IT offers help with Internet issues

Every year, Southeast Missouri State University students come face to face with the message of "Internet Disconnected." Often discouraged and sometimes slightly enraged, students struggle with staying connected to the wireless network on campus.

Assistant vice president of the Information Technology department Archie Sprengel said that this year, disregarding the typical first day issues, the office is under the impression that students are experiencing few issues.

Sprengel said that many students have Internet issues because they will not or do not call for help.

Freshman Hadley Landers said that she has had a lot of Internet issues her in residence hall, and for her, staying connected is crucial.

"For me, since I'm from out of state, I use Skype to talk to my family and friends," Landers said. "And when the Internet goes out, it all shuts off, and I have to start all over again."

She also needs the Internet to complete classwork. She worries about the constant disconnecting or dropping of the Internet connection because it could end up costing her more than a dropped call through Skype, it could ultimately cost her a good grade.

Due to the fact that many students' online quizzes and tests are allowed to be opened only once, if the Internet disconnects students will be forced to take the grade as it stands, completed or not.

"If the Internet continues to have problems like this then it is really going to start affecting everyone's classwork, so they really need to work on finding a fix for it," Landers said.

Sprengel said that a lot of the Internet issues students have in the residence halls have to do with the amount of people connecting to the Internet and the extent of browsing each individual does at a single time. The servers slow things down in order to keep the system running.

However, apart from the residence halls, Sprengel stressed that one of the biggest issues that students usually deal with revolves around the network they are trying to hook up to on campus.

"On the academic side of campus, students are still able to hook to an old wireless ID we have called 'Southeast Network,'" Sprengel said, "And when you connect to that your experience is not going to be as nice. We urge all students to stay connected to 'Southeast Secure.'"

Sprengel reiterated how important it is to call the Help Desk.

"If students have issues they need to call because unless they do we aren't going to know about it," Sprengel said. " A lot of things have to be resolved one on one, just your personal piece of equipment."

The Help Desk can be contacted at 573-651-HELP from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Solutions can also be found online at www6.semo.edu/helpdesk.