======================== SSCC News, January, 1996 ======================== 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Town Meeting on PC Computing/Support and Building Network Upgrades ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. ---------------------- Reduced Operator Hours ---------------------- 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. --------------------------------------------- SSCC Training Sessions - Spring Semester 1996 --------------------------------------------- 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. ---------------------- Network Upgrade Status ---------------------- 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. ----------------------- SSCC MicroVax Retired ----------------------- 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. ------------------------------ DoIT Dial-In Pool Diversifying ------------------------------ 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 ======= ===== ====== ======= 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.