Upgrade the internet!

Reacting to complaints that the internet on campus is interminably slow, Norwich is installing an upgrade this month that will inject a speed boost.

Norwich plans to increase its bandwidth to accommodate the increased traffic through the campus internet provider. Plans were set in motion last semester, according to the university President Richard Schneider.

"Back in November when we got the results of the student campus issues survey, I sat with Mr. Magida, our chief administrative officer, and asked, ‘How much does it cost to fix this problem,'" said Schneider. "So we got Dr. Vanecek involved, and the computer experts involved, and it was $150,000."

The internet was second on the list of priorities to fix, after a survey sent out to students last semester was collected and examined. The number-one issue was overcrowding, which was already being addressed in the NU2019 plan.

According to Schneider, the slow internet became the next issue on the list: "So I took money from a couple vice presidents, got $150,000, and I bought what we needed so we could have increased bandwidth!" Schneider said.

Many students agree that the internet is in dire need of an upgrade. Many Norwich students have issues loading the most basic online school resources, or just bringing up their Facebook page or YouTube video.

"I know I use the internet for many things, my homework, taking online classes, playing my Xbox, among many other uses," said Jonathan Bermudez, a 19-year-old sophomore history major from Bristol, Conn.

"If this upgrade pulls through, I know myself and many more of us students will be very pleased. We use the internet every day, it's an important facet of our lives as college students," Bermudez said.

"I think this internet can be improved on, a lot," said Patrick Turner, a 22-year-old junior psychology major from Auburn, N.Y. "I've had videos I need to watch for class, sometimes it seems to take half a day, just to get through a single half-hour video."

According to Gianni Miceli, a 19-year-old sophomore criminal justice major from Chicago, Ill., these upgrades would make students "extremely happy."

"These upgrades are totally needed. When they come, all of us will be thankful, so we can get our work done much more easily, and we can enjoy the internet too," Miceli said.

While the money and resources to fix the issue was collected last semester, other roadblocks have occurred. In order to begin upgrades, the Norwich internet firewall had to be upgraded as well. This upgrade occurred during Christmas break.

"We had to upgrade our firewall on campus during Christmas break, while the students were home," said Joseph Morvan, Norwich director of information technology and telecommunications. "While everyone was away, we completed the upgrade on our end."

However, the Norwich internet service provider, TDS-Telecom, was slower to achieve these upgrade goals over break, due to an issue in ordering equipment for the upgrade.

"We were expecting to complete the internet upgrade during Christmas break, but the equipment TDS needed was back-logged, so now we've been waiting on them," Morvan said. "The expected re-order date is Feb. 18, so any time after that, when TDS upgrades their systems, we can complete the process."

The equipment TDS needs are switches and physical upgrades, to catch up with the internet needs of Norwich, according to Morvan.

Once the necessary parts are ordered and received by the Northfield branch of TDS-Telecom, Norwich students can expect to see a significant increase in internet speed and efficiency by the end of February.

"We're currently hooked up to a 90 megabyte-per-second pipe, and after this upgrade, we are upgrading

Reacting to complaints that the internet on campus is interminably slow, Norwich is installing an upgrade this month that will inject a speed boost.

Norwich plans to increase its bandwidth to accommodate the increased traffic through the campus internet provider. Plans were set in motion last semester, according to the university President Richard Schneider.

"Back in November when we got the results of the student campus issues survey, I sat with Mr. Magida, our chief administrative officer, and asked, ‘How much does it cost to fix this problem,'" said Schneider. "So we got Dr. Vanecek involved, and the computer experts involved, and it was $150,000."

The internet was second on the list of priorities to fix, after a survey sent out to students last semester was collected and examined. The number-one issue was overcrowding, which was already being addressed in the NU2019 plan.

According to Schneider, the slow internet became the next issue on the list: "So I took money from a couple vice presidents, got $150,000, and I bought what we needed so we could have increased bandwidth!" Schneider said.

Many students agree that the internet is in dire need of an upgrade. Many Norwich students have issues loading the most basic online school resources, or just bringing up their Facebook page or YouTube video.

"I know I use the internet for many things, my homework, taking online classes, playing my Xbox, among many other uses," said Jonathan Bermudez, a 19-year-old sophomore history major from Bristol, Conn.

"If this upgrade pulls through, I know myself and many more of us students will be very pleased. We use the internet every day, it's an important facet of our lives as college students," Bermudez said.

"I think this internet can be improved on, a lot," said Patrick Turner, a 22-year-old junior psychology major from Auburn, N.Y. "I've had videos I need to watch for class, sometimes it seems to take half a day, just to get through a single half-hour video."

According to Gianni Miceli, a 19-year-old sophomore criminal justice major from Chicago, Ill., these upgrades would make students "extremely happy."

"These upgrades are totally needed. When they come, all of us will be thankful, so we can get our work done much more easily, and we can enjoy the internet too," Miceli said.

While the money and resources to fix the issue was collected last semester, other roadblocks have occurred. In order to begin upgrades, the Norwich internet firewall had to be upgraded as well. This upgrade occurred during Christmas break.

"We had to upgrade our firewall on campus during Christmas break, while the students were home," said Joseph Morvan, Norwich director of information technology and telecommunications. "While everyone was away, we completed the upgrade on our end."

However, the Norwich internet service provider, TDS-Telecom, was slower to achieve these upgrade goals over break, due to an issue in ordering equipment for the upgrade.

"We were expecting to complete the internet upgrade during Christmas break, but the equipment TDS needed was back-logged, so now we've been waiting on them," Morvan said. "The expected re-order date is Feb. 18, so any time after that, when TDS upgrades their systems, we can complete the process."

The equipment TDS needs are switches and physical upgrades, to catch up with the internet needs of Norwich, according to Morvan.

Once the necessary parts are ordered and received by the Northfield branch of TDS-Telecom, Norwich students can expect to see a significant increase in internet speed and efficiency by the end of February.

"We're currently hooked up to a 90 megabyte-per-second pipe, and after this upgrade, we are upgradinga 200 megabyte-per-second pipe," Morvan said. "This will be a noticeable adjustment."

The Information Technology Department on campus will be organizing a date to make the upgrades, during which time the internet will be down for the work necessary.

"Sometime before we make the final upgrade, we'll send out a warning to the campus community, that the internet will be temporarily down," Morvan said. "We'll do it on a Wednesday night, because that's when our contract says we can do large work such as this."

When the date is set, the upgrades won't take more than one night, with intermittent internet shut-offs during that time period. After that, the upgrade will be complete.

Students throughout campus are awaiting this internet upgrade with optimism.

"I know that if this upgrade works out, my videos will load much more smoothly, my homework can get done much faster, and I can still enjoy the internet for chatting with friends and family," Turner said. "We all use the internet for much more than just homework. It's how we connect with the outside world."