Dead Signal? – The Gleaner

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Every day, students use wifi for everything they do on campus. But how reliable is the on campus wifi?

Currently, at Rutgers-Camden, internet access on campus is free, but there are two different options. The first option is RUwireless secure. This is a secure network only available to Rutgers staff and students with a valid Net ID and password. The other option is RUwireless, which is a non-secure network for guests visiting the University. When connecting to the guest Wi-Fi, guests must accept the terms and conditions repeatedly for each new session.

Approximately 5,822 students attend Rutgers Camden, and every day they rely on the University’s internet for everything they do. Canvas, a cloud-based learning management system by Instructure, is how students access their assignments, tests, quizzes, and announcements. It’s also where they submit them. While offline students can still access their course sites and assignments, unless they are connected to Wi-Fi, they can’t submit anything.

Consoles, streaming devices, and smart speakers use a different wifi network, though. The wifi network these devices need to connect to is RUatHome. This is because they can’t support the security requirements needed to authenticate the connection for RUwireless secure. In order to connect these devices to this network, though, you first need to register your devices on the ResNet Device Registration Portal. By using the paraphrase portal, you can either scan a barcode with the device or enter a temporary password to register your device.

Kay Irwin is a junior and computer science major at Rutgers Camden who’s also an IT student consultant for the campus and has had her own issues with the campus wifi, “My experience with the wifi here has honestly been pretty poor. Both the dorm wifi and the secure campus wifi are very unreliable. The signal is weak, and it disconnects frequently, which makes it hard to use for anything that requires a stable connection.”

Despite these potential problems, the campus does offer help in the form of the RU-Camden IT Help Desk. Students have the option to either visit the help desk in person at the Paul Robeson Library, email help@camden.rutgers.edu, or call (833) OIT-HELP. They offer technical support to both faculty and students. In addition to this, both professional IT staff and student consultants, like Kay, work there to provide this assistance.

According to Kay, a very common issue that they get a lot is students coming to the help desk because they had problems connecting to the wifi and staying connected. She continued, “Most of the time we can help them get connected, but many of the problems come from the network itself being weak or unstable, so there isn’t always an easy fix on our end.” Furthermore, she added, “wifi and Ethernet connections seem to be one of the most common technology complaints students have.”

Rutgers Camden provides Ethernet ports in both residence halls. Though in some of the apartment-style housing, the ports may only be available in the living room. In order to use these Ethernet ports, you need your own Ethernet cable, which is Cat 5 or higher. Kay plays video games in her room, and according to her, it’s impossible to use the wifi for it because the game will constantly lag and even disconnect. She added, “The only way I’m able to play or have a stable connection is by using an ethernet cable in my dorm room.”

Though Kay admitted that even the Ethernet option has its own complications. She explained that there’s a whole setup and registration process for connecting devices to the network that confuses a lot of students, so they get a lot of calls about that at the help desk. She added that the Ethernet port in her living room didn’t even work, so she had to remove the wall plate and use the one in her bedroom instead. She stated, “That was frustrating because I was literally told by my boss that the Ethernet ports in the rooms were going to be removed and that the living room ones would be the only connection.”

In the end, Rutgers students can be faced with both positive and negative outcomes regardless of what they choose to connect to. In a world where everything we do relies on technology, though one mishap can lead to turmoil for a student and their classes.