All students experience frustrations with technology, especially when it comes to Wi-Fi connectivity.
In the past three years, there have been eight Bronco alerts regarding network failures. However, every student experiences technical issues that Bronco Alert cannot cover.
Emi Holland, a junior at Boise State University double majoring in elementary education and special education, talked about how difficult it was to access Wi-Fi last semester.
“If the Wi-Fi goes out during class, you can’t do anything because you need a computer to do all the work,” Holland said in an interview with Arbiter. “Logging on with a password can be weird. But other than that, the worst was just last semester…we didn’t have WiFi in all of our classes. So the teachers had to use Wi- Fi is no longer available and slides cannot be loaded.”
Student tuition and other funds are routed to networks around campus in classroom buildings such as ILCs and subs. Student Housing uses student payments to fund a network within student accommodation and residences.
Other students had similar issues in their Wi-Fi experience at Boise State.
“Honestly, I think it’s ridiculous,” business administration major Anna Ayers said in an interview with The Arbiter. She said, “I think it’s a pain to waste time thinking about which Wi-Fi to use in which areas of campus, and to connect and disconnect. There are always going to be power outages.”
Business major Kylie Sather said accessing Wi-Fi inside the COBE building is a pain.
“I’ve met many professors who have had to redirect their classes because of Wi-Fi,” Sather said. “We also live on campus, and sometimes the power goes out and we can’t connect to anything. It happens at the most random times.”
Sather also talked about having trouble with the housing portal when trying to apply.
“Every time I try to apply for housing on campus, the servers are shut down, so I have to leave campus and go to Starbucks or something to connect to WiFi or go home.”
Peter Jurhs, executive director of network infrastructure and services at the Information Technology Agency, spoke with The Arbiter. Jurhs is working to ensure that all networks are accessible and functional across campus.
Mr. Jaas referred to an incident last August when classes were delayed due to an internet outage.
“As a result, Burger Belly on the corner of Broadway in Belmont lost its internet connection due to a construction contractor cutting its fiber. And that was in August,” Jers said. “…The point is, there’s a lot between you and the actual internet. And the question is, what’s going wrong between you and the internet? In that case, It was a configuration issue.”
Boise State has two internet providers, one on the west side and one on the east side, operating what Jaas calls an “enterprise.”
Unlike a coffee shop or home internet network with a single access point or small network, Boise State’s network applies the same security whether students are at the ILC or the Ruch Engineering Building. The two providers are IRON (Idaho Regional Optical Network) and Zayo.
These two networks make up Boise State’s “commodity internet,” a term Jers said is another way to describe a typical internet connection.
But Jurhs said the system has some flaws in large auditoriums.
“If the average person really understood how all this stuff worked to connect their laptops and get data from almost any resource in the world, it would actually work. You will understand the miracle of doing that,” said Jass.
Installing access points can be difficult in certain locations or rooms on campus due to the high density of devices.
“Maybe you have a laptop, you might have a cell phone, you might have an Apple Watch…you might have three or four devices, so try connecting to Wi-Fi at the same time,” Jurhs said. Told.
In a large auditorium with everyone’s personal devices, multiple access points in one room can confuse all devices and slow down internet usage. Another issue may be that the device is being used to connect to a specific access point within a building or location.
“This is what I experienced,” Yules said. “Sometimes the device is sticky and tries to keep connecting to the access point down the hall. So you go from class A to class B, and class C is in the classroom four halls down the hall. But the device (device) can still hear the access point that was there.”
Jurhs recommends that if you are unable to access the internet, restart your device or call OIT for assistance at 284-264-357 and notify the office of a weak internet access point on campus. Did.
