Many students have been frustrated with ResTech and Network Technology Services (NTS) throughout the course of the year. Throughout the first semester, the reasons for this frustration were legitimate. At the start of this semester, students opened a new wave of complaints against NTS when video streaming sites such as YouTube were inaccessible to most students. However, ResTech’s response to the video streaming problem and its generally reliable service of Internet should give students enough assurance in the competence in NTS to give it a break.

At the beginning of the year, students had problems using messaging services such as AIM and accessing the Internet. In the editorial, “University must solve Internet access problems,” (Oct. 18, 2006) Student Life argued that “Wash. U. needs to find a way to provide students with reliable Internet access” and suggested that NTS provide students refunds for its “spotty” service and that maybe the University should open the opportunity to provide campus Internet up to companies based on bids claiming that students would not accept the level of service provided by NTS if it were an ordinary business.

Despite Student Life’s lack of confidence in the abilities of NTS, they managed to solve the original problem by increasing the original 60Mbps of bandwidth first to 75Mbps. When it became clear that even 75Mbps would not be enough, they increased it again to 100Mbps for the spring semester. It was in the attempt to solve the earlier problem of not having enough bandwidth that caused the problem students experienced with YouTube. Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of Network Technology Services Jan Weller explained, “In order to [increase the bandwidth] we also needed to replace the network management device that guarantees amounts of bandwidth for specific and/or aggregated applications.” This means that NTS had to determine the amount of bandwidth that would be dedicated to services like Instant Messenger and different types of Web sites like Facebook, gaming, and video sites. After students began the spring semester, however, NTS saw an “unexpected” and “dramatic” increase of the volume of traffic to video sites such as YouTube, which caused the sites to be inaccessible for most students.

NTS responded to the problem quickly by changing the priorities and allocation of the allotted bandwidth so that students have access to these sites proving that they are capable and concerned about the ability to access specific Internet sites. And though it seems like this recent phenomenon was yet another example of NTS’s inability to provide adequate service to this campus, it really came about because of a legitimate NTS attempt to improve Internet service for students. Moreover, NTS responded to student concerns quickly and rectified the problem. The actions of NTS throughout the course of the year show improvement and competence.

Though NTS has proven itself technologically competent, it could decrease student anxiety and improve its reputation through better communication with students. If NTS contacted students during periods where there were Internet problems, students would better understand the situation and be assured that they would be able to regain complete access to the Internet. This increased understanding would narrow the gap between NTS and the student body and free NTS from constant student criticism.

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Forum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.