NEWS: Express Dialup Modems Limit

The Express Dialup Modem pool recently completed its first year of operation and is deemed to be past the test phase.  As planned, the express service is designed for short calls to offset the demand on the regular dialup lines.  

As of today, February 13, 2001, the Express Modems have a limit of 30 minutes connect time.  Peak hours are not enforced and will not count toward your monthly limit of 75 hours, however, if modem demand remains high, we could implement the addition of the express modems in the peak hour count.  Notice will be posted if such change occurs.

April 19, 2000

Temporary time limit increase.   The 30 minute per session limit is being increased to 2 hours until there is an increased demand on the express modems.  Right now the usage on this modem pool is quite low, and we would like to see usage higher so that we can test the second PRI line (which requires more than 24 users at once).    We reserve the right to reinstate the 30 minute limit when usage becomes high.  A notice will be put on this page when we return to the 30 minute limit. 

April 12, 2000

Missouri State University has activated the "Express Dialup" modem pool consisting of 47 modems in testing mode.  The new service designed for short calls (under 30 minutes) to perform tasks such as checking email.

All dialup users in the Springfield local calling area are potential users of this service and are encouraged to try the new service for calls under 30 minutes per session.  This service is still in test mode, but the service is stable.

April 12, 2000

Just in time for the peak semester needs:  The Express Modems are available for those who need to do a quick web lookup or check their email without competing for time in the regular modem pool.  It's easy, just change the phone number in your dialup configuration to 417-522-2345. There are 47 modems available in this pool.  Session time is limited to 30 minutes, with a 10 minute "idle" drop time.  Time used on the Express Modem pool falls in the "off-peak" category and does not count toward your 75 hour per month.  See Useful Dialup links at the bottom of this page for more helpful links.

February 16, 2000

The Springfield Express dialup modem pool has been removed from the peak-restricted class.  Usage of this dialup pool will not count toward your monthly peak-usage limits.  Peak-limits may be applied again if people start camping on the lines using automatic redial when dropped.

February 8, 2000

Today, Missouri State University and WorldCom successfully activated the new "Express Dialup" modem pool.  This new dialup service is designed to allow many users to connect for relatively short periods of time to perform quick tasks such as sending or receiving email.  The current drop time is set to 30 minutes, but please check out Dialup Statistics index page for current modem pool phone numbers, drop times, and other pertinent characteristics of the dialup pools.  This new service is considered "peak-restricted" and counts toward your peak-dialup limit.

The Express dialup is still in the testing phase because we've configured the ISDN PRI lines to use a feature called NFAS (Non-Facility Associated Signaling ) which is a technical way to say that we will use only one call setup channel instead of two.  This allows 47 simultaneous calls per server instead of the standard 46.  The gain is small, but we feel it's worth it to allow even one more person to dialup Missouri State University.  If this configuration proves successful, we will be changing our "Springfield Off-Campus" pool to use NFAS around the June/July timeframe.  This will increase the size of that pool from 230 modems to 235 and will cost Missouri State University absolutely nothing.

Because the call setup and signaling is more complicated with NFAS, we are considering this service to be in the testing phase.  That means that everyone is encouraged to use the service and test it, but that we may have to take it down without notification to make adjustments or corrections to the configurations.  In other words, you may get dropped before the time limits because we had to change something.  This news page will be updated when the "Express Dialup" enters full production.  Please direct any questions and report any problems to Mark Harsen in Networking.

Useful Dialup Links - Click the Icon Below