After receiving complaints about campus Wi-Fi fall 2010 semester, Loyola’s Information Technology service has started working to bring the Wi-fi back up to par.

In December 2010, Wi-Fi was brought to the attention of IT Services. They began devising a plan to deal with and fix the problems, which involved adding more access points.

Meru Wireless Networking Company came in December and found errors in the network code.

During the visit, they fixed any minor errors they could and are working on fixing a major error for spring 2011.

According to Joe Locascio of IT, Loyola and its IT team are currently on their way to fixing the problems, but they cannot fix everything at the same time.

Biever Hall is the “pilot” project for IT, Locascio said. They are starting there first because it has the highest Wi-Fi usage of all the residential halls.

Ten new access points and 20 new antennas have been installed.

Buddig and Carrollton are next on the list, but in the meantime, IT Services has been giving students Internet cable cords to solve their problems temporarily.

According to Locascio, the main problem still lies in the fact that students do not call when they have Wi-Fi problems. They complain to their friends instead of calling in, he said.

“Since the beginning of this semester, we still haven’t received a lot of calls,” Locascio said. “We can’t fix a problem if we don’t know about it. You need to call if you want action.”

In the fall 2010 semester, Locascio sent out an e-mail to all students informing them of the progress on the Wi-Fi system.

The IT team has also talked to Craig Beebe, director of Residential Life, about trying to meet with the Resident Assistants once a month or to sit in on the RA meetings once a month. This way, RAs can help relay any problems they have had or heard about from their residents. It will also give students another outlet for reporting any problems they are having so that things can continue to be fixed.

The last problem that may be affecting the Loyola Wi-Fi are “rogue” access points that people have set up in their dorm rooms. Locascio said that IT might start finding these access points and shutting them down if they think they are a big problem.

Kristen Himmelberg can be reached at [email protected]