From: jp@tygra.Michigan.COM (John Palmer)
Subject: Re: My damn modem (or Merit's damn connection)
Organization: CAT-TALK Conferencing Network, Detroit, MI
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 05:49:15 GMT

In article <jeff.715035258@vela> jeff@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Jeff Marraccini) writes:
"jp@tygra.Michigan.COM (John Palmer) writes:
">I too have some problems, only mine happen during UUCP connections to
">destroyer. In the last few days, Merit chokes up after about 10 minutes
">and dumps the connections.
"
"I've had a couple problems like this lately as well.  I added
"%TRANSPARENT=ON to by UUCP script.  The jury's not in yet if this
"helps, but it might be worth a try... 
"

The problem seems to have cleared up. The problem was a connection
through WS16 to destroyer. 

"Well, you have a right to your opinion.  The Merit/MichNet lines are
"being substantially used by NON-UNIVERSITY USERS, including yourself.
"I work at a university, and my job is to support university users.
"However, people have found that I'm also willing to put out a large effort
"for "outsiders".  Others in the university organizations may not be as
"willing to do this.  Merit boils down for a free-lunch for you folks.
"Many of you NEVER PAY A CENT to use resources that other people
"(students, primarily) are paying computing fees to support. 
"

Free lunch? I don't really think its free. I seem to recall that several
years ago, then Governor Blanchard signed into law an act which would 
provide state funding for Merit. Part of the legislation was that, in 
return for funding from the state, Merit was to be declared a public
data network for use by the People of The State of Michigan (businesses
included). 
 
Maybe I misread it, but now I'm curious and will investigate further. If
it is in fact the case that Merit receives substantial funding from 
the state, then I think that I am justified in using the services. I just
paid a whopping sum for state single business tax and was not pleased.
If I have to pay it, I don't like being told that I cannot use a service
which I paid for. 

"Sure, modems are "cheap".  But, there are other costs that you didn't
"factor in that are germane to Wayne State: some of their remote sites
"use 9.6Kbps lines to get back to their network.  A single 9600bps
"modem would saturate that line.  Ok, go to 56Kbps (or higher.)  Wait
"'till you get the bill (and it's a monthly recurring charge, at that.)
"

A 56KB digital link costs about $400 to go from Detroit to, say 
Sterling Hts. I guess what is needed is some sort of cooperation
between industry (Michigan Bell) and the state for reduced rates 
for thinks like PDN's. 

"As a counter-example to your opinion, when you have a UNIVERSITY
"RESEARCHER that, as one individual, uses up a substantial amount of
"the mainframe CPU, taking time away from other users that have work to
"do, it's time to get a new mainframe.  You can't tell the researcher
"to go away: they're legitimate users, and they're often the driving
"force in computing.
"

Actually, moving to a workstation/file server model is the best way to 
go, but some people still need mainframe resources.

"On the other hand, Merit/MichNet users do deserve higher-speed modems.
"But, I can tell you that based on my experience (at Oakland
"University) administrative preference is to upgrade the local dial-up
"banks first.  Wayne State is upgrading their local dial-up banks now.
"We're adding modems, too, but there'll be more added to the local
"dial-up banks than to our Merit node.  Merit is a lower priority for
"the administration, because of the high amount of non-Oakland
"University users, as well as the high amount of what could be termed
"abusive users.
"

I don't beleive that WSU has any dial-in banks of their own which are 
not  on  Merit SCP's. They used to have direct lines to their MTS 
system through a Memorex box of some sort, but that went our years
ago. 

"Ask the folks at Merit how many people tie up a Merit/MichNet port for
"hours, and sometimes, DAYS on end doing ppp/slfp connections, mudding,
"etc.  The administative types know about this behavior, and it
"certainly doesn't help our case when we try to get limited funds to
"upgrade the Merit dial-up ports (yes, I do advocate expanding and
"increasing the speed of our Merit node's modems.)
"
"So, unless an outside party decides to step up the ante by offering
"equipment, for at least a while, the Merit/MichNet dial-ups at some
"universities will remain low-speed.
"

I guess what really needs to be done is to have some sort of policy
designed to determine what kind of use is allowed. That policy MUST
take into account who funds Merit and how much comes from each of 
the funding sources. Here are a few questions I have regarding Merit:

  * How much money does Merit get from the state??
 
  * How much from the member universities??
 
  * Is Merit considered a public data network?? Is there a statement
    of purpose somewhere? How much of this is encased in legislation?
 
  * How much money do member universities get from Merit to help
    support/subsidize dial-in nodes?
 
  * How fast is the link from WS13 (Sterling Hts) to Detroit?
    How many modems are hanging off that SCP?

When I was a student at WSU, I was jerked around by the C&IT for criticizing
them for not paying enough attention to university users. I was one of a 
vocal crowd who advocated (and got) change. Student workstation labs popped
up. An academic lifetime account program on the mainframe was established.
 
Now, I'm on the other side of the fence, and I see deficiencies here too. 
Funny how times (and people) change, eh?
 
Regarding WSU and equipment: I contacted their C&IT in January to see about
donating a rack of Telebit T3000 modems for use on their Merit node. They
replied with a terse "no thank you". I also offered a few T3000's for the
Warren SCP. Same response. I guess the first thing to do is to get the
member universites to actually accept equipment that people want to 
donate. 
 
"Jeff
"-- 

John 
Newsgroups: mi.misc