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Last Revision: July 3, 2000
The Illinois Century Network presents
a great opportunity to public libraries throughout Illinois. At
the same time, the ICN's current initiative to connect public
libraries at no cost through June 2001 has engendered a number
of questions and concerns.
Lighthouse Technologies, Inc., contracted
by the Illinois Library System Directors Organization (ILSDO)
to answer questions about the ICN and facilitate the application
process, has put together the following Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQ) list.
If you need further information and
you represent a public library or associated agency or consortium,
please call Lighthouse Technologies at 630-717-5454. You
may also correspond with us by e-mail at
icn@ltmsi.com.
Finally, if you have any suggestions as
to what additions or refinements we can make to the following
FAQ list, please let us know. If we don't know the answer, we'll
find out and get it posted as soon as possible.
- A. The ICN is a telecommunications
backbone designed to provide reliable, high-speed access to
educational resources at schools, public libraries, colleges,
universities, museums, and municipal governments. The ICN was
formed by PA 91-21 and signed into law by Governor Ryan on June
8, 1999.
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- A. The Higher Education Technology
Task Force – leaders from higher education, state agencies,
and public schools – last year recommended creation of the ICN
to serve the needs of Illinoisans for education, training, and
information technologies. The Illinois State Board of Education
was building a network for K-12 schools prior to the creation
of the Illinois Century Network and in fact, the Illinois Century
Network is built upon those efforts previously referred to as
the LincOn Network.
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- A. One of the design goals for the
ICN was to build on existing state networks. LincOn was operated
by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) for four years
prior to the creation of the ICN and is the foundation upon
which the ICN is being built. The LincOn network had approximately
4,200 constituents and was a network designed to provide Internet
connectivity to K-12 schools. The ICN has expanded this network
and is now intended to serve almost 8,000 potential constituents
including K-12 schools, colleges and universities, museums and
libraries, and municipal governments and communities.
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- A. By filling out and submitting
a one-page application form. You can download the form
Application
and Instructions . You'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader
to view and print the form. You can get help in filling
out the form by calling Lighthouse Technologies at 630-717-5454.
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- A. The ICN will then send to your library:
- A Participation Agreement
- A Letter of Agency (allows the
ICN to act on behalf of the library to order, provision,
and implement the appropriate circuitry required to connect
to the ICN)
- Membership Estimated Costs (shows
what the estimated monthly costs of the circuit will be
once the free period has expired)
NOTE: The Participation Agreement and
Letter of Agency must be signed and returned to the ICN for
the process to continue.
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A. This varies depending on available
service in your area. Six to eight weeks is common, from the
time the signed Participation Agreement and Letter of Agency
have been received by the ICN. However, the time is longer in
some areas depending on available circuits, how your institution
connects to the local telephone company, and whether any new
construction is required.
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A. Good news! The new ICN
Participation Agreement is now available from the
ICN Web site: Just download it, sign it, and mail it in.
Furthermore, the ICN will be asking all current ICN and
LincOn members to sign the new agreement.
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A. You may check your ICN status
by using the
Member Search on the ICN
Website.
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A. The three categories mean the following:
Blank – The ICN is aware of your
library’s existence. They may not have received an application.
Applied – The ICN has received
an application and will be sending you a Participation
Agreement, Letter of Agency, and Estimated Costs.
Member – The ICN has received
your signed Participation Agreement and has either connected
your library or is in the process of getting you connected.
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- A. The Illinois Century Network provides
point of presence equipment (central equipment necessary to
connect to the network), the backbone network, and Internet
access at no cost to the participating institution.
-
- Through funds provided by the Illinois
Board of Higher Education (IBHE), customer premise equipment
is provided at no cost for public libraries, public and private
higher education institutions, and museums. These IBHE funds
also pay for access circuits for public libraries, public community
colleges and universities, and public museums through June 30,
2001. It should be noted that K-12 connectivity is offset by
extensive grants provided by the Illinois State Board of Education
(ISBE).
-
- Libraries in private, non-profit institutions
may join the ICN, but need to pay the cost of the customer premise
equipment and circuit installation, as well as ongoing circuit
charges.
-
- Special libraries in for-profit institutions
may apply to the ICN. The decision to provide access will be
made on a case-by-case basis by the ICN.
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- A. Access to the Internet is included
at this time for all ICN members.
- However, the ICN does not provide E-mail,
Web site hosting, Usenet news, or other services. If these services
are desired, they will need to be provided in house or acquired
from a third party.
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- A. The Policy Committee is currently
reviewing the ICN’s long-term pricing policy and will consider
many options including public/private partnerships to help in
funding and building the network and ensure sustainability.
It is reasonable to expect that libraries will eventually be
charged a portion of the cost to connect to the ICN, not to
exceed the cost of the access circuit. The earliest date for
such charges would be FY 2002, or July 1, 2001. If fees are
charged for FY 2002, institutions will be informed early in
the budget process to allow ample time to allocate funds as
necessary.
-
- Your institution will have a way to
plan for the ongoing costs with the Membership Estimated Costs
sheet which your institution will receive once it has sent in
its application.
-
- NOTE: While no one can guarantee that
high bandwidth connectivity will be available long term at no
cost to the institution, it is the goal of the ICN to always
represent the best possible value for high-speed Internet and
Illinois Intranet connectivity.
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- A. No multi-year contract is required.
If the ICN does not serve your needs you may cancel your connection
at any time with 10 days notice. Because installation charges
are incurred, if you wish to reconnect to the ICN at a later
time, you may be required to pay for the installation.
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- A. You will need to connect your library’s
LAN to the ICN router, which in many cases will be provided
by the ICN. A full-fledged local area network (LAN) with a file
server is not required. A minimal configuration would consist
of several PCs equipped with network interface cards connected
to a small network hub.
-
- You may wish to utilize a router you
currently own for the purpose of providing network address translation,
maintaining access lists, etc. This router would reside behind
the ICN-provided border router. It may be necessary to upgrade
your current router to provide these services. Check with your
local library system and/or other technical contact for details.
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- A. Library Systems and other library
consortia are exploring how the ICN may be integrated into their
current Wide Area Network models.
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- A. Nothing will be implemented until
the signed Participation Agreement and Letter of Agency mentioned
above are returned to the ICN. No circuits are installed based
solely on receipt of the ICN application.
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- A. You should review the existing contract
and consider any penalties for early cancellation. In most cases,
the money saved by connecting to the ICN will recoup these costs
in 3-6 months. Decisions regarding dedicated circuits with Library
Systems and/or other library consortia should be made in conjunction
with these institutions.
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- A. It is always best to allow the ICN
connection to be installed and thoroughly tested prior to issuing
a disconnect order to your current provider.
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- A. Illinois Century Network staff will
determine the bandwidth necessary to carry current traffic to
an institution and reach institutional goals as resources allow.
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- A. Illinois Century Network staff will
determine the number of IP addresses necessary to provide connectivity
for the devices in your facility based on the numbers provided
on the bottom of the ICN application.
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- A. Yes. The ICN can act as a primary
or secondary DNS service for your domain.
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- A. No, the ICN does not provide E-mail,
Web site hosting, Usenet news, or other services. If these services
are desired, they will need to be provided in house or acquired
from a third party.
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- A.The ICN backbone provides five diverse
access points to the Internet in different parts of the state
to ensure reliability and redundancy. The largest egress to
the Internet is via an OC12 circuit to the Chicago Ameritech
Network Access Point. In the words of several Internet Service
Providers – who desire to gain access to the Internet via the
ICN for their customers – "the Illinois Century Network
is the best network in the state." Internet access through
the ICN is the most robust available.
-
- However, the ICN does not provide E-mail,
Web site hosting, Usenet news, or other services. If these services
are desired, they will need to be provided in house or acquired
from a third party.
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- A.The ICN is monitored 24 hours a day,
7 days a week, 365 days a year. Contact numbers are provided
to ICN constituents and ICN technicians are available 24x7,
365 days a year, to provide assistance in the event of network
outages. In addition, the ICN is establishing Regional Technology
Centers throughout the state and will locate network specialists
strategically to provide regional service as needed.
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- A. Yes, as mentioned above, the ICN
is establishing Regional Technology Centers throughout the state
and will locate network specialists strategically to provide
regional service as needed. Resources are in the process of
being expanded to meet the increasing needs as more connections
are added.
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- A. In many cases, ICN prefers to install
their own router.
-
- The ICN may be able to use your existing
router as the ICN border router depending on the make and model.
The ICN Network Operation Center manages and monitors the network
up to and including your border router. If the equipment allows
network monitoring, remote diagnostics, and management it can
be utilized, otherwise, new premise equipment is required and
will be provided by the ICN.
-
- Depending upon your existing router’s
make and model, you may choose to use it in conjunction with
the ICN border router to help manage access to and from your
network.
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- A. A consulting firm, Lighthouse Technologies,
Inc., has been retained by the Illinois Library System Directors
Organization to assist libraries and library systems in answering
general ICN questions and completing application forms and participation
agreements in order to connect to the ICN.
-
- Call Lighthouse Technologies, Inc. at 630-717-5454.
-
- The ICN Web site is located at
http://www.illinois.net
-
- Lighthouse Technologies’ Web site is
at http://www.LTMSI.com
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- A. Yes. Rather than run multiple small
circuits to a community, it may be that a large bandwidth circuit
to an institution would provide a more streamlined connection
and better use of state resources. The ideal circumstance is
for a community of constituents to work together to provide
network access to the aforementioned public institutions, municipalities,
and local government entities.
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- A. The following is an attempt to answer
those questions on the form.
- 1 to 3. Local Information
- 4. TAX EXEMPT NUMBER. Starts
with an "E." Required.
- 5. FEIN CODE. Often starts with
"36." Required.
- 6. TAX CLASSIFICATION. Check
"Public"
- 7. ORGANIZATION TYPE. Check "Library"
- 8 to 14. Local Information
- 15 to 19. BUILDING/SIT INFORMATION.
Local Information
- 20 to 24. SITE/TECHNICAL CONTACT
INFORMATION. If different from the Preparer listed in
#10, be sure to identify.
- 25. How will this building be
connecting to the Illinois Century Network? In most cases,
check "Directly to the Illinois Century Network (ICN)."
Check the other boxes if you
are in process of connecting to another ICN member
or to a branch. Note that in many cases, branch
libraries are far enough from each other to warrant
their own connection to the ICN. If you have questions,
call Lighthouse Technologies at 630-717-5454.
- 26. Requested installation date:
Leave blank unless you have special requirements or wish
to delay the installation date.
- 27. Type of connection requested
(select only one). Check "T1" if you have 5
or more PCs that will connect to the ICN over the next
year. There is no guarantee that all libraries will receive
a T1. If you are still not sure, check "Will need
assistance in the selection process"
- 28. If the demarc will need to
be extended by the telephone company, specify the room
number or describe the location.
A demarc is the location in
the building that you connect your network (equipment,
router etc) to the ICN. In many buildings this is away
from where the phone company installs its telephone
lines into your building. If you know where you plan
on having your equipment in your building located, simply
put the area describing the room in this area on the
form. For example "Technical Services," "Computer
Room," etc.
- 29. Select one of the following
options. Unless you are confident that you really want
to use your existing router, check "Will require
help in choosing correct router." This will signal
the ICN to consider installing their own border router.
- 30. A. IP Addresses requested
- CURRENT
Count the number of IP addresses
you currently use. This includes networked PCs, servers,
web servers, e-mail servers, switches, and routers.
- 30. A. IP Addresses requested
– NEW WITHIN 12 MONTHS
Count the number of IP addresses
you plan to add within the next 12 months. This includes
networked PCs, servers, switches, and routers.
- 30. A. IP Addresses requested
- TOTAL BY END OF 12 MONTHS
Total of CURRENT and NEW
.
- 30. B. Internet Connecting hosts
– CURRENT
Count the number of networked
devices you currently use. This includes networked PCs,
servers, switches, and routers.
- 30. B. Internet Connecting hosts
– NEW WITHIN 12 MONTHS
Count the number of networked
devices you plan to add within the next 12 months. This
includes networked PCs, servers, switches, and routers.
- 30. B. Internet Connecting hosts
- TOTAL BY END OF 12 MONTHS
Total of CURRENT and NEW.
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