Channel
February 2001, Issue No.34
What's inside ...● Mobile Network Development Updates
● Faster Internet Connection to China Education & Research Network ● Virus protection - email server enhancement
● Live Broadcast of the 8th Congregation ● Transparent Web Proxy Services
● Software consolidation with departments
● Coping with the high usage in the ITSC Computer Barns ● Video Conferencing Service - Deployment and Enhancement ● HKUST PC Tender 2001
● The Computer Executive Supports Training Program
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Network System Team
MobileNet Development Updates
Since the Notebook Ownership Program 2000 was carried out in last September, a growing number of students and staff are bringing their notebook computer to
campus. Through the MobileNet service provided by ITSC, they can have convenient Internet access in various public or open campus areas.
Extended Wireless Converage in Library
According to the MobileNet usage statistics, Library is one of the most favored locations for MobileNet wireless access. In last September, 4 wireless access points were already installed to cover the G/F and 1/F of Library. For this spring semester, ITSC is going to expand the wireless coverage area at Library. We will install additional 6 MobileNet wireless access points by end of February. Basically this will then cover all the 5 floors of our Library, but there may still be some blind spots without coverage.
Wired MobileNet Sockets in LG4 Student Common Room
In last September, 1 wireless MobileNet access point was already installed in LG4 Student Common Room for wireless access in that area. By early March 2001, we will install around 20 MobileNet sockets there for wired access in that area.For further details on where and how to access this handy service, please refer to our MobileNet home page at::
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Network System Team
Faster Internet Connection to China Education & Research
Network
The direct connectivity between HARNET (Hong Kong Academic & Research Network) and CERNET (China Education & Research Network) was previously served by a 64 Kbps link. This highly congested link was upgraded to a 2 Mbps connection earlier, with over 30-fold speed increase. With this upgrade, you should experience noticeable speed improvement while accessing academic and research sites in Chinese mainland.
The HARNET Network Task Force, with representatives from each of the 8 local tertiary institutions, is also working on the upgrade of the connection to TANET
(Taiwan Academic Network) and Internet2 (a high-speed network testbed to research on the next generation Internet infrastructure and applications). We will keep you informed of any latest progress.
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Mr. James Tsang ccjames@ust.hk
Virus protection - email server enhancement
Anti-Virus tools updated
ITSC is pleased to announce the latest version of F-Secure Anti-Virus for Windows (FSAV 5.20) is available for download. New features of FSAV 5.20 includes:
Virus definition database updates through the "Update Now" function
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Reminder feature on virus definition database updates
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Supports automatic virus definition database updates through F-Secure BackWeb Client
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Sometime users may not aware that they need to keep the virus definition database of the anti-virus software up-to-date in order detect latest viruses. With FSAV 5.20, the virus definition database can be updated simply with a mouse click or automatically through the F-Secure BackWeb Client.
Details on updating the virus definition database for FSAV can be found at http://www.ust.hk/itsc/antivirus/util/update
Virus detection on Email servers
In addition to anti-virus tools for user's machines, ITSC is working on automatic virus detection on email servers. Incoming messages from outside Internet to UST members containing virus will be wrapped up by a system generated "Virus Warning" message before delivering to the recipients. In most cases, users are advised to DELETE such messages immediately.
Advantages of the "wrapping" approach includes:
Alert users on any potential virus infection, leaving the original message intact 1.
Reducing the risk of virus attack (activated by viewing the message) on known security hole of Microsoft Outlook clients
2.
Allow legitimate and intentional email communication about virus 3.
Despite all these anti-virus protection in place, it is a rule of thumb NOT to open email attachment unless you expect to receive it. There is always a possibility that the attachments might contain new virus that the anti-virus software is not able to detect it at all. In addition, the following practices are advisable:
Backup your programs and data regularly 1.
Apply the critical security updates with your operating system (e.g. Windows Updates)
2.
Update the virus scanning software AND virus definition database regularly 3.
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Network Systems Team
Live Video Broadcast of 8th Congregation over Campus
Network
To enable as many audiences as possible to 'attend' the 8th congregation virtually, ITSC had conducted a live video broadcast of the whole event over our Gigabit Ethernet backbone network. The following usage statistics was logged during the 3-day event held on 8-10 Nov 2000:
Nov 8 (Wed) Nov 9 (Thu) Nov 10 (Fri)
Total number of connections ~630 ~420 ~380
Peak concurrent number of
sessions ~200 ~150 ~150
The video broadcast made use of the latest RealVideo 8 technology. The live video signal was digitized and broadcast to our campus network through the
RealNetworks server. Students and staff could then invoke a RealPlayer 8 software to view the live event on campus, including the student halls and staff quarters. If you want to review the event, please refer to the following web page:
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Network System Team
Transparent Proxy Services
Current Status
After prolonged testing and tuning, we are now migrating the current web caching server farm to the new web cache subsystem as described in the previous Channel issue.
The new web cache subsystem is now being used in all computer barns. Deployment to the whole campus will be performed gradually.
It is expected to be totally transparent to users. Complete deployment is expected to be completed by the end of February or early March 2001.
Benefits at a glance
To re-cap, the new subsystem deploy transparent proxy technology. It consist of two layer 4 network switches and 5 web cache engines, and provide the following benefits:
Higher availability
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Improved hit rate via a 180G web cache
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Prevent slow response
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Eliminating the need for user configuration
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What You Should Do
To enjoy the enhanced speed, you do NOT have to reconfigure your browser. However, to enjoy the higher availability, it is preferable to have your browser's proxy setting REMOVED. This change is optional but preferable.
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Mr. David Shiu ccdshiu@ust.hk
Software consolidation with departments
Recently, ITSC has carried out a software purchase program. ITSC has coordinated with other departments to make a consolidated order and based on the more you buy, the cheaper the price principle that we had minimized our cost. In this event, we had brought the SAS System (8.1) for Windows and the Adobe Acrobat 4.05 with more that ten departments jointly purchased for the latter application. The normal price for the Acrobat application costs $800 whereas we brought it at only $600 – a total of 25% discount. ITSC will keep on such activity which hopefully find helpful for the University.
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Miss Theresa Lo cctlo@ust.hk
Coping with the high usage in the ITSC Computer Barns
With the advancement of technology and growing deployment of Information Technology into teaching, the need to gain access to a computer has become almost a daily need for the students. With this rapid growing need, the three Computer Barns were found to have very high utilization and packed with students waiting to get on a computer during peak periods times when students are completing their end of term assignments, or final year projects. The problem was recognized by ITSC, however, with tight spacing and limited resource, it was not possible to further add computers to the rooms. As such a number of different measures have been introduced. Let's review some of the measures taken :Tang Shiu Kin Comp. Lab Operating at 24 hours opening
Referencing to the past usage statistics, two peak periods have been identified - last four weeks of both the Spring Semester and Fall Semester. During these two peak usage times, the Tang Shiu Kin Comp. Lab (Barn B) would operate 24 hours (7 days a week) for a period of around five to six weeks. This arrangement provides a greater flexibility for the students in planning their working times. Students are also recommended to avoid the busy times during the peak usage periods where possible.
Express Stations
There are a total of twenty units of Express Stations installed in the three Computer Barns. The access to these terminals is limited to 15 minutes only. With these Express Stations, students could do a quick check on emails, or to check out some information from web. Students no longer need to wait for a long time just to get a 5 or 10 minutes computer access. Another 31 units of Express Stations are distributed across the campus areas such as
Academic Concourse, canteens, coffee shop, etc. that provides a quick and convenient access to a computer. For their locations, please check out the webpage:
http://www.ust.hk/itsc/expressstation/location.html
Snapshots of Computer Barns
Still images of computer barns are routinely captured (every 5 minutes) and made available on web. Students may do a quick check from any networked computer or Express Station, to see which barn is least busy before going to that barn, avoiding disappointments and saving precious time from running to different barns but only found the computers are fully
occupied.
The snapshots of the computer barns may be found at:
MobileNet Access
With notebooks nowadays becoming more affordable, there is a growing number of users being equipped with a notebook, which would certainly like to get an easy and convenient way of network access when they carry along their notebooks in campus. By providing Internet access anytime and anywhere in campus; students would no longer be confined in using the physical computers in the computer barns and bind by their availability. For more information on MobileNet, please check out
http://www.ust.hk/itsc/MobileNet/index.html
ITSC aims to maximize and make effective use of the available resource, to provide a good working environment in the computer barns to assist students with their academic work. We shall continue to keep a close monitoring of the increasing usage in the Computer Barns and take appropriate measures as in need.
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Mr. Charles Choy ccchoy@ust.hk
Video Conferencing Service - Deployment and Enhancement
Video Conferencing service is provided to facilitate multimedia communications across the campus and around the world. In the past few months, the services have been used by our faculties to conduct meetings with their overseas counterparts and precious traveling time and cost have been saved.To further enhance our Video Conferencing service, JUCC (Joint Universities Computer Center) has recently installed an Accord MCU (Multi-Point Control Unit) for use by HARNET members. With this new equipment, Video Conferencing can now be conducted among several parties instead of one-to-one. Functions like high quality video broadcasting of distinguished lectures to other tertiary institutions become feasible.
For more information on Video Conferencing service, please refer to our web page at:
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Mr. Leo Ip ccleo@ust.hk
HKUST PC Tender 2001
Every year, ITSC organize PC tender with Purchasing Office. Due to the advance in technologies and shorter functional life span of computer systems, PC tender aims to source computer systems to various university communities in the most
cost-effective and economical way for the coming 12 months.
In PC tender exercise, we evaluate each supplier for their company background, product features, product quality, price offer and after-sale warranty services. In PC Tender 2001, among various suppliers, we have finally selected three suppliers, Dell, EBS and IBM.
All models of computer systems recommended in this PC tender are using the most advanced Intel 815 chip, which supports advanced features such as 133Mhz
SDRAM, ATA/100 hard disk, 4 USB ports and AGP 4X video interface. Software installation and Network registration
In PC Tender 2001, there are some changes on the services offered by suppliers. The changes aim to streamline PC installation for our users. Suppliers are required to perform "Software Installation" and "Registration of network card" in their
factories. For "Software Installation", suppliers install Windows operating system, Microsoft Office applications and other standard applications including Netscape, Internet Explorer, F-Secure Anti-Virus, WS_FTP, Acrobat Reader and Host
Explorer in PCs before delivery. With such arrangement, a PC can work immediately by just open box, plug in power and network cable.
For details of this PC tender offer, please visit the webpage below (select standing contract and then PCs) :
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Mr. Doug Wong ccdoug@ust.hk
Computer Executive Supports(ACES) Training Program for
AA departments
This program started in Dec 2000. Colleagues who need to provide direct support to Executive members of the AA branch offices are nominated by the Executive members to become ACES. Currently there are 32 nominated ACES from 17 AA offices.
The program aims to develop the support staff on their IT awareness and the ability to tackle common problems encountered by themselves and their executives. It also provides a channel for us to understand more on different computing needs in different departments.
The first training on Electronic Mail was completed in Dec 2000. A mailing list called "aa-ces-list" was created after the program started. The mailing list allows ACES to discuss computer related issues and to share their computing experience casually via emails. Computer related tips and tricks will also be sent to the list from time to time.
If you are a member of the AA offices and are interested in knowing more about the Program or joining the mailing list, you are welcome to contact Doug Wong at X6256 or email to ccdoug@ust.hk.
Channel
Channel - February 2001, Issue No.34 Mr. Charles Choy ccchoy@ust.hk
Distance Learning Technology - Giving lectures to remote
students
Recently, ITSC has assisted our faculties to deliver lectures to remote students. In one occasion, a professor needed to deliver a lecture to a joint class of HKUST and CUHK Physics students. Since the CUHK students stayed in their remote
Shatin campus, video conferencing technology was used. During the class, teaching and learning processes like interactive Q&A and message delivering using
whiteboard were demonstrated. The trial indicated that delivering lectures remotely using video conferencing was feasible and travelling time and cost could be saved. Another example involved a professor delivering lectures to several secondary schools using web conferencing technology. In this case, live video of the professor was broadcasted to the secondary schools over Internet using Microsoft Windows Media technology. Text based feedback from the students are collected using the Netmeeting software which allowed real time discussion between the teacher and the students.
If you are interested in organizing your first remote lecture, you are welcome to contact ITSC for assistance.
