In 2024, the day-to-day homework of a college student typically relies heavily on technology. Throughout the first couple of months of the 2024-25 academic year, Luther College students expressed frustration with the speed and consistency of the internet after the network changed over the summer.
Instead of immediately connecting to LC Secure as was previously done, students are required to create a network profile via HPE Aruba Networking Onboard prior to connecting to the new LC-Personal-Primary network. Even with the network profile, students found the connection to be inconsistent.
First-year student Jayla Harter (‘28) expressed that a lack of stable internet connection made it harder for her to complete her assignments. Additionally, Harter also found it difficult to connect to the internet even when it was functioning.
“Almost every assignment I have to do is online, so the internet issues made life harder for me,” Harter said. “The Personal Primary network rarely ever connected automatically, and I had to go through a lot of steps to reconnect it. I need to use that internet to print, so it slowed the process down a lot. A lot of the time I used my phone hotspot or the LC Guest internet connection for my assignments.”
Junior Natalie Hoeft (‘26) also experienced similar frustration with the internet.
“I spent more time trying to access the internet than I did actually completing my homework,” Hoeft said. “It’s gotten better throughout the school year, but it took some adjusting.”
This difficulty with connecting to and staying connected with the internet remained an issue for students throughout the first month of the school year. However, Information Technology Services (ITS) believes that they have now addressed these issues.
Director of Enterprise Applications and IT Council Chair Evan Abbey outlined the improvements that ITS made and the process that it took to address the issue.
“As of October 14, we believe we have addressed all the large-scale known issues with the network, and there should be a stable internet experience for everyone,” Abbey said. “ITS leadership noticed an elevated number of internet problems starting on September 10. Our Luther ITS teams brought in our senior leadership and our vendor starting on September 17. The problems proved complex and required more than one repair, but from the peak of September 18, the solutions we deployed began to improve service by the end of the month.”
Abbey also described the complex issues that led to the internet issues students and faculty experienced.
“A campus-wide network is extremely complex, and this event had issues that were network-wide and some that were specific to individual users,” Abbey said. “Several of our network devices had difficulty handling new traffic on the internet, causing bottlenecks. Some users reported issues that arose from not fully completing the initial certificate setup. Some of the problems were temporary in time, and some [problems] emerged only after other problems were solved. While the goal of [the] changes this summer was to upgrade Wi-Fi connectivity, adjustments to one area can cause problems in another.”
Abbey noted how IT Services worked tirelessly to make the internet more accessible for all students, as a part of their ongoing effort to serve students the best they can.
“Our aim is to continuously provide for a network experience that supports learning and student life on campus and look to make improvements to do so,” Abbey said.
Anyone having continual trouble with internet connection should contact the Technology Help Desk ([email protected]), leave a help ticket, or visit the Help Desk in Preus Library.
“Those tickets were extremely valuable in evaluating the problems, and we welcome the feedback,” Abbey said.
