LifeLine Modem Policy

Summary: The LifeLine Modem Service is a free basic modem service for UCI Faculty, Staff and Students.

NACS has tentative plans to discontinue this service in the 2009/2010 timeframe.

Goals

The modem service is considered a "LifeLine Remote Access Service", with a goal of providing basic, limited, modem service to everyone at UCI who needs it. The service is not a complete ISP-style service; people with more than modest remote access needs should still utilize ISPs.

People expected to use the service include:

• Students who have difficulty affording a commercial  Internet Service Provider (ISP).
• Students, faculty and staff that require only modest amounts of remote network access  --  a few hours a week, not enough to warrant subscribing to an ISP.

People not expected to use the service:

• Those who require a higher-speed connection to support graphics-intensive applications or larger file transfers.
• Those who require more than a few hours of connect time each week.
• Those who require "local dialing" from locations distant from UCI.
• Those who require access for non-University business and/or family members.

UCI "LifeLine" Modem Policy

The following usage policy will be in force on the new modem service. The policy is based on the recommendations of the Academic Senate Computer Policy Committee:

1. Weekly Prime-time Connect Time Limit:  Modem usage per person (UCInetID) during "Prime-time" will be limited to a fixed number of hours during each consecutive 7 day period.  It is now 10 hours per week.  Total usage outside of Prime-time will not be limited (except by the usage demands of others).
2. Session limits:  Currently, each individual modem session will be limited to 2 hours in length. This will be modified to 1 hour in length during Prime-time, and 4 hours in length at other times, when technically feasible.
3. Prime-time: Prime-time hours are currently defined as 6:00 PM until 1:00 AM, Sunday through Thursday. Friday and Saturday do not have any Prime-time hours.  This may be periodically adjusted to reflect actual UCI modem peak usage periods.
4. Limits Not Cast in Stone:  Modem usage limits will be periodically examined and changed to further the goal of ensuring modest amounts of access to everyone who needs it, while minimizing busy signals. The weekly connect time limit will be reduced if necessary to facilitate access by the intended subset of the community.
5. One Connection at a Time:  Only one connection to the modem pool is allowed per UCInetID at any given time.
6. University Business Only:  Only official UCI educational, research and administrative use is allowed on UCI's modem pool.  Use is restricted to UCI faculty, staff, students and other individuals authorized by the campus.  Use by family members of UCI students and employees is not allowed.
7. Single Modem Pool:  All modems will be placed in a single pool on a single phone number, with consistent parameters and limits.

Updated: January 09, 2009

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