[AG-TECH] General Questions

[Glover George]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the help getting 2.1.1 up.  However, I have come into a 
situation where I need some answers to some general questions, maybe 
some of which that aren't related.  Please bare with me.  A group here 
out our university is interested in setting up the access grid small 
scale, as well as at 4 other universities in the state.  In the process 
of planing, they came to me with questions which I hadn't thought of, 
but should know.  So here we go.

1.  How is internet2 and the access grid related?  Was/is this a 
requirement for Access Grid participation?  I arrived at this university 
after the planning and install had already happened, so i never came 
across this.  Can someone simply use a normal internet connection?  Are 
the limits only bandwidth?  If so, what would be the minimum bandwith 
recommendations for say.. conferences with as many as 8 windows on a 
nod's screen?

2.  What, if any, are the pre-requisites for joining the AG network?  Is 
it just anyone who wants to?  How do they get rooms in the main venues.? 
 I see the code is Open Source, but is the project open as well or is 
there a fee for them to get started?

3.  Considering that they want to build small nodes, with as little as 
one machine, are things like the Gentner necessary?  Is there anything 
else available for echo cancelation?  I mean, we could go with that 
setup (although the rooms are fairly small, some not even classrom 
size).  For the video and audio, if we go with a windows only setup on 
one machine, could we simply use USB video and audio cameras? Or should 
we stick with capture cards like Happauge and RCA/S-Video output capable 
cameras?  I don't want to get too cheap, but at the same time I don't 
want anything that's unnecessary.

4.  Is multicast still a requirement? I notice there is the option for 
unicast, but it's grayed out.  Could unicast be used for site-to-site or 
conferencing?  Not to familiar on how that works, so any help would be good.

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And instead of sending another email, i have two local questions here.
Am I right in thinking that now with 2.1.1 we can choose to go with an 
all linux or and all windows setup?  Or does the linux side still need 
windows for a dispaly machine?

On that same note, if i've set up the display machine and there's a 
ServiceManager (localhost) there, I assume that (i haven't set them up 
yet) on the linux machines there is the same thing?  How is it that I 
//glue// them together?  Just set up on the linux machines one 
servicemanager which contains audio on the audio machine, and the same 
thing on the video machine, and then add those serviceManagers to the 
display machine?

Thanks in advance guys.  Don't mean to ask too many questions, but the 
docs are still young, and I need to get some of these things down quick. 
 Feel free to answer any or all if you can.

Thanks.

Glover George
Systems/Networks Admin
University of Southern Mississippi
High Performance Visualization Lab
glover.george at usm.edu
(601)-266-5634