Courtesy of rochester.edu.
After Time Warner’s work at the Riverview apartments on Wednesday, March 6, students remained frustrated since the goal of the visit was to fix problems related to bandwidth, not deal with wireless connectivity.
Circuits for each floor were consolidated into circuits at the building level, and the five buildings were consolidated into a larger switch connecting Riverview to the internet.
“[As a result of this work, students] should definitely see some positive improvement in the wired connection,” Senior Information Technology Officer Devarajulu Ravichandran said.
According to Ravichandran, the spotty wireless is a result of infrastructure that needs improvement.
“[That improvement] takes capital,” he said. “[Time Warner] is waiting on commitment from the landlord that they will be the internet provider in the future before they can make the necessary investment.”
The wireless problems are also compounded by students. When students establish their own wireless access points at the same frequency as Time Warner’s, competing signals from the wireless boxes that result in dropped internet connections.
It appears that students may have hacked into some of Time Warner’s access points.
“I understand what the students are doing,” Ravichandran said. “The wireless isn’t working, so they’re trying to do something about it, but it’s making the problem worse.”
Remus is a member of the class of 2016.
