5-4322
DoIT expects to have 716 modems running in the first quarter of 1996.