Print full report (pdf)

4 Application Services (SLA J4)

4.1 Videoconferencing Service (SLA J4.1) [more information]

The number of users of this service continues to grow steadily; currently 5923 of the registered venues are able to use the JANET Videoconferencing Service over IP (JVCS-IP) and 657 are able to use the service over ISDN (JVCS-ISDN). During the reporting period, 66 conferences took place using ISDN only over 142 hours, 3462 conferences took place using IP over 3828 hours, and 1665 conferences took place using the IP/ISDN gateway over 2283 hours. The overall statistical trend indicates an increase in the use of videoconferencing, particularly IP videoconferencing.

JVCS (more information)

The Booking Service look and feel has been reviewed to improve the user experience by making often-used functions more obvious; providing better search functionality; enhancing the visual appeal; and improving accessibility. The new user interface is now available.

The ConferenceMe trial has been underway during the quarter. ConferenceMe is a Windows-based application available to registered users of JVCS, via the Booking Service, which allows users to participate in a videoconference from a desktop or laptop PC equipped with a webcam, speakers and microphone. ConferenceMe will become available to all registered users during November 2009. More information can be found at http://www.ja.net/services/video/jvcs/futuredevel.

4.2 Access Grid Support Service (SLA J4.2) [more information]

The Access Grid® Support Centre continues to support the users of the Access Grid® within the UK academic network, with the aim of improving user experience through robust and resilient services.

Server and Bridge Activity

The number of registered UK AG nodes currently stands at 390, including the UK Academic desktop nodes, and the number of users stands at 652.

Booking Service

The project to revise the AGSC Booking Service user interface is now completed and the new interface was rolled out on 27 October. This should provide users with a better experience when using the site and ultimately make it easier to use.

The number of booked sessions on the Booking Service has increased significantly over the last few months due to the start of term and the new lectures series over the Access Grid.

AGSC Workshop

The next workshop will take place on Thursday 19 November 2009. To register for this workshop please go to: http://www.ja.net/services/video/agsc/events/workshops.html.

Conferences & Outreaches

AGSC staff exhibited Access Grid technologies at the LSIS Learning Innovations Conference at the NEC. JVCS and Access Grid shared a joint stand at the event where plenty of interest was generated from the 150 delegates in attendance.

Staff also visited the RSC NW offices in Lancaster to advise the RSC on a potential new node setup for their strategic advisory group. After the initial node is set up in Lancaster it is hoped that a further 15-20 desk nodes will be created to take part in the SAG meetings.

Documentation

There are now 20 documents on the AGSC website which is constantly being updated. There should be something helpful for all user skillsets. Suggestions from the Access Grid community on what documentation should appear on the site may be submitted to the AGSC via telephone or email.

EVO (Enabling Virtual Organizations)

A helpful document on hardware requirements to use EVO is now available from the EVO homepage. There are also a few video tutorials available including a useful Quick Start guide for beginners.

The EVO - Telephone Bridge is now live. This is a VoIP Gateway which allows anyone with a telephone to dial into an EVO meeting. This may be helpful if users are experiencing hardware, software or networking issues and are unable to join a session by video: alternatively, users may find it a convenient way to attend a meeting if they are away from their desk, e.g. at home.

4.3 Usenet News Service (SLA J4.3) [more information]

4.3.1 News Feed Service (SLA J4.1) [more information]

The News Feed Service continues to function well. There are currently 20 client sites connected to the service and most are taking a full News feed.

4.3.2 News Reader Service (SLA J4.1) [more information]

33 organisations elected to be removed from the News Reader Service during the reporting period. There are currently 47 sites connected to the Service.

4.4 Electronic Mail Services (SLA J4.4)

4.4.1 Mailer Shield (SLA J4.4.1) [more information]

No more organisations have joined this service during this reporting period. The number of recorded clients of the service remains at 28.

4.4.2 E-mail Advice and Testing Service (SLA J4.4.2) [more information]

The system continues to run reliably and effectively.

4.4.3 E-mail Abuse Protection Service (SLA J4.4.3) [more information]

The service continues to run effectively and reliably.

4.4.4 Web Mail Service (SLA J4.4.4) [more information]

During the reporting period one organisation joined the service. There are a total of 36 sites using the service.

4.6 Nameserver Services (SLA J4.6)

4.6.1 Second Level Domain Service (SLA J4.6.1)

DNS (Servers)
The JANET DNS service continued to run reliably with no problems encountered during this quarter.

DNS (Whois Service)
There were no reported problems with whois.ja.net during the reporting period.

4.6.2 Primary Nameserver Service (SLA J4.6.2) [more information]

Two more organisations registered during the reporting period to use the JANET Primary Nameserver service. There are now a total of 107 users of the service.

4.6.3 Secondary Nameserver Service (SLA J4.6.3) [more information]

There have been no breaks of service within this quarterly period. The number of organisations using this service has remained at 521.

4.6.4 Off-site Resolver Service (SLA J4.6.4) [more information]

Four sites joined during the reporting period taking the total number of users up to 105.

4.7 Managed Router Service (SLA J4.7) [more information]

Nothing to report.

4.8 Web-Based Services (SLA J4.8)

4.8.1 Web Hosting Service (SLA J4.8.1) [more information]

One site has joined the service during the reporting period and one has left, keeping the total number of sites using the service at 76.

4.8.2 Web Filtering Service (SLA J4.8.2) [more information]

During the past reporting period 4 organisations joined the service. A few organisations have elected to have two filtering accounts. There are currently 88 individual organisations using the service.

4.9 JANET Roaming Service (SLA J4.9) [more information]

Uptake continues to be promising, with the number of participating organisations now at 110 and increasing volumes of authentication traffic being seen.

Key news this quarter is the introduction of the facility for participating organisations to define the role of their RADIUS servers, thus enabling them to improve the efficiency of their JANET Roaming deployments. A service has also been implemented to allow organisations to carry out test and development work on JANET Roaming-connected RADIUS servers without disturbing the operational service at the organisation. Development work continues on enhancing gathering of statistics from the national RADIUS servers, and JANET(UK) continues support for development of the OpenSEA open source 802.1x supplicant, which is now nearing the stage of release of a stable version 2.

4.10 UK Access Management Federation [more information]

4.10.1 Membership of the UK federation

At the end of October there were 760 members in the UK federation, made up of organisations from UK education sectors and of commercial organisations providing online services to these sectors. A list of services available through the federation can be found at http://www.ukfederation.org.uk/content/Documents/AvailableServices.

4.10.2 UK federation Support, Training and Events [more information]

Organisations are now almost exclusively registering Shibboleth 2 entities, in anticipation of the end of development support for Shibboleth version 1.3 in July 2010.

Due to popular demand, JANET Training is continuing to run all three courses covering federated access management in various locations around the UK. There are courses scheduled in November and December as well as for next year.

The cross-sector event "Federation in Practice" took place on 14 October, with presentations from JISC and Becta and with case studies from across the education community. The next event in the calendar is FAM09 "Federating: The Next Generation", which takes place in Cardiff on 23-24 November.