INTERNET OFFLINE SERVER DESIGN NAMED "UTAKSES" FOR UNIVERSITAS TERBUKA STUDENT LIVING IN INTERNET BLANK SPOT AREAS

Abstract

Universitas Terbuka students living in remote areas of Indonesia without reliable Internet access have suffered to access UT Online. This condition creates a vast digital divide compared to their peers in the urban area. This paper reviews the opportunity to provide a local server design for wireless network systems named “UTAkses” for them. Offline Internet servers have two (2) main functions to serve the student learning process and support offline Internet network operations. The SSH, DHCP, and DNS servers are used to perform offline Internet network operations. Apache Web Server, Moodle e-Learning, Kiwix, and file sharing for online libraries to aid the student learning process. Kiwix is used to make Wikipedia accessible offline for students. Two major system requirements, namely, performance and affordability, are critical for remote students for Offline Internet operations. Following the desired performance sequence, the Internet server design can use Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, mini pc, or personal computer to serve 100 students. The project also discovered the most feasible service in term of budget, capacity and the reliability services. The compared budget for the server ranges from Rp. 700,000 to 8 million with the wifi-coverage ranges from 10 meters to 2 km. The mini PC seems to become affordable and reliable choice to be implemented for upscaling digital literacy and access for UT students in Internet blank spot areas.