Some students are unhappy with Residential Technology Services’ handling of computer problems as it contends with the spread of recent Internet viruses and worms.

“They made the process much more time consuming and complicated than it needed to be,” said Justin Thompson, treasurer of Computer Technology Unit, a campus honorary society. His computer was hacked last year.

Thompson said that, after shutting down his Internet connection, Residential Technology Services (ResTech) made him submit a “Trouble Ticket” from another computer in order to inform his Residential Computer Consultant (RCC) about the problem.

“They took forever to get back to me after having forced me to find another computer,” said Thompson. “[It took] close to a week.”

ResTech’s policy dictates that RCC’s must respond to Trouble Tickets within 48 hours of submission.

Matt Arthur, director of ResTech, said that although RCC’s try to answer problems in a timely manner, it is often hard to connect with the affected student.

“In many cases, our calls and e-mails go unanswered,” said Arthur. “In some cases, the RCC isn’t able to meet this goal. We continue to try.and work with our RCCs to find out what the delays are and how we can avoid them in the future.”

Thompson noted that his RCC was unable to fix the problem, and that he had to bring his computer in to ResTech to have it repaired, which took an additional two weeks due to issues regarding the registration of his computer.

“The process of getting the computer into the shop was painstaking,” said Thompson. “The RCC was not thrilled about this and took a long time to do so.”

After another two weeks Thompson’s computer was repaired. Though he is happy that the problem was cleared up, Thompson said that ResTech needs to improve its efficiency and accessibility.

“[The computer] was fixed, which I give them credit for,” said Thompson. “It was a complex problem; my computer had been hacked. But the problem is in not finding a quick solution after failure, letting the problem linger.”

Arthur said that ResTech’s responsibility lies in identifying problems and admitting students to the campus-wide Internet service, not necessarily in fixing computers.

“We have never tried to be a computer repair shop,” said Arthur.ÿ”It is within our scope to provide assistance with getting folks on the network and, to some extent, help diagnose problems with a student’s networking ability.”

ÿSome students, however, depend upon ResTech for computer services and have expressed dissatisfaction at some of its methods, such as shutting down students’ Internet connection when their computers are infected with virii. Arthur responded that ResTech is attempting to find the most viable solution for viruses.

“We realized that there was a quicker way for us to find, disable, and notify the users than what we were doing,” said Arthur.ÿ”We have made the changes.ÿWe are also looking at ways to automate much of this process, including allowing students to heal themselves and get back on the network.”

Arthur also criticized students for not being more responsible.

“Almost every one of these incidents was preventable had the students affected followed basic computer safety,” said Arthur. “Almost every affected machine violated one or more.basic safety measures.”

Jan Weller, the assistant vice chancellor of network and library technology, agreed with Arthur, and felt that ResTech’s services were doing well.

“[ResTech] has been and will continue to be a dynamic support environment,” said Weller.ÿ”Policies,ÿprocedures, response to problems, and the tools we use areÿcarefully scrutinizedÿto ensure that theÿstudent and full-time staff provide the most effective and timelyÿsolutions.”ÿ

Arthur added that although he thinks ResTech is doing a satisfactory job, the service is open to suggestions for improvement.

“ResTech has been built on a lot of ideas brought forward by our student population over the years,” said Arthur.ÿ”This continues to be a large part of how we work.ÿ We are always open to input and suggestions.”

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