While the Internet on campus has always been slow and frustrating, it has become worse than anyone could have imagined. In some areas of the campus such as library study rooms and the Freeman Center, the Wi-Fi is incredibly inconsistent. 

This is incredibly frustrating for me because when I am doing schoolwork and my laptop turns off, my tabs always freeze. The tabs then say that they are not connected to the Internet even though my computer will say it is on our Wi-Fi network, Eduroam. As a result, I have to restart my laptop and spend more time finding all of my lost tabs due to our spotty Wi-Fi.

This same problem happens when I am on my phone. I could be on FaceTime calling my family and the video will suddenly freeze, forcing me to hang up. As a result, I have to use most of my cellular data to do the things I want to do without any interruption. While this issue with our Wi-Fi may have been a problem throughout the school year, It feels like it has only exacerbated over the past couple of months.

This new problem has caused trouble for everyone on campus. The Internet randomly deciding to disconnect from people’s devices at the most inconvenient times has become more prevalent than ever. This can happen when someone is taking notes in class, sending emails for a club, or doing any other leisure activity that depends on dependable Wi-Fi.

Personally, I believe that our old Wi-Fi network was steadier and more reliable than what we use now. It may not have been the fastest but it did not disconnect as easily as our current Wi-Fi network does. Before the switch to Eduroam, I only had to restart my electronic devices when a system update was happening. Now, I have to restart my computer at least once a day due to the issues with our Wi-Fi.

In my opinion, the only way to combat the strangeness of Eduroam is to use the library computers. Those do not freeze as much and they do not need to restart as much as your personal devices may need to. If you are on your cell phone, you may need to resort to a good phone plan because a hefty amount of cellular data will be needed for you to accomplish the everyday tasks that need to be done in a day.