Laundry List for SHU's Internet

1. Add more bandwidth. I don't know the truth about what's happening in the depths of SHU, but word on the street is that we have more than one T1 line, and none of them are being harnessed to their full potential. That is fairly obvious if you have tried to use the internet, especially from a dorm room. It's slower than an old 14.4 modem, if it works at all. One of the things colleges in general are known for is their ridiculously fast internet connections. Colleges and universities can afford to have multiple T1 and T3 connections to suit the needs of their paying students.

2. Get your act together. SHU's internet servers have more viruses than the infant ward at UPMC. For a while I kept thinking "Well maybe SHU just got this internet connection, and they are still getting used to the wide open bandwidth and the hackers that will exploit it." Then I find out that they have been doing this for years now. What is the problem here? Thank God I have a Mac, but other people aren't as lucky as I. All of my buddies' computers have been filled with viruses from all over the world, and all because the IT dept and SHU don't have the proper security measures in place. Instead, they are too busy putting weird firewalls up that prevent kids from sharing files on AIM.

3. New hardware. It has also come to my attention that SHU refuses to use a larger budget for technology on campus. A campus that was hailed by Middle States as being one of the most tech savvy private schools in the state. I'm sure they were talking about our "smart" classrooms, and not about our piss-poor-trailer-park-trash-internet connection. Just shave a few bucks off of the sports program, and get yourself a decent server and some up to date software. SHU can't rely on technology from the mid-90's forever.

4. A better IT dept. I know these guys are working hard (ok, so I don't know that), but I do know that they get alot of calls. But I was very surprised to see that they didn't know as much as I had hoped. I knew pretty much everything they were telling me, and their biggest solution to questions is to reboot... sounds like a bad Bill Gates joke. Worse yet, there is no one in the IT dept who really knows anything about Macs. They have two Mac labs in this school! And I know they have at least a few students with them... someone should know how to operate and fix Macs. When I told them I had a Mac, they literally laughed at me. What the heck?!

5. Wi-Fi. I'm serious about this... the campus needs some hotspots. We are very much behind the times in terms of internet technology, and this is another big weakness. Tons of college campuses in the area have wi-fi spots, and so should we. It doesn't have to be campus wide, but just give me some areas... like in Reeves library, and in the parlors of Admin. That would be excellent. Best yet, setting up wi-fi is incredibly cheap so SHU should have no problem with it.

6. Internet courses need to be more understanding. Teachers in internet courses need to understand the stress that kids on campus have to deal with. I know a handful of people who didn't do as well as they should on some online courses because the internet in their dorm wasn't working. "Go to a lab" they said... We aren't paying for room and board so that we can go to a lab. Who wants to do that?!

7. Virtual disk space is useless. I like the idea of having 100mb of virtual disk space with my name on it on the SHU server. However, I don't really see the point in it if I can't access that space from my dorm computer. How are you supposed to sync up documents if you have to find a way to get them to the lab to sync them up? I didn't use my disk space once last year because it was too much of a pain in the ass to use practically.

8. Bandwidth. This goes back to using old technology and utilizing what you have. But I'm tired of being booted from the internet because some dude next to me is using Kazaa. Do the IT dept have any idea how much bandwidth a T1 line can hold, let alone two or three? Get rid of the freaking throttle, which limits bandwidth and boots everyone off if that bandwidth is exceeded. Sure maybe using Kazaa isn't exactly kosher nowadays, but productivity comes to a halt in the dorm and then people get pissed and then people break things. It's almost impossible to use the internet during the day in Havey, and waiting until 2am when most people get offline is just ridiculous.

And so I hope that someone on the Technology Board reads what I'm saying and knows that I'm not alone on this. I'm not looking forward to another year of dropped connections and rebooting my computer.