The Spring Reps Conference has come to a close. Thanks to all who attended and special thanks to those who presented.
If you have a couple minutes, please fill out the post-conference questionnaire and let us know how to make the next conference better.
Lastly, if you have any suggestions for 2-day workshops, please email Erica McDiffett.
Those of you who are willing to interact on this blog by making posts might be happy new owners of a fancy door prize!
Post early and often for a better chance of winning; just keep comments productive to make them count.
Upload and share your pictures at the freshly posted image gallery!
After a long day of thought-provoking sessions, it’s nice to load up your favorite game and hunt down other conference attendees in some good-natured gaming fun. This year we have a large room dedicated for LAN Party events. So plan on bringing your machines and your attitute!
On the list of games for this year’s LAN are:
We’re open to other games but would like to see cross-platform titles that are available for free if possible. To make a suggestion, post in the comments OR sign up for the KanREN Lan Party ListServe.
Presenter:
Doug Heacock - KanREN, INC - Executive Director
Session Description:
Doug will welcome attendees to this year’s conference and give everybody the lay of the land.
Media:
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Charles Perkins - Barton County Coummunity College
Session Description:
The presentation will be a brief introduction on how to implement these technologies and how they are used at Barton County Community College
Media:
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
John Matrow - Wichita State University - Director, High Performance Computing Center
Session Description:
Internet2 is a research-only network among the 207 largest universities tasked with developing the next generation Internet protocols, security, applications, etc. The Internet2 K20 Initiative brings together Internet2 member institutions, primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, and museums to get new technologies into the hands of innovators, across all educational sectors in the United States, as quickly and as “connectedly” as possible.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Doug Heacock - KanREN, INC - Executive Director
Session Description:
There are several national initiatives (e.g., Internet2 and NLR) and trends (e.g., RONs) in education and research networking that is changing the internetworking landscape. This session will describe the major initiatives and organizations, sort through the acronyms and topologies, and explore the significance of what’s happening on the national networking scene for KanREN member institutions.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Bradley Hook - Kansas State School for the Blind
Session Description:
This presentation will include an introduction to web accessibility concepts and strategies. This will include how to implement a feature rich web application while maintaining a compliant site, and will explain things to look out for if purchasing a web based application.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenters:
Cort Buffington - KanREN, INC - Sr. Network Engineer
Casey Russell - KanREN, INC - Network Engineer
Session Description:
So, what if you don’t have time to implement IPv6, and your administrators could care less about Multicast? Many of us are just keeping our heads above water teaching, keeping up with administrative meetings and trying to keep the local LAN alive. This presentation will cover the fundamental concepts of building and maintaining a small to moderate sized local area network. We’ll cover the protocols involved, the necessary understandings of switching hardware, and troubleshooting tools. We’ll talk about the most common problems, applications, and cable types that will bring your network to its knees. The goal is to help you find problems faster and fix them more permanently.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenters:
Liz Rea - Northeast Kansas Library System - Technology Specialist
Session Description:
Using KanREN’s web server, mediawiki, and wordpress to build a dynamic website. Why and how NEKLS did it and what the results have been.
Media:
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Cort Buffington - KanREN, INC - Sr. Network Engineer
Casey Russell - KanREN, INC - Network Engineer
Session Description:
The fundamental foundation of most small to moderate educational networks is a switched Local Area Network. Over the last 3-6 years we’ve transitioned to switches for our LAN’s because of the inefficiencies of the dumb hub. We got away from the broadcast storms and collisions that cluttered our traditional (Ethernet Hub based) LANs. But in that time many of us have also seen a tremendous growth in the number of machines on our LANs. At the same time there’s been an increase in the number of critical applications that make our LAN critical to our organizations. So how do you know if your LAN is reaching the point where you should start routing traffic around campus? We’ll show you how to evaluate when and how you should begin to implement routing on your local LAN.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Eric Hansen - Kansas State Library - Director, Statewide Resource Sharing
Session Description:
The State Library of Kansas has gathered more than 50 Kansas libraries, schools and regional library systems to cooperate in the purchase of OverDrive digital audio books and music. This program will discuss the philosophy, nature and structure of the cooperative, and how OverDrive titles will function for library and school users.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Cort Buffington - KanREN, INC - Sr. Network Engineer
Casey Russell - KanREN, INC - Network Engineer
Session Description:
Sonic Wall, Cisco, Symantec, Lnksys; Just what is a firewall anyway? There are dozens of products and brands out there that perform some firewall functions. But getting away from the brands and products, just what should a firewall do for you? What are today’s threats that you need to protect your network from? We’ll discuss some of the most fundamental requirements of a firewall and how it affects your network’s stability. We’ll talk about network address translation (NAT) and some of its inherent firewall-like functions. We’ll also discuss what NAT doesn’t do for you and just what makes a real stateful firewall. The goal is to help you better understand what you should be getting from your firewall device/supplier.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Thatcher Rea - KanREN, INC - Systems Administrator
Session Description:
Using the popular and secure OpenBSD Operating System, it is possible to setup an Email Server, Domain Name Services, DHCP, and Web Server in under an hour. Join the KanREN staff as we demonstrate the ease at which new services can be provided to the users of your network, and how to do it using stable, free Open Source Software.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Service Configuration Tutorial (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Dinner and Keynote. Held at the KSU Alumni Center.
Presenter:
Cort Buffington - KanREN, INC - Sr. Network Engineer
Casey Russell - KanREN, INC - Network Engineer
Session Description:
IDS stands for Intrusion Detection System, which is the art of detecting inappropriate, incorrect, or anomalous activity. We’ll look at the similarities and differences between typical firewall functions and the functions of an IDS. This session will introduce you to the difference between Intrusion Detection and intrusion Prevention. We’ll look at some of today’s threats and why using an IDS in concert with your firewall can make you a more informed network administrator. The goal is to make you better informed about current IDS capabilities and help you better understand what you should be getting from your IDS device/supplier.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Dale Hunkele - KanREN, INC - Application Support Specialist
Session Description:
Ever wonder what it would take to get an optical wide area network built? In this session, I will take you through the trial and tribulations that KanREN has gone though thus far in trying to build an optical backbone for our network. This will include finding vendors, facilities, and equipment. Granted, that most of you institutions won’t be building a network nearly this large, but the information is useful no matter the size of your network.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Dave Hull - University of Kansas - Systems Analyst, Information Systems
Jason Tinsley - University of Kansas - Systems Analyst, Information Systems
Session Description:
A presentation on KU’s current Intrusion Detection System deployment and their developing plans for the next
generation deployment.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Doug Heacock - KanREN, INC - Executive Director
Session Description:
The 2005 Kansas Legislature mandated an efficiency study to compare and contrast the three major state networks, and a report was created to document that study. This session will provide an overview of the study and report, with discussion of the implications for KanREN.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Josh Peck - KanREN, INC - Sr. Systems Engineer
Session Description:
All institutions are concerned about the security of their network and information systems. Some organizations see little impact even after investing large amounts of money. This presentation will focus on common sense tips, techniques, and tools which may be used to yield maximum impact for minimum cost.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Cort Buffington - KanREN, INC - Sr. Network Engineer
Brad Fleming - KanREN, INC - Service Desk Manager
Session Description:
Need fine grained control over your ResNet and its users? Would you like to provide equal access to all users or be able to sell value-added packages without limiting on-campus access? Tired of ResNet users taking down part of the campus by incorrectly connecting devices? In this session, we will illustrate the differences between a broadband subscriber network and the enterprise networks we’re all accustomed to, and how to build one.
Media:
Presentation Slides (PDF)
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
KanREN Board Members
Moderator:
TBD
Session Description:
Panel discussion with the KanREN Board of Directors.
Media:
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Dale Hunkele - KanREN, INC - Application Support Specialist
Session Description:
Ever wonder what it would take to get a computer on your network setup to take advantage of the KanREN Click to Meet or Marratech services? In this session, we will take you through the installation, setup and use for each of these desktop collaboration applications.
Media:
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Richard Becker - Kansas State University - Network Technology Manager, Computing and Network Services
Ray Cole - Emporia State University - Network Administrator, Technology and Computing Services
Keith Neufeld - Wichita State Univesity - Sr. Network Administrator, University Computing
Moderator:
Cort Buffington - KanREN, INC - Sr. Network Engineer
Session Description:
Larger campuses continue to face new challenges with design and architecture. Smaller campuses are finding
themselves increasingly facing the same issues. There are often times many right answers to these complex needs. Come join in on a lively discussion with our panel about some of the most complex and sometimes controversial design issues we are facing today.
Topics (as time allows):
Media:
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Unknown
Session Description:
Unknown
Media:
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Presenter:
Doug Heacock
Session Description:
A chance for attendees to say their goodbyes for another year.
Media:
Real-time Broadcast (RealMedia)
Archived Broadcast (RealMedia)
Session Review Form
Conference Review Form