Isaac Parker
The College of Wooster’s Information Technology (I.T.) department has been swamped with work as of late, the most noticeable being the debugging of a newly implemented network known to students as “The College of Wooster.” For those of you who are new to our beautiful institution, the prior network was “ScotZone.” As a first year, I joked that I was being charged upwards of $54,000 a year to be provided with terrible internet service when, in reality, “ScotZone” was not that bad. The most common complaint about “ScotZone” was its speed, which was understandable due to bandwidth restrictions coupled with the amount of traffic to the system from two thousand plus persons with multiple devices connected to the network.
However, what we have now is no joking matter. In my opinion, I truly do feel like I am being charged $54,000+ to have a network service that works well on only spontaneous occasions. Do note that my standards for working well have declined recently in terms of this network. “Working well” now means I was booted out of the network only three times that day and I was able to play five consecutive videos on YouTube without any interruptions. At the least, poor speed aside, “ScotZone” offered consistency and reliability- — something that “The College of Wooster” network fails to do. Currently, the new network’s issues include, but are not limited to: booting users, speed, reliability, stability and difficulty connecting and using it for long periods of time without interference.
In the midst of all the ruckus and confusion, one question consistently crops up: What is I.T. doing to remedy this issue? As I mentioned earlier, I.T. is swamped (trudging through their tear-and-sweat-and-blood-soaked offices) with complications that range from common device malfunctions to printer dysfunction. In addition to being understaffed, all these deficiences are working in concert to hinder their ability to respond swiftly to the network issue at hand.
Unfortunately, fixing the myriad of problems associated with the new network is not as easy to deal with as some may think. Anyone who has had any form of network issues at home understands how daunting a task it is to deal with. First, you have to shut down the network. Next, you have to install and in some cases uninstall and then reinstall network drivers — these are just two of the necessary steps.
Now, imagine having to deal with this task on a much larger scale for over two thousand users, all while juggling other technological issues around campus as well as doing constant maintenance on existing systems.
Although the network at the moment is far less pleasing, we have to keep in mind that it is still relatively new, and there will be bugs. As great as “ScotZone” was, it had a lot of bugs that we as the Wooster community got comfortable with.
If I can leave you with any advice, I will simply say to exercise some patience. Give the network some time and remember that I.T. consists of your fellow students and faculty; they have lives outside of I.T. just as you and I have lives outside of the classroom. However, with this being said I must conclude that for the moment “The College of Wooster” network sucks!’