Kelvin Leon, sophomore math and physics major, recently began using wired internet because WolfieNet, the university’s Wi-Fi network, showed poor performance in his room.
“When I try to use my laptop, it doesn’t work,” Leon said.
The problem with the wireless connection in his residence hall, Sanger College in Tabler Quad, occurred three weeks ago.
According to Leon, wireless did not work all the time.
“It would show up probably, but it won’t connect at all,” he said.
Even though the Wi-Fi had returned, Leon said he was still using wired internet because he did not “see the difference anymore.”
Some students have difficulty in connecting to the wireless network, like Leon.
In some cases, once WolfieNet loses connection, it takes a few seconds to re-connect to the network.
In other cases, the wireless repeats being connected and disconnected, or goes off for hours.
Attanya Douglas, junior sociology major, is using WolfieNet-Guest in her room, which is designed for visitors of the university, instead of WolfieNet-Secure or WolfieNet-Open, which students usually use on campus.
“When I’m back to my room after class, it’s always going in and out,” she said. “If I have to download something for class, I can’t or have to come to library.”
Sometimes Douglas wakes up at 3 a.m. to study, but when there is no wireless connection, she cannot do her work.
“We [Greeley College] had really good internet connection, and in this semester, it’s really bad,” Douglas said.
Regarding the wireless performance, Michael Ospitale, associate director of data network services with DoIt, said two problems affected wireless performance in residence halls: increased traffic/connections caused by infected laptops and desktops, and a bug code in the wireless system.
“There were both logical and physical changes to the security infrastructure,” Ospitale said.
DoIT, according to Ospitale, has fixed “problems by modifying environment to reduce the amount of traffic caused by infected machines”
Most networking devices have a limit on the number of connections occurring simultaneously and packets, which each device can handle.
In addressing the bug code, Ospitale said that DoIT has cooperated with a wireless provider to the university, Aruba Network.
The code was found in Aruba OS, which is the operating system supplied by the provider.
Regarding a question asking if the blizzard, which swept through the Northeast in February, has affected the wireless performance, Ospitale said that it “did not cause any service-related outages or problems.”