While students who live on campus are given full access to the Internet through a wireless connection as well as wired ports, dorm residents of Gessner Hall in particular do not always have a solid and speedy connection.
Many students complain that Gessner Internet is not up-to-date and needs to be fixed.
“The connection is terrible,” sophomore Eddison Mason, a Gessner resident, said. “It takes 10 to 15 minutes to load a three minute video.
He said that because the connection is “so weak and slow” that it is affecting his studies. He can’t work in the comfortable environment of his room and instead goes to Collins Library.
“There are many other reasons that go with why the wireless connection might not be moving fast,” Academic Technologist Jared Culbertson said. “It can be caused by viruses or lack of memory and many other things.”<br/>
Culbertson said many students do not report that their wireless connection is weak, therefore the problem is not detected or fixed.
Although connection in Gessner is not always stable and strong, other dorms seem to have a good connection.
Sophomore Ariella Harrison, a resident of the New Living Center, said the Internet works great and a signal has never been lost, however she does agree that videos often take longer to load.
Harrison said she has this problem in Collins Library and doesn’t think it is her Wi-Fi connection, but the campus Internet in general.
With all the issues with wireless connection, Culbertson said that there are some positives about Baker’s Internet connection.
He said there are no proxy servers, which means no websites are filtered or blocked. Also, every room on campus has a wired port, which uses an Ethernet cable to connect to the student’s computer and will give a strong solid connection.
Culbertson also said weak spots have been found in Gessner and additional access points have been added. Ultimately access points give a stronger signal, so adding the access points is one way Baker staff is working to fix the problem.
“It may be inconvenient, but wired ports are the fail-proof method to a solid connection,” Culbertson said.