Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Dorm Network Resources
• The Network
• The Dorms
• The Dorm Hub
• Room Ports
• New Style
• Linde Style

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Introduction

With more and more information becoming available on the Internet via the World-Wide Web and FTP, and the increased demand to access Local Area Networks (such as Mudd's Windows 2000 file servers), dorm network access has become an important commodity to Mudd students. This documentation describes what dorm network resources are available to Mudd students. For information on what hardware you or your student should purchase, or how to access these resources, please see the How-To section on dorm networking.

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Dorm Network Resources

The Network

The Mudd dormitory network consists of three interconnected parts: the main network feed, the dorm fiber distribution, and the dorm-room connection. The network supports normal 10/100MB ethernet connections.

Main Network Feed

All the dorms are connected through gigabit switches in either East or Linde dorm. East and Linde connect to the rest of the Harvey Mudd College network through fiber optic connections to Jacobs.

Dorm Fiber Distribution

From the East dorm switch, North, South, West, and the Foothill Apartments are connected via fiber optic cables.  From Linde, Case and Atwood (North and South) are connected via fiber optic cables. Local copper connections are used for East And Linde. These cables connect to multiple dorm switches in each dorm's wiring closet.

Dorm-Room Connection

From the dorm switches, each dorm room is connected to the network. The switch-room connection is broken down into three parts: a connection from the switch to the patch panel, from the patch panel to the room, and from the room to the computer. All of these connections are made through standard category 5 cable. 

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The Dorms

The dorm houses the two most important parts of connecting to the HMC network: the dorm switches and the room ports.

The Dorm Distribution

Each Mudd dorm has three or four ethernet switches. These switches connect the dorm backbone and the dorm rooms together. Each switch has twenty-four (24) ports available, for a total of 72 to 96 ports per dorm. There is a dedicated ethernet port allocated for each student.

A single dorm port is already activated for each student.  If you have problems with the ports in your room, send email to port-request@hmc.edu (This email is only to report problems, additional ports may not be requested in the dorms).

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Room Ports

There are two standard port connections available to students in the dormitories. The new connections and Linde connections are standard RJ45 ethernet ports.

New Connections



For the new style of connections, each student is allocated one active data port and each room is allocated one active phone jack. Thus, in a single occupancy room, there is one active data and one active phone jack; and, in a double occupancy room, there are two active data and one active phone jacks (as pictured). All ports are standard RJ45 connections. For a double, ports 1 and 3 are data, port 5 is phone, and port 8 is a video/cable jack; for a single, port 1 is data, port 5 is phone, and port 8 is cable.

The new style of connections are available in all dorms except Linde.

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Linde Port Connections



The rooms in Linde dorm, the newest of the HMC dormitories, use a slightly different style of network connection than the other dorms. It uses the same new style of port allocation, but uses different numbers of wall plates depending upon the number of occupants in the room.

Each person in Linde dorm is allocated one active data and one phone connection. In addition, each room is allocated one video/cable connection. Data and phone jacks use standard RJ45 connections. Since each wall plate has four connectors each, a single occupancy room has one wall plate while a double has two. In a single, the first two connectors (from top to bottom, left to right) are data, the next one a phone, and the last a cable; in a double, the second wall plate has two data jacks followed by a phone jack and a blank. Phone and data jacks can be distinguished by the phone icon over the phone jack and the data icon (two arrows) over the data jacks.

Usually, there is only one active phone line regardless of occupancy.

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