Connecting to the Internet as well as to other computers on campus is something that most Iowa State students and faculty do quite often, and Telecommunications makes it possible.

“We have the responsibility for the campus network, which essentially provides the communications between buildings and the communication between rooms in the buildings, and mostly what we provide is Ethernet service,” said John Kingland, director of Telecommunications.

He said Ethernet is a system of wiring that connects most of the computers on campus to each other so that information can be shared.

“The service is available in the residence halls through a subscription basis,” Kingland said. He said students also may access the Internet and Project Vincent through this system.

Students in the university apartments are unable to have Ethernet access, however.

“This is due to the layout of the buildings,” Kingland said. “With there being a lot of little buildings and few potential users, it makes it more difficult to have the service compared to some residence halls.”

He said students living in the university apartments still may connect through remote access but at a slower speed.

The department plans to increase the speed and quality of the Ethernet, Kingland said. The residence halls currently use a shared Ethernet connection that requires users to share 10 megabits of data.

“We are working to change that to a switch connection, which will allow students to use the full 10 megabits rather than having to share it with others,” Kingland said.

He said this change will result in faster speeds in the residence halls.

The speed of the connections between buildings also will increase. It will be upgraded to 100 megabytes of data, and some systems already have that capability, Kingland said.

The department also plans to install Ethernet access to the university apartments when it becomes less expensive, but for now, it plans to upgrade the remote access to 56k speeds, Kingland said.

He said not all colleges offer Ethernet to their students.

“Some schools provide Ethernet for their students; others, like us, provide it on a subscription basis, and others simply do not have Ethernet,” Kingland said.

He said ISU students were allowed to vote on whether they wanted Ethernet provided, and they decided to keep it on a subscription basis.

Students who do not own their own computers can still connect to the Internet at high speeds through one of the many on-campus computer labs.

According to the Computation Center’s Web site, labs with Windows 95 and Macintosh computers are open 24 hours and offer students access to the Internet, as well as to the university-wide computer system.