Changes to Modem Pool Postponed
To The University Community:
ISC announced planned changes to Penn's modem services (Almanac March 21), including the conversion of the main PPP modem service (215/573-4778) to a for-fee service on July 5, 2000. Faculty, staff, and students living off-campus who need remote access to PennNet and the Internet were encouraged to review alternative arrangements described on ISC's remote access web pages and to sign up for Penn's for-fee service or with a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP). An important update to the original announcement follows.
The no-charge modem service will end on July 31, 2000 instead of July 4.
ISC has been running a pilot program over the past three months to test the offerings of selected ISPs. The invaluable feedback we have received has affected our original recommendations. We are offering this month-long extension to ensure that all members of the user community have sufficient time to investigate their options and sign up with the service that best meets their needs. (At this time, ISC recommends that 56k dialup service, which is widely available and requires the fewest changes for the individual, will satisfy the needs of the majority of Penn users.) During June and July, we have also been renewing efforts to inform the campus of how changes to the modem pool will affect them.
Please review details at www.upenn.edu/computing/remote/ and sign up for Internet access now.
For continued remote access to PennNet services and the Internet, faculty, staff, and students living off-campus need to establish an account with a commercial ISP or sign up for Penn's for-fee modem service before July 31.
--James J. O'Donnell, Vice Provost, Information Systems
and Computing
Almanac, Vol. 47, No. 1, July 18, 2000