Ethernet registration has for several years been a fall ritual--unless they log on to a public terminal, take a quiz and give information about their computers, students can't connect to the Internet. And once they've registered, that is the only jack they can use.

But this technology is obsolete. On campuses such as MIT, Boston University and Yale students can connect to any ethernet jack on campus without registering--a system called "roaming ethernet."

According to John B. Howard, director of Information Technology for Havard College Libraries, with roaming ethernet students can use their registered ethernet cards to connect to any data jack in the school.

But at Harvard, only the Law School is wired.

Tech Overhaul

Plans are in the works to bring roaming ethernet to Harvard, says Franklin M. Steen, director of FAS computer services. But first, Harvard's whole network will be changed.

Currently, Harvard works on a "shared access network system." This means that the more people a network hosts, the slower it will run.

But over the next year, FAS computer services plans to change to a "switch network", which gives each user a personal bandwidth.