By Jennifer Rivera
Contributing Writer
By:Ryan Abdelhafez
Eliza Oler Epstein, Patrick Patterson, Jennifer Khan trying to access Wi-Fi on their laptop.
The iconic symbol of available Wi-Fi feeds the human population with the hopes of gaining internet connection for free after paying your technology fee. Students of John Jay College find themselves bombarded with schoolwork throughout the week, which requires the usage of internet on campus for the most part.
Understanding how far humanity has come in developing and improving the internet, most people would assume that this is the least of their worries.
The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) is dedicated to keeping the students of John Jay College connected to the world through online means. In doing so, some students have much to complain about in regards to the schools Wi-Fi connection.
On September 29th, members of the John Jay community had received an email notice from the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Joseph Laub, that the Wi-Fi will be upgraded at 10:15pm on Oct. 3rd.
For reasons it states, “This planned outage is necessary to double the number of devices that can connect. Following the start of the Fall 2014 semester the number of devices connecting to Wi-Fi grew exponentially. This maintenance window will allow DoIT to better manage this increased demand.” Yet, despite the upgrades, some people still have issues with the Wi-Fi.
Anthony Diaz, 21 and an upper sophomore of John Jay states, “The school’s Wi-Fi is really good in some places, but it has trouble extending through the whole school. Maybe the school doesn’t have enough money to increase the mbps in their Wi-Fi.” Troubled with the idea he adds, “I’m satisfied so far since I’m lucky that most of the classrooms I’m in have it, but I feel that it needs to do better.”
Students like Diaz have much to say in regards to their Wi-Fi experiences. Shivani Jones, 21, a senior of John Jay, states how unhappy she is with the Wi-Fi, “It sucks and takes forever to load. Even when it is at full strength, it won’t connect. Like today, it took my girlfriend two hours to fill out a five minute application.” While attempting to connect using her John Jay username and password under the “John Jay Students” service set identifier (SSID), Jones found it hard to connect anywhere. She states that by using her cell phone, iPad, iPod, and laptop, her attempts failed in getting a faster service with the schools Wi-Fi.
Oneil Hinds, Director of Network and Telecommunications Services, describes just how important it is to consistently keep up to date with technology especially when students log in on a daily basis. He states that there is “an ever-increasing demand for Wi-Fi service” and “subsequently the Information Technology department parallels that demand with continuous improvement of the wireless infrastructure”.
Whoever has access to their John Jay email understand that they are able to connect to the student login or staff and faculty login. The problem is, there are multiple devices connected per individual. Many users are dependent on the Wi-Fi through their cell phones, tablets and laptops. Thus, those same connections cause traffic and slower connections. Some users may confuse slowdown in their Internet for slow Wi-Fi.
There are over 315 access points for students to connect to which are dependable for up to 300 feet in range. The access point can support up to 30 people at its optimum level.
In the first week of the Fall semester, Hinds, and many other employees who work in the DoIT department, find themselves astounded by the numbers of login access. There were over 6,000 devices logged in on a daily basis. The 6,000 devices connected had slowed down the connection speed leading to complaints. Even so, this was quickly addressed with the aforementioned upgrade that was performed on October 3rd.
In order to improve the schools Wi-Fi, DoIT has been working on a Capital Project. The Capital Project, as stated by Hinds, is supported by the money given directly from the city. A significant portion of this financial allocation will go towards the improvement of campus-wide wireless coverage. According to Hinds, “DoIT is currently in negotiations to increase the Internet bandwidth 10 times the current speed as well”.
So don’t fret about shutting down your devices, that is until new technology comes in.
