Tigernet2 may have been erased and replaced by WiOfTheTiger, but the transition is far from over as the ITS department at Colorado College is in the middle of a huge network overhaul, which means replacing a large quantity of equipment.
“The last major network overhaul was in 2008,” said Chad Schonewill, the Help Desk team lead for ITS. “This is not a brief process, but it is crucial.”
On Sept. 19, an eight-year-old router broke down just weeks before it was scheduled to be replaced. This is just one of many aspects of the Internet connection that are scheduled to be changed. Regardless of outdated equipment, the network overhaul would need to happen even if the same equipment was in better condition.
“In 2008, there was a lot less demand for Internet connection,” said Schonewill. “Now, every student has on average five devices connected to our network.”
To keep up with this massive demand, drastic improvements must be made. There are four key components to overhauling the wireless service, which ITS has communicated to the campus through the puzzle-piece signs you may have seen around campus.
Part one is just replacing the network switches in the buildings around campus. These switches are what the wireless access points connect to, as well as any Ethernet cords.
Part two is replacing the wireless access points themselves into modern models that are faster and more efficient. Part three is changing the network registration process to a simpler more convenient model.
Not only are they being replaced, but also the amount of wireless access points will be doubled by the time they are done, improving the server’s capacity.
“One of the problems with [the current network registration] is you have to change your password regularly,” said Schonewill.
While this helps with security, Macs never prompt the user to change the saved password in the keychain, which leads to the computer trying to log in with the wrong information. This subsequently stops the computer from connecting for seemingly no reason.
Part four is a crucial piece of the overhaul and is focused on creating a much faster connection to the Internet provider. CC gets its Internet connection from Time Warner Telecom.
Currently, CC is in the process of digging a tunnel from the campus to I-25 to lay a fiber optic cable.
“Right now our Internet speed is about 1 gigabyte per second,” said Schonewill. “Once the cable is laid, it should rise to 10 gigabytes per second.”
In addition to the greater speed and capacity, the Time Warner Telecom connection will be kept as a fallback against Internet outages.
Despite the fact that WiOfTheTiger is still a work in progress, it is already a drastic improvement from last year’s wireless network, tigernet2. With the amount of time and planning invested in it, WiOfTheTiger seems to be slowly but surely yielding results.