When’s the last time you swiped your staff or student card through one of the readers shown on the photo to the right? We’re hoping not recently since this particular technology is on its way out.
The Phonet system has been in use since 1998 and was the brainchild of, now retired, Prof Piet Bakkes, previously affiliated with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. In recent years usage has decreased rapidly, but a few of these devices are still used for printers and photocopiers on campus. There are currently 58 machines still operating on the Phonet system in 28 different buildings.
As with any technology, Phonet has reached the end of its lifespan and will have to be switched off by the end of the year. The reasons for its termination are various:
- We no longer have support from the developer to upgrade and improve the system;
- This is the only existing system still utilising the staff or student card’s magnetic strip. Other systems on campus already use the card’s chip to read credits;
- We no longer have enough magnetic card programmers available for next year at registration;
- No parts are available to upgrade the devices;
- The server running the software cannot be upgraded and is, subsequently, posing a serious threat to the security of the rest of the campus network.
Phonet will be switched off for students on 7 December and on 31 December for departmental accounts. For the few remaining users of the system, we advise switching to a newer system before these dates.
For more information, please contact Joshwane Newman at jsnewman@sun.ac.za.
