News Bite: Students go without WiFi
Photo illustration by Jessica Qian
September 26, 2014
For the past week students have been experiencing troubles with Wifi or Internet connectivity and have been unable to access the open student WiFi network on their personal devices. This is a result of network connectivity issues experienced last week Wednesday Sept. 17, and Thursday. West Fargo’s technology team, headed by Director Ed Mitchell, traced the issue back to state equipment which is the gateway for outside connectivity.
“All public entities in ND are a part of the state’s network infrastructure,” Mitchell said. “The piece of state equipment will be upgraded soon and that will ensure the connectivity that our district needs now that we have a greater population and significantly more devices connecting.”
To be sure that there would still be stable network connection for highly vital operations, such as PowerSchool for attendance and grades, the team decided to limit access to the open student WiFi network. In closing that system, demand on the team network was reduced by 4000 users. This, however, is still only a temporary solution.
“We are committed to [the open network’s] return and should have it back as soon as the state equipment is replaced in a few weeks,” Mitchell said. “We have developed a plan for students to gain access for their devices through their classroom teachers as we are trying to limit use to academic purposes.”
Again, the measures in place are only temporary. Mitchell and his team plan for everything to return to normal in mid-October.
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