Don’t you just hate it when the Internet is slow or unresponsive?
You try to watch that one video on Youtube that everyone is talking about and you end up sitting there for an hour waiting for it to load; You try to do some research online for a paper that’s due at the end of the week and the webpages are unresponsive, or you are in the middle of doing an assignment for an online class and all of the sudden the server shuts you out because it lost its connection.
If one searches the DMACC hashtag on Twitter, after parking, the DMACC Wi-Fi connection is one of the most common things that students complain about.
Andrew Neuendorf is an English Professor who teaches a few online classes.
“I had a particular problem this semester. I had my students watch a video with an interactive quiz in it. The students had internet issues doing the quiz on campus,” Neuendorf said.
The common denominator of the issue seemed to be the video that had the quiz in it.
“I tried to adjust. I scaled back on the online video that had the quizzes popping up,” Neuendorf said.
Yet, according to Neuendorf, students who watched the video and did the quizzes at home did not have any issues. Essentially, the DMACC Wi-Fi cannot handle the bandwidth of the video with an interactive quiz.
DMACC’s Internet is not perfect, but maybe it’s the specific area that you are in that is causing you problems. To put this theory to the test, The Chronicle conducted a network speed test during the busiest times of the day in each of the main buildings around campus using Ookla Broadband Speed Test from speedtest.net.
The result: Building 9’s download speed was 7 mbps. Building 1 was 5.2 mbps. Building 5 came in last with 1.5 mbps.
The data makes sense due to the fact that Buildings 1, 5, and 9 get a lot of student and staff traffic with computers and other devices.
Buildings 2, 3, and 4 clocked with the best internet speeds with over 30 mbps.
According to Tech Support Supervisor Craig Brown, DMACC’s Internet service providers are ICN Communications Network and Iowa Network Services.
Brown and the I.T. team are currently working with the companies to enhance DMACC’s wireless Internet bandwidth in the near future.
Josh Zimmerman, a fourth-semester sophomore from Leon had his take on DMACC’s Internet speed:
“Obviously if the Wi-Fi were stronger it would be better. It’s not so much the speed as it is that it goes out often,” said Zimmerman.
Zimmerman said that he frequently encounters many issues with weak Wi-Fi signals in some areas around campus.
“I get a lot of emails from Campus Communication about Wi-Fi outages. These emails make me want to steer clear of DMACC’s internet,” He said.
Nicole Graves, a second-semester freshman from Indianola, is very content with DMACC’s Internet.
“DMACC’s Internet is very useful. I can easily find what I’m looking for. It’s pretty fast in most places. I personally do not have a problem with it,” Graves said.
Trevor Sterk, a second-semester freshman from Pella, is very frustrated with the inconsistency of DMACC’s internet.
“If you do any type of Internet search, it’s gone. Not happening. The internet is so slow and inconsistent here. I’m better off using my own data on my smartphone,” Sterk said.
If you have any Internet issues, the number for DMACC Tech Support is 515-965-7300.
Tech Support’s on call hours are Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m, Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m, and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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