On Wednesday March 28, Acting CIO Justin Webb and IT Project Coordinator Sean O’Brien met with Student Senate to discuss technology issues. Here is some information in follow-up.
Wireless Access:
We are currently completing a wireless upgrade in academic and student services buildings. More details can be found at: http://technology.umw.edu/projects-and-initiatives/campus-wireless-upgrade/
Instructions to connect to the secured network are located along the left sidebar at: http://technology.umw.edu/connecting/connecting-my-laptop/connecting-to-the-secured-network/
Users need up-to-date virus protection to access the Secured network. Information on free anti-virus is located below. Students should know that the secured network provides increased performance and security as compared to the unsecured (guest) network.
In response to concerns raised about connectivity within different parts of the same building / dropped connections, we have changed the wireless timeout on the secured network. Initial testing has shown that this has improved user experience for those using iPhones and iPads when changing locations or issues due to short periods of inactivity.
Tools:
“Stuff for starving students” is maintained by the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and focuses on free tools. http://stuffforstarvingstudents.umwblogs.org/
For Anti-virus we recommend AVG (as does Apogee), available here: http://free.avg.com/us-en/free-antivirus-download
Download.com provides many options for free anti-virus and other security software. Here is a list of free security software sorted by C-Net editors rating:
Apogee Issues:
Students are encouraged to contact Apogee with issues they encounter. For questions on connecting to the Internet or TV issues – contact Apogee at 540-654-2255 (option 1).
We have contacted Apogee about issues with channel 4 and wireless connectivity in Ball Hall. Responses received indicated that there has been an issue with Channel 4 due to an antenna problem, but that has since been corrected. For Ball Hall, that residence hall is scheduled to receive a total wireless upgrade Apogee is doing in the residence halls. However, if there are specific signal issues, Apogee can do a rapid deployment of a wireless access point – open a ticket with them, as appropriate, through the 2255 number.
Communication:
DoIT has recently started using Twitter in an effort to push out updates to the campus community in a more synchronous way. You can follow us by visiting: https://twitter.com/#!/umwIT
We will also be creating a webpage on our site geared towards resources and help available to students. That page will be posted on http://technology.umw.edu/info and through Twitter once it is available.