Network To Be Put In More Houses

The information superhighway will continue to blaze trails through Harvard during the next few weeks, when four more houses receive network connections in students' rooms.

Residents of Quincy, Leverett, Mather and Dunster Houses will have access to the Harvard network from their suites, Director of Network Services Richard Steen said yesterday.

Although no firm deadline has been set, he said all 12 of Harvard's undergraduate houses should be online by the end of the academic year.

Residents of the four houses, who received booklets last week explaining the new connection, said they are looking forward to the expansion.

"I use [electronic mail] a lot," said David E. Lower '95, a Mather House resident. "I can only use it when I go to class. It's been more difficult on weekends."

Lowell resident Eben L. Scanlon '96 said he expects his account to be up and running tomorrow.

"I'm pretty excited. It will let me do my Computer Science 51 homework," he said.

Lowell House and the three Quad houses have been connected for almost a month, Steen said.

The first-year dorms have also been connected to the University's computer network since the beginning of the fall.

"About 100 requests for connections have come in over the last few weeks," he said. "[The number of] total connections is up over 600."

Connecting the houses has not been a complicated task, said Warren Nugent, superintendent of Leverett House.

"All the fiber optics should be laid out within a few weeks," he said. "It seems as though when [the University] did some telephone work here about two years ago, they left options for this kind of work."

Network users in the Quad have found the new connections convenient, particularly because of the ability to log in to the system without a modem.

"You don't have to dial in," said Nannet O. Formani '94, a Currier House resident. "[The system] runs a lot faster, since it's a direct connection. It's always up."

But not all students were as interested in the technological progress.

Cabot House resident Carlos G. Perez '94 said he did not realize his house had received network connections. "Are they up yet?" he asked.

Steen said he understood the lack of interest seniors have shown in the improvements.

"Of course, it's springtime, so it doesn't make much sense for seniors to sign up," he said. "But we really want to encourage sophomores and juniors to do so."

Students can begin the process of getting an account by consulting the "hot pink" FAS Guide to Computing booklet distributed at the beginning of the school year, Steen said.