Three weeks ago Ashland University students suddenly had two less things to complain about; Trend Micro and Bradford.

As many students probably noticed, downloading Bradford onto their computer before they could access the University’s Internet is no longer necessary. Information Technology Vice President Curtis White explained that the choice was made in order to ease student access.

“Bradford created more problems than it solved,” White said. “The system should run smoother without all the hoops that Bradford required students to jump through.”

Trend Micro, the mandatory anti-virus software that IT previously made students install has also been cancelled.

“We got rid of Trend Micro because we know that there are other anti-virus software out there,” White said. “We would rather let students run any antivirus software they prefer.”

IT has also been keeping a close eye on the Internet bandwidth usage since students have returned to campus.

“We aren’t even close to reaching our bandwidth capacity,” White said. “The Internet should be very snappy. If students are having bandwidth problems they should call the tech. center.”

IT also encourages students experiencing Wi-Fi problems to try switching their wireless off and then back on to see if that solves the issue.

Another test IT recommends to see if problems are Internet related or stemming from Ashland’s network is trying to access an Ashland hosted service, like Angel. If those sites are sluggish then the problem is related to Ashland’s network. However, if those sites are fast while other sites appear slow the problem is related to the actual Internet.