OIT continues to address 'Dukeblue' issues as students voice complaints

<p>In the past two months, several students have posted in the Fix My Campus Facebook page about the wifi not working.&nbsp;</p>

In the past two months, several students have posted in the Fix My Campus Facebook page about the wifi not working. 

Having issues with the "Dukeblue" wifi this semester? You’re not alone.

Just six weeks into the Spring semester, the Duke Office of Information Technology has received approximately 60 formal complaints, or tickets, regarding the wireless network, wrote Richard Biever, Duke’s chief information security officer, in an email. In comparison, the Fall 2016 semester saw a total of 69 tickets, and only 24 tickets were filed in the Fall 2015 semester—before "Dukeblue" was implemented in January 2016.

“Whenever we make changes to the network that will impact user experience, we expect that there could be an increase in tickets as we answer questions and address issues that people may run across,” Biever wrote.

OIT has been working to address wifi complaints, as a few students noted.

Sophomore Molly Chen posted on the Fix My Campus Facebook page Feb. 13 after experiencing difficulties with "Dukeblue" in study rooms throughout Edens Quadrangle. Chen wrote in an email that OIT quickly stepped in after noticing her complaint.

“I did not actively reach out to OIT or HDRL; rather, Mrs. Ann Roy from Duke's IT Security Office emailed myself, along with two other students—Maegan Stanley and Lilly Xie—about the issue,” Chen wrote.

The cause of the problem, a faulty access point, was replaced within 24 hours of her Facebook post, Chen noted.

“I did not intend to post to actually fix the problem but rather to see if other students noticed and could relate,” she said. “I'm glad it picked up momentum and that [OIT] was able to handle it in such a quick, effective manner.”

Junior Allison Hubert also noted that she was unable to watch videos on her laptop in a Jan. 31 post on the FMC page.

“My wifi issue was resolved really quickly," Hubert said. "Within 24 hours of my post, I received an email about my issue, and it was fixed within a few days."

She said she occasionally uses other networks such as "visitor" or "DukeOpen" in certain areas of campus where she cannot get "Dukeblue" to work.

Hubert does not seem to be alone, as Biever noted that 5,000 people are connected daily to the "visitor" wifi, compared to 12,000 users on "Dukeblue."

Although posting on the FMC page led to the resolution of Hubert and Chen's issues, Biever explained that posting on Facebook is not the best way to report a problem to OIT.

“While we also seek to monitor Fix My Campus, it should not be seen as an official mechanism for making a problem report, and reports made there often lack the specificity we need to address the problem,” he wrote.

Instead, he asked that students contact the OIT service desk with details about the time and place their issue with "Dukeblue" took place.

Biever described several ongoing and past efforts to avoid issues in the future. In December 2016, the network was switched to a different infrastructure in an attempt to address constant stability issues reported in the Fall.

In addition, Biever wrote, OIT replaces malfunctioning access points and continually installs new access points in areas requiring increased coverage. He added that Trent Hall is the next building in line for improvements.

OIT is also making direct efforts to gather student feedback, Biever explained.

In February, OIT “held the first of a series of meetings with East and West Campus RAs to gather information [about] whether continuing problems might exist and where,” he said. 

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