Students living in the Southwest Residential Area can now peruse the World Wide Web without having to be chained to a cord.
Over the summer, the Office of Information Technologies (OIT) completed a two-year project to update UMass residence halls’ Internet accessibilities. The Southwest Residential Area was the last on-campus living space to go wireless.
“I was looking forward to having it when moving in,” said sophomore Carleigh Kmetz who lived in Southwest last year as well. “It was nice to not have to pack the Ethernet cable.”
According to Kmetz, students are excited to finally have wireless Internet, as it was something that the community had requested.
“I definitely wanted the wireless Internet,” Kmetz said. “It’s helpful, and it makes it a lot easier to do work in a friend’s room.”
The initial installation of Wi-Fi in campus classrooms began in 2006. But the start of the installation in residential areas occurred in 2009.
“Over the summer of 2009, Butterfield Residence Hall was selected as a pilot building for testing and assessing whether Wi-Fi network service was fully adequate to serve the needs of the campus residential student population,” said administrator James Mileski, the associated director for network operations at OIT. “Results from both testing and resident surveys performed over the fall 2009 semester indicated a high level of satisfaction with wireless-only network coverage in Butterfield.”
And Marc Liberatore, a faculty member in the computer science department, noted that the wireless Internet has become an asset for those who use several electronic devices to communicate.
“Students with laptops, smart phones and other mobile devices with 802.11 support can now use these devices over the campus’s network, reaping all the benefits – and incurring the costs – associated with such access,” said Liberatore.
Although 100 percent wireless Internet accessibility is seemingly an improvement to the residence life at UMass, Mileski noted, there are a few risks as well.
Because Wi-Fi utilizes a radio frequency spectrum and not wires, Mileski explained that there are two main risks that are concerns. The first concern is network performance and the second is the possible compromise of personal information. But, as Mileski noted, OIT has taken many steps to address these issues, such as installing many Wi-Fi access points in each residence hall so to limit the number of users on each server.
“I had heard stories of the wireless not working well in other dorms,” said Kmetz. “But, I haven’t really noticed any differences. It’s all just Internet.”
OIT has also included a few tips for students on its website, which can be accessed at oit.umass.edu.
Simone Shenny can be reached at [email protected]. Katie Landeck can be reached at [email protected].
Ben • Sep 27, 2011 at 11:40 am
Worst decision ever. can rarely connect. thanks a lot umass
Frustrated • Sep 20, 2011 at 11:50 pm
southwest internet sucks now and the oit techs are so unhelpful…the daytime speed averages 2-5mbps…bring our ethernet back!