By the end of the 2014-2015 academic year, the number of client devices in the DePauw University community outgrew the capacity of our campus Wi-Fi's capabilities.
To keep up, a multi-phased upgrade and expansion began with the start of the fiscal year and will continue over the next 12 to 18 months as future funding permits.
DePauw’s campus network team is currently implementing a new system and design that will provide better 5GHZ (gigahertz) and 802.11ac/n coverage. For those of your who aren't tech savvy, this just means faster, stronger Wi-Fi across campus.
The last Wi-Fi upgrade took place in 2003 and can no longer sustain the growing number of devices per client. Today, Carol Smith, chief information officer of department services for DePauw’s network team, estimates that most people on DePauw’s campus own and operate an average of three devices that connect to Wi-Fi.
“Everyone has multiple devices and wireless networking is a shared access,” Smith said.
Smith is optimistic that the upgrade will be completed in the next two years. The first phase of this upgrade began this summer and focuses on replacing or adding Wi-Fi access points in student living spaces and popular study spaces. By the first day of classes this semester, new access points were updated or installed in several residence halls* and Roy O. West Library.
“There is sort of a fine tuning to how many devices for each access point, the existing system did not have enough access points in the right places,” Smith said.
Today up to 200 new Wi-Fi access points have been installed raising the total number of Wi-Fi access points to 640 on DePauw’s campus. By adding more access points, Wi-Fi becomes less difficult to share with multiple users.
“The new system is much better designed for the capacity for the number of devices it can support,” Smith said.
The network team has confirmed that they have already received feedback from students in residence halls claiming that the new system is much faster and more reliable than last year.
First-year resident assistant (FYRA) Aislee Nieves definitely has noticed a difference in the Wi-Fi from last year to this year.
“Last year the Wi-Fi was decent, but there were many instances where the system will go down or be very delayed,” Nieves said. “However, this year started off great when it comes to the Wi-Fi, I notice the speed of the Wi-Fi totally got better and no matter how many people seem to be using it, it seems to run smoothly."
Despite the positive feedback, students are still voicing concerns about the Wi-Fi. Sophomore and FYRA, Lindsey Jones disagrees with Nieves.
“This year as a FYRA in Bishop Roberts, the Wi-Fi has gotten worse,” Jones said. “My residents complained about the lack of Wi-Fi and service in our residence hall and how they have to leave their rooms to do anything.”
Across campus from the first-year dorms commonly referred to as South Quad in a duplex near Roy O. West, upperclass resident Christina Seung, chimed in and said, “This year the Wi-Fi is not too bad, but sometimes it has to reconnect every time I open my laptop, which I think is weird.”
Smith wants to ensure students that the network team appreciateany feedback and strives to meet campus needs.
“I encourage people to report issues of difficulties, report it to the Help Desk,” Smith said. “If we don’t know what is happening we can’t fix it. We want to know about it.”
*Those residence halls units include: Lucy Rowlands Hall, Rector Village, Mason Hall, Anderson Street Hall, Senior Hall and Bishop Roberts Hall