By Ehlayna Napolitano (Assistant News Editor)
“It’s kind of funny to hear everyone I know scream when their Internet goes out,” said Jordan Richmond, freshman marketing major, speaking of Hofstra’s wireless Internet services.
During the past week, students complained on social media about having difficulties connecting to the Wi-Fi network.
Last week, two issues with Hofstra’s network had to be addressed. One issue took place in Groningen House that was resolved quickly and only interrupted service briefly, according to Judith
Tabron, director for faculty Computing Services and student Computing Services.
Additionally, there were updates made to the overall system late last Thursday night.
“For the upgrades, the staff was here at 10:30 at night and they were complete before 11:30 in the evening,” Tabron said. “It may be that students [experienced] a problem during that time period, but we try to keep that very brief.”
However, these upgrades are not likely to affect students’ service directly in the coming weeks.
“[The upgrades] are primarily to improve our ability to manage the network,” Tabron said. “Hopefully things will go quicker… not because the network is necessarily a faster network, but just because it’s a little better managed.”
She noted that the upgrades to the system are going to enable the staff who work on the network to more easily and more quickly address any glitches or problems that arise within the system. The most recent example of this situation was the aforementioned failure in Groningen last week.
“There was a technical issue in Groningen that was addressed and that happens all the time. Equipment fails, and it’s quick to replace,” Tabron said.
However, students are less optimistic about the changes. Days after the upgrades were made, students have not noticed much of a change in service.

“I like that there is a lot of campus-wide Wi-Fi,” said Brittany Savage, junior mechanical engineering major. “But I don’t feel like it works a lot of the time. My computer constantly needs to be reconnected to it so that gets really frustrating.”
She also expressed difficulties she had with updates. “The constant updates which constantly confuse our computers because then you have to re-sign in, but you don’t always have to,” said Savage. “It just doesn’t recognize it, so it’s really frustrating sometimes.”
Richmond felt similarly. “It has been acting up lately,” he said. “I’ve lost connection quite a few times in the past little bit. It gets kind of annoying.”
The upgrades, he felt, have not up to this point, affected his experience with the Wi-Fi.
“I think it went out today, so I don’t think [it’s changed],” he said.
Student Computing Services employees were unavailable for comment, referring all questions to Tabron.
Tabron noted that any issues with Wi-Fi connections can be reported and Computing Services will try to fix and/or help depending on the situation as quickly as possible.