dial in lines being held for "days"

[Jeff.Ogden]

Mark,
  Thanks for your two cents worth.  I've edited some comments of
my own into the text below.
   -Jeff
> 
>  Message: 15299635, 34 lines
>  Posted: 4:16pm EDT, Fri Aug 21/92, imported: 4:44pm EDT, Fri Aug 21/92
>  Subject: dial in lines being held for "days"
>  To: Jeff Ogden, mjts@merit.edu
>  From: 34HLEFG@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU
> 
>  I have a couple of question regarding this whole situation...
> 
>  1. Isn't SLFP and SLIP support on dial-in lines soon going to disappear
>     and PPP will be the only supported protocol?
 
This is the direction we are headed. Not sure how soon we'll get
there. The end of this year seems like it.  When we do have
PPP support for Unix, PCs and Macs, we may change SLIP so that
we don't allow access outside of MichNet and we don't allow 
access to non-standard ports rather than pulling the support
completely.
 
>  2. To some extent, won't many of the people then using PPP have to use
>     an authorization account (with the exception of within Michigan)?
 
The problem is the bit about "with the exception of within Michigan".
It is a big exception.
 
>  3. If the above are true, then won't you weed out most of the high
>     school network junkies and other non Michnet related folks from
>     using our beloved resources?  I would assume (I know it is bad to
>     assume :-)  that this would probably free up a considerable amount
>     of resources itself.
 
I think you are right to some extent, but I think that access to
resources on MichNet including hosts on MichNet that allow access 
to non-MichNet hosts would still be a problem.
 
>  4. If people are using PPP and authorized, can't you track them
>     down and find out what they are doing which requires so much
>     dial in time and if it is that important, convince them to get a
>     direct line?  If it is against a proposed policy limiting dial in
>     access time, tell them they are violating that policy.
 
Tracking people down takes people time and people time is in short
supply and also expensive.  We'd rather have our people working
with K-12 students, teaching seminars at our members and affiliates
and similar activities rather than tracking down people who are
using the dial-in lines for long periods of time.
 
>  5. Wouldn't most people who are currently abusing the dial in features
>     just find a way to get around a timeout restriction?
 
One option is to drop calls even if there is activity after some
fairly long period of time (six hrs, 12 hrs, ...). People might
just dial back in I guess.
 
> 
>  I really wouldn't want to see anything get implemented which could
>  become a hindrance in the future.  I certainly don't like hearing about
>  people abusing the network by staying connected for days but I wouldn't
>  want to see a manditory disconnect after being logged on for 3-4 hours
>  or a disconnect due to inactivity for 30-45 minutes.
> 
>  Just my $.02 worth,
 
An alternative, perhaps the only alternative that will really work
is for the Merit member schools to understand how fast the demand
for dial-in lines is increasing and to agree to spend the money
to add enough 9600 bps and above lines to meet this demand. Even 
if we implement timeouts of some sort we'll almost certainly need
to add lots more modems. The cost of the 9600 bps modems is
dropping and more and more people are buying.
 
A question for each school is do you think you'll be able to 
move in this direction?  How fast?
 
> 
>  Mark...
> 
>  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>  Mark Strandskov               Internet: 34HLEFG@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU
>  Central Michigan University                   Bitnet: 34HLEFG@CMUVM
>  Computer Services                           AT&Tnet: (517) 774-6881
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