Want coffee? How about the Internet? Now students can have both at the Holmes Student Center Cafe.

In the works since October, each of the 12 booths in the cafe now has access to the Internet — that is, if students have an ethernet cable and card.

Cindy Phillips, NIU telecommunications director, said the main holdup was software configuration. But the connection is universal, she noted.

“So anyone, even a guest in the hotel, could come down, plug in and get access to the Internet,” Phillips said. “It’s like a real cyber-cafe.”

Unlike at campus computer labs, logging into NIU’s servers isn’t necessary to access the Internet, said Herbert Kuryliw, manager of network engineering. All students need is a Web browser on a laptop computer.

Kuryliw said the main glitch in getting the cubicles to work was the type of temporary service offered. While a personal computer would have a standard Internet protocol address, the booth connection assigns a temporary IP address automatically. An IP address is necessary for those who want to visit Web sites, as well as have others visit their site. In the latter case, having a standard IP address would be better.

The portals cost the student center $200 to $300 for each initial hook-up, totaling almost $3,000, and will cost $10 to $12 per month per portal to maintain, said student center director Judd Baker. With 12 booths, the monthly cost will equal about $140. Information Technology Services will provide a help-line service as part of the price, Baker said.

“I felt it was a very important part,” he said. “If we didn’t do this, I thought it wasn’t keeping up with the times.”

Kuryliw said connecting to the Internet from the cafe could differ between Macintosh computers and PCs, but those differences are miniscule.