Bruin OnLine now testing new Internet server for UCLA

Tuesday, 4/8/97

Bruin OnLine now testing new Internet server for UCLA

Trial runs of server enable students to design, store their
personal Web pages under way

By Jean Chen

Daily Bruin Contributor

Soon, UCLA students and faculty will be able to be a part of the
Web, instead of just surfing it. Bruin OnLine is beta-testing a Web
page service that will give users a space on a Web server and help
them write their own Web pages.

Beta-testing, computer-speak for a trial run, is standard
procedure for developing hardware and software. Organizations often
beta-test a new product with a few qualified users until most
problems have been found and eliminated, then release the product
to the general public.

Registered Bruin OnLine (BoL) users have been able to
participate in UCLA’s beta-testing process since March. After
signing up free of charge, interested students receive access to
three megabytes (MB) of hard-drive space on a new Web server that
is reserved for Bruin OnLine use. Three megabytes is enough space
to put up a moderately-sized Web page, and the size allotted is in
between the one megabyte offered by some local Internet service
providers and the five megabytes offered for a monthly charge by
AT&T Worldnet.

Use of the World Wide Web has expanded at breakneck speed in the
last few years, and administrators say they are optimistic about
UCLA’s increased involvement in this popular medium.

"The beta test is going well," said Jill Fox, supervisor of the
Bruin OnLine Help Desk in the Math Sciences building.

"We currently have 130 to 140 testers, and will continue to
increase the number," she said, noting that the eventual goal is to
sign up 200 testers and beta-test for another month or two, then
release the service to all Bruin OnLine users.

According to Fox, the test is meant to "slowly ramp up" usage on
the new server. The traffic that beta-testers’ Web pages generate
will be a test of the throughput, or information "traffic," that
the new server will be able to handle. Fox said that no problems
have arisen yet, but some Bruin OnLine users have voiced concern
that a lack of HTML programming knowledge will prevent them from
creating Web pages.

"Sounds like a good idea," said Keith Lickitwongse, a
second-year electrical engineering student. "But I think I’d use it
only if they (Bruin OnLine) helped me set it up."

To help students and faculty like Lickitwongse, Bruin OnLine is
testing on-line templates that will make it possible to write a Web
page without knowing any HTML.

By filling in the blanks on the templates, users with little or
no programming experience will be able to put up their own pages.
The Bruin OnLine Help Desk will be available for questions
regarding basic HTML.

The Bruin OnLine beta test is the first time that students and
faculty outside the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have
been given access to personal Web pages.

Although many campus departments and organizations have
maintained group Web pages, there has been no guarantee that
everyone at UCLA who wanted a Web page could have one.

But administrators are gambling that not all UCLA students and
faculty will utilize the Web page services they are offered.

"Of course, in the end, not every BoL account holder will want a
Web page – or will use all of their space allotment," said Don
Worth, project manager of Bruin OnLine.

"Interestingly, the problem here is less one of disk space than
of processor horsepower. With our e-mail servers, we’ve had to add
additional machines as we’ve scaled up to meet increased demand.
We’ll probably do the same for the Web page service," he added.

Worth said that he expects the initial demand for Web accounts
to be in the several thousands. Web accounts have not been offered
until now because Bruin OnLine has been busy keeping up with the
heavy demand for e-mail services alone.

"Our customer-support service has been working hard to get the
entire campus population up and running on BoL," Worth said.

"Now that we are approaching full utilization on campus – there
are about 40,000 accounts – we can begin to think about adding
breadth to the support effort in the form of new services," he
added.

When BoL first began, Fox said, the money was not available to
fund a Web page service in addition to regular e-mail services.

"At one point last fall we had already purchased a server to
support Web pages but were forced to use it to scale up the e-mail
services to meet an unexpected peak in load," Worth agreed.

Money to purchase the new server, which sports a PowerPC 604
processor and 160 megabytes of RAM, was obtained from the Office of
Academic Computing (OAC) budget. Despite this expense,
administrators say they have no immediate plans to charge for the
service.

Students and faculty will probably have to wait until Summer or
Fall Quarter to actually put up their new Web pages, but can sign
up for free by taking advantage of a few spots left in the
beta-testing, according to Fox.

Those interested in more information about any of the Web page
services can contact the OAC.