The new network-access service called Universe City should open to the Carolina community by Monday, said Dan Wingate, associate director of the Office of Information Technology-Services.
The new service, in conjunction with an effort by OIT to expand accessibility to Carolina's e-mail system, promised to help free up access to UNC's computer network, Wingate said.
BellSouth is offering the new service, called Universe City, through a contract with Carolina and N.C. State and Duke universities. The service will provide clients with what's called a PPP connection, allowing full use of software designed to access the World Wide Web portion of the Internet.
"We see this as the solution to the fact that, given our population, there is no way we can support or provide an adequate modem pool to meet demand," Wingate said. "We see outsourcing a function like this as an appropriate direction to take."
The new service comes with two price options: $4.95 per month plus one cent per minute of usage or $30 per month for unlimited use. The service is being offered first to faculty, staff and students at the three universities. It will be available to the general public later this year, BellSouth said.
Signing up
Registration for the service can be done by computer, at the OIT help desk in Wilson Library or with a paper registration form from BellSouth.
OIT planned to display on its home page by Monday a link to the Universe City registration page. Information also will be displayed in the welcome message for users of the Isis and Gibbs systems, Wingate said.
When registering, users must supply information--including their Social Security number--to confirm their affiliation with one of the three universities. Anyone concerned about transmitting their Social Security number may request a paper registration form.
After registration, BellSouth will send sign-up materials, including the user's login ID and password, to the user's billing address.
Collecting the tools
People who want to use the service will need software to access the World Wide Web if they don't have it already.
OIT and BellSouth were working out arrangements to provide--for free or at a reduced price--software for users of Windows 95, Windows 3.1x and Macintosh operating systems.
BellSouth has negotiated an arrangement with Netscape, the maker of popular World Wide Web navigating software, to provide to Universe City users reduced price versions of their latest product, Wingate said. The modified versions of Netscape Navigator Personal Edition, or NNPE, will be set to allow users to log in to the World Wide Web only through Universe City, he said.
But the modified Windows version of NNPE may not be available until at least the end of March, Wingate said. The Macintosh version was not expected until at least April, he said. Users who don't already have the necessary software and who want to get going with the new service will need to get regular versions of
Netscape or other browser software.
Until the modified versions of Netscape become available, users of Windows 95 and Macintosh systems may bring two high-density computer disks to the OIT help desk to exchange for disks that contain Netscape, Wingate said.
OIT will not distribute Netscape for users of Windows 3.1x, he said. However, BellSouth will provide--at a reduced price through Student Stores--version 1.2 of NNPE for Windows 3.1x, Wingate said. The software should be available by early March.
Student Stores will continue to sell standard versions of NNPE after BellSouth begins distributing its versions, he said.
More advanced users may download much of the needed software from a web page being set up by OIT.
BellSouth will have a toll-free technical support line for questions about the service, but it is not ready to provide detailed support for Mac users, Wingate said. Until Mac support is fully ready, some questions may be directed to the OIT help desk.
Picking up the tab
Wingate said OIT was working with BellSouth to resolve several issues concerning the service.
BellSouth has agreed to establish a method to bill departments or other units for all of the Universe City accounts used by people within those units, provided the unit has agreed to pay for the accounts, Wingate said. Until the system is established, units will receive individual bills for each user, he said.
Users who are paying for their own account will receive monthly bills at their homes.
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