Returning students this semester may have noticed a new addition to Ashland’s campus; the Internet!

As promised, the Internet bandwidth increase came over winter break. The bandwidth increase, which was initially intended for October of 2010, was pushed back after a series of difficulties involving the construction of the fiber line from Akron. The line was finally completed and the bandwidth was increased the Friday before students returned to campus.

Ashland’s Internet bandwidth is currently running off two separate providers. The new provider, One Community, is providing a 100-megabyte connection while the old 45-megabyte connection from Oarnet is still active.

“We will gradually fade out the Oarnet connection and continue to move all of the Internet to One Community,” Curtis White, Vice President of Information Technology, said. “So far, everything has been running very, very well.”

White reported that the only Internet difficulties the campus have reside in the Phi Si house and the upper floors of Clayton. White said that it may be a hardware issue in the Phi Si House and the network jacks in Clayton.

White also added that wireless has not been changed but IT does have plans to improve wireless in the future.

“We have funding to do a pilot for a new wireless system,” White said. “We choose Clayton because it is the most densely populated dorm on campus. It’s also the biggest dorm and would be the most complex one to install wireless in. There are lots of concrete walls and metal beams that would hinder the wireless signal, so it would be good practice for the rest of campus.”

White reported that the new wireless system would be installed in Clayton when students return from spring break.

“It’s our hope to have the bulk of residence halls completed over the summer,” White said. “This would involve dropping current residence hall access points.”

White said that IT would know by March which dorms would receive wireless over the summer and which dorms would get wireless in the fall.

“We would have to do it while students are here, but we will install wireless in the least disruptive way to students,” White said.

While the One Community currently provides 100 mb to campus, White added that more bandwidth can be acquired instantly from One Community with a phone call and a check.

“We aren’t sure how long this amount of bandwidth will meet needs,” White said. “It’s really nice to be on a network we can scale up at any point. As students stream more things, or play more online we will have to scale it up.”

“Things look really good but we want students to call tech support if they have Internet problems,” White said. White wanted to remind students to leave the time of day and nature of the issue if they get the answering machine.

Additionally, White reported that IT will be installing Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 on the school computers. IT will also be conducting a customer service survey in February.