Rambling about college internet

[Larnuk]

Hey, so I recently moved into college and to my surprise, they use a really complex system to give out internet access to students. I really shouldn't have been surprised, but in reality I was. They first require us to use the Cisco NAC Agent, which works/loads maybe 60% of the time you actually need it, and 100% when you don't. I'm not too well versed in networking, but all it really does is check if your computer has the right requirements to access the internet. This leads me to the next issue: the Cisco NAC Agent requires us to download McAfee virus protection and completely enable Windows Firewall. Not only that, but if Windows isn't fully updated, it will require you to do that as well. Now I know this is all for the school's safety, but it brings up far too many problems. For one, it requires a broken app for using Wi Fi via cell phone (It disconnects at least once a day, that also goes for my desktop's Wi Fi). Plus, any device that isn't able to run the app (Any mobile gaming platform such as a 3DS or Wi Fi Vita), can't get access to the internet. Now, most of this can be resolved with an unlimited data plan and some tethering via 4G, but not everyone is able to afford that each month.

 

And then we get to the speeds (which are surprisingly better than at home). I usually get about 500KBps, but the issue with it is that the ping is awfully random and sometimes jumps to the 900's when playing games. Multiple times have I been disconnected from a Counter Strike GO classic competitive match and had to reset the whole connection to get back in. 

 

Another thing to note is that as incoming Freshman, our school has given us what looks to be a slightly modified version of the Dell Latitude 10 tablet. This also requires the NAC Agent, but it works even less the amount of time that my desktop does. It also like to disconnect much more often, and it's just a pain.

 

 

If you actually read this, do you have any similar frustrations with your school's internet?

[SpenceSouth]

Eh that's horrible.  At the University of South Florida we didn't have to deal with any of that crap.  Just registered with our ID's and enjoyed gigabyte speeds. I used to pull about 800mbps wired in and 100mbps over WiFi.

[jchan94]

Wow. Sounds horrific. I know some friends at the University of California Irvine that have to have similar parameters as you. They have to have an updated Windows, firewall, install Cisco for login purposes. As far as the phones go, they have a login via the browser and you login with your school ID as well (same as on the desktop, laptop).

 

At the University of California Los Angeles, I have less parameters however. I only have to have an antivirus and firewall installed. If I'm logging in with a wireless connection, I need to login via the school's network in a browser. Ethernet is exempt from this and we have multiple ethernet ports in the dorm rooms. We also aren't capped that much as far as internet speed goes. I think our download speed is 10MBps (bytes, not bits), and if we are downloading, no one else suffers which is amazing.

 

Sorry to hear your story :(

[WoodenMarker]

Hmm. We need to use the Cisco NAC Agent at my college as well but we don't need McAfee or anything like that.

Internet is annoyingly slow though.

[Dragontail]

Having a 1Gbit up and downstream with a 10Gbit backbone I think I am really lucky at my Uiniversity :) The bottleneck we have are the harddrives :/

[ygohome]

I wonder how staff, professors etc deal with it on campus?  Is it just your dorm that behaves this way?

 

What is the college and dorm so others can avoid it?   :)

[criso8]

that sucks. the internet in my school isn't terrible and the client that you connect through isn't utter crap and doesn't change any settings or functionality.

 

Just a heads up. Don't torrent anything. I'm sure you already knew this but you can get into trouble.

[Darren]

My University had 100mbps to each dorm room. Can't complain :)

[onionring]

at my uni we get 1mBs with 30gb cap, and a browser.login each 6h or whenever the program feels like it, (can be 3 times in 15mins)

you can t even watch 1080p youtube with such a highspeed connection.

but thats in the dorms, the actual wifi in the building is 30mBs no data caps... so you re better off downloading in class than in your room.

it s not like it s a different system too, just some arbitrary limits on people in the dorms.

[CoffeeBlack]

We have Gigabit here. The worst part about the network is when you are on wifi in a dorm, the routers can't handle the load they get sometimes. No trouble if you use Ethernet tho.