More than 50 percent of students, faculty and staff on campus have switched to UT’s new Wi-Fi network, according to an Information Technology Service representative.
William Green, director of networking and telecommunications, said in spite of some minor issues with the new network, the ITS Help Desk has not been notified of any widespread problems associated with the changing Wi-Fi.
UT introduced the new Wi-Fi network “utexas” in late March in an effort to modernize the network’s security capabilities. The new network has received mixed reviews from students, and some said they have struggled to get a steady Wi-Fi connection.
Geography junior Alex Van Der Colff, who said he has experienced connection problems, said he assumed the spotty service was the result of the transition.
“I’ve had a problem with it connecting sometimes,” Van Der Colff said. “It maybe was a little bit slower, but I figured just because it was new.”
Mathematics junior Travis Powell said his establishing connection to the new Wi-Fi was easy and hasn’t resulted in any problems.
“I haven’t really had any trouble with it,” Powell said. “It just seems like normal on-campus Wi-Fi.”
Dounya Alami-Nassif, Middle Eastern studies graduate student, said she often has to try multiple times to get connected to the Wi-Fi.
“For some reason, it doesn’t let me connect automatically sometimes,” Alami-Nassif said. “It’ll just show limited [connection] occasionally, but then, if I just disconnect and then reconnect real quick, it works out fine.”
Aerospace engineering senior Amritpreet Kang said connecting to the new Wi-Fi was easy and that connection has been solid.
“I haven’t seen any problems with the new Wi-Fi,” Kang said. “I’ve been using it on my phone; it’s really easy to connect to it. I just followed the directions on the website.”
Green said if students are having difficulty maintaining a connection on the new network, they should make sure to delete the old Wi-Fi configuration, “restricted.utexas.edu,” because having both confuses the device and causes the connection to bounce back and forth between the two networks.
“Restricted.utexas.edu,” will no longer be available for use beginning May 26.
Currently, ITS is nearly two-thirds of the way done with a project that will update half of the wireless access points around campus, Green said. Campus members with up-to-date devices could see Internet speeds double when the project is complete.
