Residential Computing announces a major milestone for automated
network registration at Stanford. Students who live in on-campus
housing can now register on the Stanford University Network (SUNet)
from their rooms simply by plugging their computer into their in-room
network jack and completing the registration form. Instead of waiting
hours or even days at peak times for their Resident Computer
Coordinator (RCC) to process their registrations, their computers'
information is automatically entered into the campus network database
(NetDB), and they can get online within minutes. For new student
arrival day this year, the time between submitting the registration
form for a new connection and having the request processed dropped
from an average of 9.5 hours in 2002 to 15 seconds in 2003. Of
all 4,362 registration requests (including updates and reconnections
for returning students) submitted during that first week of 2003, 94%
were processed automatically. Other features of the new system
include full hostname privacy (so only authorized University personnel
can associate records with individual students or track users'
identities based on email or Web page logs), and a required viewing
of, and agreement to abide by, the Stanford Computer and Network Usage
policies. A future release of the system will include an automated
feed of biographical information about registrants from the Stanford
directory, simplifying even further the registration process. Led by
Residential Computing, the automated registration project is an
on-going collaborative effort with Information Technology
Systems and Services (ITSS). The project managers are Ethan Rikleen, Network
and Systems Administrator, and Sindy Lee, Systems
Software Developer (both from ResComp). For more detailed information, click here.
