Terminal/emulator dial in
ARA
- 16 ports, <=33.6kbps, ~340 accounts (85 active/mo)
SLIP/PPP thru campus
- 14.4kbps, need campus account
Netcom, $15/mo, nationwide
ISDN Direct & via ISP
- 9 ports, <=128 kbps, in pilot mode ~25 users, production service late summer
Notes:
Term emulator gets ~600hrs/month, avg call length 26mins, # calls ~1500, max in use 7 for 70 mins.
ARA typical max ports in use 10-12, ~750hrs/mo, #calls 1600, call duration 23 mins, avg use/user ~ 2hrs/mo (10hrs/mo/active user)
Netcom moving away from unlimited use ($19.95/mo) to $24.95 for 100 hrs/month. An additional $10/month guarantees dial-up availability of 95%. Users on current basic service may keep the service but cannot request the guaranteed 95% availability. Netcom will contact basic users with dial up times of - 200 minutes for each month to offer a service better suited to their needs.
ISDN average user puts in 1-2 hours/day, all users ~ 80 hours/day
Will support direct connections for people in local calling area or those with special inside firewall needs. For non-local calls support access via ISP
Will increase ISDN ports to 24-48, expect to support 120 users easily.
Will look at direct PPP dial in modem service dependent on success of ISDN, would also consider 56kbps. Upside is better security since should avoid multiple weakly managed RAS servers and more predictable service ; downside is cost. Initial cost (for 12 ports, for 100 users) ~ $6K with life of 2 years, plus management of ~$20K/yr, I.e. about $20/month/account.
Future xDSL promises higher speeds, probably more than a year out