<p>The south hovses are being renovated this year, and so they put up a temporary trailer park (essentially) on campus to house people during the project - it's not as bad as it sounds; take a look at them over prefrosh weekend. The renovation was only supposed to last one year, but due to finding quite a bit of asbestos, it's going to extend into next year. Right now the plan is to have students move back into the houses starting second term.</p>
<p>Is there a similiar renovation plan for the North houses?</p>
<p>That's the million dollar question. They would like to, and the north houses could use it, but they don't have the money for it - indeed I believe they're short on money for the south hovses project as it is. My best guess would be they won't be able to do it for 2-3 years, but that's really just a guess; it could be much later or possibly 07-08.</p>
<p>Oh and they won't renovate the north houses - they'll tear them down and replace them with ones similar to the south hovses. At least that's the plan.</p>
<p>What will happen to the north houses is anyone's guess at this point. They've considered many things, including building a fourth north house and renaming the north houses. As for the internet, it's reaally, reaally fast. You pretty much will always be limited at the other end of the connection, since the direct connection will let you go up to 100 Mbps(megs per second). I've never seen it go that high though, since a lot less is needed for anything you're likely to be doing.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I believe Caltech also holds the record for the fastest connection ever, with the FAST protocal that Harvey Newman's team developed. They managed to go higher than 130 Gbps.</p>
<p>Internet here is very very fast. I think one day I realized (while typing ipconfig) on my computer, that the Caltech network we are hooked up to is the interwebs. Like, it's not Computer Hub Internet (like a home network), you're just plain jacking into the internet (your Caltech network IP is the same as the internet one, ipconfig in windows only returns one IP).</p>
<p>Oh.... so should we bring a mini-router then? Or learn how to use iptables and set up a proper firewall? While having an automatic external IP is insanely cool, wouldn't it be wise to make your computer less vulnerable to outside attack? </p>
<p>-Oren</p>
<p>If you're just using the internet like everyone (i.e. not setting up servers) using Windows Firewall or another software firewall should be enough.</p>
<p>Actually, not using Windows at all would probably be a pretty good idea.
<em>hides from ensuing flame war</em></p>
<p>does anybody have confirmation of wireless internet in the new south houses when they are done?</p>
<p>There will be wireless internet. If you don't set it up, someone else will.</p>