By Theresa Felder
Managing Editor
A year of unresolved network problems has left Information Systems searching for solutions and one professor frustrated enough to threaten to leave.
"It's a disaster. Maybe we should move (to another university) unless the problem is addressed," Robert Plemmons, a Reynolds professor of math and computer science, wrote in an e-mail message to IS and various people associated with the department of math and computer science.
Plemmons said he hopes something will be done in the next few weeks, and he met April 20 with Jay Dominick, an assistant vice president and the chief information oficer, to address the problems.
The main obstacle Plemmons met was using the Internet for courses and research.
Network problems prevented him from meeting a group of deadlines concerning his research for the Department of Defense recently, he said.
"I couldn't meet those deadlines, because I couldn't access the outside world," he said.
Computers locking up periodically and IP conflicts, which occur when two computers try simultaneously to use one IP address to access the Internet or e-mail, are the primary concerns IS is examining and has been for several weeks.
According to Dominick, "Network errors are causing (non-IBM computers) to be largely unstable," and they are locking up periodically.
"We've got a plan to try to solve the problems they're seeing," Dominick said. "We've been working on it for about three to four weeks, now."
He said that he thinks IS is close to fixing the problem, and that IS is also in the process of developing a back-up plan.
Plemmons said, "As of now, there is no solution."
"The campus network has been having so many difficulties that it has been almost impossible to do work," he said.
The height of the problem occurs between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when the greatest number of people are using the network, he said.
People who really have to be able to use the network for work cannot exist here under the present conditions, according to Plemmons. "If something is not done, I just can't stay," he said.
Rick Matthews, a professor of physics, said that the department of physics has met similar problems this year. He said that the department did not appreciate until recently what the problem was, since at first it appeared to be a problem only for one hall in Olin Physical Laboratory.
"The subtlety of it made it difficult to diagnose," Matthews said.
One difficulty in realizing the magnitude of the problem is that people who had problems with Pine did not report them, according to Matthews. The hesitation that occurs in the program as a result of the network difficulties can lead the user to think that the academic computer is working slowly, he said.
Plemmons also said that the problem has grown progressively worse. Professors have grown so dependent on communication with students and colleagues through the Internet and e-mail that the network cannot handle the load, he said.
Matthews said that the computers are only marginally useful, since the user spends more time restarting than working.
The problems occur only a few seconds out of a 15-minute period, and the system works 99 percent of the time, but those few seconds result in the user's having to take 10 minutes to set up again, according to Matthews.
Matthews and Plemmons mentioned the importance of solving the network problem before the semester ends, since most of the problem will disappear when students leave and greatly reduce the network traffic.
If it remains unsolved, the problem will go away when students leave but return when students come back in the fall, Plemmons said.
Both said that IS has been cooperative and that they hope IS will be able to find a solution. "I am frustrated by the problem; I am not frustrated by Information Systems," Matthews said.