The primary purpose of this FAQ is to provide information and support for new and existing UQNET users - ie. UQ staff, students, and other clients. As at the end of 1995, UQNET had over 5,000 directly attached nodes, and around 11,000 dialup nodes. With approximately 4,000 staff, 25,000 students (and an annual intake of around 9,000), each of whom is entitled to free dialin and network access, client turnover is high. For this reason, information is pitched at the beginner as well as the experienced network user. FAQs are a good vehicle for mixed audiences such as this, since the complexity of an answer generally depends on the nature of the question.
It is too difficult an exercise, and perhaps even impossible, to provide a rigorous definition of "UQNET", the shorthand term used to talk about "the UQ network". Loosely, it refers to the cabling, computers, and other equipment necessary to link UQ campus computers, and those in staff and student homes, together. In practical terms, for many people UQNET simply comprises the set of all computers that have an Internet address in one of the ranges assigned to UofQ [eg. 130.102.xx.yy], together with all cabling and equipment necessary to sustain connection to the Internet. In reality, UQ network cabling and equipment is used for many other things, and provides for communication between computers and other devices [eg. printers, LAN file servers, fax/modems etc..] via a number of different network protocols [eg. TCP/IP, AppleTalk, IPX, NetBeui]. Currently this FAQ focuses mainly on the Internet, and deals with email, telnet, ftp, news, the World Wide Web, dialin access, and on-campus TCP/IP networking. Other sections relating to networking and more general computing questions will be added as time permits.
The FAQ will be updated on a regular basis to reflect changes in user requirements and the UQ environment. Notification of updates and availability will be posted to the uq newsgroups (uq.dialin & uq.general) and the DLO mailing list on a periodic basis. A plaintext version will be available in the uq ftp archives [ftp.uq.edu.au/pub/net/faq].
Document last revised : 12 Mar 1996 [MM]