DACCnet Information 

DACC became a member of netILLINOIS in August 1994; in mid-1997, netILLINOIS (the administrative body) and CICnet (the service provider) were acquired by Internet Access Group, known as Qual.Net. In early 1999, Qual.Net was purchased by Verio, a national company. Through September 2000, the campus network was connected to Verio using a DS-1 (1.544Mbps) data circuit via the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In September 2000, DACC became part of the Illinois Century Network and is now connected to the ICN via four load-balanced T-1 data circuits with a total bandwidth of 6 megabits per second.

DACC has had a web server and an active web site since October 1994.

E-mail accounts and Windows login accounts are automatically created for all enrolled students. To get your ID and password, go to the "For Students" section of the DACC website.

All users should be familiar with the DACCnet Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

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Internet System Administrator:

Jefferson Davis Williams
Director of Computer and Network Services
Danville Area Community College
2000 East Main Street
Danville, IL 61832

jeff@dacc.edu (e-mail)
217.443.8871 (voice)
217.443.8580 (fax)

Regular hours: Monday through Friday, 7:00AM to 4:00PM CDT

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A Brief History of DACCnet

(In development...)

1983

The educational mainframe was an IBM 4331 with 3370 disk drives, an 8809 9-track reel-to-reel tape drive, a 3262 band printer, and a 2501 card reader. Access was via two labs of IBM 3278 dumb terminals, some connected directly and some via an IBM 3174 controller.

1985

The first IBM 3270 PCs were installed; these were essentially PC-XTs with specialized hardware and software to enable them to act as mainframe terminals.

The administrative system ran on a Four-Phase computer system with dedicated terminals across campus.

1986

The educational IBM 4331 mainframe was upgraded to a 4361 model group 5.

The remaining IBM 3278 terminals were replaced with IBM PCs with 3270 emulator cards and dual diskette drives. Later, these systems received hard drives.

1988

DACC's first computer-aided design system was installed. This system used six IBM 5080 graphics terminals to access CADAM, which ran on the IBM 4361. Coaxial cables connected the CAD lab, which was in the Technology Center, to the 4361 in building 10. Later, another six IBM 5080s were added for a total of twelve.

1989

The educational IBM 4361 was replaced with an IBM ES/9000 model 150.

The campus Token-Ring backbone was installed, connecting 11 buildings. This was primarily for the purpose of providing access to the newly-installed IBM ES/9000 administrative mainframe. This network used IBM type 1 copper cabling and ran at 4 Mbps.

circa 1990

DACC received an educational AS/400 model B45 from IBM as part of a Computer Integrated Manufacturing grant.

1993

DACC went online with a 56Kbps circuit through CICnet / netIllinois.

1994

The first mail and web server, an RS/6000 model 250, was put online. Only a few users were prepared to begin using E-mail at that time, largely because many offices were not yet networked. PINE was the obvious choice for an E-mail client at the time, being widely used at many universities and at Prairienet (which had started the year before). A single dialup connection was provided.

The first DACC web site went online in October, putting DACC among the first community colleges in the state with a web presence.

The educational AS/400-B45 was replaced by a new AS/400 model 300.

1995

A much larger RS/6000 (model 590) was installed for mail and web serving.

PINE continued to be used as the primary E-mail client. Over time, various office users began using graphical E-mail clients such as Netscape Messenger.

The fall semester of 1995 also saw the introduction of free E-mail accounts for all enrolled students. This had been tested by allowing student employees to have E-mail accounts during the previous semester.

The educational AS/400-300 was upgraded to a model 500.

1996, 1997

Several computer labs were networked. Originally, the only networked labs were in the Technology Center; but this was expanded to the Mary Miller Center and the Learning Resources Center. More and more offices were networked during this time as well.

The RS/6000 model 590 was upgraded to a model 595.

1998

One of the Clock Tower Center computer labs (CT-109) was networked; virtually all offices were networked by this time, with the exception of Building 10 -- this building was not heavily networked because the Business Division was going to move to the new Lincoln Hall, which would be fully networked.

The educational ES/9000 was replaced by an IBM R/390.

The administrative ES/9000 was replaced by an IBM MultiPrise 2003.

1999

A newer RS/6000 (model F50) took over mail server operations from the older RS/6000-595, which continued to act as the campus web and calendar server.

Throughout the first half of the year, most users were migrated from Eudora, Mulberry and PINE to Netscape Messenger (part of Communicator); by the end of the year, Eudora and Mulberry were abandoned. PINE continued to be supported.

Netscape SuiteSpot was put online, including the Directory Server, the Enterprise server for web serving, and the Messaging Server for E-mail.

Netscape Messenger became the official E-mail package. Netscape Messenger Express was provided for web access to E-mail.

All computers in Lincoln Hall were networked, including all Business division office and lab computers (previously in Building 10).

During the fall 1999 semester, the new campus network went online. This new network utilizes fiber-optic cabling and ATM at the backbone, connecting various Token-Ring and Ethernet networks together. High-population buildings were connected via OC-3 ATM (155 Mbps).

2000

New versions of the Messaging Server and Messenger Express were installed in March. Netscape SuiteSpot is now the iPlanet Corporate Community, a result of the Sun-Netscape Alliance.

In September, the DACC campus network was connected to the Illinois Century Network with a DS-3 (45 Mbps) data circuit. This replaced the T-1 (1.5 Mbps) that had been provided by Verio for a monthly fee.

2001

During the summer, most of the computers on campus were migrated from Token-Ring to Ethernet.

2002

In June, the DS-3 circuit from Illinois Century Network was replaced with three T-1 circuits to ICN. As of July 2002, participating community colleges were required to begin paying for their data circuits to ICN, which formerly had been provided at no cost to the institutions. It emerged that three T-1s would meet the needs of the campus.

During the summer, over 280 computers in the student computer labs were migrated to Windows 2000 and Office XP.

2003

For the fall 2003 semester, paper student ID request forms were eliminated in favor of a custom package written by Jeff Williams that automatically generates IDs and passwords for all registered students. IDs and passwords are delivered to students via the web, making the system entirely paperless.

A student file server was installed to provide storage space and roaming Windows profiles for all students. The same IDs and passwords used for student E-mail also allowed students to log into the lab computers.

Stalker's CommuniGate Pro software was installed to provide E-mail accounts for all employees and students.

2004

The campus WebCT license was upgraded to allow students to use their E-mail IDs and passwords to log into WebCT, eliminating the need for separate WebCT accounts to remember while also increasing security. Custom software by Jeff Williams caused WebCT students to be added to their courses in the WebCT system automatically.

2005

2006

2007

The dialup service that had been provided by a Prairienet-acquired grant since the mid-1990s was discontinued due to minimal usage and aging equipment.

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Any questions about DACC's E-mail system or other network services should be directed to Jeff Williams (jeff@dacc.edu).