Over the summer, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) made upgrades to the campus residential network, including wireless in each room of residence halls and better wired internet infrastructure to increase internet speeds for students on campus.
The residential network, affectionately called “ResNet” by OIT, began in the ‘90s as wired internet connection in select buildings to support students and staff. As wireless became more widespread, OIT started by adding it to outdoor spaces for students to use on the go.
“Wireless became so pervasive we needed to expand it to more than just the outdoor spaces, so we kept growing the outdoor spaces, and now there’s a huge demand for indoor spaces and classrooms, and even more so in the residence halls,” said Marc Hoit, the vice chancellor of information technology and chief information officer.
The upgrades over the summer mean that students living in on-campus residence halls will no longer have to bring a wireless adapter and students can expect wireless internet speeds to be faster this year. With devices registered through Nomad, students’ devices and systems will work seamlessly across campus.
“Your systems automatically sync, you can walk from your dorm room, to another room, to the common areas and it just seamlessly connects and works,” Hoit said.
Some students, including Riley Beatty, a first-year studying engineering, are finding the upgrades to ResNet to be convenient for doing their school work on campus.
“I think it’s very convenient, because I use it all the time when I’m in my dorm for school work,” Beatty said.
According to Hoit, wireless became so prevalent in the previous decade that OIT had to expand it greatly to meet the demands. Up until five years ago, students were regularly plugging in their own desktops and connecting to wired ports.
Another way students connected to the internet in campus housing for three to four years was by bringing wireless access points.
“The problem with that [each student bringing a wireless device] is there are so many conflicts and so many devices, and a large number of people don’t know how to balance that and make it so that you don’t conflict,” Hoit said.
In response to this issue, OIT did experiments with access point connectivity.
“A couple years ago, we did some experiments,” Hoit said. “We changed our wireless to a different vendor, and they have what’s called hotel wireless, which is where every room has its own access point.”
Hotel wireless allows OIT to prevent network conflicts, ensure wireless security, monitor throughput and allow students’ devices to connect to all the wireless access points on campus.
OIT still faces challenges in expanding ResNet, namely wireless printing. As students bring more wireless printers to campus, Hoit says that OIT is still trying to figure out how to handle these new devices on ResNet. Currently, all printers must be wired.
“Unfortunately, our current solution is plug [your printer] in,” Hoit said. “It’s not the most ideal, because people would love to be able to print wirelessly, but right now that’s our best answer.”
OIT is currently working on other projects as well, including a new request for proposal system for faculty and graduate students, and a new version of MyPack Portal that will be available in October.
OIT is also pushing students to set up two-factor authentication, which is required for faculty and staff in November and will be required for students in the next few semesters.
“I walk into the library and nobody is writing with pencil and a piece of paper anymore, they all have their laptops and tablets open, and are connected to the net, they’re all doing their homework and submitting their homework online, using online resources,” Hoit said.
