WSU students continue to experience inconveniences with the Wi-Fi networks in the residence halls and other on-campus buildings but not nearly as many as at the start of the semester.

“At the start, [internet] was a little spotty, but now it seems pretty good. My laptop does not like to connect to the Wi-Fi. That’s the only problem,” said Michael Buntain, freshman engineering major living in Rogers Hall.

Buntain said he experiences some sort of Wi-Fi connection issue every other day, which can impact his academics. 

“Sometimes I decide not to do my homework because I can’t connect,” Buntain said.

WSU Information and Technology Services addresses any student concerns. William Bonner, director of cloud and internet engineering, said they have seen the overall frequency of problems decrease since the beginning of the semester.

In 2019, WSU began to install a new network infrastructure. Because of COVID-19, WSU IT was not able to get a sense of whether the new infrastructure was successful until recently, Bonner said. 

“[This year is] the first time that a lot of the infrastructure and some of the changes that have happened were really put under the full stress test of everyone [being] here and connecting simultaneously,” he said.

A student is able to remain connected to the Wi-Fi network as they walk around campus thanks to various access points, Bonner said. If the system works, students do not need to sign in again as they move around the campus. 

He said WSU IT detected an issue in September with the program Mobility Master, which is supposed to remember a user’s network credentials and transfer one’s authentication from one access point to another access point.

WSU IT has since solved the problem and implemented a workaround later that month, Bonner said. For the first week of classes, this was a cause of the “connected, no internet” message. 

“There are probably as many different reasons as devices that connect to the network,” Bonner said. “Typically … turning your network connection off and back on will restart it in most cases.”

There are certain Wi-Fi tricks Buntain said that work the best, including changing his IP address every day.

An IP address is a unique identification that allows a device to connect with a particular network, according to Cisco. 

Windows users encounter a unique problem with their IP address because Windows computers have a tendency to create and use their own unique IP address when they cannot connect to an external network, Bonner said. Although this unique Microsoft IP address is fundamental to a lot of computer functions, it is an obstacle for most day-to-day Windows users. 

After WSU IT discovered and patched the glitch in the network provider, Bonner said they have also seen the number of network-related issues reported to Crimson Service Desk decrease. 

Thousands of help tickets are solved by the Crimson Service Desk every month, Bonner said. However, the engineering team at WSU receives about 10 network-related tickets a month that cannot be solved by the Crimson Service Desk. 

“One of the ways we assess [whether] we have a systemic issue or not is … by the volume of unresolved reports,” he said. 

Bonner said when people take the time to report any issues, then WSU IT is able to address the problem. Individuals can reach out to the Cougar Service Desk through its website.