Although an upgrade to the University’s Internet speed was completed at the beginning of the semester, the Information Technology department has several remaining problems because of budget constraints.
The Internet bandwidth increase from 250 Mbps to 500 Mbps, which created faster internet speeds for the University community, was scheduled for mid to late October, but was not completed until Jan. 15.
Slade Besson, director of telecommunications and networking, said the date was pushed back after AT&T lost the order placed by the University in August 2012.  
“There was a lot of pressure to get the upgrade completed since it saves the University over $4,000 a month and it’s something students were looking for,” Besson said.  
So far, Besson said there have been no complaints or work order requests filed by students with concerns about the Internet upgrade since its completion in January.
The upgrade in Internet bandwidth prompted Information Technology to also rename the service set identifiers (SSIDs) to NSUnwired across campus, as opposed to the separate SSID for residence halls named NSUresnet.
“The only thing that changed was the name since the network itself was always combined,” Besson said.  “We tried to make it easier for students so they wouldn’t have to change from NSUnwired to NSUresnet.”
The switch to a universal network name across campus means students no longer have to reconnect upon entering a different building or when moving from their dorm room to a classroom.
“Using NSUnwired is a lot easier on us and a lot easier on students, but the only problem is there is no control over who is on the network,” Besson said.  
There are still problems, particularly with Apple devices, where it may take students 20 minutes or longer to connect to the network when travelling from their dorm room to an academic building or vice versa.  The IT department has been working on the issue over the past few weeks to develop a solution to the problem.   
“It has something to do with Mac devices not wanting to let go of the different IP addresses when they go around different buildings on campus,” Besson said.  “It’s a legitimate issue and we are working to figure out exactly what is causing it.”  
To reconnect at a faster speed to the correct IP address, Besson said students could release and renew the Internet connection on their devices.  
A high volume of students using the Internet connection at certain times of the day can cause some bottlenecks, which students interpret as a slow connection, Besson said.  
“When you get a dorm full of students at midnight watching Netflix, playing video games and surfing the web, it really hits hard on the network switch, and that bottleneck of traffic coming back to our data center is what they are experiencing as slowness,” Besson said.  “We know it is an issue for students and it is one of our top priorities to correct as soon as we get a little bit of funding available.”  
To fix all of the technology problems on campus, Besson said the IT department would need over a million dollars to correct existing problems and purchase new equipment such as network switches and routers.  
One of the major problems is a 13-year-old network switch in Ayo Hall that has not been covered by a maintenance contract for the past four or five years.  The entire network infrastructure in Ayo Hall is original to the building, which was completed in 2000.    
“That is one of the top priorities since the nursing department is feeling the effects,” Besson said.
He added it would cost an estimated $65,000 to correct the problem, and since the IT department started experiencing the effects of budget cuts between 2008 and 2009, there are not funds readily available to fix the problem.  
“We averaged about a quarter million dollars in upgrades every year before budget cuts and we were able to stay in that range,” Besson said.  “Since our first round of budget cuts, we have not been able to buy anything new.”