METRO AREA WIDE AREA NETWORK PLANNING

METNET consortium campus sites are currently connected with Comcast and Qwest circuits. The contract with both of these providers will expire in the next 18 to 24 months. The Comcast contract can be renewed for an additional year.

METNET, the Office of Enterprise Technology, the MnSCU Network Operations Group, the University of Minnesota Networking Group, and Metro MnSCU campus representatives will be invited to participate in the planning of the replacement and/or the upgrade to the current network infrastructure. If you are interested in participating in this project contact Terry Kolomeychuk (metnet@metnet.edu).

VIDEO

High Definition Testing

High Definition is the direction of the future for video communications and the COMET-METNET Partnership Group is moving with it. Two LifeSize Room systems were purchased for testing at a COMET site and a METNET site. Staff will be working with the Minnesota Office of Enterprise Technology to determine how we can set up the network to handle the 1 MG needed for quality of service for these units.

Spring 2006 Network Traffic

The network of the COMET-METNET partnership has experienced considerable traffic this semester. The number of credit classes delivered via ITV is 77. 384 meetings were held during January through March.

E-MAIL

New E-mail Servers

To prevent a catastrophic failure of the E-mail system, METNET purchased two Sun 480R's and two 3510 disk packs to create a fully redundant system. Sun installed this setup with their SunCluster software so that both machines access the disk packs. Should one machine fail, the other machine will take over. The disk packs are also fully redundant. Any one component of the system can fail and it will continue to function.

Mailbox Size Increase

Mailbox size for all accounts was recently increased from 20 to 50 MB. See http://www.metnet.edu/email for more information about E-mail.

ONLINE LEARNING

Breeze Service

Breeze usage is on the increase. Breeze accounts number 134 representing individuals from 26 schools and administrative units. Breeze is being used for a wide variety of purposes including on-line live and recorded lectures, virtual office hours, and meetings.The METNET Policy Board received a Breeze demonstration at their recent meeting. For more information about Breeze see http://breeze.metnet.edu or e-mail breeze@metnet.edu.

LINKS

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