By Brandon Greubel
Network Speed
For some students, the network speed at DMACC can be a real problem. College activities require faster network speeds, and lag can be difficult and frustrating.
DMACC Tech support has started working on this issue. First, they will cut down the Wi-Fi to the two networks that will be the easiest to manage, instead of having three.
Over the summer, when the campus is not as busy, tech support will be upgrading campus Internet speeds from 225 Mbps to 1 Gbps.
The Wi-Fi network in the Campus View apartments wasn’t originally planned, but with having to put a communications network in the building, DMACC tech support decided to install Wi-Fi as well.
Due to academic freedom, DMACC is not allowed to block anything on the Internet through their network. What they can do is called “network shaping”
With network shaping, DMACC can control how fast some things go depending on how high the priority, stopping superfluous downloads which would otherwise interfere with students’ ability to perform necessary tasks.
For example, World of Warcraft introduces a weekly patch update to their system and it was found that a disproportionate amount of DMACC’s Internet was going towards those patch updates. Tech support slowed down the Internet for those patches so that it wasn’t taking away from the ability to effectively do homework for other students.
It is DMACC’s responsibility to monitor and use the network shaping ability to slow down the illegal downloading of MP3’s, games and movies over their Wi-Fi. It is federally brought to their attention through an email when an illegal download of any kind is traced back to a DMACC IP address.
Software and Facebook
The Webmaster, Tonya Wheeler, said they are developing a mobile app that will eventually replace the website. This mobile app will allow students to view their schedules and add/drop classes from their mobile devices. This app will be offered in the Google Play store and iTunes app store.
A Facebook page will be launched on April 10 for DMACC. They are calling it “Facebook for Schools,” according to Wheeler. When they have released the page, DMACC students will receive an email invite to their personal email on file, and to their DMACC email.
The Facebook for Schools page is a closed community for DMACC students and prospective DMACC students, since it is a private app, it will require you to sign up for it to prove you are a student.
The page will help you connect to students that attend classes on other DMACC campuses. Also on the page will be trigger words, that when posted, alert the webmaster to get involved and maybe answer a question, or put in their input on the situation.
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