Network Port Policy

Network Port Policy

• UITS will eliminate port activation charges, and activate ports as needed at no cost to units across campus. Fees will only be incurred if:
  • new cabling is needed to establish service.
  • UITS does not currently provide services at the requested location.
  • the new data ports service security cameras, card swipes, and utility controls monitoring units.
• Effective September 2019, ports that have been inactive for more than 12 months will be considered available for re-use. (The first network port policy went into effect January 2016, and applied to ports that had been inactive for more than 6 months. This was changed to 12 months reduce disruption to unit business.)
• All new port installations and switch upgrades will utilize existing inactive ports to the extent possible rather than installing new equipment by default.  

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What about the jack install costs?

Yes, you will still need to pay for the costs of the wiring from the telcom room to your room but now the data port that will go on that jack will be free.

How much will a new 10MB, 100MB or Gig data port cost on an existing jack?

The cost is $0.00 for the install. Note 1: As long as we already have network presence in the telecom room that the jack goes to. Note 2: An Expedited install ahead of regular schedule will be charged an expedite fee of $40.20.

What do you mean by “ports inactive for 12 months will be considered available for re-use”?

We have found that over 50% of the data ports on campus have not been used for the past 12 months. That means we are maintaining 50% more network hardware than what is needed. Thus when we receive requests to active a jack with data we will analyze the network hardware in the telcom room to see if we can relocate a port that has not been used over the past 12 months. This will help alleviate the expense of installing & maintaining additional hardware in the telcom room that is going unused.

When might I see charges for data port installs?

• If you are a 3rd party customer (Non UA Admin Department)
• If UITS does not currently have a presence at the site or where your jack wiring goes to.  Examples are new building construction, new remote sites or sites without UITS LAN equipment.
• Installation of ports other than 10/100/1000BaseT LAN ports (e.g., optical fiber based ports, building connections “Building Lights”, 10gig service, DSL service, wireless service, etc.).
• Installation of new data ports that service security cameras, card swipes, and utility controls monitoring units are not covered by this policy and will result in charges back to the customer.
• Note: 1 Gigabit (1000MB) service requires Cat5E/Cat6 wiring. Those will be RJ45 jacks that are Orange & Violet in color. If you have an older Brown outlet that will not support Gigabit service, a new jack will need to be installed at the departments’ expense.

Why the change in policy?

As mentioned above we have found that 50% of the deployed data ports are going unused. Instead of continuing to install more electronics in our telcom rooms we found that we can provide campus service more efficiently and cost effectively if we began reusing ports that were not seeing activity.