Rage Against Telecom

[Jon]

I would just like to voice my opinion (read: vent) of SIUE Telecom and OIT's treatment of students currently living in University Housing.

   As you may know, the first week of class this year was even more hectic than usual.  This was partly due to Telecom's decision to shut down network access to Bluff Hall (this is where I reside; I have no idea of what the conditions in the rest of housing were, so I'll only mention Bluff).  I understand this was to protect the rest of the network from the "Blaster Worm" or whatever it was called. However, was shutting off network access to everyone the best solution?  There were many freely available tools (one even came from Microsoft) that could scan the entire network and record the internet protocol (IP) address of any and all computer systems that had been affected by the worm.  Armed with this information, I'm certain that Telecom could have shut down only the offending ports, leaving the rest of the residents free to enjoy their first week of class.  Who knows, this may have forced those without network access to realize why they had been shut off to the world and spurred them on to get their computers disinfected sooner.  At least one of the residents I know used this tool and even posted the information on his door for all to see, including the OIT workers who were inspecting everyone's computers for the worm.

   Even after computers had been inspected, some residents did not get their access back for almost two weeks.  Some got it back just to have it taken away shortly after.  And for some, it seems that whoever reconnected their ports had done it incorrectly.  These very special few had an IP address that was different from everyone else's.  Here in Bluff Hall, we have two subnets, 146.163.142.* and 146.163.143.*, for our usage.  The few that had very different IP addresses were on 146.163.4.*.  These people had uncapped access to the network, and constantly downloaded files at well over 500KBps (most residents in Bluff Hall hit a maximum download speed of around 20KBps).  This wasn't a terrible thing; in fact it was greatly appreciated by those who received the increased bandwidth.

   Fast forward to the present; a little more than a week prior to my writing this, a letter from Telecom was sent via e-mail pertaining to the many "illegal" devices that were running on the network.  These devices included network switches, hubs, and routers, all of which allow multiple network devices to be connected to the same ethernet port.  These devices are used by many people I know who have more than one computer that they wish to use on the network at the same time.  I do understand why these devices are considered illegal.  They allow one person to grab a number of IP addresses equal to the number of computers they have connected to the device, and the number of IP addresses available to the school is fairly limited.  But what if that "illegal" router were functioning as a gateway?  This would give one of the school's IP addresses to the router, and the router would then create its own set of addresses to be used on an internal network within the student's room.  Since it only takes one IP address from the school's pool of IP addresses, would this still be considered an illegal device?  If so, then why?  Also, why are the students never informed about the reason these rules are in place?  Maybe whoever is in charge of the network administration should make these rules (and the reasoning behind them) apparent.

   The letter that Telecom had sent stated that starting on October 1, 2003, they would begin shutting off network access to anyone found to have one of the aforementioned devices.  This is a somewhat reasonable action.  Fair warning was given (though it was not accompanied by an explanation), and the warning was given at least a week in advance.  This is the way things should be done.  There should be a notice posted at least one week in advance that some kind of maintenance (or punishment) will be occurring.  Students affected should be able to argue their case to delay or avoid punishment.  Most Internet Service Providers (ISP) follow this practice and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's network administration office should be no different.  In essence, the University is our (the residents) ISP.

   Lately, the network has been a bit unstable.  It goes down several times each day for several minutes at a time.  This instability should be dealt with in a quick and timely fashion in order to ensure that students are pleased with their service here (after all, they are paying for it).  Most consider this a minor inconvenience, but anybody needing uninterrupted network access for homework (professors are not very forgiving when you tell them that your assignment was late because the network went down) or otherwise is greatly affected by this.  And this brings us to my current situation.  At some point on October 1, 2003 (before I awoke at 8:30 am), my access to the network had been cut off.  I could not reconnect no matter how many different methods I tried.  After contacting OIT and telling the man on the phone that I could not connect, and that my IP address was 169.254.58.60, I was informed that my ethernet jack had most likely been turned off and that he would then transfer me to Telecom, as they were handling any and all connection problems.  I proceeded to leave a voicemail which included my name, room number, the location of my ethernet jack in my dorm room, and the problem I was experiencing.  It has been at least 36 hours since I first called, and I still cannot access the network, and I still have not heard back from Telecom (not the first time this has happened).  The question that I want answered is: why?  Why has my ethernet jack been turned off?  I am not running any file-sharing programs, nor do I share any files via the network.  I do not have any switches, routers, or hubs, and I do not use Windows so I cannot be affected by the "Blaster Worm," yet I cannot use the network at all.  I know people who share more data with everyone on the network than would fit on my hard disk.  I know even more people who do own and use one or more of the devices marked illegal by Telecom, yet they all still have access.  Was my access turned off, or is the jack just broken?  Again, OIT told me that it had been turned off, that's why I was transferred to Telecom.  Telecom, however, has not answered my inquiries as to why I don't have access.  Is this the way things are done here?

   Why can't the students be informed ahead of time if the network will be shut off?  If we are paying for access through all of our various housing fees, could we get a refund for the amount of time that we were not allowed access to the network (again, most ISPs follow this practice)?  Can OIT and Telecom make readily available all of their rules and regulations, what they do and do not reserve the right to do, along with all the reasoning behind each decision?  Also, why have these things not been done already?

I feel that I, along with many other University Housing residents, deserve an explanation from both OIT and Telecom.  More than an explanation, I deserve my internet access back.

(I may have posted this twice.  Our network went down while I was posting the first time!)

[Michael Kennedy]

Very well written and it made me glad for once that I commute.  Charter just opened us up to more bandwidth, so if I could share I would.  :)

My suggestion is that you send that exact same thing (with the good abbreviations, etc intact so the non-techy people will understand what you're talking about) in to the Alestle if you're issue isnt resolved quickly.  Even if it is resolved it might do everyone some good to light a fire under the appropriate people if they're taking foolish actions.

[Geoff Schreiber]

Same here with Charter...gotta say, whomever at Charter finally decided just to up all the accounts gets a bonus in my book :)

[Jon]

It's already been sent to The Alestle. :)
Unfortunately, they said they had a 500 word limit on letters to the editor and my venting was around 1300 words in length.  I guess they can edit it if they want...

[Stiffler]

Solution: Create a 500 word summury and then put in: For more on this, please goto http://caos.siue.edu/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=482&forum=2

Why have the same thing written twice?

Jon

[Gish]

I will sum it up short and sweet.  OIT and TELCOM does NOT have a clue!  When I lived in Bluff.  I had a router.  It was my hardware firewall.  It's call protection.  Would you trust SIUE at protecting your box?