Connecting from Off Campus
The Student Network has been extended into a number of private flat complexes and student housing in town. If you're resident in one of these locations, you can sign up for Student Networking in much the same way as students living in residence.
In some locations (mainly those listed as having a surcharge), you need to make arrangements with your landlord or their agent to have your port activated before you can complete Rhodes' sign up process.
Where is this available?
Student Networking is currently available‡ in the following locations:
| Location | Address | Connected | Surcharge? | Port Faults |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allen Place | Allen St | 2012 / Fibre | Yes | GEEnet |
| Aquitaine Way | African St (across from Rose St) | 2012 / Fibre | No | Landlord |
| 6A Croft Street | 6A Croft St | 2012 / Wireless | Yes | Insight |
| Doves-on-Huntley | Huntley St | 2012 / Fibre | Yes | GEEnet |
| One on Luke | 1 Luke Street | 2013 / Wireless | Yes | Insight |
| Three on Luke | 3 Luke Street | 2013 / Wireless | Yes | Insight |
| Mandalay-off-High | Off High St (near Mad Hatters) | 2012 / Wireless | Yes | GEEnet |
| New Holland | Holland Street (off Milner) | TBA (2013) / Wireless | Yes | Insight |
| Somerset Corner | African St/Somerset St | 2010 / Fibre | No | Landlord |
| Summer Place | African St/Somerset St | 2009 / Fibre | No | Landlord |
| The Greens | New St (next to Hi-Tec) | 2005 / Fibre | No | Landlord |
| The Hub | 20B African St (across from Rose St) | 2012 / Fibre | Yes | Insight |
‡ Sites listed with a year in the "Connected" column are already connected to the Student Network, and have been since the year indicated. Those marked as to be advised (TBA) are not yet connected, and show our best estimate of when they might be. Their presence indicates that there's a fair deal of certainty that they will eventually be connected; that we understand how we're going to get connectivity to these complexes. There may be other sites not listed that form part of our longer term planning.
How does this differ from residences?
The type of networking that's available in these locations is more or less identical to what's in University residences. However, there there are some administrative differences between the way Student Networking works on campus, and the way it works in these locations.
We levy an additional fee for connecting from these locations.
Some, but not all, complexes also levy their own surcharge for use of the infrastructure within the complex (the surcharge column above shows which). This is because the cables, network points, etc that connect you to the network all belong to the complex owners or their agents (rather than the University) and the complex is responsible for maintaining them. It also means that, unlike in residences, problems with cabling, etc should be handled by your landlord or their agent (see the "Port Faults" column above).
Like residences, other locations connected to the Student Network are expected to appoint a "house rep" to act as a liason between the residents and the Information Technology Division. More often than not, the same person acts as a liason between the residents and the body corporate or managing agents, at least when it comes to the network infrastructure. So if you need help, this is the person to find.
How do I get my digs connected?
There is a moritorium on new complexs as a result of changes to the underlying underlying funding model. Existing complexes, as well as ones we've already agreed to connect, are unaffected by this. This will likely be reviewed mid-way through 2013.
If you're in a house or a complex with fewer than twenty people, you're out of luck. It simply isn't economically viable for us to connect such locations. Generally the further away from campus, the larger the place needs to be be to cover our costs.
If you're in a larger complex (particularly one that's reasonably close to campus), then we'd likely consider connecting the complex to our network. However, the way we do things requires the buy-in of the owners, since it generally involves some costs for them. You might want to point your landlord at the documentation of how our off-campus model works. (You might also want to read through it yourself, so you understand what's involved.)
Note that once we agree to connect a complex, it may be months before we're able to do so. It really depends on the complexity involved — for example, it took us about 11 months to reach Aquataine Place because we had to install about 1.4km of fibre optic cable, but then only about a week to reach The Hub because the existing fibre was only a few hundred metres away.
What if my landlord's not interested/my digs is small?
Unfortunately if your digs is very small, or your landlord's not interested in the above offer, then you cannot connect to the Student Network from home. Most students in this circumstance make use of one of the local Internet service providers in town to get ADSL, wireless, or 3G connectivity from home. These will certainly be more cost-effective than anything we might be able to offer.
That said, most of the University's core IT facilities (email, etc) and teaching resources (such as Internet resources offered by the Library & RU Connected) are available from anywhere on the Internet. This means that if you've got a private Internet connection at home, you'll still be able to access pretty much the same things as users of the Student Network; it just won't be quite as fast.
If you've got a laptop, notebook or tablet, you can still use the Student Network (particularly wireless) when you're on campus.
