Photo Courtesy of Dean College
Have you been experiencing any troubles with your wireless connection this past week here at Dean College? Darrell Kulesza, the Vice President of Information Technology (IT) and Chief Information Officer, and Chris Colantonio, the Director of Infrastructure Services at Dean College have agreed to discuss the wireless issues that have risen recently among students and professors at the College. We also got an inside look at a student’s perspective with the issues as well.
Colantonio and Kulesza were both made aware of the internet connectivity issues students and professors have been experiencing almost instantly.
“We are aware of an incident that occurred Thursday night around midnight lasting until 9:40 am on Friday,” said Colantonio. “Devices that were on the network were fine, but any devices being turned on or rebooted would’ve had issues connecting. This was a configuration change made by our wireless installation vendor that had unintended side effects.”
Kulesza explained what exactly these connection issues were.
“We were in the process of upgrading our wireless access points in stages since roughly the middle of August and the project in total has been going well,” said Kulesza. “We didn’t have issues when doing the upgrade. Then, last week, we got a report starting off that the internet was down and reports from various students that they couldn’t connect to wireless.”
“The entire Wi-Fi infrastructure was in the process of being replaced,” said Colantonio. “The project was still being finished up within the last two weeks due to shipping delays. Students may have experienced very temporary issues connecting to wireless when the installations were occurring across the many buildings on campus.”
Julie Eglinton, a sophomore here at Dean, is one of many students who experienced troubles with her wireless connection recently.
These issues “make it difficult to research, and if the links aren’t working, you can’t do anything,” said Eglinton. “In both the dorms and the Campus Center it can be really slow. Sometimes I have to refresh the page to see if my assignments actually submitted to my professor. I have to double check every time. If the connection is good, it will last for a while, but sometimes it can be a whole day of no internet. Usually, it’s a few hours or less. I think if everyone is on the internet it makes it slower, especially in the dorms.”
These issues should now be entirely fixed with the efforts that IT has produced.
“We don’t anticipate there being any more issues, said Kulesza. “We try to be very proactive. We have various monitors, so we are alerted when an issue needs to get resolved.”
Colantonio and Kulesza added a few tips for students that might experience any wireless issues in the future.
“Make sure your computer is updated, including security and driver updates,” said Colantonio. “The Technology Service Center (TSC) can assist students with this. If the signal is very low, turn off wireless and turn it back on to associate to a closer access point. Wireless printers that are broadcasting a signal may interfere with the Dean Wi-Fi for all wireless users in the area.”
“The best way to reach out to us is to call TSC at 508-541-1633, or email at tsc@dean.edu,” said Kulesza. “The TSC is open 7:30 am-7:00 pm Monday-Thursday and 7:30 am-5:00 pm on Friday, closed Saturday and Sunday.”
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