The latest news from Howie on connectivity to BL:
The fiber link is running fine and is stable, providing a gigabit connection to main campus. The Inn, Theatre, Library, and Barn classrooms have network performance equivalent to one of our campus buildings. There is wireless service in the Library, Barn classrooms, and ground floor of the Inn.
I am hoping to provide a better wireless solution at Bread Loaf, rather than the slow and unreliable kludge we had in place last year. Whether this can be in place before the actual start of Bread Loaf activities is uncertain—it depends on whether I can purchase enough of the required Aruba equipment with the 25K$ remaining in this year’s wireless budget.
At the moment, even the slow and unreliable kludge that provided some measure of wireless service in Annex, Cherry, Birch, Maple, Frothingham, Cornwall, and Tamerac cannot be implemented. There are no available electrical outlets in several of these houses to power the WAPs. (Outlets we used last year have been usurped by state-mandated carbon-monoxide/smoke detectors.) At present, we should have wireless service in the Annex and Cornwall, but can’t do anything yet in the other houses. I am working with Luther Tenny of our Facilities dept. to get this resolved.
As part of the TelJet fiber project, we ran fiber to Earthworm Manor, where Jim Maddox will reside this summer. To provide network service in this house, I will need to install a cisco switch with singlemode gig-ethernet optics, which will link to the main network equipment in the Apple Cellar wirecloset. There is no interior wiring in the Earthworm house, so I will also need to get a minimal amount of cat-5 cabling installed from the basement to an appropriate spot upstairs in the house, to locate a WAP. I will also need electrical power in the basement, to power the switch where the fiber comes in (currently no outlets nearby). I am working with Luther on getting these issues resolved, but won’t be able to provide service in Earthworm until this cabling is done.
I do not know the condition of any of the computers in the lab in the library basement, but they should all have working network connections. With the new high-speed link, it should be possible to install software, etc., from main campus.