ResNet responds to student concerns
Communication with the student body is key to identifying and fixing
Ajay Major
Issue date: 5/21/09 Section: Sci/Tech
Ajay: I have heard a lot of complaints lately about the reliability of the Union network. What are some of the major issues ResNet has experienced in the past few weeks?
David: Actually, until I read [the article from last week], I wasn't aware that any of this issues were occurring. Students have to communicate with us about network issues. We don't know if a connection doesn't work; if we're not seeing any traffic, it may just mean that they're not using their connection. In the past, we identified certain students that, when they reported something, we knew it was general problem. Once we identified the issue, we tried to find out if it was a general problem or a localized issue. Sometimes it is the network, or sometimes it is the student's network settings. The student network is a priority for us. If [the author] had talked to us, I would have asked him to help us identify some of these issues. If this is a general situation, I am deeply concerned.
Brent: There were some more serious incidents. Obviously, we had a virus on campus which was acting like a rogue DHCP server. Students were actually authenticating that server, so it looked like that had an IP address, but they didn't have the right DNS entry and were not able to access the outside world. That happened for a few days, but we were able to isolate the infected computers, and there were only about six of them, and either clean them up ourselves or send them to USTAR to be cleaned. The key thing is that we want to help. I mean, students should be able to use the network, and we want to make sure that happens. There needs to be good communication so we know where the problems are.
Ajay: How can students help to protect the network and prevent service interruptions?
David: You should make sure to have up-to-date virus protection and some sort of spyware or adware protection as well. Operating system updates are important, too. We have free virus protection software available on the ITS website for download, so there is always protection available for students.
David: Actually, until I read [the article from last week], I wasn't aware that any of this issues were occurring. Students have to communicate with us about network issues. We don't know if a connection doesn't work; if we're not seeing any traffic, it may just mean that they're not using their connection. In the past, we identified certain students that, when they reported something, we knew it was general problem. Once we identified the issue, we tried to find out if it was a general problem or a localized issue. Sometimes it is the network, or sometimes it is the student's network settings. The student network is a priority for us. If [the author] had talked to us, I would have asked him to help us identify some of these issues. If this is a general situation, I am deeply concerned.
Brent: There were some more serious incidents. Obviously, we had a virus on campus which was acting like a rogue DHCP server. Students were actually authenticating that server, so it looked like that had an IP address, but they didn't have the right DNS entry and were not able to access the outside world. That happened for a few days, but we were able to isolate the infected computers, and there were only about six of them, and either clean them up ourselves or send them to USTAR to be cleaned. The key thing is that we want to help. I mean, students should be able to use the network, and we want to make sure that happens. There needs to be good communication so we know where the problems are.
Ajay: How can students help to protect the network and prevent service interruptions?
David: You should make sure to have up-to-date virus protection and some sort of spyware or adware protection as well. Operating system updates are important, too. We have free virus protection software available on the ITS website for download, so there is always protection available for students.
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