Upon returning to campus, students and faculty noticed some issues with the University of Oregon’s reliable wireless network, UO Secure.@@checked@@
According to Patrick Chinn, UO’s interim communications manager, network capacity, the Wi-Fi network’s age and the gear connecting to wireless are responsible for the connection failure during the last several weeks. With regard to the latter, excessive use of smartphones, laptops and tablets on campus pushed the wireless network’s capacity.
“People are commonly bringing a smartphone and a laptop to campus, and sometimes a tablet, too,” Chinn said. “The first week of fall term is always the busiest week of the year. Our network engineers were making adjustments last week to help compensate for heavy usage.”
Information Services upgraded UO’s Wi-Fi network equipment last year and is seeking funding for future upgrades.
Problems can also arise depending on the devices used to connect to UO Secure. According to Chinn, some problems are caused by specific versions of a phone’s software or a laptop’s operating system.
“While we tend to think of devices as being Android, Apple or Windows,” he said, “there are many different versions of hardware and software running on tens of thousands of devices across campus. Frequent updates to your gear’s software is a good idea, but that isn’t always possible with older devices.”
Information Services in 151 McKenzie Hall is currently troubleshooting these device-specific problems. Their help desk is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 541-346-HELP, or email [email protected].
Information Services in 151 McKenzie Hall is currently troubleshooting these device-specific problems. Their help desk is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 541-346-HELP, or email [email protected].
Tips from Chinn:
- Wireless is not as reliable as wired networking, so plug your laptop into the network via an Ethernet cable when possible for a more reliable Internet connection.
- For Wi-Fi-only devices, using the “uowireless” network is a good short term workaround.
- Update the software on your phone, tablet or laptop when possible. Updated software often fixes bugs that may cause Wi-Fi problems.
