Network Policy

DRAFT: "Generic" Department Network Policy

1. Network registration is mandatory:
   A computer must be properly registered with OIT's Networking group before it should be connected to the university network. Note: The discovery of an improperly registered IP address results in a request by the department that the associated jack be deactivated.
2. All communication goes through department network coordinators:
   All network connection requests for a department must be made by a specially identified group of people, the "department's network coordinators." These people are designated by the department and may include people from SCF. Only the department network coordinators may make a network connection request to OIT. There is an agreement between the department and OIT that OIT rejects all other network connection requests from the department.
3. Centralized inventory and network information:
   The department's network coordinators have the responsibility to work with users in the department who have acquired a new computer, discarded a computer, or moved a computer from one location to another. Their responsibility includes determining the correct information for the network connection request (this includes serial numbers, Ethernet addresses, IP addresses, and jack locations). The responsibility also includes working with SCF on updating the SCF inventory of computers located in the department.
4. Priority is given by Networking to the department network coordinators:
   We will explain to Networking that the system of having department network coordinators saves the Networking group time. We then request that priority be given to those requests which were received from the department network coordinators. (This means that the other departments in Science will have a lower priority with Networking.)
5. Departments decide who may connect to the network:
   Generally, all university-owned computers in the department may be connected to the network. As a default, personally-owned computers may only be connected to ResNet activated jacks. In special situations, a user may request a static IP address for a personally-owned computer, and the computer is entered into the SCF inventory in the same way as University-owned computers.
6. Static IP addresses for desktops:
   Only static IP addresses will be assigned to desktops.
7. Dynamic IP addresses are reserved for special cases:
   Users of laptops can request dynamic IP addresses for those computers.

Why should a department adapt this policy:

• Knowledge and control of the department's network:
  The department will have an inventory of computers and know who is shares the same subnet together. This is important for monitoring security problems as well as network loads.
• Increased efficiency:
  By having people who verify network information before submitting it to OIT, we will be making OIT's job easier. This should allow us to build a good relationship between a department and networking, and thus allow us to speed up the time required to activate a new network connection.
• Improved help from SCF:
  (See below.)

Why SCF wants this policy:

• Knowledge of the inventory:
  Both the departments and SCF need to know the inventory of computers in a department to know how to focus SCF support. We are lacking accurate information at present.
• Correct network information:
  We have seen a number of requests for help which involved solving networking problems. In order to be able to help people with computer support problems, we must have knowledge of the network connection. Unfortunately, the current data in the Domain Name Server is hopelessly out of date.
• Security problems:
  The best way to have a secure computer is to make sure your computer sits on a secure network. This means that departments and SCF should know who shares the network together. Insecure or compromised computers also need to be removed from the network until fixed.
• Network loads:
  We suspect, but do not know, that network loads are uneven across the College of Science and the university. We believe that SCF should be pro-actively working with departments and Networking on monitoring the network load.