ResNet celebrates our 10th anniversary: 1998 - 2008!
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The ResNet service is 10 years old this term!
We think Bristol was the first University in the UK to provide Internet access to study-bedrooms in all halls. ResNet started as a small pilot in one block of Hiatt Baker Hall in the spring term 1998. Over the summer vacation a team of university staff and students installed hardware, wrote the docs, set up the servers, designed a logo, stuffed envelopes and did everything else so that ResNet went live across all nine halls of residence for Freshers Week, 1998. The student houses followed soon afterwards. We haven't looked back since!
10 years ago things were very different:
- Only about 30% of students had a computer, and most of those were desktops with Windows 95, or even Windows 3.1
- Fast, always on Internet like ResNet was almost unheard of - at home people had dialup if they had Internet access at all
- Computers didn't have a network adapter built-in: you had to open the case and fit a special ethernet adapter.
We are very proud of ResNet. It's been great fun working on something that provides a real service to students and people seem to appreciate (even the Epigrump column likes ResNet 
)
If you'd like to wish ResNet a happy anniversary, say what you think about the service, or suggest what you would like to see from ResNet in future, please leave a comment below. Here's to the next ten years!
The ResNet team.
10 Responses to “ResNet celebrates our 10th anniversary: 1998 - 2008!”
Chris wrote:
February 27th, 2008 at 12:08 am
A different AV full stop would be better. I wouldn’t trust McAffee any further than I would AVG… And I can never get it to schedule properly.
Also the option to use a firewall a little smarter than the XP default?
Tom wrote:
February 27th, 2008 at 12:28 am
everything’s smooth as far as i’m concerned
( macafee does exist on mac, google it)
Kony wrote:
February 27th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Resnet became nice and slow. Is no other way to share the traffic than permanantly limiting the download speed. Now downloads that I would’ve done while sitting on the computer need to be sheduled while I’m away which makes it more prone to get stuck in the peak time area.
Robin wrote:
February 27th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Well done ResNet, as far as I’m concerned! Fast, smooth, secure, and with helpful staff on the very few occasions when anything goes wrong.
As a mature student who easily remembers the birth of the Internet (indeed who remembers using machines with 8k (yes – kilobytes – not megabytes or gigabytes) of 12-bit core memory and no disc at all, accessed by noisy electromechanical teletypes) I can definitely say this is one of the best of the many improvements in educational computing I’ve seen.
Many happy returns.
Nick (ResNet manager) wrote:
February 27th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Thanks to everyone for their comments so far.
A few responses to things people raised:
McAfee on Mac for Nicola: University does have a version of McAfee available for Macs if you want (it’s called Virex). We don’t recommend it to all Mac users .on ResNet though, as there are so few viruses for the Mac it isn’t as important to have as on Windows.
Firewalls for Chris: We think that most firewalls on the market are very flashy but not particularly helpful – always popping up messages alerting you to something rather than just getting on and blocking it. It’s all about marketing (to persuade you to buy it has to visibly remind you it’s there). That’s why we recommend the Windows one, as it is simple, no fuss and does the job.
Also on McAfee for Windows: we trust McAfee and think it’s a good product, but we know some people don’t like using it, even though we provide it free, if they’ve already bought their own. We’re looking at this at the moment, thinking about different ways to do it next year (perhaps a choice of two different antivirus packages, or the ability to use any package).
Kony: From the address range your comment came from I think you might be using the new pilot Wireless ResNet at Northwell House? Are you getting slow speeds on the wireless network or the wired one? The wireless network is just a pilot at the moment, and there are lots of reasons it might be slow.
More generally, we do make adjustments to the network from time to time which will affect the speed. We need to get the balance right between download speed (important for people with large downloads) and latency (important for gamers and Skype users). Sometimes we have to cap the speed of the largest downloads (which only affects a few people) in order to prevent congestion (which affects lots of people). Even so ResNet is still extremely fast compared to typical broadband at home.
Oliver wrote:
February 27th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Maybe include support for other alternative computer platforms. I currently have a RISC OS (formerly Acorn) computer connected to ResNet, but was told at the start of the year that it would not work with ResNet, yet it took literally seconds to connect when I set it up.
Apart from that ResNet runs very smoothly, and is very fast.
Paul (ResNet staff) wrote:
February 27th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Hi Oliver, wow! That brings back some memories!
We used to have a number of people using RISC OS (and other less mainstream platforms, such as AmigaOS) on ResNet but we dropped the documentation for them about 3 years ago as we didn’t think the demand was there any more!
If you’re interested, the (somewhat vague) instructions are still online, courtesy of archive.org
http://web.archive.org/web/20020204215333/www.resnet.bris.ac.uk/howto/other/ethernet/
Our usual position is not a case of “they don’t work” but more a case of “if you need to use them, you’re on your own” as we can’t possibly train up our helpdesk staff on every network capable system – just incase someone wants to use it!
Thanks for mentioning it though, I do have a bit of a soft spot for odd computers and you certainly raised a smile
Chris Lewis wrote:
February 27th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
It’s a shame that people think this is a great forum for people to leave flames 
“Computers didn’t have a network adapter built-in: you had to open the case and fit a special ethernet adapter.”
Man, it was like that when I went to uni; does that mean my computer was a load of rubbish or that I’m older than I care to admit?
ResNet continues to be a shining example of student networking done right; I’ve been to many a university and listened to many a grievance from other students who have valid complaints about the quality of their service. How Bristol ResNet seems to be consistently better I don’t know, but whatever you guys are doing, keep doing it!
Congratulations to everyone.
(the same goes for the Computer Centre as well; oh the stories I could tell you about central university IT departments… well OK: here’s one. The IT department at an unnamed university runs all their SSH connections on port 10, because using the standard port would be “insecure”)
Simon Aldrich wrote:
February 28th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Many happy returns ResNet!
I remember hooking my PC up to ResNet in October 1998 and being simply astounded by its sheer speed; compared to dial-up it was a whole new world.
Then in October 1999 I started work at the ResNet Helpdesk and continued throughout my undergraduate degree. I can honestly say I’ve never worked with a nicer, more genuine bunch of people than the ResNet team.
I wish ResNet and everyone involved with it all the best and long may its success continue.
Nicola Matthews wrote:
February 26th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
suggestion: anti-virus protection for mac laptops (macafee not being compatible)