I’ve created a new website http://wvls.jajulu.com/itforum to use as a gathering place for technology related discussions within the WVLS community.
I’ve written a brief introduction to the site which can be found here:
http://bit.ly/WVLS-TechForumIntro
And have started the first topic for discussion which can be found here:
http://bit.ly/WVLS-TechForumAV
I’ll be posting soon about a web forum I’ve created that can be used for active participation and discussions about WI Valley Library Service’s and member libraries’ IT projects and interests. But for now, here’s a Motivational Poster created using a frame from an old Weird Al classic … UHF
I hesitated to keep the link as a few of the many funny cartoons contain a bit of vulgarity … but I was able to spin that to myself as censorship and so talked myself into keeping the link. And anyway, many of them are holiday season related so have at …
In honor of Sesame Street’s 40 year anniversary.
What I do around 3:00 in the afternoon for 10 minutes or so…
A new entry is long overdue, and this one will be a doozey. I’ll be covering the WVLS member WAN, Internet connectivity and what it all means. I’ll briefly touch on Wireless networking and Antivirus but will keep the main focus away from them for now.
WAN – Wide Area Network – A network of linked computers covering multiple physical locations.
Most of the WVLS member libraries are connected to the WAN. A data line, partially subsidized by the TEACH program, and provided by the BCN (BadgerNet Converged Network) physically connects a library to the BCN facilities. In the past this collection of data lines and their convergence may have been referred to as “the BCN cloud”. The “cloud” term gets thrown around a lot these days and it seems like it can represent so many things. I’ll try to be very careful when I use the term, and will generally try to describe what it represents instead. WVLS also has a data line connecting our facilities to the BCN facilities. These lines forming our WAN allow our library and WVLS computers and servers to communicate with each other almost as if they were on simple local network. They do not provide internet access in and of themselves.
Internet – An internet or inter-network is any set of computer networks which communicate with each other using the Internet Protocol (the IP in TCP-IP or “My IP is 192.x.x.x”). THE Internet is the large global internet to which people generally refer when they talk about the world wide web.
The WVLS member libraries are connected to the Internet through the WVLS WAN, a local ISP (Internet Service Provider), or a combination of both. WVLS has a second data line which is outside of the WAN data line collection. This “outside” line goes to WISCNet, which is an ISP that provides WVLS with connectivity to the Internet. WVLS facilities act as an internal ISP to the WAN members by routing Internet destined traffic from WAN clients over to the Internet connection to WISCNet.
What does that all mean? Here goes (queue deep, wheezy intake of breath):
I’m still learning about our system, TEACH, BCN, WISCNet, V-Cat, and all of the history that goes into our current network infrastructure state. Here’s what I understand so far. We currently have 31 locations connected to our WAN with applications for 2 more sites in the works. The total bandwidth for all of those sites is about 70Mbps (Megabits per second). The WVLS Central Site WAN line is a 20Mbps line … I’ll pause while you get out your calculators … that’s right, the maximum capacity of the central line is a bit under a third of the combined total of all the sites. With two new site requests and several upgrade requests coming down the pipe; that figure moves down to around a quarter.
This generally wouldn’t be a problem. Excluding Internet usage for a moment, it is highly unlikely that any 15 libraries would be maximizing their WAN usage for internal services such as the V-Cat system. Even if all libraries were using the network heavily, the available bandwidth would average out to about half of a Megabit per second for each library. Plenty for V-Cat type services.
Enter the Internet. WVLS has an Internet connection with WISCNet that is provided over a 20Mbit BCN line. This means that our internet pipe is just as big as our WAN pipe. This means that internet usage by WAN members could consume pretty much all available bandwidth from the WVLS 20Mbit WAN line. And of course when I say “could” I basically mean “does”. Internal WAN traffic (V-Cat data) and outbound\inbound (Internet) traffic compete for bandwidth on the WVLS WAN data line.
I have been told that my ability to construct and use analogies is so poor, that people leave the discussion wishing they’d taken a different path in life, which would have lead them in any direction but toward me. My tone-deaf friends certainly don’t let the groans, curses, and threats to their person dissuade them from singing along, loudly, with the juke-box … and like them; I can’t shy away from trying out an analogy when I think one fits.
Imagine that you are a typical computer geek who has a home local area network (LAN) with several network endpoints; a pair of desktop PCs, a couple of servers, your laptop, your hippie girlfriend’s fancy pantsy Macbook Pro that she can’t stop bragging about or showing me all the funny “I’m a PC … I’m a Mac” commercials which I secretly enjoy, a couple of iPhones, a media computer for your new HD 1080p widescreen home theater projector and the 125″ electric screen that hasn’t arrived yet but you’re really excited about, the old laptop you fixed that you’ve been meaning to finish up and give to your mom for about 6 months, and a network printer, a cable router with a 100Megabit network port and 5 Megabit Cable Internet; all connected by a 100 Megabit switch.
You could upgrade your network speeds, get a powerful 1 Gigabit switch (upgrade Libraries’ WAN data lines), which would allow your individual devices to communicate faster over your network. But they would still be trying to get data from your cable router through its 100Megabit network port (current WVLS WAN data line). You could then upgrade your cable router to one with a 1 Gigabit network port (upgrade WVLS WAN data line) which would allow your all of your devices to connect much faster to your cable router (libraries get better performance using WVLS services like V-Cat), but each device is still limited to how much internet speed it has because the cable router is only getting 5 Megabit Internet service (WVLS WISCNet Internet line). All three components must be taken into account when considering the overall network and internet experience a patron or staff member has at the library level.
You: Well you’re right, I should have gone to school to be an artistic chef so that I never would have had the misfortune of experiencing one of your analogies, but now that the damage is done and I’m more confused than when I started reading … I’ll ask this question, and hope to all that is holy that you don’t respond with another analogy. When I upgrade my 1.5Mbps connection to 3.0 what does that get me and my library (aside from a warm fuzzy feeling)?
Me: Hmmm …. Not even a completely different and less convoluted analogy?
You: No … I’m looking up chef schools as we speak.
Me: Ok … Ok … how about a picture?
You: I’ll bite … let’s see it.
Me: It’s got a cloud …
You: I’ll ignore it …
Me: Actually it’s got three clouds …
You: Come on already, your stall tactics have succeeded in that I am once again interested in anything you have to say at all …
Me: =)
(Click the image to see a full sized version)
This has gotten pretty long, so I’ll wrap it up. It’s certainly fun to jest, but my real goal here isn’t to impress a blog wandering high powered editor from a major publisher into contacting me for a book deal. Instead I wish to give everyone an idea of what it really means to say “I’m upgrading my WAN speed”.
The diagram above is a very loose interpretation of the WVLS and member libraries’ combined network and internet infrastructure, with everything that isn’t vital to the discussion abstracted away into clouds. Some libraries have mentioned performance issues with the V-Cat system, but most are talking about a great demand for more Internet speed. In order to accommodate either via the WAN, multiple steps are involved: Upgrade local WAN connection, upgrade WVLS WAN connection, upgrade WVLS Internet connection.
Those libraries with local Broadband ISPs, like Charter or Verizon, can look to increase their Internet bandwidth relatively inexpensively outside of the WAN. Those smaller, more remote locations that have no access to a local provider are still able to access the Internet through their WAN connections. As we move forward, I will be looking into a total solution that includes a hybrid of WAN and local ISP connectivity to provide maximum performance as inexpensively as possible.
Yeah so … I’ve had the chorus to this song in my head for days now … and I can’t get it out … not that I want to … Have fun !!!
I was paying my nightly visit to Tiger Direct to drool over projectors and the latest quad-core processors when my eye landed on this really great PC deal. Just thought I’d share with the masses.
This morning a WVLS member noted that Verizon was bouncing due date reminder notification emails sent to patrons. Further inspection revealed that the Verizon mail servers were using one or more black lists which the WiscNet “Warden” mail server had gotten itself on.
Johny-on-the-spot WiscNet staff took care of the problem right quick, mentionng that a nameless WiscNet member was (I’m guessing unwittingly) relaying spam through the server.
WiscNet members can email support@wiscnet.net if they are ever experiencing unusual Internet or email issues.
Last week I mentioned that people should look at updating WinU because of date\time sanity check issues with post 12/31/2009 dates. I didn’t look up the specific version info at the time but for those of you wondering “do I have the latest version?” - here is a link to Bardon’s revision history for WinU.
WinU 6.5 is the latest public release, and the ONLY release with updates for the date\time sanity check issue as well as support for modern Internet browsers and Windows XP Service Pack 3.
Once again, I strongly urge anyone who uses the WinU product to update it to the latest version (6.5) before the end of 2009.
I wrote up the following conceptualization in about 5 minutes, then subsequently spent 6 hours revising and editing it. I’m sure that by now I have it so memorized that I’m missing all kinds of grammatical and technical writing errors.
Information Technology, is an abstraction describing all efforts involved in creating, managing, distributing, and consuming information electronically with the use of electronic devices and software, and which can be applied to a varying array of scopes, having a similar role and identity at each level. Within each scope – small business, local government, educational systems, medium business, regional\state\provincial government, large and enterprise business, national government, and international entities - that concept remains the same, only the resources and effort involved vary directly with the scope’s size and complexity. The tangible realization of that effort, most specifically the utilization and management of the physical and digital resources provisioned to maintain information content, is ascribed to individuals, groups, departments, or entire organizations titled in a manner which directly or implicitly reflects the comprehensive Information Technology abstraction they concretely represent.
That’s my summary of much content gleaned from my years of learning, found using Google, and reprocessing the ITAA’s (Information Technology Association of America) definition. This is my oversimplified summary of my overly complex summary:
~ Information Technology, as defined by the Information Technology Association of America
(ITAA), is “the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.” Encompassing the computer and information systems industries, information technology is the capability to electronically input, process, store, output, transmit, and receive data and information, including text, graphics, sound, and video, as well as the ability to control machines of all kinds electronically.
Information technology is comprised of computers, networks, satellite communications, robotics, videotext, cable television, electronic mail (“e-mail”), electronic games, and automated office equipment. The information industry consists of all computer, communications, and electronics-related organizations, including hardware, software, and services. Completing tasks using information technology results in rapid processing and information mobility, as well as improved reliability and integrity of processed information. ~
Pasted from <http://www.answers.com/topic/information-technology>
