PENN PRINTOUT
The University of Pennsylvania's Online Computing Magazine

PENN PRINTOUT September 1992 - Volume 9:1

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User-Friendly Networking: PennNet Today and Tomorrow

By Daniel Updegrove

Many of us cannot imagine academic life without PennNet, the University's campus-wide data communications network that makes our desktop computers part of the worldwide Internet:

  • Faculty collaborating on research with colleagues and graduate students-sharing data, computers, specialized laboratory equipment, and manuscripts, even while on leave

  • Students searching online library information from their rooms and, in their year abroad, exchanging electronic mail with advisors and friends back at Penn

  • Staff members accessing administrative data, reviewing policies on PennInfo, and sharing information with counterparts in peer institutions via electronic newsletters

For others of us, however, PennNet is unreachable--for lack of a computer, or a network connection, or a modem--or unintelligible: a babble of bauds, a plethora of protocols.


The challenge defined

For PennNet and the Internet to reach their potential, we need universal access; standard tools for navigation, search, and retrieval; and seamless software and hardware connections from the desktop in the office, lab, residence, or hotel room. A spreadsheet down the hall, a WordPerfect document at Stanford, or a graphic image in Geneva should be as easy to locate and easy to use (assuming you have appropriate permissions!) as the files on your hard disk. How far along are we in achieving this vision?


Progress so far

Consider this example: The Information Infrastructure and Technology Act of 1992, introduced recently by U.S. senator and Democratic vice presidential candidate Albert Gore, seeks to expand federal support for applications of high-performance computing and high-speed networking. Anyone in the world with a direct Internet connection can retrieve the text of the Gore bill from an online archive in Michigan.Unfortunately, you have to know the bill is on a computer with the network address nic.merit.edu, under filename /nren/iita.1992/gorebill.1992.txt, and you need a somewhat awkward software product to effect the transfer to your computer using the FTP protocol. Recently, a new Internet navigation program, archie, was introduced to search all the world's FTP archives, but you still have to know how to reach archie from your desktop, using the Telnet protocol. And, although easier-to-use retrieval tools are becoming available (for example, Fetch, now supported by the CRC), a document with unusual formats or fonts may be impossible for you to display or print.


Next steps at Penn

So, seven years after PennNet was launched and despite substantial progress in wiring buildings, developing network-based information services such as PennInfo, and participating in statewide, regional, and national networking consortia, we in the ISC still have work to do.

Regarding connectivity on and near the campus, our current focus is on upgrading cabling, electronics, and software to increase PennNet speed and reliability while lowering costs, as well as on introducing new higher-speed remote access (PennNet Residential). We encourage our customers to install Ethernet rather than asynchronous connections wherever possible, so they can participate fully in the emerging "client-server" information architecture (See Penn Printout, February l992, page 1).

In the service domain, we will introduce new local area network (LAN) support for both IBM/compatible and Macintosh personal computers, new electronic mail software, and prototype network navigators. In both areas--access and services--our measure of performance will be how well we meet your needs.

Finally, reflecting Penn's shared responsibility for net- work planning and support, we have reinstituted the Network Policy Committee (NPC), with representatives from both academic and administrative sides of the ISC Advisory Committee. Dr. Albert Shar, chief information officer of the School of Medicine, has agreed to chair the NPC. Dr. Shar and I welcome your suggestions on how PennNet can better help you discover, learn, and work at Penn.

DANIEL UPDEGROVE, Associate Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing, is Executive Director of Data Communications and Computing Services. His electronic mail address is updegrove@dccs.upenn.edu.