by George Spain, CCIT Technical Writer

When LanRover goes away on Jan. 1, it will be both a beginning and an end.

The Apple-only remote connection hardware, long the Macintosh solution for dial-up access to local area networks and Internet-based resources (like web browsers), will be replaced by Apple Remote Access (ARA) 3.0.

“ARA will be used in conjunction with MUSC's dial-up Internet access resource that provides Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) communications support,” said Steve Burns, director of infrastructure at the Center for Computing and Information Technology (CCIT).

But there's more to this than a simple hardware upgrade. “It's a major step towards open standards protocols for the entire campus networking system,” Burns said.

The plan

The change, initiated by Frank Starmer, Ph.D., associate provost for information technology, is part of a sweeping program to move away from proprietary systems and toward standards-based systems in order to improve the compatibility, accessibility and reliability of MUSC's computing infrastructure.

The change is also motivated by MUSC's relationship with granting agencies. In the near future, NSF and then NIH will only accept proposals that are submitted electronically. MUSC's current network of incompatible proprietary communication protocols is unable to meet this requirement.

“Dr. Edwards hired me to help make MUSC competitive on an international level,” Starmer said. “The only way I know to do that is to create an infrastructure that helps students, faculty and staff work as effectively away from their desks as they can at their desks. To be competitive, we must increase our collaborative efforts, reaching out not only to the community but also to colleagues and students all over the world. I want our computing infrastructure to facilitate the efforts of our students, faculty and staff in pursuit of their curiosity that will lead to the next great idea.”

To further this objective, the university plans to:

• Simplify network communication to be completely Internet compatible
• Increase the speed of internal networks from 10 Mb/sec to 100 Mb/sec
• Increase the number of dial-up PPP lines
• Increase the speed of Internet links to the outside world
• Convert office tools (such as e-mail and calendaring) to standard-based tools
• Convert phone and e-mail directories to standards-based utilities
• Experiment with Netscape roaming and calendaring to allow access to information from virtually anywhere.

Putting more 'rover' in the LAN

As a first step, the LanRover will be replaced by Bay Network hardware, which supports both ARA 3.0 and PPP. These new connections will be:

• faster (53 KBPS instead of 28.8 KBPS),
• less problematic (digital instead of analog lines) q more numerous (138 ports, up from 16)
• more universal (PC and Macintosh instead of Macintosh only)

The switch from LanRover will also eliminate the need for a separate password file for LanRover accounts. From now on, a single MUSC Network Account (MNA) password (formerly known as an Atrium account) will suffice for Homeroom, e-mail, web browsing, etc.

CCIT will provide ARA 3.0 to any current LanRover user who needs it, said Burns.

For more information, contact Burns at (burns@musc.edu).

Look for more changes down the road

“The move toward standard-based solutions continues later in 1999 when AppleTalk (Apple's proprietary protocol for moving data across networks) will no longer be routed across zones,” Burns said. “This should eliminate some network bottlenecks and allow for smoother, faster network access.”

In short, AppleTalk will be eliminated from the campus network backbone and will exist only within geographic "zones" where predominately Macintosh departments or groups of users will be able to access AppleTalk printers and AppleTalk-based servers.

If you're thinking that this is a step away from Apple support, consider this: Apple itself is moving in this same direction. Apple has stated that IP will replace AppleTalk in its future operating system releases. Apple and other major computer vendors, realize that the future lies in the IP standard.

An ad hoc committee, chaired by Burns, is looking into the best way to make the transition from routed AppleTalk to non-routed AppleTalk.

Other committee members include Starmer (Office of the Provost), Curtis Wise, Ph.D. (Physiology), Mike Schmidt, Ph.D. (Microbiology & Immunology), Skip Anderson (Library), and Dave Cisco (CCIT).