University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

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Published: December 3, 2009

UB to discontinue dial-up services

UB will discontinue dial-up service for Internet access beginning Jan. 7, 2010, and faculty and staff who still use dial-up will need to contract with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in order to access UB IT services from off campus.

The decision to end dial-up service was made after “careful deliberation and analysis,” according to Linda Kingsbury, associate director for user services, Academic Services, UBIT. She says the three factors contributing to the decision were a drastic decline in the number of people using the service over the past few years, UB’s vendor has discontinued support of the current hardware and the university’s current financial situation makes it difficult to justify additional investment in the service.

Kingsbury notes that ISPs and technologies vary, and those needing to contract with an ISP can begin their search by visiting the Internet Services Providers directory. Among the services that may be available are cable (CATV) high-speed Internet from a locally serving CATV provider, such as RoadRunner; dial-up networking from a local or national provider, such as NetZero; digital subscriber lines (DSL) from a locally serving telephone company, such as Verizon; satellite Internet access from a satellite services provider, like DishNetwork; and wireless access from a local wireless ISP or cellular services provider, like AT&T.

Those using commercial ISPs are able to use their buffalo.edu e-mail address, access the same UB services and contact the CIT Help Desk for assistance with accessing UB services, Kingsbury says.

She points out that while UB cannot recommend any particular ISP or technology, any ISP should be able to provide access to UB services.

Anyone with questions can contact the CIT Help Desk at cit-helpdesk@buffalo.edu or 645-3542.

Problem-solving workshop to be held

A workshop designed to teach faculty and staff the fundamentals of problem-solving and how to gain buy-in from key decision-makers in the organization will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 16 in 205 Alfiero Center, Jacobs Management Center, North Campus.

“Creative Problem Solving,” offered by the Office of Organizational Development and Training in University Human Resources, is free and open to all faculty and staff.

To register or for more information, click here.