- What are some tips you would give to students, staff and faculty for experiencing the best possible WiFi when they are on campus?
First, check to see how fast your connection is using speedtest.net. Speeds on campus are often 300Mbps or higher.
Second, make sure your computer has all firmware (Dell, HP, Apple, Etc.) updates, and all Windows Updates. The updates can make a BIG difference in how Wi-Fi works.
Third, make sure you are getting a 5Ghz connection. This will be much faster than a 2.4Ghz connection.
Fourth, restart your computer if it has been a week or more since you last restarted it.
Fifth, many wireless related items (from your neighbors) are outside your control. If you are having problems, please let IT Services know, so we can troubleshoot these with you.
- If students, staff and faculty are having trouble with WiFi, what should they do?
The best way is to create an IS Request form on the Intranet page.
Second best is contacting (by text, phone or email) our Service Desk at 207-859-1204.
- What improvements have we made as a College recently to improve WiFi?
We heard from students that we needed to improve our WiFi, so, last fall we upgraded all Access Points college-wide to the latest Wi-Fi 6 capability at a cost over $190,000, and new satisfaction survey results showed it helped.
- From my understanding, many schools are reporting additional WiFi issues because of new capabilities of smartphones and vehicles; namely hotspots that interfere with school based WiFi systems. How can our community help combat this?
We have a Meraki management system that identifies and tries to block these as “Rogue APs”, but as numbers increase, the challenge and resources needed to block increases, taking away from Wi-Fi network throughput.
Students and employees should turn off their hotspots while on campus to help with this.
- What is something you’re proud of when thinking about how much our technology and WiFi capabilities have changed over the years?
How, as a student-centered college, we respond to college-wide and individual requests in a timely way.
Bonus: Is there anything else you would like to mention or want our community to know?
Just that the IT Services team is here to help. We want you to be able to focus on your classes and learning, not any technology problems.
