Internet outages explained
Students either living on campus or trying to access the Internet on the Utah State University campus have dealt with several Internet outages in recent months.
“The problems we have had with the Internet are due to our Internet provider, Utah Education Network,” said Kim Marshall, director of network and computing services.
He said UEN is a state agency funded by the Legislature to provide Internet connectivity to all government-sponsored agencies like USU.
“UEN has been dealing with some overloaded switches,” he said. “What looks like a simple 10-minute task has taken as much as 23 hours to fix because they’ve found additional problems in the system.
Marshall said he met with UEN to address the outages that have taken place in the last few weeks.
“Earlier this week UEN told us they have addressed the problems, but still have a few issues with the amount of Internet traffic going on,” he said.
Steve Jensen, director of housing and dining services, said he has not personally received any complaints from students living on campus that have been affected by the outages.
“My residence life director has informed me of a few isolated instances of complaints from residents living on campus,” he said. “But overall we had no real issues with outages.”
Molly Farmer, a resident of Snow Hall and a freshman majoring in journalism, said she has noticed the Internet down at her apartment several times this school year.
“The outages are definitely an inconvenience,” she said. “When I want to talk to my family on the Internet through e-mail or instant messaging and it isn’t working, I am definitely let down.”
She said she knows of many on-campus residents and students who have dealt with the Internet outages.
“I know a lot of students who have needed to get online to do homework or take tests, and when the Internet has been down, they are out of luck,” Farmer said.
Students who don’t live on campus but depend on the campus computer labs for Internet access have also been affected by the outages.
Amy Lehnardt, a sophomore majoring in elementary education, said she relies on the computer labs for Internet access almost daily because she doesn’t have the Internet at her apartment.
“I get frustrated when the Internet is down on campus, because I don’t have an alternative source,” she said. “When I go to do homework or print off on-line notes and can’t get on the Internet, I get a little annoyed. Not only is it inconvenient, it really hinders my educational experience.”
Marshall said USU’s Internet provider, UEN, has implemented a large Internet upgrade plan, but the implementation has taken longer than expected.
“The upgrade was supposed to take place before school started in September, and was later moved back to the beginning of February,” he said. “Since nothing has happened yet, we don’t really know when UEN will employ the new plan.
-lexiek@cc.usu.edu