Fort Scott Community College gets wired

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

By Jason E. Silvers

The Fort Scott Tribune

Fort Scott Community College is moving ahead of many other statewide institutions in the implementation of a new Internet technology.

FSCC officials recently announced that all student and public computers at the college can now fully connect to a new Internet service called Internet Protocol version 6, or IPv6.

"I think it's pretty cool that we beat other institutions to the punch on it," FSCC Director of Information Systems Casey Russell said.

The new network service is now in place at each of FSCC's seven campus locations in Fort Scott, Pittsburg, Frontenac and Paola. All FSCC computers will also be able to connect to other IPv6 resources -- including cell phones and other handheld devices -- around the world.

IPv6 is the newest iteration of Internet protocol for packet-switched networks, and while IPv4 is still the predominant protocol for nearly all Internet-connected computers, the Internet Engineering Task Force has designated IPv6 as the successor to IPv4 for general use on the Internet.

Packet-switching is a method of splitting data into small packets that are then routed over a shared network.

"Any PC that's connected to the Internet is part of a packet-switched network," Russell said. "You can send information back and forth in small packets, or small chunks that are reassembled at the other end."

Russell said IPv6 has a big advantage over IPv4 in that the new network service will allow for significantly more Web address space for Internet users.

"There are far more numbers (addresses) available with IPv6," he said. "With IPv4, only four billion numbers are available; about one for each person alive today. With IPv6, that number becomes 34 trillion trillion trillion."

Russell added that under the new protocol, each Internet-connected machine will have its own unique identification number, and that more devices will be able to connect to the Internet. All FSCC machines are also able to "dual-stack," in which each machine has its own IPv4 and IPv6 number and can support either protocol, Russell said.

FSCC's Domain Name Systems and Web servers now use the protocol as well, and anyone at an IPv6 institution around the world who visits the FSCC Web site, www.fortscott.edu, will be served up the pages using IPv6. The implementation of IPv6 puts FSCC ahead of all Kansas universities and even most Internet2-connected universities across the country in terms of IPv6 adoption.

Internet 2 is a non-profit advanced networking consortium of universities, institutions and other corporate partners that uses network applications and technologies for education and high-speed data transfer purposes.

"The Internet has become so commercialized that they started building a new network backbone between universities," Russell said. "It's (Internet2) for research institutions, education institutions, and also government entities like NASA and DARPA."

IPv6 is gradually starting to become used more in research and government installations, and in education settings such as FSCC. Adoption of the protocol in Asia is growing rapidly while adoption in corporate settings in the United States is still moving slowly, Russell said.

"A lot of big (Internet) providers and search engines such as Google are starting to convert their online presences to IPv6," he said.

Russell has prior experience working with IPv6, having once worked as a network engineer for the Kansas Research and Education Network in Lawrence. Some of his duties there included working with advanced Internet protocols and speaking to university and community college IT personnel about IPv6.

Russell said FSCC's close relationship with KanREN made the IPv6 implementation possible. The college's IT staff was able to implement the protocol in a minimal amount of time at no cost to FSCC.

KanREN was founded in 1993 by the Kansas Board of Regents to provide colleges, universities, school districts and other state organizations with Internet access via a statewide network, and has provided Internet services to FSCC since 1995. The system is a recognized Internet2 leader in IPv6 adoption and was the first state research and education network to fully incorporate IPv6 into its existing network infrastructure.