Commissioning and running of sPHENIX

[Jamie Nagle <jamie.nagle AT colorado.edu>]

Hello Internet-Starved sPHENIXians,

I have  a  short  update  on the internet situation for the BNL Apartments and Efficiencies.      Peter Steinberg  and  I had a  constructive meeting with  Catherine Ennis,  the head of BNL Housing, this afternoon.

Here is the situation.    The regular routers  and internet in essentially all  the apartments and efficiencies are  garbage.    There is a $200k project to have routers with 5G Verizon connectivity in every  unit.   The project has had delays  and  they are now drilling holes in the apartments for wiring and they claim that the system  will be "live" in 2-3 weeks.     Note that you should not hold your breath on that one, but it will eventually solve the problem.

Over the last two years as an "interim solution", they have installed 10 Cradle-Point Routers.     These actually work quite well.    If you are near enough  to  any of  the following units, let  me know privately and I have all  the passwords :)

40C,  40K,  41BK, 41GJ, 11B, 22B, 28B, 24B, 30B

In addition, housing  bought 12 MiFi units (a little box that you  plug in  and use as  a  local  hot spot) last year.    They  found  that when these were plugged in for too long, they overheat and the batteries were swelling.    I guess that explains why last  summer the  Colorado group had a  fan aimed at the MiFi unit all summer.     Housing  recalled all 12 units.

Then they bought 4 new Mifi units - no  idea why such a  small number.     At this point,  through  my persistence, sPHENIXians have 3 of the 4 units.      

Housing agreed to try to  get  more Mifi units ASAP, agreeing with us that the 5G upgrade is too long to wait.     They also said that they will talk to staff there and all  emails to housing AT bnl.gov will now get answered (which  they have not been).

They also said, if you want,  you can cc those  emails directly  to cennis AT bnl.gov, and of course also cc me  and Peter suggested to himself (peter.steinberg AT bnl.gov) and Mariette (faulkner AT bnl.gov).    

Don't give up.  I am sorry this has been painful and frustrating.   I hope we are nearing the end of the road on this topic.

Sincerely,

Jamie

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|| James L. Nagle   
|| Professor of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder

|| EMAIL:   jamie.nagle AT colorado.edu
|| SKYPE:  jamie-nagle        
|| WEB:      http://spot.colorado.edu/~naglej 
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On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 8:31 PM Jamie Nagle <jamie.nagle AT colorado.edu> wrote:

Hello All,

I have been working hard to coordinate with housing to resolve individual apartment internet problems - which are true in almost all cases (see my earlier email from March 2024).      Peter Steinberg and I have a meeting over at BNL Housing planned for tomorrow.

If you are having internet connectivity issues in the apartments or efficiencies, please send me a private email tonight or tomorrow morning with the following -- your name, your apartment number, and if you have a speed number (just type "speed test" into google).

Thanks,

Jamie

||------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|| James L. Nagle   
|| Professor of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder

|| EMAIL:   jamie.nagle AT colorado.edu
|| SKYPE:  jamie-nagle        
|| WEB:      http://spot.colorado.edu/~naglej 
||------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 11:15 AM James L Nagle <naglej AT colorado.edu> wrote:

Hello All,

For those of you staying in the Brookhaven National Laboratory  apartments or efficiencies, there are well documented issues with the internet.    Unless you are interested in traveling  back in time to the dial up era, you may need to  contact BNL housing:

https://www.bnl.gov/staffservices/onsitehousing.php

I had a very positive interaction with Catherine Ennis at BNL housing.

I suggest you  measure a few times the internet speed, using google "internet speed test"  -- see a very slow example below from my apartment.    I  know that some (~10) of the apartment routers have been upgraded (CradePoint routers), and so in my  case they gave me the password for the apartment next to me -- and now I have good internet access.     The other option is that they have some Mi-Fi devices that my group used last year and this year.     They were out of these devices but said they were planning to order more.    Nominally there is a process to get permanent connectivity  through Verizon, but that seems to be delayed.

Feel free to copy me on emails to BNL housing regarding the internet.     Documenting the speed and including that in the email is helpful.

Sincerely,

Jamie

sPHENIX Run Coordinator 2024

||------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|| James L. Nagle   
|| Professor of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder

|| EMAIL:   jamie.nagle AT colorado.edu
|| SKYPE:  jamie-nagle        
|| WEB:      http://spot.colorado.edu/~naglej 
||------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------