IT upgrades internet after student's struggle for Wi-Fi connection

Southeast Missouri State University’s residence halls have been experiencing Wi-Fi problems and upgrades were made to the system last Sunday, Feb.19.

Last weekend, Southeast’s Department of Information Technology declared that the Wi-Fi, which covered all Southeast residence halls, was shut down for the purpose of upgrading some internet equipment and installing a better internet controller to improve the internet condition for all Southeast residents on the main campus and at the River campus.

“One of the problems that we found is that because all of the access points were on one large network, they were seeing way too much traffic,”Floyd Davenport, the assistant vice president of Southeast’s information technology department said. “A lot of traffic that is broadcast, especially from Apple devices, and certain devices that are looking for different services.”

Some students were frustrated by the poor Wi-Fi connection. Some said they would turn off the Wi-Fi connection on their phone and use cellular data instead, and others may have to carry their devices to the first floor to get signal from another Southeast security Wi-Fi or study in the computer lab.

“I cannot get any connection in my dorm, and I need to bring my laptop to the Towers’ study room, located at the first floor to obtain a stable Wi-Fi,” Lamacuo, a Southeast freshman, said. “I was afraid that I couldn’t get important email on time.”

A number of students are curious when the Wi-Fi problems will be resolved, and some have expressed concern over using cellular data instead of what is meant to be a university provided service.

“I need the Wi-Fi, I can’t always use my data, I need to pay the bill,” Towers resident Steve Durosier said.

“[Information and technology workers] are working on it, it's considered to be a known issue, so any time we have some new reports, we make sure we add that onto it,” IT help desk worker Jesse Hankins said.

School sent an email to all students living in different residence complexes to inform students the current situation. Southeast IT department are stilling working in the process, they hope in the next few weeks, after the segment of internet traffic being solved, a better and a stabilized Wi-Fi will be provided to Southeast students.