The Loyola Wi-Fi has been finicky for many students on campus.
But the main problem, according to Joe Locascio from the IT Tech Services, is students not calling in to report the issues they’re having.
“The issue for us is we have heard some of the problems, but mostly when people are having problems, you hear about it secondhand. Nobody’s really been reporting it,” Locascio said.
Some students do call in, but just say their problem without any explanation of the specifics of the problem.
“I get the urgent calls and they say, ‘My wireless is not working or my Internet’s down,’ and just hang up,” Locascio said.
According to Locascio, there may be too many people per access point, a device that allows communication devices to connect to a wireless Internet. If such is the case, adding more access points in that area could help the problem.
Another problem that might be affecting the Wi-Fi is when people set up their own hotspots that interfere with the Wi-Fi signals, according to Locascio. Gaming consoles also may occasionally affect the APs of that area.
“What usually happens,” Locascio said, “is the wireless access point that somebody sets up, sometimes start giving out IP addresses that normally don’t fit on the Loyola network, so that AP may respond before ours responds, and it might send out a bad IP.”
The people at IT are actively working to address these issues. The director of IT is meeting with the Student Government Association about the problems with the wireless network. They have also purchased 20 new access points for Buddig Hall and Carrollton Hall.
Also, employees from Meru, the wireless company Loyola works with, are coming next week to help address these issues.
“What we’re looking at this week is how many more APs we need, where do we need to put them, where’s the most cost- effective use of the new access points that we’re going to add,” Locascio said.
The next step involves adding more APs to the areas that need better wireless connection and upgrade the speed of the wireless connection.
IT plans to start the process next week and resolve most of the issues before next semester starts.
Chantel Jackson can be reached at [email protected]
