Office space

Despite the lack of official university support for alternative operating systems, there is an ever-growing number of Linux and Unix users and CS and ECE courses which require Linux. Over our 15 year history, VTLUUG has provided a number of services to the campus community including open-source software mirrors, detailed OpenStreetMap data for Blacksburg, shell accounts and a Virginia Tech wiki. VTLUUG would like to obtain dedicated space in order to hold office hours several times per week to provide technical support and installation help, as well as small group hands-on tutorials that can not be effectively accomodated during our weekly meetings.

Desired features of the office space:

• CNS port available (preferably with static IPs available for us)
• Easy for people to find
• Exterior doors open to everyone on weekends
• After-hours access for officers, etc
• Behind bur-6509-1.vl702.cns.vt.edu so we can use our IP allocations (this may be harder than we originally thought, as CNS might use VLANs to further restrict subnets to individual buildings)

Locations explored for potential office space include:

• Whittemore Hall - has 100Mbps CNS ports but hardly any spare IPv4s. SEC and IEEE have offices on the 3rd floor, and unallocated space may be available as a radio lab recently moved to the CRC. Exterior doors are locked after 10pm and on weekends to everyone except ECE students, but we can prevent them from locking from the inside. Potentially hard to find for freshmen. We could easily run Ethernet to our rack and/or the darknet from here.
• Durham Hall - Exterior doors are also locked at night and on weekends except to ECE students.
  • Room 232 is marked "student society" on the floorplans but may not be used. - Found to belong to the Institute of Industrial Engineers. This is approximately across the hall from our weekly meeting location.
• Squires Student Center - highest concentration of student organization offices, including WUVT and VTARA, so would be easier to get an office here. Building has enforced closing times (~12am?) but is open on weekends. After hours member access would almost certainly be impossible, as we would not be located in the media wing.
• McBryde Hall - not behind Burruss router
• Torgersen Hall - open 24/7, gigabit connectivity