Wi-Fi woes

By Michelle DeShon, Opinion Editor

I stare at my laptop in frustration. I watch the Wi-Fi icon at the top dance and blink as it tries to connect for what feels like an eternity.

A minute or so passes and finally – a solid connection. I click the Safari icon and groan as my homescreen fails to load. I click the Wi-Fi icon to see which trusty network I’ve connected to. Rootown. Super.

Yet, the only other UA Wi-Fi network available in Kolbe Hall, where I spend hours each day, is UAGuest which is worse. Try to connect to that and you’ll be waiting for hours. I’m always confronted with an error message that the network isn’t safe or some crap like that.

Where are those two new Wi-Fi networks that were created before this semester? Why don’t they even register in Kolbe Hall? I can connect to them, Roo-Guest and Roo-Secure, in Folk Hall but each time I close my laptop, I have to wait for them to reconnect.

The Wi-Fi at UA is flat out disappointing. Who’s to blame?

I noticed a significant increase in my data usage on my cellphone from the summer moving into the start of the semester. Of course I always connect to Wi-Fi before opening apps or the Internet, but after a length of time I discover I was never connected at all.

One of the biggest issues with our faulty Wi-F is taking online quizzes and getting disconnected in the middle of the quiz. Your single chance is over. You are unable to get back in and continue your test or quiz. Thank you, Wi-Fi, for not letting me get the grade I deserve.

I have had problems with the weak Wi-Fi for years but it seems to have gotten worse when we were told it would improve with the new networks. Perhaps the IT department will work on this for next semester.